Singapore Airlines flew 7.38 billion RPKs in June, an 8.5% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 2.1% to 9.24 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 4.7 points to 79.9%. Hawaiian Airlines flew 575.5 million RPMs in June, a 1.1% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 0.2% to 661.4 million ASMs and load factor climbed 0.8 point to 87%. Air Berlin transported 1.5 million passengers in June, a 14.9% increase over the year-ago month. Load factor rose 4.3 points to 84.5%.
Cebu Pacific Air will become the second tenant of Singapore Changi's Budget Terminal. Singapore aviation officials granted Cebu approval to operate flights to Changi beginning in late August. Tiger Airways was the first customer to operate at the Budget Terminal, which opened four months ago ( ATWOnline, March 28). In other news, Changi Airports International announced a joint venture with Moscow Sheremetyevo to manage and operate a new 520,000-sq.-ft.
Air Line Pilots Assn. called the June 30 dismissal of 57 Polar Air Cargo flight engineers "drastic and unprecedented" and "in complete defiance of the parties' collective bargaining agreement." Polar retired the last of its 747-100/-200/-300 freighters on July 1 and now operates five 747-400s that require two pilots instead of three.
Kingfisher Airlines started daily Ahmedabad-Mumbai, Hyderabad-Chennai, Hyderabad-Vishakhapatnam, Chennai-Vishakhapatnam and Chennai-Kochi flights aboard ATR 72s. It now operates 86 daily flights to 17 destinations. Delta Air Lines will launch daily New York JFK-Punta Cana flights aboard an MD-88, daily Atlanta-Santiago de Los Caballeros service with 737-800s and four-times-weekly ATL-Port of Spain service, also with dash 800s, on Dec. 9. It will begin daily Boston-Dayton and daily Jacksonville-Pensacola service on Sept. 11 operated by Comair.
SkyEurope Airlines will begin thrice-weekly Salzburg-Paris Orly service on Sept. 15. Innsbruck-Orly service will be discontinued. Also, SkyEurope took delivery of its fifth 737-700 last month. It will be based in Krakow. The airline flew 283,388 passengers in June, a 36.3% increase over the year-ago month. Load factor plunged 9.6 points to 77.6%. The drop "reflects a significant reduction in the proportion of nonscheduled services, which are accounted as fully booked flights," SkyEurope said.
Middle East Airlines resumed Damascus service Friday in an effort to evacuate people stranded in Syria as a result of the hostilities in Lebanon, which have closed Beirut Rafik Hariri Airport. MEA initially moved its nine Airbus aircraft to Jordan and Cyprus after BEY was bombed on July 13. It said it will fly to Frankfurt, Riyadh, Paris, Jeddah, Kuwait City and Dubai after securing permission from the Syrian government to use Damascus International. It added that it "hope[s] to resume flights from Beirut once the fighting ends."
Singapore Airlines last week launched a thrice-weekly Singapore-Milan Malpensa-Barcelona flight aboard a 777-200ER. JetBlue Airways began four-times-daily flights between New York JFK and Raleigh-Durham aboard Embraer 190s. Midwest Airlines will launch daily Milwaukee-Fort Myers service from Oct. 14 through April 30 and nonstop MKE-Fort Lauderdale flights on Oct. 1 (service currently operates through Kansas City). From Nov. 16 through April 30 it will add second daily flights to Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa.
Continental Airlines on Friday officially selected Chautauqua Airlines to provide and operate 44 regional jets as a Continental Express carrier beginning in 2007, filling a void created earlier this year when the Major failed to reach agreement with ExpressJet on a new capacity purchase deal to keep the Regional's 69 aircraft flying under the CO code.
Demand that outpaced capacity, floundering competition and effective cost and fuel management resulted in another good quarter for Gol, which finished the three months ended June 30 with a net income of BRL106.7 million ($48.8 million), an increase of 45.4% over the BRL73.4 million earned in the second quarter of 2005.
Embattled Airbus ended the Farnborough Airshow on a high note, announcing Friday that Singapore Airlines signed a letter of intent for up to 40 A350-900 XWBs and up to 15 A380s, for which SIA is the launch customer. The LOI covers 20 firm plus 20 options for the A350 XWB and nine new orders for the A380 plus six new options. The A350s will be delivered in 2012 and as an interim measure SIA will lease 19 A330-300s for delivery in 2009-10. The first of the newly ordered A380s will be delivered in mid-2008.
Rolls-Royce announced that Hainan Airlines signed a $250 million contract for Trent 700s to power five new A330s leased from ILFC. Hainan also signed a long-term TotalCare services agreement. Deliveries will begin in November 2007. Rolls said the Trent 700 is powering every one of the 100-plus A330s either operating or on order with Chinese carriers.
SAS Group airlines flew 3.66 billion RPKs in June, a 7.1% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 3.3% to 4.78 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 2.7 points to 76.6%. SAS Scandinavian Airlines flew 2.6 billion RPKs, a 0.5% decline, against a 2.4% fall in capacity to 3.26 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 1.5 points to 79.9%.
Caribbean Star Airlines and Caribbean Sun Airlines announced cost-cutting initiatives including the retirement of two leased Dash 8-100s and suspension of Sun service to St. Croix, St. Thomas and Santiago and Star flights to Anguilla as of Sept. 11. Sun will continue to fly to the Dominican Republic with a new four-times-daily San Juan-Santo Domingo service launched last week.
Comair was granted permission Friday by the US Bankruptcy Court to void the labor agreement with its approximately 1,000 cabin staff and impose a reduced $7.9 million in annual concessions. The airline submitted a second request for relief following the breakdown of negotiations last month ( ATWOnline, June 28).
Embraer last week unveiled plans to offer higher-capacity variants of its 170/190 E-Jets. The modifications will not require structural changes or new testing. The 170, now at 78 seats, also will be offered with 80. The 86-seat 175 will be offered with 88 seats, the 108-seat 190 with 114 and the 118-seat 195 with 122. "Embraer has identified a growing demand for high-capacity configured E-Jets," VP-Market Intelligence-Airline Market Luiz Sergio Chiessi said. "We are talking mainly about low-cost and Regional carrier applications.
Saab Aerostructures was awarded a renewed, $60 million contract by Airbus UK to supply ailerons for A320 family aircraft. Saab has delivered more than 1,000 units since 2000.
LAN Airlines is introducing a $100 million Premium Business product on 767-300 services between South and North America. Over the next two years, the carrier will install lie-flat seats, upgraded inflight entertainment, modified aircraft interiors and other amenities. Dash 300s also will see improvements in economy service including new seats and video monitors.
China Eastern Airlines confirmed Friday it is in talks with several potential foreign investors including Singapore Airlines, according to press reports. Reuters reported that the carrier is considering selling at least a 20% stake, which would be worth approximately $260 million.
ST Aerospace completed the transfer of Airline Rotables of the UK to SAS Component for $22.5 million. The consideration comes by way of issuance of new shares in SAS Component to STA. The transaction was announced in December as part of ST's acquisition of 67% of SAS Component ( ATWOnline, Dec. 16, 2005). It now holds 71.3%.
General Electric said it received more than $2.5 billion in engine orders and OnPoint Solutions service agreements at Farnborough. Among the deals were a 10-year, $40 million OnPoint accord with Egypt's AMC Airlines for service on its CFM56-7B-powered 737-800s, GEnx orders from ILFC and Emirates and a $195 million TAP Portugal order for CF6s to power five A330s along with a nine-year service agreement. CFM International said it logged approximately $850 million in orders for its CFM56 family at the show.
Futura International Airways of Palma de Mallorca ordered three 737-800s plus three purchase rights, Boeing announced Friday. The three firm aircraft are worth about $210 million at list prices and are scheduled for delivery in 2009 and 2010. Futura, owned in part by Spanish equity firm Corpfin Capital (65%) and Aer Lingus (20%), operates 11 dash 800s and 13 other 737 family aircraft.
SAS Ground Services renewed its agreement with Novair for ground handling services at 15 Scandinavian airports for an additional three years. It also was chosen by bmi for ground handling at Chicago O'Hare.
MAXjet Airways took delivery of its third 767 and reported that it carried around 3,950 passengers from New York JFK to London Stansted in May, achieving a load factor of 72%. The all-business-class carrier will add a fourth aircraft this year and a third US city to its network. It also serves Washington Dulles five times weekly.
