AirAsturias of Spain expects to launch service in October, according to Spanish press reports. The startup will be based at Oviedo Airport and initially will fly four-times-weekly to Rome, Milan, Lisbon and either Frankfurt or Berlin aboard A320s. It also intends to serve Paris, London, Brussels and destinations in Mexico, Panama and Venezuela, where its main shareholder, the Celuisma hotel group, has interests. Long-haul flights will originate from Madrid Barajas.
Pinnacle Airlines flew 381.3 million RPMs in July, an 8.1% drop from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 8.7% to 484.2 million ASMs and load factor rose 0.5 point to 78.7%. Frontier Airlines flew 849.3 million RPMs in July, a 16.1% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 11.6% to 996.4 million ASMs and load factor was up 3.3 points to 85.2%.
United Airlines will close its Washington Dulles reservations facility by mid-October, resulting in the loss of 504 jobs, according to a letter sent last week by the airline to the Virginia Employment Commission cited by the Washington Business Journal. UA issued a release last week saying its fall schedule at IAD included a 13% increase in departures over the year-ago period. Separately, UA's Sean Donohue is on the move again. Parent UAL Corp. announced yesterday that he will take on a newly created role as senior VP-Flight Operations and Onboard Service divisions.
Jetstar Airways won approval from the US Dept. of Transportation to begin marketing proposed A330-200 flights from Sydney (thrice-weekly) and Melbourne (twice-weekly) to Honolulu scheduled to commence Nov. 23. While final approval has not been granted, Jetstar CEO Alan Joyce said DOT has "indicated to Qantas that Jetstar is qualified to perform these international operations." Qantas will continue to operate thrice-weekly Sydney-Honolulu service after Jetstar launches. Separately, Jetstar said last week it initially will hire 200 flight attendants.
Korean Air said it will ask Boeing for about $12 million to reimburse it for costs associated with preparing 29 aircraft for the Connexion by Boeing service that was pulled from the market last week ( ATWOnline, Aug. 18). An airline official told The Korea Times that it cost $400,000 to furnish a plane with the Connexion service. The carrier planned to introduce the service in an additional 25 aircraft by 2008.
Japan Airlines parent JAL Group applied to the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to increase fuel surcharges on all international passenger tickets from Oct. 1. The proposed new surcharges will rise from ¥1,300 ($11.20) to ¥2,000 on a Seoul-Tokyo ticket, from ¥11,500 to ¥17,100 on a Japan-Brazil ticket and from ¥8,000 to ¥13,600 on flights from Japan to Europe and North America.
Delta Air Lines issued an RFP for a portion of its Regional jet service--that currently operated by Delta Connection partners Comair, Chautauqua Airlines, Shuttle America and Freedom Airlines--as part of the restructuring of its network under bankruptcy proceedings. Comair is a wholly owned Delta subsidiary, Chautauqua and Shuttle America are subsidiaries of Republic Airways and Freedom is a subsidiary of Mesa Air Group. Flying done by SkyWest subsidiary Atlantic Southeast Airlines is not included in the bid.
Mesa Air Group CEO Jonathan Ornstein said that Mesa's go! subsidiary would be profitable if it operated 90-seat aircraft. He told the Phoenix Business Journal that the Hawaii startup that began service in June with 50-seat CRJs is losing money only because of the size of the aircraft. He confirmed he is in discussions with the two major regional aircraft manufacturers about switching to 90-seat RJs by next summer.
Saudi Arabian government initiated the privatization process for flag carrier Saudi Arabian Airlines by formally offering a stake of up to 49% in the company's catering and affiliated inflight sales units. The carrier submitted its plan to the government earlier this month ( ATWOnline, Aug. 4).
AirBridge Cargo signed an interline agreement with Continental Airlines and appointed general sales agent partners in the US as it prepares to launch 747F flights to the US next year. ABC said CO will provide "an important link into its network, notably for the movement of oil and gas equipment from Texas to Sakhalin Island off the coast of Russia." ABC, the scheduled services arm of heavy freight specialist Volga-Dnepr, operates two IL-76 freighters weekly from its Krasnoyarsk hub to Sakhalin.
Air China, Cathay Pacific Airways, China National Aviation Co. and CITIC Pacific shareholders approved the proposed realignment that would establish cross-shareholdings between Air China and Cathay and make Dragonair a CX subsidiary. The long-anticipated deal, announced in June ( ATWOnline, June 12), must receive regulatory approval. Air China Chairman Li Jiaxiang said the realignment will "create a potent new force in the airline industry."
TFC GmbH Kaufer was chosen by CSA Czech Airlines to supply an A320 cabin training simulator. It is scheduled for delivery to CSA's Prague training center in September 2007.
Alaska Airlines will begin San Francisco-San Diego service with four daily weekday flights and a reduced weekend schedule on Oct. 29. It also will add nine weekly flights from Los Angeles and SFO to Mexican resort destinations for its winter timetable. Separately, the carrier extended its Northern Bites $5 meal option, currently available on Mexican services, to nearly all flights longer than 3 hr. Also, Alaska flew 1.75 billion RPMs in July, up 7.3% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 6.6% and load factor increased 0.6 point to a July-record 82.8%.
Great Wall Airlines, the joint venture cargo startup in which Singapore Airlines holds a 25% stake, suspended operations Friday after the US government imposed sanctions against its majority stakeholder for allegedly conspiring to supply Iran with missile components. The US Treasury Dept. last week froze all US-related assets of Great Wall Industry Corp., the Shanghai-based firm that owns 51% of Great Wall Airlines, saying it is one of four Chinese companies providing military support to Iran.
Singapore Airlines flew 7.76 billion RPKs in July, a 5.5% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 2.3% to 9.56 billion ASKs, raising load factor 2.5 points to 81.2%. Horizon Air flew 249 million RPMs in July, up 4.8% over the year-ago month, against a 2.9% rise in capacity to 318.8 million ASMs. Load factor rose 1.4 points to 78.1%. Finnair said July RPKs increased 15.6% over the year-ago month, with capacity rising 10.5% and load factor improving 3.6 points to 82.4%.
Air Berlin is evaluating using Munich International Airport as a new hub following its acquisition of dba ( ATWOnline, Aug. 18), which is based there. According to Focus, the carriers are flying to some 60 destinations combined from the airport, which also is Lufthansa's second hub after Frankfurt. AB is based mainly in Berlin and Nurnberg but also operates around 300 weekly summer flights from Palma de Mallorca, its most important base outside Germany.
BAA believes London Heathrow would struggle to accommodate an influx of US airlines following the signing of open aviation area agreement between the US and EU, The Times reported. According to a BAA internal briefing acquired by the newspaper, demand already exceeds supply at LHR for slots as well as apron and terminal capacity and the airport would be unable to cope with another increase in demand for new services. A BAA spokesperson said the airport operator expects carriers to attempt mass migration from London Gatwick to LHR if and when an OAA deal is reached.
Assn. of European Airlines members posted a 99% completion rate on short/medium-haul flights in the second quarter with an 81.1% ontime performance, down 2.2 points from the year-ago period, according to data supplied by 26 of the 31 member carriers. Long-haul flights were completed 99.7% of the time with 72.7% punctuality, down 4.2 points. Baggage irregularities rose to 13.3 missing bags per 1,000 passengers from 11.9 in the second quarter of 2005. The reporting carriers flew approximately 93 million passengers during the quarter on 980,000 flights.
Worldspan announced finalization of multiyear full-content distribution agreements with Air Moldova, Aegean Airlines, AeroSvit Airlines, Air Burkina, Arkia Israel Airlines, Aurigny Air Services, dba, Eos Airlines, Transaero Airlines and VLM Airlines.
Northwest Airlines and Air France, SkyTeam partners who were rebuffed by the US Dept. of Transportation as part of the alliance's bid for transatlantic antitrust immunity last December ( ATWOnline, Jan. 12), opted to move forward with a codeshare agreement announced yesterday.
Ryanair said it intends to operate a full schedule from London Stansted even if the Bank Holiday strikes against Swissport International occur next weekend ( ATWOnline, Aug. 21). The carrier said it will allow all passengers to use Web check-in and may require them to travel without checked luggage.
American Airlines launched a website, www.flytochinaonaa.com, on which passengers and businesses can learn about and register support for the carrier's application to operate nonstop service between Dallas/Fort Worth and Beijing beginning in March. Following Northwest Airlines' announcement last week that it applied to operate Detroit-Shanghai service, there now are four carriers competing for the award of one transpacific route ( ATWOnline, Aug. 21).
FlyMe abandoned its Gothenburg Landvetter-Amsterdam route, citing a lack of profitability. Air Canada will launch thrice-weekly Edmonton-London Heathrow service Oct. 31, increasing to daily from April 1, 2007, using a 767-300ER. SkyEurope Airlines will begin Turin-Prague service from Dec. 26 and a four-times-weekly Rome Fiumicino-Bucharest service on Jan. 12. Jazeera Airways will launch a thrice-weekly Kuwait City-Cochin service Aug. 30 with A320s. The Kuwaiti LCC began operations 10 months ago and flies to 12 destinations.
