Thousands of French Airbus workers staged a one-day strike at plants across the country yesterday, with an estimated 4,000 marching in the streets of Toulouse to protest the company's Power8 restructuring plan that calls for 10,000 job cuts including 4,300 in France.
JetBlue Airways will remove each of its 26 E-190s from service for up to three days through the end of April to fix a software glitch affecting a variety of systems onboard the aircraft. In order to avoid delaying or canceling flights, it will contract ExpressJet Airlines to operate four 50-seat E-145s on affected routes. A JetBlue spokesperson told ATWOnline that the airline will inform passengers and that no more than two daily lines of E-190 flying out of 120 will be affected.
South African National Assembly voted last week to take direct control of South African Airways, removing the carrier from the Transnet group of companies, as a step toward eventual privatization, the South African Press Assn. reported. "It makes it possible for SAA to rely on its own balance sheet to raise funds for its operations, instead of always relying on the government," Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said.
Emirates will lease five 777-300ERs from GECAS to bridge the gap created by the A380 delay. Delivery is scheduled for the second half of next year. EK operates 23 of the type and has firm commitments for 36, including this week's order.
Air Canada will begin taking delivery next month of eight 777s coming this year and plans to use them to launch daily Vancouver-Sydney flights on Dec. 14, the first nonstop service between Canada and Australia. Air New Zealand will codeshare. A 270-seat 777-200LR will replace the -300ER from Feb 1. AC said it suspended plans to fly to Australia via Los Angeles. It will introduce the 777 on its Toronto-London Heathrow service in April. Subsequent introductions will be on YYZ-Frankfurt and YYZ-Tokyo Narita in June, YVR-NRT in July and YYZ-Hong Kong in August. It has 18 777s on order.
ANA accelerated its fleet rationalization program ( ATWOnline, July 13, 2006) with an order for four more 777-300ERs announced yesterday and the sale of three 747-400s to Oasis Growth Income and Investments for operation by Oasis Hong Kong Airlines. The 777s are worth $1 billion at list prices. ANA operates eight 777-300ERs and the new order brings its commitment for the type to 17. It operates 23 747-400s. It sold six to Iceland's Avion Aircraft Trading last summer.
The A$11.1 billion ($8.61 billion) sale of Qantas to Airline Partners Australia took a giant stride forward yesterday when Australian Treasurer Peter Costello announced that the government has no objections to the sale ( ATWOnline, March 2) and that the Foreign Investment Review Board examined and approved the bid, which now is before QF shareholders.
Nok Air confirmed its relocation from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi back to Don Muang effective March 25 ( ATWOnline, Feb. 8). It will have eight check-in counters and three ticketing counters at DMK.
Spirit Airlines launched a new fare structure yesterday that includes fees for all checked bags as part an approach it said "liberates customers from being forced into paying for services they do not desire or use."
NAV Canada and UK NATS are able to track more than 1,000 daily flights across the Atlantic through technology developed by NAV Canada, the North American ATM company announced. Flights are monitored along their entire route by the Gander Automated Air Traffic System in Newfoundland and the Shanwick AATS in Prestwick. The software provides controllers with a "moving picture" of air traffic in areas without radar, while both systems allow text-based satellite communications between controllers and pilots.
The US Dept. of Transportation told ATWOnline yesterday that the proposed EU-US open skies agreement reached last week does not contain a clause exposing US carriers to inclusion in the European emissions trading scheme, refuting information supplied to this website.
United Airlines flew 8.19 billion RPMs in February, a 0.6% drop from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 1.5% to 10.56 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 0.6 point to 77.5%. Southwest Airlines flew 4.85 billion RPMs in February, up 3.3% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 6% to 7.26 billion ASMs and load factor dipped 1.7 points to 66.8%.
British Airways yesterday completed the sale of its money-losing regional subsidiary BA Connect to Flybe, which said the acquisition and the planned launch of 11 new routes will make it Europe's largest regional carrier. Flybe will take over 20 routes previously operated by BA Connect and this spring will launch 11 new ones: Manchester to Guernsey, Bergerac, Limoges and La Rochelle; Southampton to Paris Charles de Gaulle, Isle of Man and Frankfurt; London Gatwick to Bergerac; Cardiff to CDG; Edinburgh to Rennes, and Guernsey to Norwich.
Airbus opened its second North American engineering center in Mobile ( ATWOnline, Feb. 1, 2006). The facility is performing interior design and definition work for the A350 XWB. Current employment is 32 and is expected to exceed 80 by year end.
US Airways completed the merger of the reservation systems of the old US and America West Airlines over the weekend, but not without a few glitches as check-in kiosk malfunctions at eastern airports using US legacy systems resulted in numerous delays. Charlotte, Boston and Philadelphia were the most affected, although there were only five cancellations throughout the carrier's network. US switched its entire operation to AWA's Shares system.
Gol flew 1.57 billion RPKs in February, up 66.4% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 61.4% to 2.17 billion ASKs and load factor climbed 2.2 points to 72.3%.
As European Commission VP-Transport Jacques Barrot was touting last week's tentative open skies agreement with the US and telling a London audience yesterday that the UK would enjoy "the biggest gains" if the deal is ratified, British Airways claimed it is "significantly imbalanced in favor of the US" and urged the Transport Council "not to sell Europe short."
Lufthansa Systems added Russia's SkyExpress, Vladivostock Air and AirBridge Cargo to the list of airlines using its FMS database of worldwide aeronautical data.
IBM announced a 7.5-year, $217 million business transformation outsourcing agreement with American Airlines covering its human resources functions. IBM will provide support for standardized HR resources processes, IT and call center support. Mercer HR Services will deliver compensation and benefits administration and consulting.
JetBlue Airways will launch daily Boston-Charlotte service and twice-daily Washington Dulles-Orlando International flights on May 1. It also will add daily frequencies from New York JFK to CLT, Raleigh/Durham and Portland (Maine) and between Las Vegas and Long Beach. In addition, it announced a Caribbean expansion including twice-daily JFK-Santo Domingo flights beginning May 24 aboard A320s, BOS-Bermuda service starting May 1 and MCO-Ponce flights from May 24. Further details on the latter two services were unannounced.
The EC's third update of its airline blacklist, released yesterday, features the first removal of airlines that successfully raised their safety standards and new restrictions on Pakistan International Airlines.
Germanwings will open a base in Dortmund, its fifth. It will base an A319 at DTM from June 29 and operate flights to Vienna, Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen, Palma, Ibiza and Faro. Frequencies and launch dates were not provided.
Comair pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn. ratified a four-year contract after months of wrangling with management over pay and benefit concessions ( ATWOnline, Feb. 14). The new contract is expected to save the airline $40 million and will cut pilot salaries 7.75%-13%. Some 68% voted in favor of the deal, which also included an $82.5 million bankruptcy claim the pilots recently sold. J.C.
Gryphyn Works of Utah said Horizon Air has become the first airline in the world to conduct paperless ground support equipment maintenance operations by using Gryphyn's Web-based GSE Maintenance application.
