Aer Lingus pilots are planning a two-day strike next week to protest the carrier's plan to set up a base at Belfast International Airport, where the Impact Trade Union claims the proposals for pay and work rules "are less favorable" than in the Republic.
Lufthansa and Air Astana signed a cooperation agreement in the Kazakh capital yesterday that will include codesharing and schedule coordination beginning next year and a linking of the carriers' loyalty programs that may begin as early as October. The deal is similar to the one LH signed with Russia's AiRUnion last month ( ATWOnline, July 12). LH operates a daily Frankfurt-Almaty service with twice-weekly ongoing service to Astana.
Qantas reportedly will spin off its loyalty program in the mold of Air Canada's Aeroplan, which will become part owner of the Australian carrier's Frequent Flyer program, according to newspaper reports in both countries. Neither Qantas nor Aeroplan is commenting, but major media outlets in both countries reported that QF, while keeping a controlling stake in Frequent Flyer, will list it publicly on the Australian Securities Exchange in less than a year and is negotiating with Aeroplan to take a stake. The program is estimated to be worth A$3 billion ($2.5 billion).
American Airlines flew 12.92 billion system RPMs in July, down 2.9% from the year-ago month, as domestic traffic fell 2.3% and international dropped 4%. Capacity declined 3.7% to 14.7 billion ASMs on a 3.5% domestic drop and a 4.1% international decrease. System load factor was up 0.8 point to 87.9%. Domestic rose 1.1 point to 89.4% and international was up 0.2 point to 85.2%. United Airlines flew 10.92 billion RPMs in July, a 1.4% decrease from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 1% to 12.5 billion ASMs and load factor was down 0.4 point to 87.3%.
Honeywell Aerospace and Sensis Corp. are carrying out a technology demonstration that combines Sensis's Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X ground-based system with Honeywell's Mode S and TCAS avionics. The result is that ASDE-X aural conflict alerts provided to air traffic controllers also are transmitted at "virtually the same instant" to the cockpit(s) of affected aircraft, according to officials.
Sabre Airline Solutions will provide four solutions to Aloha Airlines: Sabre Flight Control Suite, Sabre Streamline StaffPlan system, Quasar passenger revenue accounting system and Sabre Qik Business Processing Solutions.
CAE signed an agreement to acquire Flightscape for approximately C$18 million ($17.1 million). Flightscape is an Ottawa-based safety company providing expertise in flight data analysis and flight sciences, CAE said.
News from Travel Technology Update: Amadeus and Sabre plan to create a joint venture that would provide secure, automated payment processing, clearing and reconciliation solutions for non-air travel sales. The two companies filed with the European Commission for antitrust approval to create the new entity. European Union law requires such a filing. Regulatory approval in the U.S. is not required.
Icelandair Group, while admitting that "increased network capacity has not led to the passenger revenue growth we had hoped for," yesterday reported a ISK205 million ($3.1 million) second-quarter profit that represented a plunge from pro forma earnings of ISK1.25 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Frontier Airlines named Air Canada Executive VP-Commercial Strategy Sean Menke president and CEO replacing Jeff Potter, who will resign Sept. 6 to become CEO of luxury vacation home provider Exclusive Resorts. Menke previously worked for Frontier from January 1999 to June 2005, when he left his post as senior VP and COO to become Air Canada's CCO. Potter, who announced earlier this month that he was leaving the Denver-based airline ( ATWOnline, Aug. 6), will remain on Frontier's board.
Air New Zealand's ongoing battle with local airports continued yesterday with the airline forced turn to the courts, this time to protest increased landing charges at Wellington. ANZ is seeking a Judicial Review of recent charges imposed by Wellington International Airport Ltd. and had filed proceedings with the High Court in the capital. Last month it filed for a Judicial Review of charges imposed by Auckland International Airport Ltd. ANZ Counsel John Blair claimed that the airline's costs will increase by 34% over the next four years.
EADS is considering adding its Augsburg plant to the six Airbus plants being partially or completely sold as part of the Power8 restructuring program, possibly including it in a package of facilities to entice potential investors. The Augsburg site is part of the Defense and Security Division but about 70% of its revenue is related to Airbus, EADS said, noting that the German plant "is the single largest aerostructures supplier to Airbus."
Midwest Air Group closed the door on an acquisition by eager AirTran Holdings, opting instead to pursue an unexpected all-cash deal offered by private equity investment firm TPG Capital, which is partnering with Midwest neighbor Northwest Airlines. TPG Capital, which has been involved in recent bids for Qantas, Alitalia and Iberia, could finalize a "definitive" merger agreement with Midwest as early as Aug. 15, both TPG and Midwest said.
AirTran Airways parent AirTran Holdings said an error related to passenger revenue accounting required a restatement of its first-quarter earnings. Net profit for the three months ended March 31 was reduced to $2.2 million from the $2.4 million it reported in April ( ATWOnline, April 13), compared to an $8.9 million loss in the year-ago quarter. First-quarter operating income was $12.9 million rather than the originally stated $13.4 million.
Rwanda government selected Brussels Airlines and Meridiana Africa Airlines for the privatization of Rwandair Express, l'Echo reported, citing Rwandair President Manzi Kayihura as saying that the company with the best strategy would win the tender rather than the one with the highest bid. Rwandair is seeking to place 40% of its capital with an industrial investor and 40% with private investors, leaving the state with 20%. The airline currently operates one 37-seat Dash 8 and one 142-seat MD-82.
UPS and Shanghai Airport Authority broke ground on construction of the cargo carrier's new hub at Pudong ( ATWOnline, April 13). The facility is expected to open next year.
Amadeus announced a 10-year deal with Cathay Pacific Airways under which CX and Dragonair will adopt the complete Altea Customer Management Solution to manage reservations, inventory and departure control.
Lufthansa flew 11.03 billion RPKs in July, up 5.7% on the year-ago month, against a 3.6% increase in ASKs to 13.71 billion. Load factor was up 1.6 points to 80.4%. Iberia flew 4.97 billion RPKs in July, a 7.1% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 3.1% to 5.76 billion ASKs and load factor rose 3.2 points to 86.3%. Copa Airlines flew 466.8 million RPMs in July, a 25.2% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 22.2% to 548.9 million ASMs, lifting load factor 2 points to 85%.
Boeing is "confident" that its contingency plans will ensure the 787 is delivered on time to ANA next May even if the aircraft's first flight is pushed back to October. "We're targeting first flight by the end of September, but [Chairman, President and CEO] Jim McNerney also said that target date could move well into the fall as well as we proceed to work on the stuff in front of us," a 787 program spokesperson told ATWOnline.
Consortium consisting mainly of Italian financial groups and entrepreneurs has emerged as a possible bidder for Alitalia, Reuters reported. The new group has more than five Italian and foreign members representing both financial and corporate interests, according to an attorney representing it who declined to identify members. Apparently none participated in the recently failed auction set up by the government ( ATWOnline, July 31).
Qantas has set aside $40 million "to cover a potential fine that may be imposed" by the US Dept. of Justice as part of the international investigation into price-fixing.
TAP Portugal narrowed its first-half loss to €30 million ($41.1 million) from €52 million in the first half of 2006 on an 11.4% year-over-year increase in revenue to €806 million. The airline said that while it considers a full-year net earnings target of €37.9 million to be a "great challenge," its board "is standing by its determination to do everything" to reach it.
ARINC said it introduced the "ARINC Mobile Communications Gateway," a wireless data communications module to support onboard sales and credit card transactions as well as other applications. It soon plans to announce flight trials of the system with airlines that use the Abanco In-Flight payment solution. ARINC and Abanco signed a marketing and reseller agreement last month.
