The US District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a temporary injunction Friday afternoon preventing Northwest Airlines flight attendants represented by the Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA from conducting any strike or work action, granting the airline's appeal and reversing an earlier ruling by the US Bankruptcy Court ( ATWOnline, Aug. 18).
KLM appointed Arend de Jong as senior VP-marketing & network within the Joint Cargo Management Committee of Air France-KLM Cargo. He succeeds Bram Graber, who will become senior VP-KLM Benelux. Pieter Elbers succeeds De Jong as KLM senior VP-network.
The pilots of the Comair CRJ200 that crashed into a field while taking off from Lexington, Ky., Blue Grass Airport early Sunday morning used the wrong runway, National Transportation Safety Board Member Deborah Hersman confirmed in an evening briefing. The aircraft apparently was cleared to depart from Runway 22, the main runway with a length of 7,003 ft. However, it lined up on the shorter general aviation runway, 26, which is 3,500 ft. in length, insufficient for the fully loaded jet to become airborne.
Ryanair and easyJet responded to proposals for low-fare services from the Maltese government. Ryanair proposed flights to the island nation from London Luton, Dublin and Pisa while easyJet offered flights from LTN and Basel-Mulhouse, according to press reports.
Finnair subsidiary FlyNordic said it will trim last year's €17 million ($21.7 million) loss as it cut unprofitable routes during the summer and changes its focus to charter service. It was profitable in July as it transported 116,390 passengers, up 20% year-over-year, with a load factor of 80.6%. It said it will continue to trim its network during the winter. "This year we have begun hedging our fuel purchases in the same manner as Finnair," Deputy CEO Henrik Arle said.
The first Engine Alliance GP7200-powered A380 completed its initial test flight Friday, returning to Toulouse after flying over southern France for 4 hr. 10 min. Engine Alliance, the GE/Pratt & Whitney joint venture, delivered the GP7200s in autumn 2005 but production delays not associated with the engines pushed back the first test flight several months. It becomes the fifth A380 in Airbus's test fleet following four Trent 900-powered aircraft.
US Transportation Security Administration said there has been a 20% increase in checked baggage since it banned liquids and gels from carry-on bags on Aug. 10, but insisted there is "no negative impact" and "no flight delays" as a result of the higher volume. TSA head Kip Hawley said the agency is "paying close attention so the system doesn't become overwhelmed."
Bmi faces pilot strikes following a vote by British Airline Pilots Assn. members who fly for the mainline, bmi regional and bmibaby units. Mainline pilots approved strike action by an 89%-11% margin while 86% of regional pilots voted to strike, according to results released yesterday. Bmibaby pilots were balloted last week, with 73% voting to strike. The airline had said that just 47% of bmibaby pilots favored a work stoppage, but the union contradicted that figure yesterday.
Regional Express of Australia pulled the plug on its previously announced plans to acquire Brisbane-based Sunshine Express ( ATWOnline, Aug. 16). Rex MD Geoff Breust said that Sunshine came up with new, last-minute conditions that were "not acceptable" to the company or its shareholders. "We extend our best wishes to Sunshine Express and hope that its management and owners are able to overcome its current difficulties," Breust said.
Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, a startup slated to launch in October, yesterday selected PAM (Oasis) Ltd. to establish, operate and maintain its Hong Kong-based call center.
Sun-Air of Scandinavia, a Danish British Airways franchise carrier, reached an agreement to acquire three previously owned Dornier 328JETs. Two will be configured with 32 seats and the third will be fitted with a VIP layout. The first will be delivered in October, with the others expected to enter service in December and January.
Taiwan's China Airlines lost TWD257.1 million ($7.8 million) in the second quarter, double its TWD124.1 million loss in the year-ago quarter, according to a filing with the Taiwan stock exchange cited by the Associated Press in Taipei. Revenues climbed 12% to TWD28.86 billion, but "oil remained our main problem in the second quarter, with fuel accounting for over 40% of costs," a spokesperson said.
SITA and SIIC Shanghai International Trade Co. were awarded a four-year, $8 million contract to equip Shanghai Pudong's new Terminal 2, scheduled to open next year, with integrated airport management systems including SITA's Common Use Terminal Equipment passenger check-in system and BagManager baggage system.
Delta Air Lines said it is using a new decision support tool called Attila that allows it to manage landings in Atlanta better during congested periods. The program sends information from Delta's operations control center to cockpits to provide pilots with coordinated speed adjustments so landings are more evenly spaced.
Lufthansa will launch services from Hamburg to Moscow Sheremetyevo (four-times-weekly from Oct. 30), Geneva (daily from Oct. 29), Innsbruck (twice-weekly from Dec. 21) and Palma (thrice-weekly from Feb. 17). Frontier Airlines will launch Saturday Kansas City-Cabo San Lucas service on Dec. 16. Germanwings will add a fourth daily Cologne-Berlin Schoenefeld flight on Oct. 30. Qantas and Air China reached a codeshare agreement effective Sept. 15 that will see Air China place its code on Qantas's thrice-weekly Sydney-Beijing flights.
Sabre Airline Solutions signed a five-year contract with Russian airline KDAvia to upgrade the carrier's operational and decision-support technology. Separately, Eos Airlines signed a deal to implement a suite of Sabre software solutions.
Yemenia Yemen Airways secured European Aviation Safety Agency Part 145 certification for services provided by its maintenance and engineering division. The airline will offer heavy MRO and checks on A330-200s, A310-300s, 737-200s, 737-800s and 727-200s in its own fleet as well for third parties.
EasyJet is launching a base at Madrid Barajas, its 17th, and said operations will start Feb. 16 with several new routes, details of which will be announced next month and will include domestic services. "Spain has been a key market for easyJet for the past 10 years and the new base will take our commitment to a completely new level. While Madrid is one of Europe's largest and most important capital cities, it is still underserved by low-fares airlines," CEO Andy Harrison said.
Dutch authorities yesterday released all 12 passengers detained Wednesday after a Northwest Airlines DC-10-30 bound for Mumbai abruptly returned to Amsterdam ( ATWOnline, Aug. 24). US air marshals onboard the flight thought the 12 male Indian citizens aged 25-35, reportedly dressed in traditional South Asian clothing, were acting in a suspicious manner. The plane returned to Schiphol accompanied by Dutch fighter jets shortly after departure.
SAS Group executive Hakan Ericson, who had been responsible for the company's Airline Support Businesses including SAS Ground Services, SAS Technical Services, SAS Cargo, SAS Flight Academy and SAS Media, will resign Aug. 31 to become president of Loomis Cash Handling Services. His duties will be assumed by John Dueholm (Technical Services), Gunna Reitan (Cargo Services), and Bernhard Rikardsen (Ground Services, Flight Academy and Media). AirTran Airways' board of directors elected Mark Osterberg VP and chief accounting officer.
British Airways, Ryanair and easyJet yesterday called on the UK Office of Fair Trading to refer its study on the UK airports market to the Competition Commission, citing monopolistic conditions in the market and calling for the breakup of the airports operator.
China Southern Airlines ordered GEnx engines to power its 10 787s to be delivered beginning in 2008 ( ATWOnline, Sept. 1, 2005). Value of the order is estimated at $240 million.
