Swedish Civil Aviation Authority halted all flights to Iraq operated by domestic carriers after a Nordic Airways MD-80 was fired upon Aug. 8. The aircraft, which departed from Sulaimaniya with 130 onboard, was not hit. Nordic and Viking Air operate to Iraq.
Etihad Airways will increase its number of weekly flights to 716 from 564 at the end of October, when it will also "bid to attract more travelers with the introduction of new flight timings to improve connecting service." Key additions will be on flights from Abu Dhabi to Bahrain (to 28 weekly frequencies from 14), Muscat (to 21 from seven) and Doha (to 14 from seven). It also will increase flights to Frankfurt (to 10 from seven), Geneva (to four from three), Dublin (to six from four) and London Heathrow (to 19 from 14).
ABX Air reported second-quarter net income of $4.5 million, down 30.8% from $6.5 million in the year-ago period, but touted a rise in non-DHL-related revenue as evidence of its overall strength. The cargo airline attributed the loss to a deferred noncash $2.8 million tax expense and said excluding taxes it earned $7.3 million, a 13% lift in pre-tax earnings. The Wilmington, Ohio-based DHL subservice carrier's revenue decreased 7.3% to $281.3 million as revenue from DHL operations declined 12.2%.
TAV Airports Holding broke ground for Enfidha Airport in Tunisia. The Turkish airports operator has a 40-year concession to operate the airport. It will invest €400 million in the first stage of development. It is one of two airports TAV plans to commission in 2009.
Boeing's 2007 order book stood at a net 698 following orders for 777s from Air New Zealand and Cathay Pacific Airways added last week. Qatar Airways 787 order, all but confirmed by the airline last month ( ATWOnline, July 25), still is listed as unidentified. As of July 31, Airbus trailed by just 10 net orders with 688.
With costs growing at twice the rate of revenue, TAM reported a second-quarter net loss of BRL28.6 million ($15 million), reversed from a BRL97.1 million profit in the year-ago quarter. The carrier noted that costs and claims related to the July 17 A320 crash at Sao Paulo Congonhas ( ATWOnline, Aug. 7), which occurred after the June reporting period ended, are unknown as it does "not have sufficient information" on the cause and potential damages.
In response to the increasing competition posed by railroads, CAAC asked Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines and Hainan Airlines to cooperate on the Golden Route of Beijing-Shanghai and help make transport more efficient.
Lufthansa Systems signed a five-year-contract with Italian cargo carrier Ocean Airlines for its FMS database. Ocean already uses the flight planning services of LHS's Lido OC solution.
Air Moorea DHC-6-300 Twin Otter crashed Friday on initial climb from Moorea Temae Airport, where it departed for a 10-min. flight to Tahiti. Thirteen of 19 passengers onboard and the lone pilot were killed, the Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network said in a preliminary report. The remaining six passengers had not been found, although some reports indicated that there were 16 confirmed fatalities. The carrier, which is affiliated with Air Tahiti, operates 20 roundtrip daily shuttles between Tahiti and Moorea.
Embraer 195 received type certification from US FAA, the manufacturer announced Friday. The 110-seat aircraft, Embraer's largest, received ANAC and EASA certification last year.
Reporting as a standalone company following ACE Aviation Holdings' spinoffs of its various subsidiaries including Jazz, Air Canada--formerly Air Canada Services--reported a C$155 million ($147.3 million) profit in the second quarter, up 2% from the C$152 million ACS posted in the year-ago period.
AirBridge Cargo said in a filing with the US Dept. of Transportation that it intends to operate 747-400ER freighter services beginning Nov. 1 to Atlanta, Houston Intercontinental and New York JFK and beyond to Toronto from Moscow and Krasnoyarsk. EasyJet announced seven new routes, including its first service to Bulgaria: Thrice-weekly Geneva-Marrakech, Basel-Marrakech and Basel-Porto from Oct. 30; four-times-weekly Liverpool-Lisbon from Nov. 2; thrice-weekly London Gatwick-Sofia and Milan Malpensa-Marrakech from Nov. 6; thrice-weekly Liverpool-Innsbruck from Jan. 8.
787 first flight's timing is the subject of speculation, with some media suggesting an October date rather than late September. However, Boeing Chairman Jim McNerney hinted at the delay late last month during the announcement of the company's second-quarter results. If the 787 does fly in mid October--say Oct. 15--it will be 99 days after rollout, the same time lapse for the A380 but way ahead of the first 747, which flew 132 days after its rollout date of Sept. 30, 1968.
ARINC delivered what it said are the first common-use airline passenger kiosks ever deployed in the Russian Federation. The nine SelfServ check-in kiosks are installed at Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 of Moscow Sheremetyevo.
Austrian Airlines Group CCO Josef Burger will resign effective Sept. 30 after six years in the role, the company announced. CEO Alfred Oetsch assumed Burger's duties last week on an interim basis. Burger cited "irreconcilable and different opinions concerning the way of cooperation within the Management Board" for his decision.
US Airways announced a tentative agreement with the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers covering the carrier's 7,700 fleet service employees. Negotiations had been ongoing for more than a year and last week included National Mediation Board facilitators. Agreement becomes effective 30 days after ratification, which is expected to take about a month, and extends through 2011.
Fresh from his trip to the US for the launch of Virgin America, Richard Branson was in Kuala Lumpur Friday to announce that Virgin Group purchased a 20% share of Malaysia's FlyAsianExpress, which will operate low-cost, long-haul flights as AirAsia X.
Ryanair will open bases in Valencia and Alicante this fall, each requiring an investment of $140 million. The LCC will base two 737-800s and launch 11 new routes from each airport. It already operates 10 routes from Valencia. In October it will launch daily flights to Paris Beauvais, four-times-weekly service to Baden Baden, Bologna, Eindhoven, Liverpool and Porto and thrice-weekly flights to Basel, Billund, Malta, Maastricht and Santiago. It flies from Alicante to six destinations.
Northwest Airlines flew 7.28 billion consolidated RPMs in July, down 0.5% from the year-ago month, as domestic traffic fell 3.9% and international rose 4.2%. Capacity inched up 0.1% to 8.3 billion ASMs on a 4.4% domestic decline and a 7.2% international lift. Consolidated load factor fell 0.4 point to 87.7%. Domestic rose 0.5 point to 88.1% and international dropped 2.6 points to 88.7%. Frontier Airlines flew 1 billion RPMs in July, up 18.5% on the year-ago month, as capacity increased 14.1% to 1.14 billion ASMs. Load factor climbed 3.3 points to 88.5%.
Vanuatu government will sell a minority stake in flag carrier Air Vanuatu, with World Bank Group member IFC advising. Air Vanuatu operates to Sydney, Auckland, Brisbane, Nadi and Noumea in addition to a number of domestic destinations, IFC said. According to the Ascend CASE database, the carrier operates one 737-300, one ATR 42 and two Twin Otters. It has a 737-800 and three Y-12s on order.
BAE Systems Regional Aircraft will lease a third Avro RJ70 to India's MDLR Airlines, which launched operations in March. Delivery of the two-class, 70-seat aircraft is scheduled for the end of next month. MDLR flies to Delhi, Kolkata, Chandigarh and Ranchi and plans to start flying to Jaipur and Surat.
Air Berlin announced the creation of a new, independent maintenance and engineering company that will combine its own Air Berlin Technik Berlin division, 600 employees working for LTU in Dusseldorf and Munich, AB employees in Dusseldorf and 130 dba-Technik workers in Munich. The new company, Air Berlin Technik, will employ 1,100. The LTU workers and AB's employees in Dusseldorf will comprise Air Berlin Luftfahrttechnik Dusseldorf, a subsidiary of ABT. AB said ABT will service the airline's fleet of 130 aircraft and will look to develop third-party business.
Significant one-time gains helped boost Air France KLM's fiscal first quarter profit to €415 million ($571.4 million), up 70.1% on the €244 million earned in the three months ended June 30, 2006. The company said it was "on track" to reach its full-year "objectives" of an increase in operating income and a return on capital employed of 7%.
