US Dept. of Transportation proposed Wednesday to revoke antitrust immunity from tariff-coordination meetings organized by IATA to set passenger fares and cargo rates for flights from the US to Europe and Australia.
Algeria and Canada concluded their first bilateral air accord, allowing access to airlines from both countries, according to the Arab Air Carrier Assn. Codeshare services also are permitted. Air Algerie announced plans to operate up to two weekly flights to Montreal, while Air Canada intends to codeshare on flights to Algeria via Europe with existing partners.
The European Commission adopted two regulations concerning the interoperability of European air traffic management systems aimed at establishing the long-awaited Single Sky. The "coordination and transfer" regulation establishes the requirements for automatic systems for the exchange of flight data that notify, coordinate and transfer flights between ATC units.
Cargolux is selling two CF6-80C2B1F-powered 747-400Fs. Cabot Aviation is the marketing agent. Formal commitments are required by Dec. 31, with delivery expected in the second half of 2009. The carrier placed an order for 10 firm 747-8Fs plus 10 options in November.
Emirates signed a $261 million financing agreement with the US Export-Import Bank for two 777-300ERs scheduled for delivery in August and October. The 12-year financing, arranged by Citigroup, combines an Ex-Im loan with commercial funding and carries a weighted average cost of funds of 0.66% over three-month LIBOR, the carrier said. It currently operates 37 777s and has 38 dash 300ERs on order.
IER was awarded a five-year renewal contract for maintenance of the check-in and boarding equipment at Kuwait International Airport. IER, which says it is the industry's "leading supplier of passenger and baggage processing solutions," is collaborating with Computer Data Networks, maintenance provider for SITA, and is supplying boarding pass printers, bag tag printers, barcode boarding gate readers and keyboards to the airport under a December 2005 contract.
US airlines recorded an ontime arrival rate of 78.3% in May, down from 83.7% in the year-ago month and 78.4% in April 2006. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the 20 reporting carriers cancelled 1.2% of domestic flights in May, higher than the 0.9% cancellation rate in the year-ago month and the 1.1% rate in April. Hawaiian Airlines led the way in May with a 95% ontime arrival rate while ATA Airlines reported the lowest rate at 66.1%. Frontier Airlines cancelled just 0.1% of its May flights. American Eagle had the highest cancellation rate at 3.5%.
Falling yields, low-cost competition and soaring fuel costs had a devastating effect on South African Airways' bottom line during the fiscal year ended March 31 as profits plunged 90% to ZAR65 million ($9.1 million) from ZAR648 million, the carrier said yesterday, according to press reports. SAA released certain year-end performance indicators on its Web site, but did not include final profit figures. It did say that passenger revenue rose 0.8% to ZAR13 billion against a 3.5% decline in yield as it lost market share to low-fare carriers.
Northwest Airlines cabin staff yesterday voted to switch to the Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA from the Professional Flight Attendants Assn. The US National Mediation Board said the final count was 4,439-2,668 in favor of the move. The airline was given permission by a US Bankruptcy Court last week to cancel its labor agreement following a 14-day stay ( ATWOnline, July 3).
Qantas and Mexicana signed a codeshare agreement effective Aug. 1. Qantas will codeshare on 237 Mexicana weekly services to Mexico City, Cancun, Guadalajara and San Jose del Cabo from Los Angeles and San Francisco while Mexicana will codeshare on Qantas flights from LAX to Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne and from SFO to Sydney. Separately, Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Corp. of Beijing will paint four Qantas 767-300ERs. The first aircraft will be delivered to Ameco at the end of July with three others following nose to tail.
British Airways flew 10.4 billion RPKs in June, up 6.6% from the year-ago month, against a 3.1% increase in capacity to 12.73 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 2.7 points to 81.6%. The traffic gain comprised an 11.7% rise in premium and 5.7% growth in nonpremium traffic.
The European Parliament gave its resounding approval Tuesday to new fuel taxes, the ending of airlines' Value Added Tax exemption and a closed emissions trading scheme, urging the EU to "take a leadership position in global aviation in order to reduce the climate change impact of aviation."
Ryanair ordered an additional 10 winglet-equipped 737-800s Monday with deliveries to take place in the first half of 2008. The order, valued at $705 million at list prices, previously was attributed on Boeing's website to an unidentified customer. Ryanair operates 107 dash 800s and will take an additional 142 of the type over the next six years. Separately, Ryanair flew 3.7 million passengers in June, a 23% increase over the year-ago month. Load factor remained constant at 87%.
BAE Systems said yesterday it is ordering an independent audit of Airbus, a move that likely will delay EADS' planned buyout of BAE's 20% stake in the aircraft manufacturer.
Cathay Pacific Airways applied to the Hong Kong SAR government for rights to resume passenger flights to Shanghai, add additional flights to Beijing and increase cargo operations to China in the fourth quarter. The move comes as a result of a recent agreement between Chinese and Hong Kong authorities that expands air services, giving Cathay the opportunity to return to Shanghai after 16 years. Shanghai accounts for 35% of the passenger traffic and 68% of the cargo market between China and Hong Kong.
Loftleidir Icelandic, the charter and ACMI-marketing subsidiary of Icelandair Group, acquired a 55% holding in Latvian charter operator Latcharter Airlines and committed to acquire the remaining shares in the future. The move comes as a result of continuing cooperation between the companies and is part of Loftleidir's strategy to strengthen its position in the Baltic and CIS region as well as adding Airbus aircraft into its worldwide ACMI product line. Latcharter was established in 1992.
Emirates, Airbus's most influential airline customer, expressed disappointment at the resignation of Airbus CEO Gustav Humbert ( ATWOnline, July 3). According to Emirates President Tim Clark, "Gustav was a safe pair of hands. But in the political labyrinth that EADS/Airbus sits, I suspect he had little chance of survival." Clark also said Humbert was handed a "poison chalice" with the A380 and A350 problems.
Air Luxor of Portugal was sold by its parent Mirpuri Group to Longstock Financial Group. Value of the sale was not announced. Air Luxor and its associated companies had revenues of €150 million ($192 million) in 2005. It operates two A320s from Lisbon to Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and Sao Tome and Principe.
Air France launched a trial with RFID tags to label and track passenger baggage on flights between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol. KLM joins the trial on July 10 at two baggage drop-off points in Schiphol's Departure Hall 2. The tags will be used for all baggage dropped at those points regardless of destination. Later this year, all drop-off points in DH2 will be equipped to handle RFID tags. KLM developed RFID together with Schiphol, which is responsible for facilitation.
Continental Airlines said it received $156 million from its recent sale of 7.5 million shares of Class A common stock of Copa Holdings, parent of Copa Airlines ( ATWOnline, June 30). Continental will contribute $75 million to its pension plans, bringing its 2006 contribution to $172 million. It still holds 4.4 million shares in Copa.
Tunisair ordered one A319ER from Airbus and announced that it will convert three of its in-service A319s into Extended Range versions. It plans to use the type on its Middle East and African routes configured with 16 business class and 90 economy seats. They will be powered by CFM-56-5B6s. Tunisair operates 12 A320 family aircraft and three A300-600s.
Ryanair, easyJet and other carriers comprising the Stansted Airlines Consultative Committee said BAA's planned expansion of London Stansted is based on "wildly inflated" forecasts of future traffic levels and called on Ferrovial Group, the new BAA owner, to reject current proposals for upgrades. The airline committee said plans to spend £4.5 billion ($8.3 billion) to expand facilities and lay down a second runway are "excessive" and will create a "costly, gold-plated" airport that will impose high user fees on carriers.
Swiss International Air Lines and the Aeropers pilots union have been unable to conclude a new labor agreement after 17 months of negotiations. Aeropers declared on Friday, the day the existing deal expired, that talks have failed and that a strike is possible if the carrier changes portions of the current contract. Swiss expects its Airbus pilots to work an average maximum of 19 days per month, take six rather than 7.5 weeks of vacation per year and make reasonable concessions on overall remuneration.
Air Canada announced the addition of three new routes to the US: Twice-weekly flights to Las Vegas starting Sept. 7 from Edmonton with A319s and Winnipeg with CRJ705s and daily seasonal Calgary-Palm Springs flights starting Dec. 15. AC also launched daily Toronto-Shanghai Pudong service aboard an A340-300, daily Montreal-Mexico City flights on an A319 and daily Embraer 190 service between Toronto and Abbotsford.
Irish High Court on Monday overturned a 2005 decision by the Commission for Aviation Regulation that imposed strict slot allocation rules on Dublin Airport. CAR had designated Dublin a "full coordination" airport, meaning its slots could be administered tightly to control congestion. Airlines, particularly Ryanair, objected to the designation since it gave them little say in the allocation of takeoff and landing slots. The High Court ruled that CAR had overstepped its bounds and failed to meet the standards of EU regulations governing airport designations.
