Airbus parent EADS named Rudiger Grube co-chairman of the board, replacing Manfred Bischoff, who resigned to become chairman of DaimlerChrysler. The German joins co-Chairman Arnaud Lagardere of France. Bischoff had been co-chairman since 2000 and Grube has been a member of the EADS board since 2004.
GE-Aviation said Virgin Nigeria Airways signed a five-year, $15 million OnPoint Solutions services agreement covering MRO on 14 CFM56-3Cs on its 737-300s. Separately, North American Airlines and Virgin Nigeria announced an interlining agreement covering NAA's New York JFK-Lagos service and several VK destinations. NAA also will support VK's application to operate the transatlantic route, including a possible wet-lease arrangement.
Air France KLM flew 17.13 billion RPKs in March, up 7.5% on the year-ago month. Capacity rose 3.8% to 20.83 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 2.8 points to 82.3%. Northwest Airlines flew 7.02 billion consolidated RPMs in March, a 1.3% rise from the year-ago month, as domestic traffic climbed 3.1% and international rose 1.4%. Regional traffic declined 12.9%. Capacity was up 1.8% to 8.19 billion ASMs on a 2.6% domestic increase and a 3.7% rise in international ASMs. Load factor fell 0.4 point to 85.7%.
Lufthansa CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber told ATWOnline that his company is keeping a close watch on the sales and consolidation rumors circulating through Europe, especially those involving Iberia and Alitalia, but that it will err on the side of caution regarding its own involvement. "Both carriers would theoretically fit us," he said aboard a flight from Munich to Busan last week. "But conditions have to be proper, otherwise one can get into financial difficulties."
Garuda Indonesia 737-400 that crashed last month, killing 21 people ( ATWOnline, March 12), was traveling at 410 kph when it hit the runway at Yogyakarta Airport, nearly twice normal speed, according to a report by Indonesia's Transport Committee obtained by Australian media.
Mesa Air Group named Freedom Airlines President and Senior VP-West Coast Operations Mike Ferverda as COO of its JV with Shenzhen Airlines, Bombardier Flexjet VP-Marketing Tom Bacon as VP-planning, VP-East Coast Operations Jorn Bates as Freedom COO, Director-MRO Services Gary Appling as VP-technical services and purchasing, Director-Corporate Development Jeff Bethune as VP-financial planning and analysis and Adam Wilensky as director-planning.
FedEx Express, the delivery giant's airline unit, signed an agreement Friday to acquire its Hungarian service provider, Flying-Cargo Hungary, a move that fits with its strategy to expand in Eastern Europe and gain greater control of service providers in emerging markets. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. F-C has been aligned with FedEx in Hungary since 2003, helping to move and deliver international express shipments.
BAE Systems Regional Aircraft selected Romania's Aerostar as the prime contractor for the relaunched BAe 146QT freighter conversion program. Aerostar will be responsible for maintenance, large freight door assembly and E-Class cargo interior kit manufacture and installation and will subcontract the manufacture of the large upward-opening freight door and delivery to Avione Craiova. The first conversion is scheduled to be available early to mid-2008. It will be available in Series 200 and Series 300 types and will have a maximum bulk payload of 11,670 kg. for the 200 or 13,265 kg.
US Bureau of Transportation Statistics said the 20 reporting US carriers posted and ontime arrival rate of 75.4% in 2006, down from 77.4% in 2005. Reports of mishandled baggage per 1,000 passengers rose to 6.73 from 6.64 while complaints about service fell 4.8%.
Turkish Airlines on Friday released select English-language financial results for 2006, reporting a $132 million net profit that represented a 31.4% increase over the prior year's net earnings of TRY138.2 million ($100.5 million). The comparison is based on capital market bond standards and does not account for currency fluctuations. It is higher than airline officials predicted in December ( ATWOnline, Dec. 11, 2006), when THY announced its intention to join Star Alliance.
UTair Airlines' 2006 profit more than doubled to RUB263.9 million ($10.2 million) from RUB128 million in 2005, Russia's AK&M reported. The company anticipates a RUB645 million profit in 2007.
IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said the US and Europe have "lost the vision" that made them the world's top air transport markets and it is now "Asia's turn" to lead the industry. Speaking this week to the Asia Pacific Aviation Media Assn. in Singapore, he noted that intra-Asia traffic will be "the largest market in the world, accounting for one-third of the world's traffic" by 2010 and pushed Asian nations to meet international safety standards and liberalize traffic rights. "Not all governments in Asia are at the same level in safety oversight," he said.
Delta Air Lines flew 10.42 billion system RPMs in March, a 3.5% increase from the year-ago month, as domestic traffic fell 3.2% and international RPMs climbed 23.1%. Capacity rose 0.4% to 12.55 billion ASMs on a 6% domestic decline and an 18.7% international increase. Load factor improved 2.5 points to 83%. Domestic load factor was up 2.5 points to 83.6% and international load factor rose 2.9 points to 81.6%. Southwest Airlines flew 6.08 billion RPMs in March, up 4.3% from the year-ago month.
Qantas won a A$900 million ($732.1 million), five-year contract from the Australian Dept. of Defense that has caused some controversy because there was no competitive tender for the deal, according to widespread press reports from Australia. The government reportedly blocked potential competitors because Qantas was seen as the only company capable of handling the department's needs.
Boeing delivered 106 commercial aircraft in the first quarter, up 8.2% from the 98 delivered in the first three months of 2006. First-quarter 2007 deliveries comprised 83 737NGs, three 747s, three 767s and 17 777s.
Honeywell will provide its RDR-4000 next generation windshear/weather radar system, Qantaum com/nav radios, TCAS/Mode S, solid-state FDR, 2-hr. solid-state CVR and emergency locator unit to Cathay Pacific Airways for use on 18 firm and 18 option 777-300ERs. Value of the contract good through 2014 is $35 million.
AirTran Holdings repeated its request for a list of Midwest Air Group shareholders, citing Wisconsin state law. It was rebuffed in its February attempt to access the list through a New York subsidiary ( ATWOnline, Feb. 22). Midwest once again denied its unwanted suitor the list, saying it would not supply it until notices and proxy statements for its May 23 annual meeting are mailed out.
China Southern Airlines plans to partner with Chongqing Investment Corp. to create Chongqing Airlines, which is expected to launch operations in June with three A320s. The new carrier is expected to be approved by CAAC next week. CS holds 60% with an investment of CNY720 million ($93 million) while Chongqing Investment has put in CNY480 million for the remaining stake. Chongqing Airlines aims to challenge Air China and China Eastern Airlines, the two dominant players in western China, for both passenger and cargo traffic.
Northwest Airlines' new regional subsidiary, Compass Airlines, yesterday announced the receipt of US FAA certification to launch CRJ200 operations. It expects to start flying next month between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Washington Dulles. It will be based in nearby Chantilly, Va., and will operate out of NWA's hubs at MSP, Detroit and Memphis as Northwest Airlink. During the third quarter, it expects to put the first of 36 76-seat, two-class E-175s into service ( ATWOnline, Oct. 6, 2006).
American Eagle will launch daily Miami-Northwest Arkansas Regional service on April 10 aboard an ERJ-140. EasyJet launched a daily Madrid-Palma de Mallorca flight and announced the following new services: Daily flights from Berlin Shoenefeld to Lisbon and Venice starting May 11 and daily seasonal flights from London Gatwick to La Rochelle (July 14-Sept. 9) and from Geneva to Cagliari (June 29-Sept. 7). US Airways launched daily New York LaGuardia-Myrtle Beach service aboard ERJ-145s operated by Chautauqua Airlines.
The transition to a satellite-based NextGen ATC system in the US will hinge on politics and financing rather than technological issues, according to industry players. "Technology, in my view, is not the restraint," Lockheed Martin VP-Transportation System Solutions Monte Belger, who formerly served as US FAA's acting deputy administrator, said at this week's US Chamber of Commerce Aviation 2007 conference, available via webcast. "But there are enormous public policy decisions to be made. The industry costs to equip [aircraft] with ADS-B are huge."
