On the eve of next week's Farnborough International Airshow, Airbus still has not presented a formal offer on the revised A350--dubbed the A350N--to key customer Emirates. An airline spokesperson confirmed to ATWOnline that "no formal offer has been made," which some say indicates that the manufacturer is some ways away from firming up its revised A350.
Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise will lease two new 737-800s to Shandong Airlines for 10 years each. Aircraft will be delivered from Boeing in the first half of 2007. It is Shandong's first contract with SALE, which has 30 dash 800s on firm order. Separately, SALE named former GECAS Singapore VP and Regional Manager-Structured Finance-Asia David Farrell as head of risk management.
Air France-KLM flew 16.92 billion RPKs in June, a 7.1% increase over the year-ago month. ASKs increased 5.8% to 20.53 billion and load factor rose 1 point to 76.2%. Cathay Pacific Airways flew 6 billion RPKs in June, a 14.1% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 10.4% to 7.24 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 2.7 points to 82.8%. Midwest Airlines flew 352.9 million RPMs in June, a 25.6% increase over the year-ago month. ASMs were up 17% to 416.8 million and load factor climbed 5.9 points to 84.7%.
Pratt & Whitney named United Technologies Corp. VP-Corporate Strategy and Development Todd Kallman as president of its Commercial Engines division effective immediately. Kallman, 50, succeeds Steve Heath, who is retiring. Kallman held his position at UTC since 2003 and oversaw more than 50 acquisitions totalling $8.4 billion, including Chubb, Kidde, Lenel, Linde and Rocketdyne. He worked at Lockheed Martin for 14 years before joining UTC in 2001 as VP-finance and CFO of Hamilton Sundstrand.
Germany's leading carriers, in an effort to strengthen their lobbying position with political and economic institutions, have transformed the old Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Luftfahrtunternehmen into the Bundesverband der Deutschen Fluggesellschaften. The new association includes Air Berlin, Condor Airlines, dba, Eurowings/Germanwings, Germania, Hamburg International, Hapagfly, LTU German Airlines and Lufthansa. The carriers operate more than 500 aircraft, employ approximately 100,000 and serve nearly 100 million passengers annually.
Finnair will fly nonstop from Helsinki to Madrid by September and to Manchester from Oct. 29, eliminating the Stockholm stopover on each flight. It will start four-times-weekly Helsinki-Ljubljana flights in April 2007 aboard Embraer 170s.
South African Airways and Lufthansa were fined yesterday by South Africa's Competition Tribunal for anticompetitive behavior. SAA agreed to the fines in May ( ATWOnline, May 26) for allegedly colluding with LH to fix ticket prices on flights between Cape Town, Johannesburg and Frankfurt. SAA will pay ZAR40 million ($5.6 million) while Lufthansa agreed to pay ZAR8.5 million.
Embraer announced it will expand its regional product support network with the establishment of a spare parts logistics center and placement of a full flight simulator at an undisclosed Asia/Pacific site. The facilities will be operational by the middle of next year.
JetBlue Airways yesterday launched four-times-daily New York JFK-Charlotte service aboard Embraer 190s. Last month, JetBlue opened seven new gates at JFK, increasing its total to 21. The gate area is an extension of Terminal 6. The airline now can operate 185 flights daily from the airport. China Airlines will launch a new cargo service between Taipei and Hanoi from July 19. Initially the service will be weekly with a 747-400F as part of the carrier's Taipei-Penang service. AeroRepublica Airlines will launch daily Bogota-Panama City flight on Aug. 3.
Kenya Airways added a seventh 767-300 to its fleet last week to meet rapidly growing demand on its network from West, East and Central Africa to Dubai, Guangzhou, Thailand and Mumbai. The new aircraft is on lease. KQ is looking to expand its Nairobi hub this year and aims to operate daily flights to most of its African destinations. Recently it started daily service to Douala and increased frequencies to Entebbe and Dar es Salaam. It also will start flights to Brazzaville and Cotonou by September.
ANA is moving forward with plans to build its fleet around twin-engine aircraft with the sale of six of its 23 747-400s to Avion Aircraft Trading of Iceland. The aircraft are configured for both domestic routes (569 passengers) and international operations (from 287 passengers). ANA has been replacing the dash 400s on domestic routes with 777-300s seating 477 passengers. It is moving to smaller types such as the 777, 767 and 787 because of the addition of a second runway at Tokyo Narita and a planned fourth runway at Tokyo Haneda, which has reduced the requirement for larger types.
Rolls-Royce began construction on its new outdoor jet engine testing facility at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Rolls will test the Trent 900 and Trent 1000 at the facility, where work is expected to begin in the second half of 2007. It will spend $42 million on construction and upgrades. Separately, GE Aviation announced a partnership with the Mississippi Development Authority to pursue establishing a jet engine component facility in the state that would open in 2007-08 and produce composite fan blade platforms for the GEnx.
Iberia pilots agreed yesterday to end their strike, which started Monday and was to have lasted through Sunday, after winning guarantees from the carrier that new LCC Catair, in which Iberia is one of five shareholders, will not lead to job losses. The agreement among Iberia, the SEPLA union and the Spanish Development Ministry ensures that no Iberia pilots will be laid off through 2010 because of Catair operations. The government will act as guarantor of the deal, which does not include salary hikes or guarantees, according to reports.
Air New Zealand announced a series of changes to its international route network with an increased focus on profitability. The airline will suspend its daily 777-200ER service to Singapore and will not relaunch its twice-weekly 747 summer flights from Christchurch to Los Angeles. ANZ said O&D traffic to Singapore accounted for just 5% of passengers on the service, with most flying on to Europe, which can be served just as well through Hong Kong. Its market share is less than 30%.
Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, created by Dubai last February with a goal of becoming a $15 billion diversified aerospace corporation, announced yesterday that former Honeywell Aerospace Chairman and CEO Bob Johnson has been named CEO. Johnson, 58, served as president and CEO of Honeywell between 1999 and 2005 and subsequently was named chairman of the unit. Prior to becoming CEO, he headed AlliedSignal Aerospace. AlliedSignal acquired Honeywell in 1999 and took the Honeywell name. Johnson began his career at GE Aircraft Engines in 1969.
Outsize-freight specialist carriers Volga-Dnepr Airlines and Antonov Airlines, which operate a combined 17 of the 23 massive An-124s in commercial service worldwide, are teaming to launch a joint-venture marketing company aimed at streamlining management of their respective fleets. Both carriers "will continue to operate as separate and distinct," according to Volga-Dnepr, but JV Ruslan International will provide more flexibility for the airlines' often-pressed An-124s.
Boeing has upped its 20-year forecast of world jet transport demand in its latest Current Market Outlook, released yesterday. The manufacturer now sees a requirement for 27,200 new aircraft valued at more than $2.6 trillion through 2025. Last year it projected a need for 25,700 aircraft worth $2.1 trillion ( ATWOnline, June 9, 2005).
Atlantic Southeast Airlines pilots voted to authorize a strike if negotiations for a new labor contract fail. The Air Line Pilots Assn. said in a statement yesterday that 92% of ASA pilots casting ballots favored giving union leaders authority to pursue a work stoppage.
Adria Airways appointed CRS Airlines Representatives as its first cargo GSSA in Spain following the launch of twice-weekly Barcelona-Ljubljana service. CRS will fill the same role for Norwegian, which launched a thrice-weekly Madrid-Oslo service.
IBS Software Services said Virgin Blue will use its next-generation passenger services system aiRes under an agreement with Cendant Travel Distribution Services.
Lufthansa flew 9.83 billion RPKs in June, a 0.5% drop from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 0.7% to 12.6 billion ASKs and load factor rose 0.2 point to 78%. Continental Airlines said its June mainline RASM rose by an estimated 9%-10% and consolidated RASM by 10.5%-11.5% compared to June 2006. Consolidated RASM grew 9.3% in May.
Brazilian freight and logistics company VarigLog, a former subsidiary of its namesake airline, boosted its bid for the bankrupt carrier after a Rio de Janeiro bankruptcy court judge reversed his decision last week to present the approximately $500 million bid to creditors, who may be better off if Varig is liquidated, Bloomberg News reported. The judge will ask creditors to review the higher offer at a July 17 meeting. If it is approved, VarigLog could win the carrier's operating assets at an auction scheduled for the following day.
Malaysia Airlines received government authority to increase its revised domestic network by three cities--Kuching, Tawau and Sandakan--and to price tickets on the routes as it chooses.
Resolution to the Iberia pilots' strike remained elusive yesterday as the carrier cancelled more than 200 flights for a second straight day and hinted it will seek to have the work action declared illegal. The airline said it attempted to present pilots with a letter guaranteeing their job security but the SEPLA pilots union refused to accept the document. The pilots began a weeklong strike Monday to protest Iberia's plans to launch an LCC, which the pilots say would threaten their jobs ( ATWOnline, July 11).
Ryanair will cut its services to and from Sweden by more than half following proposals by the Swedish government to introduce a SEK94 ($13.10) ticket tax on European flights and a SEK188 levy on long-haul flights beginning Aug. 1.
