SkyEurope Airlines yesterday added a new booking service in which passengers buying tickets online can have confirmation sent directly to their cellular phones via SMS messaging.
Lufthansa said it is opposing plans by Deutsche Flugsicherung, Germany's air navigation services provider, to increase user charges by 13% in 2007. "Our goal is a cut in fees per flight," an airline spokesperson told Reuters. DFL has lowered user fees in each of the last three years.
Tourism giant TUI said pilots at its Germany-based airlines Hapagfly and Hapag-Lloyd Express approved a new contract that increases pay and sets a salary structure through the end of 2008. TUI said the contract centers on a uniform salary scale for all pilots flying for Hapagfly as well as HLX, the LCC arm, and paves the way for fleet expansion, with "at least" three 737-700s to be added to the HLX fleet next year.
Virgin Atlantic reported a pre-tax profit of £41.6 million ($75.6 million) for the fiscal year ended Feb. 28, more than double the £20.1 million earned a year ago, a jump it attributed to a "large increase" in business passengers at primary subsidiary Virgin Atlantic Airways. The company, also parent to Virgin Nigeria Airways and tour operator Virgin Holidays, posted annual revenues of £1.91 billion, up 17.2% from £1.63 billion in the previous fiscal year.
MAIR Holdings, parent of Mesaba Airlines and Big Sky Airlines, reported a loss of $82.8 million in a fiscal year ended March 31 that turned on the bankruptcy of its primary subsidiary last fall ( ATWOnline, Oct. 14, 2005).
Copa Airlines this month will take delivery of a 737-700 and two 94-seat, GE CF34-10E-powered Embraer 190ARs, bringing its fleet to 27 aircraft. The 737 will be operated on Copa's Montevideo route while the RJs will be used on flights to Santiago de los Caballeros, Manaus, Maracaibo, San Pedro Sula and Port of Spain.
Varig's future is up in the air again as NV Participacoes, the employee-led investor group that was the only bidder at the June 8 auction of the bankrupt carrier, failed to make an initial $75 million down payment Friday, forcing a Rio de Janeiro bankruptcy court to cancel the deal.
FlyBE will launch service to 13 new destinations in Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK for its winter schedule. "This is one of our most important new schedule announcements to date, demonstrating our aggressive expansion policy in the UK and across Europe," CCO Mike Rutter commented. New routes include Amsterdam, Hannover and Dusseldorf from Southampton as well Amsterdam, Aberdeen and Salzburg from Exeter. The Regional-turned-LCC also will commence daily Norwich-Amsterdam and Leeds Bradford-Aberdeen service Oct. 29.
A senior US lawmaker is calling for a ban on federal funding for A380-related upgrades at US airports until a domestic airline orders a passenger version of the next-generation aircraft. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, said he plans to introduce legislation that would prohibit using federal airport grants on any A380-related construction project.
Thales will supply a Level D full flight simulator to Turkish Airlines. It will be ready for training in December and will be installed at THY's training center at Istanbul Ataturk. Thales also will upgrade a 737-400 FFS.
Bmibaby signed Air Fayre as its new inflight catering supplier. Air Fayre will manage a diverse range of buy-on-board products including refreshments, fragrances, gifts and bmibaby-branded merchandise.
Caribbean Star and Caribbean Sun Airlines signed an agreement with ExelTech Aerospace to provide heavy maintenance service for both carriers' fleets of Dash 8s at ExelTech's facility in Quebec City.
News from Travel Technology Update: JetBlue Airways is "looking seriously" at GDS participation, according to David Neeleman, chairman and chief executive officer. At the Merrill Lynch Global Transportation Conference, Neeleman said the airline was missing out on business by not being in corporate travel departments' booking systems. He acknowledged that when JetBlue participated in Sabre, the average fares booked through the GDS were higher than those booked directly with the airline.
Boeing yesterday said it "will be taking a series of near-term actions as the company accelerates the evaluation of options for the future of its Connexion by Boeing high-speed broadband communications business." Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the company was considering selling the unit, finding a partner or closing it down, options Boeing cited yesterday ( ATWOnline, June 23).
DHL yesterday signed a long-term "strategic network alliance" with Malaysian cargo carrier Transmile. DHL recently spent $1.3 million upgrading its facility at Subang and now will offer 10 weekly flights from the airport to its main Asia/Pacific hub in Hong Kong aboard Transmile aircraft. It previously reserved block space for cargo on Transmile flights but said the expanded agreement will allow for more regular service and cut delivery time for Malaysian customers by a half-day for shipments to other countries in Asia, Europe and the US West Coast.
Board of Airline Representatives in the Netherlands sent a letter to the Dutch Upper House voicing its concern over the pending privatization of Amsterdam Schiphol, de Volkskrant reported. The 78 BARIN members operating at AMS oppose the privatization, claiming the airport will behave as a "monopolist," keeping prices and tariffs artifically high. BARIN also argues the legislation, on which the Upper House is scheduled to vote today, does not offer adequate protection to airlines as it does not foresee a maximum price cap or minimum requirements for service levels.
Delta Air Lines signed a $15 million, five-year agreement for Delta TechOps to provide maintenance work on Icelandair's 767-300 components and provide inventory exchange services.
CSA Czech Airlines plans to improve its business class service on its four A310-300s. The current three-seat configuration will be replaced by a two-seat configuration. CSA said it will add sockets for charging notebook computers and improve video systems. A tender will be announced for the supply of new equipment. The carrier expects the replacement of seats and audiovisual technology to be completed by June 2007. Separately, CSA named Jan Janik VP-flight operations effective July 1. He replaces Peter Jusko, who will become VP-ground operations.
Boeing has sold 132 747-400s and 747-8s since the beginning of 2000--the timeframe in which the A380 has been offered in the marketplace--including last week's Cathay Pacific order for six 747-400ERFs ( ATWOnline, June 23). While the A380 had its industrial launch in 2001, Airbus was gathering MOUs and LOIs through 2000 from Emirates, ILFC and Air France before Singapore Airlines and Qantas committed to the aircraft in late 2000.
United Airlines lost its contract to carry mail for the US Postal Service effective June 30 because of poor ontime performance, according to press reports. It will continue to carry international mail, which constitutes most of its mail business. UA generated nearly $150 million in revenue carrying mail in 2005, according to Form 41 data filed with the US Dept. of Transportation.
SITA launched what it called the air transport industry's first Voice Exchange, offering much cheaper Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone services as a "secure, efficient and flexible alternative to the legacy Public Switched Telephone Network technology." SITA SC Senior VP-Business Development Relationship Management and New Ventures Rene Azoulai said, "SITA is committed to providing the air transport community with innovative and effective ways of using technology to drive down costs." SITA said Voice Exchange leverages "the SITA-managed .aero top level domain--in particular
TAM flew 1.49 billion domestic RPKs in May, a 33% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 20.3% to 2.03 billion ASKs and load factor rose 7 points to 73.4%. International traffic grew 45.8% to 461 million RPKs against a 28.2% increase to 623 million ASKs. Load factor improved 8.9 points to 73.9%.
