AirBaltic will start four-times-weekly Riga-Kaliningrad flights on July 2 using F50s, codesharing with Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise. AirBaltic said it carried 119,389 passengers in May, 32% more than in the year-ago month. Load factor rose 5 points to 56%.
Malaysia Airlines is expected to cancel its A380 commitment, according to an airline source. Speaking to ATWOnline, the source said MAS is close to canceling its order for six aircraft. This website understands from another source in Toulouse that at least one other airline is examining options to cancel its order. Before the delay announced last week by Airbus ( ATWOnline, June 14), MAS had been scheduled to take delivery of its first A380 in July 2007 and its sixth in May 2009.
SkyTeam members except for Aeroflot yesterday received a Statement of Objections from the European Commission that the alliance said is a "normal step in a Commission competition investigation." The EC has been reviewing the alliance since its 2000 launch and said yesterday that it "does not raise objections to the alliance as a whole but has concerns about a limited number of routes" on which SkyTeam cooperation "may have a negative effect on competition." It did not identify the routes in question, but said the "more problematic" ones include transatlantic and intra-EU routes and thos
Lufthansa Technik joined the Airbus MRO Network, which was launched in March 2005 and now includes 14 members. "The new arrangements will simplify and accelerate the exchange of technical data. Combined with our strong engineering resources, there will be a further increase in the efficiency of MRO services for Airbus airplanes," LHT Executive Board Chairman August Henningsen said.
Great Wall Airlines, a joint venture among China Great Wall Industry Corp. (51%), Singapore Airlines Cargo (25%) and Dahlia Investments (24%), a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, started a six-times-weekly freighter service from Shanghai to Amsterdam. The cargo carrier based at Shanghai Pudong initially will operate two 747-400Fs. Services to India, South Korea and Singapore will be launched in coming weeks.
Delta Air Lines filed documents yesterday with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. to terminate its pilots' pension plan. The move, which Delta said is necessary to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, was not unexpected following the pilots' May 31 ratification of a concessions deal that will save the airline $280 million annually and that included incentives for pilots if they do not oppose the pension termination ( ATWOnline, June 1).
Air France will operate thrice-weekly flights between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Chennai from Oct. 30 using its own aircraft. It currently codeshares on the route with Delta Air Lines. AF's flights will be aboard a two-class A340 and also will be sold by Delta. In addition, AF will increase capacity to Bangalore from Oct. 30, offering seven weekly flights from CDG instead of five. The Paris-Mumbai route will use 310-seat 777-300s instead of the 270-seat dash 200s operated last winter.
Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee said yesterday that it had decoded the flight data recorder of the Armavia A320 that crashed into the Black Sea early last month ( ATWOnline, May 4) but the analysis uncovered no anomaly that could have caused the accident that killed all 113 passengers and crew onboard. The aircraft originating from Yerevan crashed in heavy rain and low visibility as it attempted a second approach to its intended destination of Sochi Airport.
ANA and Japan Airlines face a limited 24-hr. strike on June 21 by some pilot unions "over dissatisfaction with the management stance on career progression," among other issues. International flights will not be affected but up to 25% of domestic flights for both airlines will be impacted.
Qatar Airways and Asiana Airlines signed a codeshare agreement under which Asiana will place its code on Qatar's Doha-Seoul flights. QR operates a three-times-weekly service between the capitals via Shanghai. It will add a fourth weekly flight this summer. Delta Air Lines will launch daily New York JFK-Mumbai flights from Nov. 1 aboard 777-200ERs and four-times-weekly JFK-Accra flights from Dec. 11 aboard 767-300ERs. With the start of Mumbai service, it will discontinue the JFK-Paris Charles de Gaulle-Mumbai flights it now operates.
Bombardier said it will stay with the proposed CSeries program at least through this year, with a scaled-back team of engineers working on technology development issues for the 110/130-seat jet and a concerted effort to boost interest in the aircraft from international customers.
The European Commission tabled two initiatives to put "a legally sound framework" in place for the transfer of PNR data to the United States. Last month, the European Court of Justice ruled the current agreement dating from May 2004 was "founded on an inappropriate legal basis" and gave the EU and Washington until Sept. 30 to negotiate a replacement ( ATWOnline, May 31).
Frontier Airlines said its May yield rose 3% over the year-ago month to 10.31 cents and RASM increased 7.6% to 8.23 cents. Traffic grew 24.2% to 763.7 million RPMs against a 19% rise in capacity to 956.8 million ASMs, sending load factor up 3.3 points to 79.8%.
Singapore Airlines reported an 8.9% year-on-year growth in May RPKs to 6.75 billion. Capacity rose 3.7% to 9.55 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 3.3 points to 70.7%. AirTran Airways flew 1.2 billion RPMs in May, a 23.2% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 21.3% to 1.58 billion ASMs and load factor rose 1.2 points to 75.8%.
Air Canada launched daily Montreal-Denver service Friday aboard an A319. AC flew 4.06 billion RPMs in May, a 5.7% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 2.2% to 4.93 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 2.7 points to 82.3%. Domestic traffic grew 2.6% to 1.32 billion RPMs as capacity increased 4.9% to 1.67 billion ASMs and load factor fell 1.7 points to 79%. International RPMs jumped 4.9% to 2.1 billion as capacity dropped 0.8% to 2.44 billion ASMs, raising load factor 4.7 points to 86.2%.
LTU owner Hans Rudolf Woehrl does not see much likelihood that the troubled leisure airline will achieve a breakeven operating result this year after he was unable to reach agreement with the carrier's unions on wage cuts he proposed. He is seeking to reduce costs by €45 million ($57.3 million), including €15 million in salary cuts ( ATWOnline, June 12). According to Die Welt, Woehrl has not ruled out layoffs as a way to lower costs.
Airbus and parent EADS responded to increasing criticism over A380 program delays announced last week, with the focus intensifying on EADS Co-CEO Noel Forgeard's sale of €2.5 million ($3.2 million) in stock options three months prior to EADS' stock sinking 26% on June 14 on news of the next-generation aircraft program's setback. Forgeard, who served as Airbus CEO until last year, told Europe 1 radio that he first learned of potential new problems with the A380 program in April and claimed the stock sale was "an unfortunate coincidence."
Air India said it received expressions of interest from seven parties/consortia in serving as its consultant in preparing a "road map" for its merger with Indian Airlines. Its board will invite the bidders to make presentations June 26-27.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries last week unveiled for the first time to media their high-tech fabrication and assembly plants for the 787. MHI is responsible for the wing box while KHI is building the forward fuselage (section 43), fixed trailing edge and components of the wheel well. MHI Director-Program Manager-787 Program Office Takashi Fujimoto showed off the world's largest autoclave, measuring 40 m. by 7 m. in diameter.
Korean Air will launch thrice-weekly Incheon-Las Vegas service from Sept. 22 aboard a 301-seat 777-200. SkyEurope Airlines will increase frequencies from Bratislava to Bucharest and Sofia to six-times-weekly from four from Sept. 11.
