VGS Aircraft Holding (Ireland), through its wholly owned subsidiary VGS Investments One, acquired two MD-82s from GECAS. Aircraft are leased to American Airlines until February 2013 and February 2014 respectively and are financed by Nord LB in Germany.
Aviation Partners Boeing announced an order for 15 blended winglet shipsets for Delta Air Lines 767-300ERs. DL now plans to install winglets on 30 -300s by early 2010 and holds options on the remainder, APB said.
ARINC announced the introduction of SkyBuy, an inflight payment and inventory control system designed to automate and monitor inflight sales data wirelessly. ARINC said the solution combines Abanco's MDT In-Flight sales application with ARINC's wireless technology.
Aviation Capital Group signed a firm contract with Airbus for six A319s, 15 A320s and four A321s collectively valued at $1.8 billion. The lessor already had 96 A320 family aircraft in its portfolio or on firm order. MD and CEO Stephen Hannahs said the decision to order more was based on "high customer demand." No delivery dates or engine choices for the new orders were announced.
Fidelity Investment parent FMR Corp. increased its stake in US Airways to 13.8 million shares, or 15%, from the previous 8.6%, the airline said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
"It would have been a miracle for Boeing to have flown the 787 on time," Emirates President Tim Clark said, adding that the delay would not be a factor in the airline's evaluation of the 787 and A350 for an order for 100 aircraft.
Alitalia's board on Friday outlined financial and performance targets for its "survival/transition" plan that aims to keep the carrier viable through 2010 as it continues to seek a sale to private investors.
JetBlue Airways said August passenger RASM increased 15% year-over-year as it flew 2.51 billion RPMs, a 13.4% gain over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 9.8% to 2.91 billion ASMs and load factor improved 2.7 points to 86.4%
Air France KLM Group intends to make Paris Charles de Gaulle the premier hub in Europe in order to give the company a competitive edge in customer service. "There will be a rebirth [of] Air France through this hub," AF KLM Chairman and CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta said last week in the French capital. "We want CDG to become a world leader in transportation."
European Cargo Services is the exclusive European GSA for Hainan Airlines. ECS will market the carrier's 45 tonnes of freight capacity on its thrice-weekly 767 passenger service between Beijing and Brussels. ECS expects to generate some 1,200 tonnes of traffic for Hainan in its first year of representation.
In order to comply with international standards and be better prepared for next summer's Olympics, eight Chinese airlines are adopting a new policy of charging for ticket returns in proportion to the airfare's discount rate rather than basing the fee on the time the ticket was returned. The eight are Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Grand Xinhua Express and Junyao Airlines.
KLM said e-tickets now are available for all 124 destinations in its network and its e-tickets can be used when flying with 72 interline partners. At present, e-tickets account for around 89% of all KLM tickets. It intends to raise this to 100% by Jan. 1, when it will begin issuing e-tickets only. Paper tickets will be available on request, but it will impose a surcharge on issuance.
Lauda Air, the leisure subsidiary of Austrian Airlines, hopes to present a profit this year after a 2006 loss. "We reduced our capacity 12% this summer by operating without two A321s," CEO Thomas Suritsch told ATWOnline. The carrier transported 792,000 passengers in the first seven months of 2007 and expects up to 1.4 million for the full year. Suritsch said there are no additions planned to a fleet of six 737-800s and two A320s operating under the Lauda brand, as the airline is more concerned with consolidating its financial performance.
Flyington Freighters selected Pratt & Whitney PW4000-100s to power its fleet of 12 A330-200Fs. The contract, valued at $715 million, covers installed and spare engines for 12 firm aircraft that will begin delivering in 2009 and an exclusive long-term service agreement.
An-12 freighter belonging to Congolese carrier Galaxy crashed Friday at Goma, killing all eight aboard. The airline is among those blacklisted by the EU. According to the Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network, the aircraft was en route from Kisangani and was carrying palm oil. It crash-landed on its scheduled stopover at GOM, sliding into a petrified lava flow and catching fire.
Emirates President Tim Clark is promising a spectacular interior for its A380s but is tight-lipped on details, although he was happy to confirm that EK wants to double its commitment to the type. Speaking to ATWOnline at the unveiling of the airline's newest ultra-long-range product aboard a 777-300ER over the stunning skyline of Dubai, he would only say, "You haven't seen anything yet" compared to the 777 interior. He said the A380 interior will be revealed in the second quarter of 2008.
OnAir will provide its Webmail OnAir and Webchat OnAir services to Kingfisher Airlines next year, followed by inflight Internet and Mobile OnAir service in 2009, the Airbus/SITA joint venture announced. The products initially will be installed on five A330s and five A340s, with plans "in place" to install the system across the entire fleet.
American Airlines flew 12.53 billion system RPMs in August, a 0.4% increase from the year-ago month, as domestic traffic rose 1.5% and international fell 1.6%. Capacity was down 3.1% to 14.74 billion ASMs on a 3.4% domestic drop and a 2.6% international decline. System load factor rose 3 points to 85%. Domestic was up 4.2 points to 86.7% and international up 0.9 point to 82.1%. Northwest Airlines flew 7.14 billion consolidated RPMs in August, up 1.3% on the year-ago month, on a 3.2% domestic decline and a 6.9% international increase.
Ryanair will establish its 23rd base at George Best Belfast City Airport, placing a new 737-800 there from Oct. 30 and launching four routes, including a four-times-daily service to London Stansted. In July, the LCC announced it would launch daily flights to Nottingham East Midlands, Glasgow Prestwick and Liverpool from BHD. The latter was doubled to twice-daily at yesterday's announcement. Air Berlin announced last week it would abandon its BHD-STN service.
Porter Airlines will expand the terminal at its Toronto City Centre base, adding three arrival and departure gates by Dec. 31. The airline said it will begin serving Newark "and other destinations" next year and intends eventually to serve 17 markets ( ATWOnline, June 22). The terminal investment was made possible by average monthly revenue growth of "over" 20% since Porter's October 2006 launch, it said, adding that June's net profit margin was 8%.
