Jordanian government sold an 80% stake in Royal Jordanian's former training and simulation division to Oriental Investment Group for Tourism and Development. According to the Arab Air Carriers Organization, the deal is worth approximately $14.8 million. Jordan Airline Training and Simulation is one of several noncore businesses separated from the flag carrier and sold under the government's privatization. As with previous privatizations, the remaining 20% will be retained by RJ.
Northwest Airlines announced successful completion of the IATA Operational Safety Audit and the US Dept. of Defense Commercial Air Carrier Quality and Safety Survey.
Air France and KLM are hiking their fuel surcharges. KLM will increase its surcharge by €5 ($6.40) per segment to €65 on all intercontinental flights and by €1 per segment to €24 on all European flights on tickets issued as of Aug. 10. AF will impose further fuel surcharges of €7 to each long-haul flight, €1 on domestic flights and €2 on medium-haul flights. Separately, Jet Airways yesterday added INR150 ($3.20) to its INR500 surcharge on all domestic fares.
Hawaiian Airlines parent Hawaiian Holdings reported a second-quarter net loss of $26.4 million, widened from a net loss of $1.67 million in the year-ago quarter. President and CEO Mark Dunkerley said the carrier's earnings were affected negatively by rising fuel costs and an "increase in competitor capacity" on both inter-island flights and transpacific routes. He acknowledged that Hawaiian's "progress in this quarter has lagged that of several of our competitors." The airline faced new competition during the quarter when Mesa Air Group launched its go! subsidiary on June 9.
Southwest Airlines named Executive VP-Aircraft Operations Mike Van de Ven chief of operations effective Sept. 1. Van de Ven joined the carrier in 1993. Also, Southwest promoted VP-Inflight Daryl Krause to senior VP-inflight and provisioning and Senior Director-Provisioning Scott Halfmann to VP-provisioning. National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. elected Pat Forrey president and Paul Rinaldi executive VP.
US Dept. of Transportation reached a $50,000 settlement with British Airways, which denied boarding to four mobility-impaired passengers on flights leaving the US. BA was sanctioned for not attempting to determine if the passengers were able to assist in their own evacuation if necessary and will be allowed to credit $45,000 of the penalty toward new training programs for US-based employees.
TAP Portugal suspended acceptance of Varig tickets. "Responsibility of the new company [Volo do Brasil] for tickets issued in advance has not yet been clearly defined or declared," TAP noted in a statement. "This is reflected in increased financial risk to TAP that is worsening by the day." TAP added it will continue to pursue negotiations with Varig on the potential resumption of commercial agreements between the carriers.
UPS pilots began casting ballots last week on ratification of a tentative labor contract agreed to June 30. The five-year deal reportedly provides increased pay and improved work rules for the 2,700 pilots, including a 20% raise in a captain's average annual salary to $300,000. Voting will continue until Aug. 31.
Great Wall Airlines will launch twice-weekly Shanghai Pudong-Chennai freighter service, with a third weekly flight starting in September. Dba is increasing Munich-Bremen frequency to thrice-daily from Sept. 2. The carrier is operating on 21 German routes and expects a total of around 5 million passengers for the current business year, up 16.3% over the prior year. Horizon Air launched twice-daily Los Angeles-Redmond/Bend service aboard Q400s. VLM Airlines will increase Amsterdam-London City flights from six-times-daily to nine on Sept. 4.
Finnair's second-quarter net profit plunged to an "unsatisfactory" €900,000 ($1.2 million) from the €26.4 million earned in the year-ago period as falling unit revenues and one-time charges weighed on the carrier's bottom line.
Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation said LCC market share in India is expected to reach 70% by 2010 as full-service airlines lose 1.5 points every month. "We do not expect this rate to slow in the short term, given the profile of current fleet orders. LCCs could therefore control over 35% of the domestic market by the end of 2006 and pass 50% some time in [the second half of 2007]," CAPA CEO Indian Subcontinent and Middle East Kapil Kaul said, adding that 60 million passengers are expected to fly on Indian carriers in 2010.
Spirit Airlines will launch daily Fort Lauderdale-Las Vegas flights on Nov. 15, supplementing its current service via Detroit Metro. Separately, Spirit flew 423.6 million RPMs in July, a 5.6% drop from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 4.3% to 511 million ASMs and laod factor declined 1.2 points to 82.9%.
UK Parliament's Environmental Audit Committee yesterday called for heavier taxation on airline tickets to slow the growth of air travel and therefore its impact on the environment. "The government has no excuses for not raising air passenger duty," the committee stated, while also calling for a slew of other charges including differential landing fees based on aircraft fuel efficiency.
News from Travel Technology Update: Airlines have been insisting for more than a decade that something has to give in the ever increasing costs of GDS distribution. In the last few weeks, two of the largest U.S. carriers have made it clear that if they can't wring more out of the GDS companies, travel agencies that use uncooperative GDSs will have to do the giving.
Air France-KLM flew 18.49 billion RPKs in July, up 4.9% over the year-ago month. Capacity increased 5% to 21.7 billion ASKs and load factor slipped 0.1 point to 85.2%. Delta Air Lines flew 11.76 billion system RPMs in July, a drop of 0.6% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 2.1% to 13.77 billion ASMs and load factor rose 1.3 points to 85.4%. Domestic RPMs declined 10.6% to 8.03 billion against a 12.6% decrease in ASMs to 9.38 billion. Load factor rose 2 points to 85.7%.
Northwest Airlines reported a second-quarter net loss of $285 million, widened from $234 million in the year-ago period, but insisted it is making "steady progress" as it works toward emerging from bankruptcy protection. Excluding reorganization-related items, the carrier said it earned $179 million in the period, improved from a net loss of $288 million excluding unusual items last year.
Assn. of European Airlines said yesterday that competition issues in Italy and Austria have highlighted the need for European regulators to take a closer look at fuel companies' relationships with airlines. AEA said Italian authorities fined fuel suppliers €315 million ($405.4 million) in June for anticompetitive practices and that Austrian Airlines has asked national authorities to investigate OMV, the state-owned company that supplies both the airline and fuel companies operating in the country.
Worldspan signed a five-year global distribution and airline hosting partnership with MAXjet Airways and a five-year Worldspan Meridian hosting and distribution agreement with Daallo Airlines of Djibouti.
Japan Airlines Group appears to have made significant progress in its restructuring with a fiscal first-quarter loss of ¥26.7 billion ($233.2 million) set against sharply increased fuel costs, an improvement over the year-ago period's ¥38.3 billion loss.
MAIR Holdings, parent of Mesaba Airlines and Big Sky Airlines, reported a net loss of $2.5 million for its first fiscal quarter ended June 30 compared to a profit of $1.2 million in the same quarter a year ago. "The company's financial result in the first quarter of fiscal 2007 was primarily the result of additional expenses the company associated with Mesaba's bankruptcy," MAIR President and CEO Paul Foley said.
Aviareto named GECAS MD and Senior VP-Business Development Niall Greene as MD and Rob Cowan, formerly of the Irish Aviation Authority, as its new head of operations.
Skyways Aviation arranged the sale of a Saab 340B, originally operated by Crossair, to REX Regional Express of Australia. REX currently operates a fleet of 27 340s.
Alaska Airlines is adding frequencies to the following Mexican routes starting Oct. 29: Los Angeles to Loreto (thrice-weekly to four), Manzanillo (four-times-weekly to six) and Mazatlan (seven-times-weekly to eight) and San Francisco-Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo (twice-weekly to four). It is increasing capacity to Mexico by 22% this fall. Frontier Airlines will launch four-times-weekly Denver-Guadalajara service Dec. 22.
Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas of Spain agreed to acquire Aeroporti di Roma Handling through its Flightcare subsidiary for €72.5 million ($93.3 million) subject to the approval of competition authorities. FCC said Flightcare will become the leading independent handling company at Fiumicino and Ciampino and "will be well placed to expand to the rest of Italy."
Unisys Corp. signed a three-year contract with Cathay Pacific Airways to host its core business applications. Unisys will move Cathay's reservations, departure control and cargo platforms to the Unisys data center in Rhodes. The multimillion-dollar deal includes a two-year option.
