Dubai Aerospace leaps into leasing business with order for 200 aircraft Dubai orders propel Airbus to record year Air Arabia banks on A320 Saudi Arabian places first Airbus order in more than 20 years Nas air fills out fleet with E-Jets Additional stories Dubai News from November 12
Honeywell announced that it signed a contract with AirTran Airways to supply avionics systems on new aircraft and provide maintenance on Honeywell products across the airline's entire fleet through 2030. The contract, which builds on an existing agreement with the Orlando LCC, has a value of $1 billion, of which around 50%-55% represents new business, according to Honeywell VP-Airlines Mike Madsen.
El Al Israel Airlines Board Chairman Izzy Borovich attended last week's ALTA Airline Leaders Forum in Cancun as the carrier looks to grow its presence in the region. Approximately 150,000 Israelis visit Latin America each year, Borovich told ATWOnline. Although El Al does not have plans to offer direct service to take advantage of this market, he envisions creating bilateral codesharing partnerships to serve the region via European gateways.
South Africa's Civil Aviation Authority ordered the grounding all 737-200s in the country for inspections after an engine fell off a Nationwide Airlines -200 during takeoff in Cape Town last week. The plane returned safely to CPT on one engine.
Boeing said Transavia France signed up for five modules of its Maintenance Performance Toolbox--Structures, Systems, Library, Authoring and Tasks--in an effort to streamline maintenance on its 737-800 fleet.
Egypt Air Cargo said it will establish a European cargo hub at Frankfurt-Hahn. The carrier will increase freighter flights from Cairo to Hahn from seven to 15 during the upcoming winter schedule.
International Aero Engines said its V2500 SelectOne build standard is on target to deliver a 1% reduction in fuel burn plus savings in other areas. The engine upgrade package is undergoing a three-engine test program, and "performance results indicate" it will provide a 20% improvement in time on wing, "reduce miscellaneous shop visits by up to 40% and demonstrate compliance with the most stringent CAEP/6 NOx standards, in addition to the fuel savings." The flying testbed flight plan has been completed with seven flights and approximately 45 flight hr.
China Southern Airlines will become the first mainland Chinese carrier to gain full formal membership in a global alliance when it signs a "Global Airline Alliance Agreement" with SkyTeam on Nov. 15, Vice MD He Zongkai said. CZ signed a letter of intent with SkyTeam in August 2004, followed by a "Global Airline Alliance Adherence Agreement" in June 2006. Nine working experts from SkyTeam members gave CZ its final appraisal earlier this year.
Singapore Technologies Aerospace won three contracts valued at S$232 million ($160 million) from Delta Air Lines. The first will take effect in January and is a two-year heavy maintenance deal on 757-200s with an option to extend it three additional years. The second calls for business class interior modification on 757-200ERs. Work on the 757-200s and 757-200ERs will take place at San Antonio Aerospace. Under the third contract, modifications of 767 IFE systems will begin this month at ST Mobile Aerospace Engineering.
US Air Transport Assn. warned of crowding at airports over the 12-day period starting Nov. 16 and ending Nov. 27 as an average of 2.3 million passengers fly daily during the country's Thanksgiving holiday period, up 4% over last year.
Embraer reported third-quarter net income of $194.9 million, nearly triple net earnings of $67.2 million in the year-ago quarter, as net sales jumped 62.9% to $1.43 billion. The manufacturer delivered 47 jets during the quarter, comprising 38 commercial and nine business aircraft. It delivered 38 jets in the year-ago period. Its firm order backlog reached a record $17.2 billion as of Sept. 30. The company produced 13 jets per month during the quarter and said it aims to build 14 per month by year end. It maintained a delivery forecast of 165-170 for 2007.
Weighed down by A350 XWB program launch costs, Power8 restructuring charges and the declining value of the dollar compared to the euro, Airbus parent EADS reported a €705 million ($1.03 billion) net loss for the first nine months of 2007, significantly reversed from net income of €867 million in the first three quarters of last year.
International Lease Finance Corp. is talking to Airbus about a 30-ft. stretch of the A380 for entry into service in 10-12 years, ILFC Chairman and CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy told ATWOnline on the sidelines of the ALTA Airline Leaders Forum in Cancun last week. In addition to boosting passenger capacity, the stretch would expand the space available for belly cargo on passenger flights. Cargo capacity on the A380-800 that entered service with Singapore Airlines last month is "dismal," Hazy said, because baggage takes up so much space. He also said that the 787-9 is around 14,000 lb.
TAM's third-quarter net income plunged 77.2% to BRL48.5 million ($27.8 million) from BRL212.7 million in the year-ago quarter as it contended with rising costs and flat revenue in the aftermath of July's fatal A320 accident at Sao Paulo Congonhas.
Bolstered by the rising value of the Canadian dollar and helped by decreasing unit costs, Air Canada reported third-quarter net income of C$244 million ($262.4 million), a more than sixfold jump over C$44 million posted in the year-ago period.
Mexicana and Amadeus announced Friday that the airline signed a preliminary agreement to adopt the full Altea Customer Management Solution to manage its reservations, inventory and departure control. Mexicana CIO Santiago Ontanon pegged the value of the investment at around $40-$50 million out of $100 million the airline has committed to invest in IT systems over five years. He told ATWOnline at the ALTA Airline Leaders Forum that the carrier began its search for a new reservations system around the time it was privatized in 2005.
ABX Air declared Friday that DHL is "in default" of its contracts with the Ohio-based airline that transports cargo throughout the US for the express giant. ABX has both an ACMI and a hub and line-haul service agreement with DHL under which the latter reimburses the former for many of the expenses incurred while conducting DHL business.
A350 anchors record-setting Emirates order Qatar Airways firms commitments for up to 92 Boeing widebodies Virgin Nigeria orders 10 E-Jets NAS confirms A320 order, domestic and international ambitions Additional stories
Singapore Airlines and parent Temasek said Friday that they have signed a definitive agreement to buy 15.73% and 8.27% stakes respectively in China Eastern Airlines, nearly finalizing a deal that was announced in September.
Air transport brings economic benefits of $157 billion and supports 27 million jobs in Latin America, IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said last week in Cancun as he called for greater transparency about the benefits that airlines bring to the region and the challenges they face in the areas of safety, infrastructure, liberalization and the environment. IATA and the Latin American Civil Aviation Commission are in the process of carrying out economic studies showing the contribution airlines make to the economies and job rolls of nations in the region.
SAS Group's third-quarter net income from continuing operations fell 12.6% to SEK472 million ($74.8 million) from SEK540 million in the year-ago period as it suffered a SEK200 million loss during the three months ended Sept. 30 owing to two Q400 landing gear incidents and subsequent groundings.
Singapore Airlines is the first customer for A380 Flight Hour Services, a new Airbus support package to provide airlines with "enhanced maintenance and logistics support for spare parts and services for their A380s." The agreement signed with SIA is for an initial 10-year period and covers Airbus LRU spare parts and services for avionics, cabin and integrated modular avionics systems on all the A380s SIA will operate.
JetWorks Leasing and sister company SkyWorks Capital arranged the conversion and lease of a 757-200 purchased by Stratus Ltd. The aircraft will undergo a cargo conversion at Flightstar Aircraft Services using the Precision Conversion STC.
