United Airlines parent UAL Corp. named Rohit Philip as VP-financial planning and analysis, Todd Arkenberg as VP-employee experience and Robert Sahadevan as VP-Mileage Plus.
Sensis Corp. announced that its Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X system at Louisville International Airport is operational. According to Sensis, ASDE-X uses a combination of surface movement radar, transponder multilateration and ADS-B sensors "to provide controllers with an accurate picture of the location and identity of aircraft and vehicles on the airport surface." The system also features conflict detection and alerting technology.
A380 received EASA and US FAA approval to operate on runways with a width of 45 m. or more, which is the standard at most airports around the world, Airbus said. The aircraft already has visited 45 airports and the manufacturer claimed that more than 70 will be ready for the A380 by 2011.
China's LCCs, which are facing a lack of access to trunk routes, restriction on the introduction of new aircraft and pilot shortages, are experiencing mixed results in their efforts to attract the foreign investors they need to move forward with listing plans. Spring Airlines has met with success, sealing a deal with Citibank under which the latter will serve as strategic investor and financial adviser, Spring spokesperson Zhang Lei revealed ( ATWOnline, July 4).
Asiana Airlines yesterday launched weekly Seoul-Moscow Domodedovo-Vienna cargo flights aboard a 747-400F. American Eagle Airlines will launch six-times-weekly New York LaGuardia-Flint service on Nov. 4 aboard ERJ-135s.
Ramco said TACA Regional, which consists of Grupo TACA's domestic carriers operating within Central America--Inter and Aviateca (Guatemala), Islena (Honduras), Sansa (Costa Rica) and Aeroperlas (Panama)--will deploy its Maintenance & Engineering Solution and Aviation Financial Solution.
Alitalia Chairman Berardino Libonati resigned from both his position and the board yesterday. The AZ board is scheduled to convene today in order to discuss the options facing the carrier following the government's failure to sell its stake at auction.
Qantas finalized the first of three investment installments in Vietnam's Pacific Airlines, taking an 18% stake. The entire investment for 30% will be concluded over the next two years ( ATWOnline, April 27). Jetstar Airways CEO Alan Joyce and CFO David Hall will represent Qantas Group on Pacific's six-member board, while QF and Jetstar executives will fill a number of key management roles to support the investment.
Midwest Air Group yesterday took a further step toward a possible acquisition by AirTran Holdings, which has been pursuing it for more than eight months, announcing it had appointed a committee to "commence discussions with AirTran regarding its proposal to acquire all the outstanding shares of Midwest." The company added that the committee also will "hold discussions with other strategic and financial parties that have recently expressed interest in pursuing a transaction with Midwest." The decision came a few days after the Milwaukee-based carrier reported a 44.6% drop in second-quart
Surges in passenger traffic and ancillary revenue helped lift Ryanair's first fiscal quarter profit by 20% to a record €138.9 million ($189.7 million) from the €115.7 million earned in the three months ended June 30, 2006. In addition, it raised its full-year earnings guidance to a 10% improvement from the originally forecast 5% thanks to planned aircraft utilization and capacity reductions at London Stansted.
ANA Group is continuing to realize the benefits from the sale of its hotel business, which helped boost the company's profit for the first fiscal quarter ended June 30 to a record ¥87.3 billion ($736.6 million) from the ¥7.6 billion earned in the year-ago quarter.
Swiss International Air Lines, which became wholly owned by Lufthansa on July 1, posted a net profit of CHF295 million ($244.8 million) in the first six months of 2006, nearly four times higher than the CHF76 million reported in the year-ago period.
GE Aviation said Republic Airways signed a 10-year OnPoint Solutions agreement extending maintenance and overhaul coverage to the CF34-8Es powering the 119 E-170s/-175s in service or on order. GE valued the agreement at more than $240 million.
United Airlines said it received more than 1,000 applications for 100 open pilot positions over a 10-day period. It is hiring new pilots for the first time since 2001 ( ATWOnline, July 17). US Airways and the International Assn. of Machinists are scheduled to begin National Mediation Board-facilitated talks today in Washington regarding the final transition agreements covering more than 10,000 fleet service employees and mechanics. US and the IAM approached the NMB last week.
An-12 freighter belonging to cargo carrier Atran crashed shortly after takeoff from Moscow Domodedovo early Sunday, killing all seven crew onboard. Flight 9655 was on its way to Omsk with nine tons of cargo but crashed and burned in a forest about 4 km. from the end of Runway 32C. The Ivchenko AI-20M-6-powered turboprop first flew in 1964, according to the Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network. It was Atran's first hull loss accident.
Aeroflot flew 2.19 billion RPKs in June, up 9.3% on the year-ago month. Load factor was 72.5%. Hawaiian Airlines flew 678.5 million RPMs in June, up 17.9% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed at the same rate to 779.7 million ASMs leaving load factor steady at 87%. Air Berlin transported 2.2 million passengers in June, up 13.9% on the year-ago month. Load factor was up 0.5 point to 80.3%.
Citing "challenging" competition on its key routes, Hawaiian Airlines parent Hawaiian Holdings reported a second-quarter net loss of $3.9 million, narrowed from $26.4 million in the year-ago quarter, on an 8.8% rise in revenue to $244.2 million.
Northwest Airlines cancelled hundreds of flights over the past four days as it continues to contend with high levels of pilot absenteeism ( ATWOnline, July 2). The carrier, which emerged from bankruptcy at the end of May, has announced plans to slash domestic mainline capacity by 4% in August and hire new pilots. It will release its second-quarter financial results today. Pilots have expressed concern over bonuses given to senior executives upon emergence from Chapter 11.
Aviareps said it is offering passenger revenue accounting as a new service in cooperation with Tiralis Global. Separately, Aircalin extended its cooperation with Aviareps beyond Canada to include Germany.
With domestic capacity growth "starting to slow down" and revenue from its nascent international operations more than doubling, Jet Airways was able to post a INR309 million ($7.6 million) profit in its first fiscal quarter ended June 30 compared to a INR450 million deficit in the year-ago period. The Indian carrier's revenue climbed 19.8% year-over-year to INR19.83 billion, helping boost EBITDAR 8.3% to INR2.24 billion. Passengers dipped 4.6% to 2.7 million as RPKs rose 11.8% to 3.29 billion and capacity grew 17.8% to 4.76 billion ASKs. Load factor fell 3.8 points to 69.1%.
Italian government will not be able to sell its stake in Alitalia through private negotiations, Economy Minister Tomasso Padoa-Schioppa said last week in Cortina D'Ampezzo, according to widespread press reports from Italy. He argued that the courts would investigate why the government negotiated with one suitor rather than another, making the transaction impossible to complete. The government has not revealed its course of action following its failure to sell off its 49.9% stake.
International passenger growth remains robust but cargo growth has halved in the first six months of 2007, IATA reported yesterday. Passenger traffic measured in RPKs rose 6.3% over the first half of 2006, slightly higher than the 5.9% recorded for full-year 2006. However, RPK growth weakened in June to 5.3%, the lowest rate in nine months. While freight demand expressed as FTKs increased only 2.7% in the first semester, well below the 4.6% recorded for full-year 2006, June demand was up 4.9%.
