French slot coordinator COHOR said it reallocated a pool of 2,460 slots at Paris Orly to Air Berlin, Elysair and Karthago Airlines on an annual basis. The pool includes slots reserved for Public Service Obligations, especially the route to Epinal, that were returned by French authorities. It also includes slots made available for reallocation by other carriers, including Corsairfly. AB benefited from its new-entrant status and received 1,248 slots for 12-times-weekly flights to Dusseldorf.
Air Canada is adding capacity to Eastern Canada following the demise of Halifax-based CanJet Airlines' scheduled service. ( ATWOnline, Sept. 6). From October, AC and Air Canada Jazz will add weekday flights from Halifax to Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Deer Lake. "For November and beyond, Air Canada will analyze market conditions and look for opportunities to increase Air Canada and Jazz service to meet customer demand," the company said.
An order for six Dreamliners from Monarch Airlines highlighted an August during which Boeing sold 30 aircraft, a steep drop from the 90 ordered in August 2005 but higher than the 22 orders posted by competitor Airbus during the month. In addition to the Monarch order, Boeing sold eight 737NGs to Shanghai Airlines and 10 to SpiceJet, including five dash 900ERs. Unidentified customers placed orders for two 737-800s and two 787-8s and Boeing Business Jet took one 787-8 and one 737-900BBJ.
Smokers International Airways, or Smintair, plans to operate its first commercial flight on March 26 from Dusseldorf to Tokyo Narita aboard one of two 138-seat 747-400s. The carrier catering to smokers said it will offer 30 first class and 108 business class seats. It also set a deadline of Sept. 30 for investors to purchase shares in the company at €500,000 ($639,000) each. It said it has "a very conservative business plan" and forecasts a yearly profit margin in excess €50 million per aircraft if fully booked.
SkyEurope Holding AG announced the launch of its €17.5 million rights issue Friday via the sale of 10 million shares arranged by UBS Investment Bank and CA IB. The flotation was announced late last month ( ATWOnline, Aug. 30). The subscription period will close Sept. 22.
US Airways Group said its consolidated passenger RASM in August rose 15% over the year-ago month, an increase 3-4 points lower than forecast due to the terrorist alert. The company is revising its third-quarter unit revenue guidance to an increase in the "mid teens" from one in the "high teens." The group flew a combined 5.73 billion RPMs in August, down 5.3% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 7.6% to 7.2 billion ASMs and load factor gained 1.9 points to 79.5%. Domestic RPMs dropped 6.1% to 4.6 billion against a 9.6% decline in ASMs to 5.77 billion.
Skymark Airlines is set to join the 787 club, according to sources at the Japanese carrier. Skymark, which operates five 767-300ERs, has advised Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport that it will add four 787s between 2010 and 2012. It operates a 10-times-daily shuttle service from Tokyo Haneda to Sapporo and Fukuoka in addition to four-times-daily flights to Kobe and twice-daily service to Naha. It is expected to be granted additional slots at HND when the fourth runway is opened in 2009.
While EU and US officials will continue negotiating this week as the Sept. 30 deadline to reach a new agreement on sharing of PNR data nears, tension between the European Parliament and European Commission appears to be rising once again.
AirTran Holdings reported record traffic in August, but it was not strong enough to counter the "softening demand" that the carrier expects to continue this month and that prompted a revision to its third-quarter guidance and future growth plans.
Airbus operated its fourth A380 passenger test flight Friday, completing a week in which a total of 1,900 company employees acting as passengers tested cabin features and systems ( ATWOnline, Sept. 6). The final flight lasted 15 hr. "The flights have gone very well," Senior VP-Flight Division Claude Lelaie said. "Despite the cabins being almost totally full, what was most striking was the impression of spaciousness." The test aircraft were configured for three classes.
American Airlines reached agreement with the Transport Workers Union to work toward a "breakthrough goal" of achieving $95 million in "annual value creation" at its 10 line maintenance bases by the end of 2008. AA said the target will be reached "through cost reductions, additional third-party work, improved dependability by reducing delays and reducing the amount of spare aircraft for maintenance needs."
Honeywell was selected by Singapore Airlines to provide next-generation weather radar for the carrier's 19 new 777-300ERs, with deliveries of its RDR-4000 windshear/weather radar system beginning this month.
Gol announced the withdrawal of the May registration statement filed in Brazil and the US for a secondary and primary preferred share offering totaling 14.4 million nonvoting shares ( ATWOnline, May 18). The carrier did not give a reason for the move, but Bloomberg News reported that prospects for the sale, worth approximately BRL1 billion ($463.5 million), were hurt by a 13% drop in the Bovespa index since May. Separately, Gol launched daily Sao Paulo Guarulhos-Ilheus flights.
WestJet Executive VP-Guest Services and EVP-IT Russ Hall resigned on Sept. 8. Hall's departure came a day after the company promoted Executive VP-Sales and Marketing and Airports Sean Durfy to president, succeeding airline co-founder Clive Beddoe ( ATWOnline, Sept. 8).
Bangkok's new Suvarnabhumi Airport failed critical luggage handling tests Thursday, flagging problems for the scheduled opening on Sept. 28. Twenty-two airlines participated in tests involving all 460 check-in counters handling 4,000 bags. Breakdowns related to integration of "passenger" data with the airport authority, resulting in problems with the luggage system, while some carriers did not give the authority relevant information.
Bmibaby pilots, represented by the British Airline Pilots Assn., reached a deal with the company last week and will not strike, the union announced. The company has signed the agreement, which has been sent to membership for ratification. The pilots, along with those at bmi and bmi regional, voted to strike late last month over a variety of compensation and work rule issues ( ATWOnline, Aug. 25).
EasyJet said it lost approximately £4 million ($7.6 million) as the result of last month's security alert as it canceled 469 flights Aug. 10-14. "In spite of this, easyJet maintains its current guidance for pre-tax profit growth for the full year ending Sept. 30 to be in the region of 40%-50%," it said. The LCC transported 3.1 million passengers in August, an 8.4% increase over the year-ago month. Load factor was up 0.9 point to 89.2%.
Qantas yesterday blasted a draft report from Australia's Productivity Commission that said it is too soon to tell whether regulatory restrictions on airport pricing removed in 2002 should be reinstated. The report called for six more years to study the current "light-handed" system. Qantas believes the system in place gives airports too much leeway to set landing and terminal rent fees, especially in major markets. Executive GM-Associated Businesses Grant Fenn said it was "particularly concerning" that Qantas's request that binding arbitration solve pricing disputes was rejected.
China Cargo Airlines executives have been detained and are under investigation by Shanghai prosecutors for allegedly taking more than CNY10 million ($1.3 million) in bribes. Chinese media reported that four officials of the China Eastern Airlines/China Ocean Shipping Group joint venture are suspected of receiving illegal payoffs to allocate cargo space on aircraft for "low" prices. Neither the airline nor the government is commenting officially.
Continental Airlines said yesterday that its application to launch daily Newark-Shanghai service in March 2007 ( ATWOnline, April 8, 2005) should be approved by the US Dept.
JetBlue Airways achieved an estimated 15% increase in passenger RASM in August, a figure that was "not as strong as anticipated," according to CEO David Neeleman. He said the security alert, Tropical Storm Ernesto and "lower-than-expected demand toward the end of the month" contributed to the result. JetBlue flew 2.22 billion RPMs in August, an 11.6% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity surged 20.1% to 2.65 billion ASMs and load factor fell 6.4 points to 83.7%.
Indian government is moving ahead rapidly with the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines. Indian media is reporting that consultant Accenture India, which has the brief to compile a feasibility report, is required to submit preliminary recommendations for the merger by Oct. 15. According to insiders at Indian, the tie-up should be complete by March 2008. The new company then would be the subject of an IPO.
BAE Systems, conceding that it would likely have to wait an "extended period" for the value of its 20% stake in Airbus to rise, decided late Wednesday to sell the holding to EADS for €2.75 billion ($3.52 billion), well below previous estimates that the stake was worth €4-€5 billion.
AerVenture, a joint venture between AerCap and Kuwaiti cargo startup LoadAir ( ATWOnline, Feb. 3), placed an order valued at $360 million for CFM56-5Bs to power the 30 A319s/A320s ordered late last year.
