Dnata, the ground handling arm of Emirates Group, signed a 15-year joint venture agreement with China West Airport Group to provide airport ground handling services at Xi'an Xianyang International Airport. Under the JV, Dnata will hold 45% in Xi'an Dnata Aviation Services with the remainder owned by CWAG.
Quintiq's Advanced Planning and Scheduling Suite was selected by Brussels Airport to improve planning and capacity studies of check-in desks and gates.
AirTran Airways parent AirTran Holdings reported a second-quarter profit of $41.5 million on record passenger traffic. The result marked a 29.9% increase from the $32 million earned in the second three months of 2006. Operating revenue climbed 16.3% to $614.1 million and expenses rose 14.9% to $544.3 million. Fuel cost was up 16.5% to $204 million and operating profit rose 28% to a company-record $69.7 million. The airline carried 6.3 million passengers during the quarter, up 16.9%, while flying 4.53 billion RPMs, up 22.3% year-over-year.
Goodrich Corp. signed a new long-term agreement with Boeing under which Goodrich will continue as the exclusive supplier of original equipment and aftermarket landing gear for the 737, 747, 767 and 777 programs through 2012.
Pratt & Whitney announced that its Global Material Solutions subsidiary earned PMA certification from US FAA for the CFM56-3 high-pressure turbine shroud, marking the first certification for the 48 life-limited and gas-path replacement parts it plans to produce for the engine ( ATWOnline, March 30).
US and EU announced an agreement "to jointly adopt and provide an improved design for their respective Global Navigation Satellite System signals." The signals will be implemented on the Galileo Open Service and the new GPS IIIA civil signal. "Today's announcement underscores Europe's commitment to interoperability between Galileo and GPS and to managing the Galileo program in an innovative partnership with the [US]," European Commission DC Matthias Ruete said.
China's big three airlines--Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines--expect to post first-half profits thanks largely to "continuous growth of the domestic market" and the appreciation of the yuan. China Southern yesterday said it expected a reversal from its CNY835 million ($110.4 million) loss in the year-ago semester, while earlier this week Air China said in a filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange that it expected to report a profit more than 20 times greater than the CNY45.8 million earned in the first six months of 2006.
American Eagle will launch twice-daily Dallas/Fort Worth-Roswell service on Sept. 5. Delta Air Lines will launch flights to Santa Fe from Los Angeles (daily) and Salt Lake City (twice-daily) on Dec. 10. ExpressJet Airlines will operate the routes aboard 50-seat ERJs.
Sterling Airlines announced the delivery of Aviation Partners Boeing blended winglet shipsets for seven 737-700s and one 737-800. It also has options on a further eight and already operates four winglet-equipped -800s.
Northwest Airlines said yesterday that it will reduce domestic mainline capacity by another 1% next month and likely begin hiring new pilots later this year. The carrier previously announced plans to cut domestic mainline capacity by 3% from Aug. 1 ( ATWOnline, July 2) to help mitigate cancellations.
Austrian Airlines Group CEO Alfred Oetsch said the company is "on the right course" as it reported a €7.7 million second-quarter profit that represents a turnaround from a €3.9 million loss suffered in the year-ago period.
Adria Airways said revenues generated by its MRO center in Ljubljana during the first half of 2007 rose 64% over the year-ago period as it serviced 43 third-party aircraft and added that it will start construction of a third hangar this fall.
Robust sales across its commercial airplane range helped Boeing post a $1.05 billion net profit in the second quarter, a reversal from the year-ago period's loss of $160 million that resulted from one-time charges. The company's backlog rose 27% year-over-year to a record $278.5 billion, with $207.7 billion (up 47% in the past year) coming from the Commercial Airplanes segment. Revenue climbed 14% to $17.03. Operating profit of $1.51 billion compared to a $48 million deficit in the second three months of 2006.
UPS reported second-quarter net income of $1.1 billion, slightly improved over net earnings of $1.06 billion in the year-ago quarter, citing gains in its air-driven international business including a 14% jump in international export revenue. "Strong gains in our international package segment offset a lack of growth in the US business," Chairman and CEO Mike Eskew said. Revenue increased 3.8% to $12.19 billion as operating profit lifted 4.1% to $1.77 billion.
Astar Air Cargo yesterday withdrew its "indication of interest" in acquiring fellow DHL subservice carrier ABX Air for more than $450 million in cash. The move came a day after ABX President and CEO Joe Hete informed Astar Chairman, President and CEO John Dasburg that the proposed acquisition had been "unanimously rejected" by ABX's board ( ATWOnline, July 25).
Lufthansa Technik signed Total Component Support and Total Engine Support deals with Aegean Airlines covering up to 27 A320 family aircraft and the IAE V2500s being phased into the Greek carrier's fleet. The eight-year deal is worth approximately $100 million, LHT said.
Singapore Airlines announced yesterday that seats on the inaugural A380 flight in October, a Singapore-Sydney return, will be auctioned on eBay with proceeds going to charities including two Sydney hospitals, Singapore's Community Chest and Medecins Sans Frontieres. ExxonMobil Aviation will donate the fuel and eBay will subsidize fees and charges from the auction, details of which have yet to be finalized.
Bombardier sold four Q400s to Nigeria's Arik Air, which will configure them with 10 business class and 62 economy seats. The aircraft are worth approximately $104 million at list prices. Arik currently operates four CRJ900s and three CRJ200s on seven domestic routes. CEO Michael McTighe said certain routes, especially Lagos-Port Harcourt, cannot be served with jets because of landing strip restrictions.
Boosted by hefty nonoperating gains from asset sales and its investment in Swiss International Air Lines, Lufthansa reported a net profit of €992 million ($1.37 billion) in the first six months of 2007, up from €85 million in the year-ago semester and representing a record high for the company. The result implies a second-quarter profit of €438 million as calculated by ATWOnline, which compares to a €138 million profit in the second three months of 2006.
V Australia is the name chosen for Virgin Blue's new long-haul airline that will commence transpacific services to the US late next year with a 777-300ER ( ATWOnline, July 11). Virgin Blue cannot use the Virgin name outside Australia as part of an agreement reached when Singapore Airlines took a 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic Airways in 1999. The new name was chosen from among nearly 6,000 entries solicited in a contest.
Continental Airlines will launch twice-daily Cleveland-Ottawa service with a 37-seat E-135 operated by ExpressJet Airlines and a daily CLE-Oklahoma City flight aboard a 50-seat E-145, both on Sept. 30. Spirit Airlines will operate daily Fort Lauderdale-Grand Bahama flights beginning Dec. 13. Lufthansa will resume serving Pakistan with a thrice-weekly Frankfurt-Karachi-Lahore service beginning Oct. 28.
Asiana Airlines earned a profit of KRW38 billion ($41.5 million) in the second quarter, up from a KRW15 billion profit in the year-ago period, thanks to investment gains and the appreciation of the won, according to a regulatory filing cited by the Antara news agency. Revenue rose 2.1% year-over-year to KRW861 billion but operating profit dropped 7.2% to KRW20 billion. Separately, Asiana increased to daily its four-times-weekly Incheon-Frankfurt service.
