Mexicana Airlines announced the elevation of CFO Manuel Borja to CEO replacing Emilio Romano, who held the position since March 2004. Borja, who will take over July 16, held a similar position at hotel operator Grupo Posadas, which acquired Mexicana from state-controlled holding company Cintra in late 2005 ( ATW, May 2007).
Northwest Airlines said it is selling nine of its 65 A319s as part of an effort to right-size its fleet. The carrier said the deals were negotiated during its Chapter 11 restructuring and now are nearing closing. Buyers and purchase prices were not disclosed. NWA's A319s are configured with 16 business-class and 108 economy seats. It also has 73 148-seat A320s.
Swissport International appointed Per Utnegaard president and CEO of Swissport Group. He replaces Santiago Olivares, who recently was named CEO of Ferrovial Servicios.
Miami International is offering free landings and other incentives for airlines to start new domestic and international services. The three-year program will spend up to $3 million to attract scheduled passenger flights, with full landing fee waivers for new year-round flights to US or Canadian destinations. The one-year waiver also is available for a year-round flight to an international destination not previously served from MIA, and partial waivers are offered for new cargo service and less than full-year commitments.
Precision Conversions announced the delivery of a fifth 757-200PCF to VarigLog. Modifications were performed at Flightstar Aircraft Services in Jacksonville. VarigLog's deal with PC is for seven full-15-pallet aircraft.
Lufthansa yesterday signed an MOU with Moscow Domodedovo operator East Line Group to transfer its 61 weekly flights to the Russian capital to DME from Sheremetyevo beginning with the summer 2008 schedule.
AiRUnion is planning to apply for IOSA certification once the merger of the five constituent carriers is complete, a source close to the airline told ATWOnline in Moscow. That is expected to occur in November. The companies won government approval two months ago ( ATWOnline, May 4). None of the five airlines--KrasAir, Domodedovo Airlines, Sibaviatrans, Samara Airlines and Omskavia--is an IATA member.
US Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and Chinese Minister of Civil Aviation Yang Yuanyuan this week officially signed the expanded aviation agreement reached in May. The deal more than doubles passenger flights between the nations by 2012 and removes all restrictions on cargo flights by 2011 ( ATWOnline, May 24).
Southwest Airlines said it will accept PayPal payments for tickets purchased on its website. PayPal is an eBay subsidiary that allows account-holding customers to pay for online transactions through various means without submitting financial information to the vendor.
Arkia Israel Airlines said it intends to convert its two 787 options into firm orders, according to press reports. It placed an order for two firm aircraft plus the options last winter ( ATWOnline, Dec. 6, 2006).
The board of China Southern Airlines, which also is the parent of Xiamen Airlines, yesterday approved the purchase of 20 A320 family aircraft for CZ and 25 737-800s for Xiamen. The two orders will cost a combined CNY23.5 billion ($3.09 billion), according to a statement released yesterday. China Southern and Xiamen will sign contracts with Airbus and Boeing separately. CZ noted it expects to take delivery of A320s from March 2009 to August 2010 while Xiamen will introduce the 737s between July 2011 and November 2013.
Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen International Airport will be expanded and operated by a consortium comprised of Bangalore-based GMR Infrastructure (40%), Turkey's Limak (40%) and Malaysia Airports Holdings (20%), which was awarded a 20-year contract that includes building a new international terminal capable of handling 10 million passengers annually and managing the existing international and domestic terminals.
Ryanair said it intends to sue the European Commission for what it called the body's "repeated failure" to take action on a number of state aid complaints involving Air France, Lufthansa, Alitalia and Olympic Airways and their respective national governments that the LCC submitted more than a year ago. Separately, the EC announced investigations into whether some airports served by Ryanair and easyJet received illegal state aid (see next item).
The EC yesterday announced that it has opened investigations into possible state aid at several EU airports. It is looking into whether Finnish authorities illegally aided airports operator Finavia and subsidiary Airpro--two state-owned companies--and Ryanair in relation to their operations at Tampere-Pirkkala. It also is investigating several arrangements at Lubeck, including its 10-year contract with the Irish LCC. The Commission said its investigation into Lubeck follows complaints from a competing carrier and a nongovernmental organization.
Qantas plans to add a fourth class--premium economy--on its A380s, CEO Geoff Dixon told The Australian. The new seat may be introduced on other aircraft types in the QF fleet, he added.
L'Avion is speeding up its expansion, citing "better than forecasted" results for the first six months of operation. The Paris Orly-based all-business-class carrier said it will add a second 90-seat 757-200 at the end of October and a second daily frequency on its ORY-Newark service. It reported a 78% June load factor.
Virgin Blue filed an application with the US Dept. of Transportation to operate 10 weekly Australia-US flights beginning in November 2008, which would put it in direct competition with rival Qantas on lucrative transpacific routes. The Australian carrier applied for the traffic rights under the name "Virgin Blue International Airlines," a subsidiary of the Virgin Blue group of companies, but said it will choose a new name for its future transpacific operations prior to launch. It also is seeking an Australian operating certificate for VBIA, which is expected to be granted.
A J Walter Aviation said that Essential (EAMS), the Denmark-based MRO specialist formed from the technical department of Sterling Airlines, awarded AJW a five-year power-by-the-hour support agreement for two 737-300s owned by Jet Time.
Sequa Corp., which manufactures, repairs and remanufactures engine blades, vanes and other engine components, agreed to be acquired by Carlyle Group in a transaction valued at $2.7 billion.
Bmi Group is buying five A330s and five A321s to support its "strategy of developing new mid-haul and long-haul routes from London Heathrow," the carrier announced yesterday. The five A330s are worth approximately $500 million, bmi said, and will join three already in service with the carrier. First delivery is scheduled for next spring. The A321s, valued at $250 million, will feature on a short-/medium-haul network boosted by the February acquisition of British Mediterranean. No engine choice was announced.
Bristol International Airport announced it is switching to SITA's AirportConnect CUTE Open IT platform, including self-service check-in kiosks, to handle predicted growth from 6 million to 9 million passengers.
US Airways Group said passenger RASM "has gotten progressively better during the second quarter" and June figures were "up slightly" over the year-ago month. "We see an encouraging revenue environment moving into the third quarter due, in part, to stronger year-over-year bookings and improving yield trends," President Scott Kirby said. The group flew 5.89 billion consolidated RPMs in June, up 0.4% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 1.4% to 6.91 billion ASMs and load factor rose 1.6 points to 85.3%, the highest for any month in the company's history.
Vueling Airlines will establish its fourth European base in Seville at the end of October. The LCC will base three A320s at SVQ and launch new services to Venice, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Brussels, Milan Malpensa and Bilbao. Vueling, which is celebrating its third birthday this month, currently operates from Madrid, Barcelona and Paris Charles de Gaulle ( ATWOnline, March 13).
Lufthansa flew 10.57 billion RPKs in June, up 7.6% on the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 4.9% to 13.22 billion ASKs and load factor rose 2 points to 80%. Royal Jordanian transported 204,000 passengers in June, a 14% increase on the year-ago month. Load factor rose 4.8 points to 72.2%. LAN Airlines flew 1.78 billion RPKs in June, a 29.7% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 22.5% to 2.45 billion ASKs and load factor rose 4 points to 72.6%.
