A high-profile runway incursion at Los Angeles International last Thursday brought further attention to a problem to which US FAA has promised serious scrutiny in the immediate future.
Finnair Technical Services and Lufthansa Cargo signed a maintenance agreement covering airframe MRO of two MD-11 freighters. The deal includes an option for two additional airframe maintenance visits in 2008-09.
Alitalia's new chairman, Maurizio Prato, is considering selling regional and charter subsidiary Alitalia Express in a separate tender, Finanza e Mercati reported. Air Alps and ItAli were named as potential buyers. Prato was appointed this month ( ATWOnline, Aug. 2).
Ethiopian Airlines CEO Girma Wake told ATWOnline that the carrier is trying to get permission to fly to Toronto and hopes to fly to New York JFK, Chicago O'Hare and Atlanta. ET's current North American service comprises six-times-weekly flights to Washington Dulles. Wake said the carrier also is considering two more destinations in India and China, where it currently serves five markets combined. Back in Africa, Ethiopian plans to open its new hub in Lome by October. "We will lease two 737-300s or -400s for this operation and try to fly from Lome to five stations," he said.
Nearly three months after trading in its shares was suspended, China Eastern Airlines finally is on the verge of closing its deal to sell a 25% stake to Singapore Airlines. The transaction has been approved by appropriate government entities and is awaiting only a final okay from the State Council, an industry insider told ATWOnline last week.
ACT Airlines, based at Istanbul Ataturk, signed an MOU for two A330-200 freighters, Airbus announced. ACT currently operates seven A300B4 freighters and will use the new aircraft for flights to Hong Kong, Singapore and New York.
Correction: An Aug. 13 item in Daily News incorrectly identified Air Moorea as an affiliate of Air Tahiti Nui. Air Moorea is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air Tahiti, a regional based in Papeete. ATWOnline regrets the error.
Midwest Airlines, which accepted a cash buyout offer of $17 per share from TPG Capital and Northwest Airlines Friday, could end up being owned by Northwest, a TPG partner acknowledged.
SAS Group President and CEO Mats Jansson said four local trade unions, in addition to the heads of the unions organizing employees at SAS Ground Services and SAS Technical Service in Denmark, have promised to "work for a total no-strike situation" in a letter he called "a breakthrough toward a new cooperation model between SAS and our trade union organizations in Denmark." SAS said that as a result of the commitment, "the conditions and the realities have changed" regarding its decision to operate flights between Copenhagen and Stockholm and Oslo with only Swedish and Norwegian crews
Delta Air Lines flew 12.34 billion system RPMs in July, a 4.9% increase over the year-ago month, as domestic traffic rose 0.5% and international climbed 14.6%. Capacity grew 3.2% to 14.22 billion ASMs on a 2.1% domestic decline and a 15.5% international gain. System load factor rose 1.4 points to 86.8%, the highest single-month load factor in the carrier's history. Domestic load factor was up 2.2 points to 87.9% and international 0.1 point to 85%. British Airways flew 10.34 billion RPKs in July, a 2.9% decrease from the year-ago month.
The Irish government apparently will not intervene in Aer Lingus's decision to open a base in Belfast and transfer flights to London Heathrow from Shannon to Northern Ireland ( ATWOnline, Aug. 15), despite pleas from officials with ties to Western Ireland.
IATA reported that premium traffic rose 1.9% in June following a 0.7% fall in May, marking the first increase since March. The organization said year-over-year growth in June would have been 5.7% but for a "sharp fall" in Europe. Premium revenue was up 5.4% in June following a 1.8% May increase, driven by "strong" growth on North Atlantic routes. Highest gain was on routes between Central and South America, where premium traffic rose 38.3% year-over-year; however, that route represents just 0.3% of worldwide premium traffic.
Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair flew a combined 7.26 billion RPKs in July, up 2.2% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 0.8% to 8.59 billion ASKs and load factor improved 1.1 points to 84.6%.
US FAA, citing "recent close calls at some of our nation's busiest airports," said urgent action is needed "to reduce the risk of runway incursions and wrong runway departures" and announced a short-term plan to tackle the problem.
Boeing will supply GoldCare lifecycle support services to Rolls-Royce for the UK company's Trent 1000 engine TotalCare program. The agreement covers repair and overhaul for 787 "underwing rotable airplane components as an option for Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 TotalCare service agreements." Trent 1000 is the launch engine for the 787.
American Airlines said it will recall 460 furloughed flight attendants, all formerly employed by TWA, bringing the number of cabin staff recalled this year to 660. Those who accept the recall and qualify will return to service as early as October, AA said.
Ryanair will launch six new routes from its Madrid base in October and close four others. The LCC will start flying to Girona, Santander, Alghero, Cagliari, Frankfurt Hahn and Liverpool and cease service to Faro, Malmo, Bournemouth and Shannon. Frequencies will increase on several existing routes, including to Brussels Charleroi, which will move to twice-daily from four-times-weekly. LTU Airlines will open a third long-haul base at BerlinTegel in November. It will operate thrice-weekly flights to Bangkok and weekly flights to Punta Cana and Varadero.
Jeppesen and Continental Airlines finalized an agreement for Class 2 and 3 electronic flight bag applications and data for the carrier's entire fleet of 368 aircraft.
Pratt & Whitney said it has begun testing the fan drive gear system on its Geared Turbofan engine at its new Middletown, Conn., testing facility. Testing will continue for 18 months. Flight testing is scheduled for next year with entry into service possible for 2012.
CSA Czech Airlines announced that Vice Chairman and VP-Information Technology Jiri Devat was appointed to the SITA board. He will represent the members from Central and Eastern Europe.
Los Angeles City Council this week approved construction of 10 new gates to handle international traffic at Los Angeles International. The gates are expected to cost $1.2 billion and would be the first built at LAX in more than 20 years, the Los Angeles Times reported. They all will accommodate the A380 and will be built on a site currently occupied by hangars, the paper said. An airport official said the facility should be ready by 2012.
Airbus announced yesterday that it will deliver the first A380 to Singapore Airlines on Oct. 15, with the carrier's first flight slated for Oct. 25 from Singapore to Sydney. The aircraft will be configured with 471 seats in three classes: Economy, business and "Singapore Airlines Suites." Seats on the first flight will be auctioned via eBay and SIA said it will donate the proceeds to charity. The return Sydney-Singapore flight is scheduled for Oct. 26.
