SR Technics opened a line maintenance station at Paris Orly with Air Caraibes as the first customer. SRT said "easyJet and further customers are expected to follow soon." The station will offer services for A320s, A330s, A340s, 737s and a variety of engines.
AirCell named Frances Phillips senior VP-airline solutions. She most recently was at Connexion by Boeing. US Airways promoted MD-Inflight Services Sherri Shamblin to VP-inflight services, succeeding the retired Ron Cole. SITA named Rob Watkins regional VP-sales and relationship management for Northern Europe.
Frontier Airlines chose Republic Airlines to operate 17 76-seat E-170s starting in March. Scheduling and marketing of the new service will be done by Frontier, which will pay for capacity at a pre-determined rate. The last of the aircraft will be flying by December 2008. Last September, Frontier ended its codeshare agreement with Horizon Air, which operated nine CRJ700s for the Denver-based carrier ( ATWOnline, Sept. 21, 2006). "While we enjoyed a great relationship with. .
Aviation Partners Boeing said Turkish Airlines placed an order for 24 737-800 Blended Winglet shipsets. The carrier installed three sets on -800s in 2002. Turkish Technic will install the winglets at its Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen facility. APB said 57% of the -800s currently in service are equipped with winglets.
Lufthansa flew 8.28 billion RPKs in December, a 7.4% rise from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 5.3% to 11.4 billion ASKs and load factor rose 1.4 points to 72.6%.
Midwest Air Group will grow capacity by 15% this year and look to boost revenue as part of a new strategy unveiled yesterday that the Midwest Airlines parent hopes will increase shareholder value and fend off AirTran Airways. In a presentation filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Midwest said it rejected AirTran's proposal ( ATWOnline, Dec. 15, 2006) because it undervalued the company and "did not reflect the long-term opportunity inherent in [Midwest's] strategic growth plan."
The European Commission disseminated misleading and incorrect information on passenger rights on posters displayed at EU airports beginning in February 2005 as well as in leaflets, press releases and a video on the EC website, the European Ombudsman has concluded. The opinion follows separate complaints filed by the International Air Carrier Assn. and the European Regions Airline Assn. in April 2005. Those complaints concerned information distributed to passengers regarding compensation and assistance in the event of denied boarding, cancellation or long delays.
Bmi regional is taking delivery of a further four E-145s in the coming months, raising its fleet to 20 aircraft. The additional capacity will support three new routes: Edinburgh-Zurich, Aberdeen-Kristiansand and Leeds Bradford-Copenhagen. The bmi subsidiary also will increase frequencies on existing services for the summer schedule, including additional flights from EDI to MAN and LBA.
Mexican LCC Interjet converted 10 A320 options into firm orders, which Airbus has tacked onto its 2006 order book. The options were part of an order placed at the 2005 Paris Air Show ( ATWOnline, Nov. 8, 2005). The Toluca-based airline celebrated its one-year anniversary in December and carried more than 1 million passengers in its first 12 months of operation.
Airline Partners Australia's A$11.1 billion ($8.64 million) equity buyout of Qantas continued to face criticism yesterday as rebel Sen. Barnaby Joyce, a National Party of Australia member from Queensland, added his influential voice to the call for greater competition on the Australia-US route.
Airbus named former MBDA executive Didier Evrard to head the A350 XWB program, effective immediately. MBDA is a France-based missile manufacturer. Evrard, 53, "brings proven leadership and program development management capabilities in combination with an understanding of customer needs and business objectives," Airbus President and CEO Louis Gallois said.
Brussels Airlines signed a letter of intent with AerCap to add a fourth A330-300 to its long-haul fleet. The aircraft belonged to Air Madrid, which suspended operations last month. Brussels' network "will not necessarily include new African destinations but possibly some destinations on the North American continent," VP-Communications Geert Sciot told ATWOnline. It is expected that the carrier will operate Brussels-Toronto flights, which it currently offers in codeshare with Etihad Airways.
Royal Jordanian said it finalized interline agreements with British Airways, American Airlines, Iberia, LAN and Finnair in preparation for joining oneworld.
US Airways yesterday raised its takeover offer for bankrupt Delta Air Lines to $10.2 billion, promising DL's unsecured creditors $5 billion in cash and 89.5 million shares of US stock, but the Delta board quickly gave a thumbs-down to the proposal, stating that "it does not address significant concerns. . .raised about the initial US Airways proposal and, in fact, would increase the debt burden of the combined company by yet another $1 billion."
Malev Hungarian Airlines and American Airlines this week signed a codeshare and frequent-flier program harmonization agreement. From the summer timetable, AA will add its code to Malev's New York JFK flight as well as numerous other services to Eastern Europe and Balkan destinations. MA's code will appear on several domestic flights operated by AA. Malev will join oneworld this year. Air Transat will launch a weekly Toronto-Montreal-Vienna service in May using A310-300s.
Air China reportedly is planning to set up a Shanghai-based cargo joint venture with Cathay Pacific Airways. "We are now preparing for the joint venture program and hope to realize practical progress in the cargo business partnership with Cathay in the first half of 2007," VP Fan Cheng told China Daily. "How to significantly improve our cargo transport capabilities is an important task for Air China in 2007," he added. He said long-running attempts to reach a similar agreement with China Eastern Airlines had failed.
Jet Airways will expand its international network this month to Bangkok, with flights to the US set to commence later this year. Jet told media that it plans to launch services to Newark in August and to San Francisco via Shanghai in November. It will operate A330s on the Bangkok route and 777-300ERs to the US. It currently flies to London Heathrow, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Kathmandu and Singapore. This week it inked a codeshare agreement with Thai Airways.
Japan Airlines is mulling a plan to lay off 3,000 employees, 6% of its workforce, over the next three years to help cut losses, according press reports. The cuts are due to be unveiled in JAL's mid-year business plan due out next month. It posted a loss of ¥47 billion ($394.8 million) for the fiscal year to March 2006 as fuel prices hit the bottom line and ANA grabbed market share. According to Mainichi Daily, JAL also is considering a restructuring of the group's related businesses with a possible of sale of some units.
LTU German Airlines MD Juergen Marbach confirmed to ATWOnline that the carrier intends to launch a Spanish subsidiary ( ATWOnline, Jan. 10). "We are having intensive talks with Spanish co-investors as well as Spanish authorities to establish a new company, which should be in position to take over some Air Madrid routes to South America as soon as possible," he said. He also reiterated that LTU has no plan to take over Air Madrid.
Monarch Airlines promoted Tim Jeans to MD and a place on the company's board. Former easyJet Director-Business Development Liz Savage will succeed Jeans as MD of the scheduled service division as well as taking over as MD of flymonarch.com.
AirAsia said in a regulatory filing yesterday that it plans to take an initial 20% stake in FlyAsianExpress, the small Malaysian domestic airline 50% owned by AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes that will launch long-haul, low-cost service in July under the brand name AirAsia X ( ATWOnline, Jan. 8). FAX won authority last week to operate long-haul routes not served by Malaysia Airlines, and Fernandes said initial flights would be to a UK city, Guangzhou and Tianjin.
Goodrich signed a $10 billion, 20-year contract with Airbus to provide nacelle and thrust reverser systems for all variants of the A350 XWB, which was relaunched last month ( ATWOnline, Dec. 4, 2006). Goodrich will integrate its technology into each engine offering and provide Airbus with complete propulsion systems for installation during final assembly. It becomes the first large equipment integrator chosen for the revamped A350.
The Oct. 14, 2004, crash of a Pinnacle Airlines CRJ200 during a repositioning flight was owing to "unprofessional behavior, deviation from standard operating procedures and poor airmanship" on the part of the cockpit crew, "which resulted in an inflight emergency from which they were unable to recover," the US National Transportation Safety Board stated in a report issued yesterday.
