Buying wine for an airline "is very much an area unto itself," contends Continental Airlines VP-Purchasing and Materiel Katrina Manning. "We call it 'sexy buying.' " Most airline purchasing is straightforward, dominated by specifications and templated procedures. Not so wine selection. "It's a whole different animal," says Manning. "We have a completely separate process." While there are procedures, wine buying is far more intuitive and less rigidly structured than other species of procurement.
AAR tapped Terry Stinson as group VP-Structures & Systems segment. Alaska Air Group promoted Megan Lawrence to MD-government & community relations. Crane Aerospace & Electronics appointed Allan Day GM & director-Electronics Manufacturing Solutions business. El Al named Offer Gat CEO-North & Central America. FlightSafety International welcomed Lowell Faulkenberry as dir.-finance. Frontier Airlines selected Patrick Zachwieja as VP-market planning. Gulf Air chose Bjorn Naf as acting president & CEO, replacing Andre Dose. London Luton Airport named Glyn Jones MD.
Air traffic at Hyderabad in south central India has grown in tandem with the city's rising stature as an important IT and biotechnology hub. Passenger traffic in 2006 soared 50% over 2005, making it the fastest-growing Regional Base in the Asia/Pacific region for airports enplaning more than 1 million passengers, according to Arthur D. Little.
Sabre and Amadeus revealed details of their new joint venture that aims to provide an industry solution for secure, automated payment processing, clearing and reconciliation of non-air travel components. The joint venture received antitrust approval from the European Commission on Sept. 12. Called Moneydirect, the solution is based on an Amadeus product launched in Australia and New Zealand in 1998. It will focus on hotels, cruise lines, tour operators, car rental companies, ferries, railways, and travel intermediaries such as travel agencies and wholesalers.
WORLD AIRPORT PASSENGER traffic posted a fourth consecutive year of growth in 2006, reaching a total of 4.4 billion passengers, 4.9% higher than in 2005. "The growth rate is slightly slowing down compared to 2005-04 and 2004-03 when global airport passenger traffic recorded increases of 6.2% and 10.5% respectively," says Laurent Delarue, senior manager at Arthur D. Little, which conducted a comprehensive analysis of world airport traffic and is presenting it in cooperation with ATW.
When airline alliances first were formed in the late 1990s, joint purchasing revolved mainly around the areas of marketing and customer service and rarely produced significant savings. In some cases, the purchases were more trouble than they were worth, alliance executives remember.
The opening up of Oman to tourism and foreign investment combined with a regional boom in air travel have left Muscat's Seeb International Airport (MCT) playing catch-up, with passenger numbers soaring by an unprecedented 26% in 2006, according to Arthur D. Little.
Effective implementation of its strategy of building "a comprehensive hub airport in the Asia/Pacific region" and rewarding execution of the franchising and outsourcing of nonaeronautical businesses has enabled Beijing Capital International Airport to experience dynamic growth in recent years in step with China's rapidly expanding economy. According to Arthur D. Little, BCIA was the fastest-growing Intercontinental Hub in 2006 in terms of year-over-year increase in passenger numbers.
When Turkish Airlines accepted an invitation to join Star Alliance last December, the parties made a point of highlighting commercial aviation's considerable potential on the Anatolian peninsula. They stressed that a growing and more internationally integrated economy, an influx of new entrants that followed deregulation and a population of approximately 70 million, of whom just about 5% fly, have put the industry there on the cusp of a boom.
The second quarter was the first reporting period since the 2002 third quarter that ended with no US legacy carriers operating under Chapter 11 protection, a notable signifier that the world's largest air transport market has finally completed its long and painful slog through restructuring. With the
WHEN US AIRWAYS CAPT. LEWIS Tetlow was forced to retire as a commercial airline pilot upon turning 60 last April under longstanding US FAA regulations, he gathered his rod and tackle and went fishing for two days. That was the extent of his life of leisure. Since then, he has spent a large portion of his time on Capitol Hill lobbying Congress to raise the mandatory retirement age for US airline pilots.
Alitalia's board met yesterday to "consider the need to raise new financial resources by means of a substantial, as yet undefined, increase in capital to be carried out during the coming months in connection with the project for ceding control of the company." The airline also revealed that the new business plan the board expected to review "will foresee redundancies," although it said that number also was undefined.
US FAA shortened the time airlines have to carry out detailed inspections of 737NG main slat track downstop assemblies from 24 days to 10 days, citing "additional reports" of parts coming off assemblies. The agency issued an emergency AD last weekend requiring "repetitive detailed inspections" of the downstop assembly on 737NGs in the wake of last week's fire and explosion on a China Airlines 737-800 in Okinawa ( ATWOnline, Aug. 28).
FAA said yesterday that a team led by ITT Corp. was selected as the prime contractor for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast. ITT said the initial contract is for three years and is valued at $207 million.
Virgin America launched twice-daily Los Angeles-New York JFK service Tuesday, its third route. It also flies from its San Francisco base to JFK and LAX.
Norwegian ordered 42 new 189-seat 737-800s with blended winglets worth $3.1 billion at list prices, it announced yesterday, adding that it secured purchase rights for an additional 42 of the type. The new airplanes will supplement the 11 -800s Norwegian ordered in May and will be delivered in the 2009-14 period at a rate of about 10 per year. The airline said it secured US Export-Import Bank financing of 85% of the purchase price and has entered into hedging agreements to cover "a large part" of the dollar/kronor exposure related to the acquisition.
Delta Air Lines COO Jim Whitehurst announced his resignation late Tuesday, having been passed over for the CEO position awarded to Richard Anderson and the role of president that was given to CFO Edward Bastian ( ATWOnline, Aug. 22).
Touting its persistence in bringing the low-cost model to Southeast Asia, its success in securing governmental support for more open competition and dedicated airport terminals and a brand that "is the most recognizable ASEAN airline," AirAsia yesterday reported net earnings of MYR498.1 million ($142.1 million) for the fiscal year ended June 30, more than double the MYR201.7 million earned in the prior 12 months.
Tiger Airways chose the V2500 for its recently ordered A320s. The order for engines for the 50 A320s plus V2500Select aftermarket agreements is worth S$1.3 billion. Tiger ordered 30 A320s and took options on 20 at the Paris Air Show in June. The aircraft will underpin its aggressive expansion into the Australian domestic market from November and the Singapore-India market from October.
Aviation Capital Group completed a private debt offering of $270 million of senior unsecured notes to institutional investors. Merrill Lynch & Co. and Calyon Securities were the joint lead placement agents and HSH N Financial Securities LLC was the co-agent for the offering. Proceeds will be used to refinance existing secured debt and pre-fund future aircraft purchases.
Cebu Pacific is now the leading domestic airline in the Philippines in terms of passengers carried, according to new data released by the country's Civil Aeronautics Board. It carried 2.26 million passengers from January to June compared to Philippine Airlines' 1.98 million. It also attained an 84% load factor, up 12% on last year, compared to 80% and 72% for its nearest competitors. While the domestic market jumped 24% in the first half, Cebu's domestic passenger count leaped 72%.
Lufthansa Technik Vostok is the name of a new component services support base being established at Moscow Domodedovo. LHT said it expects to have the customer service base and a stores facility for expendable materials in place by year end, with a component pool for Western aircraft types available by the end of 2008.
Aer Lingus said it had an underlying profit of €6.8 million in the first six months of 2007, a 58% decline from €16.3 million in the year-ago period. Under International Financial Reporting Standards that the carrier adopted in conjunction with last year's IPO, however, first-half 2006 income totaled €3.6 million. It noted that current-period results include an exceptional charge of €7.8 million related to Ryanair's unsuccessful takeover bid.
China Eastern Airlines posted a CNY384 million ($50.8 million) net loss in the first half under international accounting standards, narrowed from a CNY1.71 billion deficit in the year-ago semester, on a 12.3% year-over-year lift in operating revenue to CNY19.04 billion. Based on domestic accounting standards, CEA reported a net profit of CNY58.2 million. Like its competitors, it cited the rapid growth of the Chinese economy and the "continuous appreciation of the yuan" as key to its improved performance, but said fluctuating fuel prices affected the result.
