Finnair Technical Services signed a three-year general terms maintenance agreement with KLM for performance of airframe checks on the Dutch carrier's 10 MD-11s.
TACV Cape Verde Airlines and Condor (formerly Thomas Cook Airlines) both appointed Aviareps subsidiary Airline Centre UK as general sales agent for the UK.
Czech Airlines, citing "the recent fall in oil prices," reduced its fuel surcharge on passenger tickets by $2 on European routes to $23 and by $7 on long-haul flights to North America to $60.
Tiger Airways said yesterday it has chosen International Aero Engines V2500-A5s to power the eight A320s it ordered last month ( ATWOnline, Oct. 18). Pratt & Whitney, one of four partners in the IAE consortium, said its share of the Tiger order is worth more than $100 million. The engine order is accompanied by a long-term V2500Select aftermarket agreement that will be extended to cover the Singapore carrier's existing fleet of eight A320s, which also are powered by V2500s.
Embraer appointed David Balloff VP-external relations for the US. His primary role on behalf of the Brazilian manufacturer will be to serve as a liaison to the US Congress, Dept. of Transportation, FAA, National Transportation Safety Board and various industry groups located in Washington. Balloff previously served with FAA and NTSB and as an adviser to Rep. Jimmy Duncan (R-Tenn.) when he was chair of the House Aviation subcommittee.
Air France KLM flew 17.01 billion RPKs in October, a 5.6% rise over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 6% to 20.91 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 0.3 point to 81.4%. Air Canada and Air Canada Jazz flew a combined 3.95 billion RPMs in October, a 4.6% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 3.8% to 5.03 billion ASMs and load factor was up 0.6 point to 78.4%.
Cargo carrier ABX Air reported third-quarter net income of $6.6 million, down 10.8% from net income of $7.4 million in the year-ago quarter, on a 24% drop in revenues to $281.3 million.
Transavia.com will stop its four-times-weekly Amsterdam-Genoa service from Dec. 3 owing to disapointing traffic. Niki will increase MTOW of one of its A320s to 77 tons from 75 tons so it can operate nonstop service from Vienna to Dubai. "That will give us 45 extra minutes of range," founder Niki Lauda told this website. Niki plans to operate at least eight charter flights to Dubai beginning Dec. 21. Partner Air Berlin will feed the service from several German destinations.
Falling operating income and a C$102 million ($90.2 million) noncash pre-tax charge related to the redemption of Aeroplan miles issued before 2002 weighed heavily on ACE Aviation's bottom line as the Air Canada parent reported a third-quarter profit of C$103 million, down 62% from C$271 million earned in the year-ago period. Chairman, President and CEO Robert Milton called the result "solid" and said the quarter featured "continued progress achieved in the implementation of ACE's business strategy" of spinning off its various subsidiaries.
Vueling Airlines, which has positioned itself as a "new generation" carrier rather than an LCC, launched a Web-based frequent-flier program dubbed Punto. Members can earn points on both tickets and gift vouchers and use them to pay for Vueling flights.
Assn. of European Airlines expressed "strong disappointment" in the European Commission Transport Directorate's decision not to include a revision of the 1996 Ground Handling Directive as part of the Airport Package of planned regulatory measures governing airline-airport relationships. While main airports and trade organizations argue that they opened the market and lowered prices, Europe's major airlines believe the opposite.
Austrian Airlines will launch twice-weekly Vienna-Erbil flights on Dec. 11, nine months after it postponed the service ( ATWOnline, Feb. 27). It said the city in the Kurdistan region now is secure. It will be the first European carrier to operate to Iraq and will use A319s. Meanwhile, it has ceased its Vienna-Pecs service.
AirAsia challenged the Singapore government to open its skies and "allow everyone to fly." CEO Tony Fernandes, delivering a keynote address at the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation's Outlook 2007 summit in Singapore, said the LCC's fares around ASEAN countries are "90% less than the typical fare from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur." He told delegates that AirAsia has tried for five years to gain access to Singapore but the government has declined.
TAP Portugal CEO Fernando Pinto said membership in the Star Alliance, which the carrier joined in spring 2005, has expanded its reach greatly through the networks of its partner airlines, boosting its appeal in the marketplace. He also told ATWOnline last week in Lisbon that TAP "has grown very fast in the last five years, around 50% in terms of passenger kilometers."
Boeing is understood to be looking at taking a few pounds off the 747-8 Intercontinental with increased use of composites, a move aimed at gaining the extra range Emirates requires for its Dubai-US West Coast mission.
Delta Air Lines announced plans to recall 1,000 flight attendants next year. During the "first few months" of 2007 it is scheduled to train up to 500 previously furloughed cabin staff. "It is great that our plan is working and we are able to continue to bring back Delta people," COO Jim Whitehurst said. The airline recalled 200 flight attendants in September ( ATWOnline, Sept. 12).
The European Commission will submit a proposal in the next several weeks to include airlines in the EU's existing emissions trading scheme, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said yesterday. The proposal thus disregards a July suggestion by the European Parliament to establish a separate trading system for airlines on a trial basis ( ATWOnline, July 6) that would prevent carriers from buying up surplus credits from power companies instead of reducing their own pollution.
Delta Air Lines is bankrupt but profitable thanks to a $98 million noncash gain from reorganization items that propelled it to a $52 million net profit in the third quarter, a monumental reversal from the $1.13 billion loss incurred in the year-ago period.
Emirates said yesterday that it is investing $27 million to outfit its entire fleet with equipment from AeroMobile that will allow use of mobile phones in flight. The service will be launched onboard a 777 as early as January, the airline said. Calls will be linked to the ground using the Inmarsat satellite communications system already installed in all EK aircraft and will be billed to passengers' phone bills "as with any other roaming call," the carrier said.
EasyJet transported 2.9 million passengers in October, up 7.3% from the year-ago month. Load factor fell 2.4 points to 83.2%. Separately, the carrier will reinstate its thrice-weekly Bristol-Pisa service on Jan. 18. The route originally was a summer-only service. Year-round service will become daily by the end of March.
SkyTeam carriers Aeromexico, Air France, Alitalia and KLM have co-located their operations at Sao Paulo Guarulhos Terminal 1, which the alliance said is the first co-location in its network where the participating airlines operate equally. A common-use ticket office and joint purchasing of ground handling services also have been implemented. The alliance operates 75 weekly flights to and from GRU.
United Airlines flew 9.67 billion RPMs in October, up 2.3% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose at the same rate to 11.99 billion ASMs, leaving load factor at 80.6%. Lufthansa flew 9.87 billion RPKs in October, a 3.5% rise over the year-ago month. ASKs climbed 1.3% to 13.06 billion and load factor was up 1.6 points to 75.6%. Gol flew 1.33 billion RPKs in October, up 39.7% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 49.6% to 1.91 billion ASKs and load factor fell 4.9 points to 70%.
IATA warned that the return on the cost of capital is a major impediment to industry growth despite some headline-grabbing profits posted by a handful of carriers. Speaking at the Centre for Asia Pacific Airlines Outlook 2007 summit in Singapore, IATA Chief Economist Brian Pearce said the industry's overall performance between 2001 and 2004 was an abysmal 3.3% compared to a benchmark of 7.2%. Asian airlines fared better with a 4.6% return, with US carriers at 2.5%. Not surprisingly, LCCs reported a strong 6.8% average.
The Sydney-based Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation urged Asian governments to speed liberalization of bilateral restrictions hindering air transport in the region. Speaking at Outlook 2007, CAPA's third annual regional airline summit in Singapore, Executive Chairman Peter Harbison told delegates that low-cost carriers represent only 5% of the market in the region, which has a population of roughly 3.5 billion, whereas 60 LCCs serve a population of 375 million in Europe and account for 20% of traffic.
