Boeing named Commercial Airplanes VP-Business Strategy and Marketing Nicole Piasecki as the new VP-Boeing International and president of Boeing Japan effective in March.
SR Technics' purchase by a United Arab Emirates consortium led by Mubadala Development, investment vehicle of the Abu Dhabi government, was finalized this week. The acquisition of the Zurich-based MRO provider, valued at $1.3 billion, was announced in September ( ATWOnline, Sept. 8) and cleared by the European Commission last week.
Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte, the Mexican airports operator known as OMA, raised $375.8 million this week in an IPO in which Mexico's government divested its remaining 48% stake in the company, completing the privatization that began in 2000 ( ATWOnline, Nov. 16). The funds raised were higher than expected as the government sold its shares for $18 each. Shares will be listed on Nasdaq under OMAB. OMA operates airports in Monterrey, Acapulco, Mazatlan and Zihuatanejo plus nine other regional facilities.
El Al posted a third-quarter profit of $1.8 million, a plunge of 96.6% from a $52.2 million profit in the year-ago quarter, Reuters reported. Revenues declined 7.9% to $447 million.
Sales and deliveries of larger RJs and turboprops helped push Bombardier's overall net income to $74 million for the fiscal third quarter ended Oct. 31, reversing a loss of $9 million in the same period a year ago. Bombardier Aerospace reported a $43 million operating profit on revenues of $1.8 billion compared to a $31 million operating profit in the year-ago quarter. The number of aircraft deliveries remained relatively stable at 73 versus 74 in the 2005 period.
Delta Air Lines yesterday announced yet another employee recall, this one for approximately 200 additional pilots who will rejoin the carrier next year. DL already has issued two recalls for a total of 129 pilots this year ( ATWOnline, Sept. 12). Northwest Airlines flight attendants, represented by the Assn. of Flight Attendants, argued in a US appeals court this week for the right to strike over management's imposition of $195 million in annual concessions.
World Airways extended its leases with ILFC on six MD-11s (three passenger and three freighter) through March 2013-May 2014. Leases originally were set to expire in 2008 and 2009. North American Airlines, a subsidiary of World Airways parent World Air Holdings, extended leases for two 757-200ERs (one with ILFC and one with GECAS) until May 2013 and May 2014. Leases were scheduled to expire in 2007 and 2008.
American Airlines will abandon its services from Boston to Baltimore/Washington International and Orlando International on Dec. 13, according to The Boston Globe. AirTran Airways will begin operating the MCO service Dec. 21. AA still will serve 23 destinations from Logan and is working with local authorities on an upgrade of its facilities at the airport, the paper said. Frontier Airlines will launch daily San Francisco-Las Vegas service on Dec. 14.
Mesaba Airlines, a regional partner of Northwest Airlines, reached a truce with its pilots, flight attendants and mechanics who ratified contracts intended to reduce the carrier's labor costs by some 15%. The tentative agreements, reached four weeks ago, came after months of acrimonious wrangling between Mesaba management and union leaders from the Air Line Pilots Assn., Assn. of Flight Attendants ( ATWOnline, Oct.
Air Canada and WestJet responded to the Canadian government's new Blue Sky policy with guarded optimism this week, saying they looked forward to the opportunities that would accompany new bilateral agreements, open skies and liberalized access and pricing but that "a level playing field" is critical to ensuring Canadian carriers can compete. "Air Canada has been supportive of a liberalization of Canada's international aviation agreements provided it is done on an equitable and reciprocal basis," Executive VP and CCO Sean Menke said.
Delta Air Lines said it has received permission from its unsecured creditors to allow an additional estimated $719 million in unsecured, pre-petition claims for nonqualified pension benefits for retired pilots, lifting the total of allowed claims to $800 million. "As a result of this effort, our retired pilots will recover through the claim process a significant portion of their unpaid nonqualified benefits," CFO Edward Bastian said.
Pratt & Whitney and China Eastern Airlines signed an agreement yesterday to create a CFM56 engine overhaul facility in Shanghai, where P&W will maintain the airline's CFM56 engines as well as provide third-party MRO.
Assn. of European Airlines reiterated its opposition to the European Commission's plan to include airlines in its existing emissions trading scheme ( ATWOnline, Nov. 10), calling it "distortive" and "damag[ing to] the competitiveness of European airlines" following Monday's biannual AEA Assembly in Berlin. "As it stands, this proposal discriminates against aviation vis-a-vis other sectors already included in the EU ETS," Secretary General Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus said.
Austrian Airlines Group launched its capital increase earlier this month following a unanimous vote by shareholders at an extraordinary AGM ( ATWOnline, Oct. 4), issuing up to 51.68 million bearer shares with no par value. The subscription and offer period concludes Dec. 1, an OS spokesperson told this website. Maximum offer price is €8.12 ($10.66) per share.
EasyJet is introducing a Speedy Boarding facility that allows up to 20 passengers to book priority boarding and have the greatest choice of seats. Speedy Boarding is sold on a first-come, first-served basis and the fee is based on length of flight and departure airport. Prices vary from £2.50 ($4.84) to £7.50. "This latest innovation...reflects the development in the concept of having a flexible product that can be adapted to the customer needs, but only paying for what you need," CEO Andy Harrison said.
US Airways management will meet this week in New York with Delta Air Lines executives and representatives of its unsecured creditors to detail its $8 billion takeover proposal.
Brit Air, which operates regional services for Air France, ordered three CRJ700s worth $97 million at list prices that will replace three CRJ100s coming off lease. The AF subsidiary operates 19 50-passenger CRJ100s, 12 72-seat CRJ700s and 13 F100s.
Lufthansa will continue to strengthen its second hub at Munich International Airport and plans to base approximately 120 aircraft there for the summer 2007 schedule. "For 2006, LH expects more than 20 million passengers in Terminal 2 in MUC," Group Representative and Head of Hub Management Munich Karl Ulrich Garnadt told ATWOnline in the Bavarian capital.
AT&T signed a $7 million networking equipment agreement with US Airways under which AT&T will provide Cisco hardware bundled with its MPLS-based IP network to service more than 230 airport locations.
TAM placed an order for V2500s to power 11 A319s and four A321s, IAE partners Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney announced yesterday. The deal includes a V2500Select aftermarket services package and is worth $160 million in business to each engine maker. Japanese Aero Engines Corp. and MTU Aero Engines also are part of IAE. The Brazilian carrier firmed an order for 37 Airbus aircraft and 12 options earlier this month ( ATWOnline, Nov. 17). It currently operates 38 V2500-powered A320 family aircraft.
Airbus's A350 XWB program remains up in the air following the cancellation of a meeting last week at which details of the revamped aircraft and its financing were supposed to be hammered out. All parties are staying silent publicly, but widespread media reports detail a rift between the French government, which holds a 15% stake in Airbus parent EADS, and EADS stakeholders Lagardere and DaimlerChrysler over the A350's financing and whether France should be allowed to raise its EADS stake.
Malaysia Airlines' Business Turnaround Plan, which included the ceding of a significant chunk of its domestic network to AirAsia, is working "ahead of schedule," the carrier said yesterday as it reported its first three-month profit in more than a year, a MYR240 million ($65.7 million) windfall that stands in stark contrast to a MYR366 million loss in the third quarter of 2005.
