Air Canada named Executive VP and CCO Sean Menke executive VP-commercial strategy, focusing on long-term strategy and the implementation of AC's new Polaris reservation system. Air Canada Vacations President and CEO Benjamin Smith was named executive VP-commercial, succeeding Menke.
SAS Sverige planned to operate its full schedule today after the Swedish Salaried Employees Union, which represents approximately 800 SAS cabin staff, reached a labor agreement with the airline late Monday. The deal will apply March 1, 2007-April 30, 2010, and "is in line with the level applicable in the Swedish labor market, that is, 10.3% over 38 months," SAS said.
Emirates will increase twice-daily Dubai-Johannesburg service to 18-times-weekly beginning June 1. Additional flights will be aboard 427-seat 777-300ERs. Alaska Airlines will increase Seattle-Cancun service to daily from four-times-weekly on Oct. 28.
Thales was selected by Sichuan Airlines to supply and support two Level D full flight simulators to be installed in a soon-to-be-built Sichuan Airlines training center in Chengdu. Also ordered was an A320 Thales Formation Systems Trainer. Thales valued the contract at in excess of $20 million.
Rolls-Royce said Avion Aircraft Trading selected the Trent 700 to power the eight A330-200 freighters ordered last week. Engine order is worth approximately $300 million at list prices. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2010.
Air Line Pilots Assn. will contribute $2 million to support the efforts of Pinnacle Airlines pilots who have been in contract negotiations with the carrier since February 2005. A mediator from the National Mediation Board has guided talks since last August.
Snecma Services and Airfoil Technologies International formed Propulsion Technologies International. The joint venture will be located in the Miami facility previously known as Propulsion Technology LLC. PTI will provide component repair services focusing on "major rotating assemblies, booster vanes, cases and frame repairs." Messier Services announced landing gear MRO contracts covering Airbus equipment (A300, A320 family and A330) with four airlines: Aer Lingus, Monarch, bmi and My Travel. A total of 60 aircraft are included. Work will be done by Messier Services France.
Singapore Changi's Terminal 3 will commence flight operations on Jan. 9, 2008, it was announced yesterday. The terminal cost S$1.75 billion ($1.15 billion) and will have a capacity of 22 million passengers per year, bringing the airport's total annual capacity to 70 million. T3 will be equipped with 28 gates, of which eight will be A380-compatible.
European Cargo Services acquired a stake in Africa West Cargo Airlines, the GSA network announced yesterday without disclosing details on the size of the shareholding or the purchase price. ECS said it believes this is the first time a GSA has invested in an airline. Africa West operates three An-12 freighters out of Lome to 14 destinations in West and Central Africa, offering some 160 tonnes of capacity per week. It feeds its African network with twice-weekly flights from Ostend.
Philippine Airlines exercised purchase rights on two 777-300ERs, bringing its commitment to the type to four firm orders. The purchase rights were part of an order placed last fall. The carrier also announced the signing of an LOI with GECAS for the lease of two additional two-class 777-300ERs. Deliveries of the six aircraft will run from the third quarter of 2009 through 2010. PAL's current widebody fleet comprises five 747-400s, four A340-300s and eight A330-300s.
Air Jamaica will drop its Kingston-London Heathrow route, on which it reportedly was losing $20-$25 million annually, and sold its LHR landing and takeoff slots to Virgin Atlantic Airways, according to media reports out of London and Jamaica. Virgin beat out rival British Airways to replace Air Jamaica's LHR-Kingston service and will operate two weekly flights on the route beginning this fall. Virgin currently operates two weekly London Gatwick-Montego Bay flights and will continue that service.
SAS Sverige announced the cancellation of flights to, from and within Sweden Saturday owing to a cabin staff strike launched Friday ( ATWOnline, May 25).
Luxair, which comprises the airline, a tour operator and a cargo handling division, posted a 2006 net profit of €16.9 million ($22.7 million), more than the triple the €5.5 million earned in 2005. Revenues increased 2.4% to €333.5 million. The airline division managed to halve its 2005 loss, the company said, although the figure was not released.
Ural Airlines reported a net loss of RUB91.2 million ($3.5 million) in the first quarter compared to a RUB63.3 million deficit in the year-ago period, Russia's AK&M reported. Revenue climbed 17.9% to RUB1.13 billion.
Delta Air Lines flew 9.82 billion RPMs in April, a 4.2% increase from the year-ago month, as domestic traffic declined 0.6% and international surged 17.3%. Capacity fell 0.7% to 12.06 billion ASMs on a 7.3% drop in domestic ASMs and a 17.1% climb in international. System load factor rose 3.9 points to 81.5%--domestic was up 5.6 points to 82.8% and international 0.1 point to 78.6%. Alitalia flew 3.26 billion RPKs in April, down 0.4% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 0.7% to 4.3 billion ASKs and load factor rose 0.2 point to 75.6%.
Republic Airways President and CEO Bryan Bedford said the regional is "definitely looking" at larger jets, specifically E-190s and CRJ1000s, if it can find interested customers. "I think there is an opportunity out there. We are looking out at least two years for where the opportunity will be," he said at last week's Regional Airline Assn. conference in Memphis. But he pointed out that it is difficult to assess the prospects for larger aircraft because it is unclear if existing scope clauses will allow the operation of aircraft beyond the 70-seat range.
CSA Czech Airlines said it will avoid entering the high season "in a hole for the first time in several years" thanks to a CZK122 million ($5.8 million) first-quarter loss that was CZK500 million better than forecast in its business plan, which projected a deficit similar to that incurred in the first three months of 2006. "In terms of revenue, the first three months are problematic for all airlines. In that time period we achieved better revenue and greater cost savings than planned," President Radomir Lasak said.
Aeroflot, which remains alive in the bidding for SkyTeam partner Alitalia (see story above), also has made an offer to buy Serbia's Jat Airways, according to press reports. Serbian Minister of Infrastructure Velimir Ilic told reporters in Belgrade that SU offered to settle Jat's debts, purchase new aircraft and maintain the carrier's workforce. The Russian carrier reportedly is not the only interested buyer. "So far Aeroflot has made the best and the most concrete offer," a Jat official told Reuters.
The Alitalia board decided to move forward with a €197 million ($264.9 million) writedown of the value of the carrier's fleet, a step it declined to take in March when releasing its full-year financial results but that became necessary when it decided it had to "draw up a new and reliable business plan" ahead of the Italian government's sale of its AZ stake. The decision deepened the company's full-year loss to €625.6 million from the €405.2 million announced two months ago and the €167.8 million suffered in 2005.
Iberia last week confirmed that it was contacted by a consortium led by TPG Capital, recently joined by British Airways ( ATWOnline, May 23), investigating a formal offer for the Spanish carrier.
Sterling Airlines announced the Oct. 28 launch of flights from Oslo Gardermoen to Paris Charles de Gaulle, London Gatwick and Copenhagen as well as a Stockholm Arlanda-Nottingham East Midlands service. Frequencies were not disclosed. Sterling operates 25 737s. Separately, Sterling signed a labor agreement with its pilots this month that it said represented the final step in the merger of Sterling and Maersk Air.
Frontier Airlines reported a net loss of $20.4 million for its fiscal year ended March 31, widened from a net loss of $14 million for the prior year, with more than half of the deficit ($10.4 million) coming in the fourth quarter as severe winter weather hurt the Denver-based carrier's operations.
American Airlines, Continental Airlines and Alaska Airlines, "along with a few smaller carriers," according to the Associated Press, will be allowed to reduce contributions to their defined benefit pension plans by a combined $2 billion over the next decade thanks to a provision in the Iraq War spending bill approved last week by the US Congress. The Dallas Morning News reported that airlines will be permitted to assume an 8.25% annual discount rate in calculating the value of their pension obligations, up from the current 6%.
