Thai Airways will launch thrice-weekly 777-200ER service between Bangkok and Johannesburg Oct. 31. Separately, Thai and Shanghai Airlines signed an MOU for increased commercial cooperation. The carriers currently codeshare on routes between China and Thailand. Alaska Airlines will operate four-times-weekly flights from Seattle to Cancun and from Portland, Ore., to Los Cabos and thrice-weekly PDX-Puerto Vallarta service aboard 737s from the end of October through the end of April.
Sun Country Airlines announced that Petters Aviation, a subsidiary of Petters Group Worldwide and Whitebox Advisors, will purchase the carrier for an undisclosed price. The transaction will be finalized over the next few months. "This sale will allow us to continue to develop our strong consumer offering, as well as provide necessary capital for future business growth," Sun Country CEO Shaun Nugent said. The airline operates nine 737-800s to 31 destinations in the US, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Avient Solutions will supply its new inventory management system, SmartCargo, to Avient, an unaffiliated freight carrier operating from the UK and France on routes to Africa.
Alaska Air Group, parent of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, reported net income of $55.5 million for the second quarter ended June 30, more than triple the net income of $17.4 million in the year-ago quarter, strong results that the company attributed to "a combination of revenue gains and cost improvements." Group operating revenues grew 15.4% to $873 million while expenses climbed 10.1% to $792.9 million. Operating income more than doubled to $80.1 million from $36.6 million last year.
Air Astana of Kazakhstan took delivery of its first leased A320, which it said is the first step in a "major fleet modernization program" that will see it expand its fleet to 34 Western aircraft by 2014. It will take another four A320s this year and purchase six additional aircraft by 2011, including three widebodies in 2008. The airline also operates three 737NGs, four 757-200s and five F50s. It expects to carry 1.4 million passengers this year, up 16.7% from 2005, and 2.3 million in 2007. It is owned by the government of Kazakhstan (51%) and BAE Systems (49%).
LAN Airlines flew 1.37 billion RPKs in June, a 6.4% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 8.2% to 2 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 1.2 points to 68.6%. TAM flew 1.57 billion domestic RPKs in June, a 45.6% increase over the year-ago month. Domestic capacity rose 21% to 2 billion ASKs and load factor increased 13.2 points to 78.5%. International RPKs grew 51.9% to 540 million as ASKs climbed 40.4% to 718 million and load factor went up 5.7 points to 75.1%.
Delta Air Lines named Atlanta attorney Michael Campbell executive VP-human resources and labor relations. Eastern Caribbean Airlines, a subsidiary of Viva International, named Pedro Maldonado director-operations and Jesus Rodriguez-Pazo chief pilot.
Comair of South Africa said it will sell a 16.1% stake to a consortium of black investors, Thelo Group, for approximately ZAR130 million ($18.5 million) as part of the country's Black Economic Empowerment program, according to press reports. The sale involves both the issuance of a new class of A shares and a cash purchase of existing shares.
After two consecutive quarters in the red, JetBlue Airways announced a return to profitability yesterday with net earnings of $14 million during the three months ended June 30, an increase of just 7.7% over the $13 million profit in the year-ago quarter but a performance that represented "a definite step in the right direction," according to Chairman and CEO David Neeleman. "Our comprehensive and ongoing plan has become a new way of doing business at JetBlue," Neeleman added.
Lufthansa will start a daily Munich-Sao Paolo service on Sept. 13 using A340-300s. Separately, LH opened the Lufthansa Aviation Center at Frankfurt International Airport. The facility will house offices for 1,800 employees and features 36 meeting rooms and seven conference rooms.
Worldspan signed a new multiyear, full-content distribution agreement with Swiss International Airlines. Separately, Swiss entered into a reciprocal loyalty program alliance with Jet Airways.
Austrian Airlines Group announced its half-year financial results yesterday and revealed that it will not achieve a balanced adjusted EBIT this year as planned owing to "continued high kerosene prices that exceed our budgetary assumptions, already set high as a precautionary measure, and because of the negative consequences of the capacity bottlenecks that have emerged at Austrian air traffic control since spring," according to CEO Alfred Oetsch.
Swiss International Air Lines and the Aeropers pilots union agreed on the principles of a new three-year labor agreement that will become effective Nov. 1 if approved. The pilots had threatened a strike after the previous accord expired earlier this month ( ATWOnline, July 6). The parties agreed not to reveal details of the deal until it has been submitted to union members for approval.
Republic Airlines reached a purchase agreement for 30 Embraer 175s, expanding its existing service contract with US Airways and making it the US launch customer for the 86-seat jet. The Regional currently operates 28 170s for US Airways. The 175s, which will be delivered in 2007 and 2008, will be operated under a 12-year capacity purchase contract that stipulates US will continue to supply fuel at no cost to its partner. Republic Airlines is a subsidiary of Republic Airways, the US launch customer for the 170 with 106 firm orders and 75 options for 170s/175s.
Blue Wings last week signed an MOU with Airbus for 20 A320 family aircraft, the plane-maker announced. The order is worth $1.6 billion at list prices, according to Reuters, which said the deal reached at Farnborough comprised 16 150-seat A320s and four 185-seat A321s to be delivered starting in 2009. Blue Wings is based in Dusseldorf and operates mostly charter services to Turkey, the Middle East and South Asia. It plans to launch flights to the CIS. It is 48% owned by Alpstream AG, a Zurich-based affiliate of Russian National Reserve Corp.
Descartes Systems Group was selected by AeroSvit Ukrainian Airlines to provide customs compliance technology. AeroSvit will use Descartes' Global Logistics Network to transmit cargo manifest information as required by Canada's Advance Commercial Information program.
AirAsia will launch service today at its new Kuching hub, its second base in eastern Malaysia after Kota Kinabalu. It will start with daily flights to Kota and Miri and twice-daily service to Bintulu and Sibu, all aboard 737-300s.
US air express revenues reached a record $31.3 billion in 2005, a 4.7% increase over 2004, but traffic remained flat, according to an industry study released last week.
Lufthansa Systems will implement e-ticketing at Cirrus Airlines. It also signed a five-year deal with Asiana Airlines to implement its Sirax revenue management system.
S7 Airlines will use an A310-200 on its services to and from Yakutsk following the resolution of operational issues at the airport. It has been using Tu-154s. Also, S7 will place its code on 10-times-weekly flights between Moscow Domodedovo and Chisinau operated by Air Moldova aboard A320s.
