Oasis Hong Kong Airlines said it received its AOC from the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Dept. Friday and is on schedule to operate its inaugural flight to London Gatwick Wednesday. It said it has sold more than 18,000 tickets on its four-times-weekly 747-400 service since early September.
TAM took back an A330 subleased to an unnamed Middle East airline last week and will use it on routes from Brazil to London Heathrow beginning this weekend. TAM now operates 10 A330s. Separately, TAM will launch a second daily Sao Paulo Guarulhos-New York JFK service on Dec. 15 aboard an A330.
SkyWest Airlines named Suzanne Stephenson director-people programs and recruitment, Ryan Quinlan director-employee relations, compensation and performance and Amber Hunter director-corporate communications, development and marketing.
S7 Airlines now is operating its Moscow Domodedovo-Irkutsk service with a 128-seat A319. It has leased six of the type this year. It suffered a fatal crash in July when a A310-300 operating the route slid off a wet runway at Irkutsk and crashed into buildings ( ATWOnline, July 11). Separately, S7 helped open the new arrivals hall at Novosibirsk's Tolmachevo Airport, bringing passengers in from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The terminal has been increased by 10,000 sq. m.
Indian Airlines took delivery of its first directly purchased A319 last week in New Delhi. The plane is part of the order for 20 A319s, four A320s and 19 A321s signed in February ( ATWOnline, Feb. 22). "It is indeed a historic occasion and ushers in a new era for the airline which is witnessing the induction of its own aircraft after a gap of 12 years," Chairman and MD Vishwapati Trivedi said.
Airbus told analysts last week that its breakeven point for the A380 program has risen to 420 aircraft from 270, according to a statement on EADS' website. It still is budgeting for 751 deliveries and has sold 159 of the type. Separately, the A380 continued testing last week. MSN009, the fifth test aircraft powered by Engine Alliance GP7200s, underwent high-altitude tests around Addis Ababa, whose airport is at 7,500 ft. It then was scheduled to fly to the United Arab Emirates for hot-weather tests.
Hochtief announced last week that a consortium led by its Hochtief AirPort subsidiary signed an MOU with airports operator BAA for the "potential acquisition" of the British firm's stake in Budapest Ferihegy. BAA purchased a 75%-minus-one-share stake from the Hungarian government last year for £1.26 billion ($2.37 billion) ( ATWOnline, Dec. 20, 2005).
Air France KLM flew 17.01 billion RPKs in September, a 5.9% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity was up 6.2% to 20.55 billion ASKs and load factor fell 0.3 point to 82.8%. Lufthansa flew 10.09 billion RPKs in September, a rise of 0.9% over the year-ago month. Capacity increased 0.6% to 12.82 billion ASKs and load factor rose 0.2 point to 78.7%. Traffic grew on European and Asia/Pacific routes but declined on American and Middle East/African routes.
Finnair said Friday that it was returning to normal flight schedules "step by step" following a two-day strike by its cabin staff ( ATWOnline, Oct. 20).
JetBlue Airways last week launched daily service from Boston to Columbus and Raleigh-Durham. Japan Airlines will add a fourth daily Tokyo Narita-Shanghai passenger service and a sixth weekly cargo flight on the same route from Oct. 29. Separately, JAL and Malev Hungarian Airlines expanded their codeshare agreement to include Malev's daily Budapest-Amsterdam service from Oct. 29. Spanair will increase winter service between Barcelona and Lanzarote to six weekly flights from
United Airlines will launch daily Washington Dulles-Rome Fiumicino service on April 1 aboard a 777. Flyglobespan said that its planned Liverpool-New York service will operate to JFK instead of Newark as originally intended, as slots at JFK have become available. Flights begin May 25, 2007.
Rising yields, record load factors and a significant gain resulting from the sale of a portion of its stake in Panama's Copa Airlines helped Continental Airlines post a $237 million third-quarter profit, nearly four times the $61 million earned in the three months ended Sept. 30, 2005.
Lufthansa said it will recruit 500 flight attendants and 250 staff for check-in and other ground services in Munich. "We see at our Munich hub a higher growth rate than we expected in earlier plans. We need more staff for ground and air services urgently," Munich Hub Manager Karl Ulrich Garnadt said. The airline said that 2.2 million passengers used the hub in September, an increase of 10% over the year-ago month.
Lufthansa Flight Training opened a new simulator center in Vienna that initially will accommodate one CAE A320 FFS. A second simulator--either another A320, a 737 or a 767--will be introduced by next summer depending on demand, LFT said. Eventually, four simulators will be housed at Lufthansa Flight Training Vienna, which will be used mainly by Austrian Airlines pilots. Austrian is LFT's biggest customer after LH. Crews from Germanwings, Niki, S7 Airlines and others also are using the new facility.
Northwest Airlines yesterday announced the completion of restructured agreements with Boeing and Rolls-Royce that will allow the bankrupt carrier to begin taking delivery of its 787s in August 2008. NWA placed an order for 18 Trent 1000-powered 787s, with purchase rights for an additional 50, last year ( ATWOnline, May 6, 2005).
Air Line Pilots Assn. elected a new president, signaling that its members are "prepared to move into a new period of strong, concerted action to rebuild their profession," according to the union. John Prater, a 767 captain with Continental Airlines, narrowly defeated two-term, eight-year incumbent Duane Woerth. "After five years of concessionary bargaining, lost pensions and battered work rules, our pilots are primed to take offensive action," Prater said.
Icelandair migrated to the Amadeus Altea Inventory and Revenue Management System by PROS. The airline already used Altea Reservation, the online booking solution Amadeus e-Travel Airline Suite and e-Ticket Server.
AeroRepublica signed a lease agreement with GECAS for an Embraer 190 to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2007. The Colombian carrier will take eight 190s through 2007, three from GECAS and five from the manufacturer.
Qantas is set for a showdown with Australian unions after it announced it will outsource its IT applications support and maintenance to Indian global service providers Satyam Computer Services and Tata Consulting Services starting next month. CEO Geoff Dixon said in a statement that it would cost Qantas A$100 million ($75.4 million) to develop its own "in-house capability in this area to industry best practice standard--an investment it could not support given the extensive capital expenditure program already underway." The shift will take 15 months and cost 340 jobs.
Routes World Route Development Forum will take place in Beijing in 2009. Several facilities planned for the 2008 Olympic Games will be used for the event, which will be hosted by Beijing Capital Holding Co. and Beijing Capital International Airport. Beijing will follow next year's Forum scheduled for Stockholm and the October 2008 event in Kuala Lumpur.
Morten Beyer & Agnew and Thomas Aviation Services remarketed seven former Independence Air BAE Jetstream 41s to Britannia Aviation Services International of Florida.
Southwest Airlines yesterday cited a $40 million revenue reduction related to the August terrorist threat, special charges and "an overall softening in demand for air travel" as reasons for a 77.1% plunge in third-quarter profit to $48 million from net income of $210 million in the year-ago quarter.
