South African Airways, which revealed a major restructuring initiative this week, is being offered the opportunity to reverse its financial situation but has been warned it will not be backed indefinitely by the national government, which owns the troubled carrier.
Northwest Airlines announced the following executive changes: Executive VP-International, Alliances & Information Technology and Chairman-NWA Cargo Phil Haan resigned effective July 31; Executive VP and CFO Neal Cohen was named executive VP-strategy and international and CEO-regional airlines; Senior VP-Finance and Controller Dave Davis will succeed Cohen; CIO Theresa Wise was promoted to senior VP and CIO. TAP Portugal CEO Fernando Pinto was named chairman of the IATA board of governors yesterday at the AGM.
Ryanair reported a 42% jump in full fiscal year net income to €435.6 million ($586.3 million), compared to €306.7 million in the prior year, on rising fares and passenger numbers, yet warned that profit growth will slow to about 5% in the current financial year and that it may even report a loss in the third and fourth quarters.
Tiger Airways received final approval from Indian authorities to operate commercial flights from Singapore to Chennai, Cochin, Goa, Trivandrum, Kolkata and Kozhikode, the LCC announced. It said it will announce a schedule "fairly soon" and expects to link its Indian services to its new operation in Australia.
Mesaba Airlines will launch the first NextGen CRJ900 into service Thursday. The aircraft features a newly designed cabin interior and lower operating costs, according to Bombardier ( ATWOnline, June 4). A Mesaba flightcrew operated a trial flight yesterday at Washington Dulles. First revenue flight for the Northwest Airlines subsidiary will start in Minneapolis/St.
Boeing's Dreamlifter, the modified 747-400 freighter used to transport the major assemblies of the 787, received its type certification by US FAA. Part of the flight test program has been the delivery of major sections for the 787 from partner sites to Everett, Wash., for assembly ( ATWOnline, May 22). The Dreamlifter is not certified to carry passengers beyond essential crew. It has completed 437 flight test hr. and 639 hr. of ground testing since first flight on Sept 9, 2006.
Air France KLM is in talks with its US SkyTeam partners regarding slot exchanges to permit the US carriers to operate to London Heathrow when the US-EU open skies agreement takes effect next spring, Vice Chairman Leo van Wijk confirmed earlier this week. Speaking to media in Vancouver at the IATA AGM, van Wijk said KLM is talking with Northwest Airlines and Air France with Delta Air Lines. They also have agreed in principle that Continental Airlines will participate. "London Heathrow will become an additional transatlantic hub for SkyTeam partners," he stated.
While shoring up its domestic presence with its pending acquisition of Air Deccan, Kingfisher Airlines has big long-haul plans as well, including a possible alliance tie-up, Chairman and CEO Vijay Mallya said at this week's IATA AGM in Vancouver.
B/E Aerospace said yesterday that it has been selected to provide main cabin retrofit and new-buy seating programs for some 250 aircraft by US Airways, Frontier Airlines and AirAsia in contracts collectively valued at more than $70 million. The US deal includes retrofitting A320s and equipping new-buy single-aisle aircraft with economy and first class seating. The contract with Frontier covers retrofitting A318s and A319s as well as equipping A320s with economy seating. The AirAsia award is a follow-on order for economy seating for new-buy A320s.
Royal Brunei Airlines named Ray Sayer its new CEO, effective Sept. 1. Los Angeles World Airports named Gina Marie Lindsey executive director, replacing Lydia Kennard, who resigned in January. Formerly executive director of Seattle-Tacoma International, Lindsey will oversee Los Angeles International, Ontario, Van Nuys and Palmdale airports.
News from Travel Technology Update: Galileo said it can "state unequivocally" that it has no intention of forcing any customers to migrate to a new system in the U.S. The statement was the clearest indication yet that if Travelport, Galileo's parent, succeeds in acquiring Worldspan, it does not intend to integrate the two systems. That means Travelport will operate three GDS platforms; Galileo, which was developed in Europe, was never integrated with the U.S. born-and-bred Apollo system.
Amsterdan Airport Schiphol will need a sixth runway to accommodate its anticipated growth, Schiphol Group indicated in its long-term outlook published last week. AMS expects passenger throughput to grow 84.4% to 85 million by 2025, with freight more than doubling to 3.5 million tonnes. Runway capacity will need to increase from last year's 423,122 flights to 600,000-650,000 by 2025, with a new passenger area constructed by 2015, the airport said.
IBM signed an agreement with Avianca to operate and manage the airline's information technology in a deal valued at $12 million. The Colombian carrier said outsourcing its IT will lower costs and enable it to focus on "core business operations."
Virgin Atlantic Airways revealed yesterday that it intends to launch a business class-only carrier within the next 12-18 months. In a first stage, the new airline will fly transatlantic routes to the US from London and other European cities including Paris, Frankfurt, Milan and Zurich. Direct flights from points throughout the EU to the US will be possible under the new open skies regime that will take effect March 30, 2008. Virgin did not say which aircraft it would use to operate the flights.
South African Airways said yesterday that it will ground its 747-400 fleet, divide into seven subsidiaries and cut its management staff by 30% as part of a comprehensive restructuring effort aimed at returning the carrier to profitability.
IATA raised its profit outlook for 2007 on stronger-than-anticipated economic growth in Europe and Asia that has caused airline revenue growth to come in higher than previously believed.
IATA member airlines yesterday approved a five-month "one-off" extension to May 31, 2008, to the deadline for transitioning to 100% e-ticketing for tickets processed through the IATA Bank Settlement Plan.
US Airways launched daily Philadelphia-Brussels service aboard 757s in two-class configuration. During the winter schedule, the service will be reduced to four weekly flights aboard 767s.
Korean Air, saying it "shall no longer remain indifferent to the invasion of low-cost carriers from China and Southeast Asia into the Korean market," announced plans yesterday to launch an LCC within three years that will operate flights on domestic and short and mid-range international routes using 737s. The plan's unveiling culminated a process that began in 2005 when a KAL task force started studying the feasibility of the airline operating its own LCC.
European Commission yesterday approved the proposed merger of First Choice Holidays and the tourism division of TUI Group, excluding certain hotel assets.
Swiss International Air Lines will launch daily Zurich-Delhi service on Nov. 25 aboard A330-200s and a daily ZRH-Shanghai Pudong flight in summer 2008. It is adding two A330-200s and one A340-300 this summer and will take two additional A340-300s by next April.
Airbus said last week that talks with labor groups are starting "at national level" to determine how 10,000 workers will be cut across France, Germany, Spain and the UK.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines announced the completion of installation of its new Business Sleeper seats on A330-300s and A340-300s operating between Newark, Chicago O'Hare, Seattle and Washington Dulles and its Copenhagen and Stockholm Arlanda hubs. The business cabin has a 2-2-2 configuration, with 46 seats on the A340 and 34 on the A330. New seats feature 61 in. of legroom and a video screen nearly 25% larger than on SAS's previous seats. Transatlantic services also feature Economy Extra seating (35 seats on the A330 and 28 on the A340) with 38-in. pitch, IFE screens and power outlets.
Australia's Regional Express Holdings, which operates as Rex, said last week that it earned a A$17.3 million ($14.3 million) profit in the first nine months of its fiscal year, a figure 51.8% higher than in the year-ago period. It is projecting full-year profit growth of 40%. Nine-month passenger numbers rose 19.8% to 1.05 million.
