Varig and the group of employees and unidentified investors who bid for the carrier, NV Participacoes, were granted another extension by Rio de Janeiro bankruptcy court Judge Luiz Roberto Ayoub, who had given the group until Wednesday to make a case for its BRL1.01 billion ($439 million) bid ( ATWOnline, June 13). The court now will reconsider the bid next week, giving it time to examine documents NVP delivered just half an hour before the Wednesday deadline and the opportunity to consider other offers.
Nigerian startup Arik Air took delivery of two CRJ900s yesterday in Montreal, becoming the first operator of the aircraft in Africa. The order was announced last month ( ATWOnline, May 9).
European low-cost carriers operated 16.3% of all flights in May, according to a market analysis issued yesterday by Eurocontrol. In the past 12 months, LCCs added 2.4 points to their market share through re-branding and organic growth. The number of flights operated by LCCs in the first five months of 2006 increased 23% year-over-year to more than 3,700 per day and there are now 15 low-cost operators with more than 50 daily flights compared to 13 a year ago. Overall, Europe now has 50 LCCs, down by two since last year, with low-cost companies operating out of 22 countries.
Austrian Airlines is investing €40 million ($50.3 million) in a new business class product on its long-haul fleet, including lie-flat seats and Connexion by Boeing Internet service. From this summer it will begin refurbishing its fleet of three 777-200s and six 767-300ERs.
Air China intends to raise CNY8 billion ($996.3 million) through the sale of 2.7 billion shares on the Shanghai stock exchange later this year, an airline official told reporters yesterday. The offering constitutes 28.62% of its existing share capital, the Associated Press reported. The carrier, which already has shares traded in Hong Kong, is awaiting approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission. China International Capital Corp., CITIC Securities and Galaxy Securities reportedly will be the underwriters.
Hawaiian Airlines flew 555.1 million RPMs in May, a 1.6% rise over the year-ago month. Capacity fell 0.1% to 639.4 million ASMs, lifting load factor 1.4 points to 86.8%. SkyWest, parent of SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, said its airlines flew a combined 1.36 billion RPMs in May, a 117.6% rise over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 100.6% to 1.71 billion ASMs and load factor increased 6.2 points to 79.6%.
SITA and Airbus announced a new service "to issue and load software (and more generally any dataset) onto A380 aircraft" that SITA said will ensure "data integrity and the identity authentication of the supplier." SITA noted that there are more than 40 function (hardware/software) suppliers in the Airbus supply chain and 1,400 individual software programs on the A380. It will provide and manage the certification process while acting as registration authority for users.
DayJet, which plans to offer what it describes as "the world's first Per-Seat On Demand" jet service ( ATWOnline, April 25) using Eclipse 500 very light jets, said it will begin by operating in five Florida cities--Boca Raton, Gainesville, Lakeland, Pensacola and Tallahassee--later this year. The company is in "final negotiations" with FBOs and airports in each of the cities to operate what it calls DayPorts.
US National Transportation Safety Board is investigating an uncontained engine failure on an American Airlines 767 that occurred during a ground maintenance test run on June 2 at Los Angeles International. According to NTSB, the HPT stage one disk on the number one GE CF6-80A2 broke into several pieces that "were found embedded in the fuselage, the number two engine, and scattered as far 3,000 feet from the airplane." The ensuing holes in the wings caused fuel leaks that resulted in a ground fire that was extinguished by airport firefighters. There were no reported injuries.
Malaysia Airlines said 4,200 employees applied to participate in its Mutual Separation Scheme, a buyout program offered to more than 18,000 staff as part of its Business Turnaround Plan ( ATWOnline, March 6). MAS will see an additional 1,171 employees retire this year. "Based on the profile of the applicants, we are looking at achieving our objective [MYR300 million ($81.3 million) in savings] in August this year by releasing around 3,000 employees in the higher salary bracket," MD and CEO Idris Jala said.
United Airlines will lay off at least 1,000 salaried workers by year end, CEO Glenn Tilton said yesterday at the Merrill Lynch Global Transportation Conference in New York. The figure represents approximately 11% of UA's salaried employees. Overall, the airline is targeting savings of $400 million in 2007 ( ATWOnline, May 9).
Lufthansa Cargo will take over sales and marketing of Air Madrid's freight capacity and handling effective Sept. 1. The agreement calls for LHC to open five new handling stations in Latin America.
Airbus said yesterday that it "disagrees" with ICAO's interim recommendation that there be 10 nm. of separation between the A380 and aircraft landing behind it. Speaking at the company's annual technical press briefing in Toulouse, Senior VP-Flight Division Claude Lelaie described the ICAO position as "not reality." He said Airbus's own extensive testing reveals that heavy aircraft need to be separated from the A380 by just 6 nm. on approach to avoid complications from its wake vortex, or 1 nm. more than currently is required for aircraft flying behind 747s on approach.
WestJet said its executive VP-finance and CFO position, vacated this week with the departure of Alexander Campbell ( ATWOnline, March 9), will be filled jointly on an interim basis by VP-Controller Janice Paget (internal) and VP-Finance & Corporate Services Derek Payne (external). The carrier is continuing its search for a permanent successor.
Airbus yesterday revealed that A380 launch customer Singapore Airlines will receive its first aircraft too late in the year to place it into service in 2006, as SIA had hoped. The airframer also said that the A380 delivery schedule will undergo a shift of "six to seven months" and that "production ramp-up issues" likely will limit 2007 deliveries to just nine aircraft rather than around 20 as previously planned. A further shortfall in deliveries of 5-9 aircraft is expected in 2008 and approximately five in 2009.
Atlas Blue of Morocco took delivery of its first 737-800, the start of its plan to expand its fleet to 24 aircraft by 2012. The LCC, launched in 2004 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Air Maroc, operates six 737-400s on international services from Marrakech and Agadir to destinations across Europe.
US Airways was awarded two daily slot exemptions at Reagan Washington National Airport for a new service to Sarasota/Bradenton to be launched by Aug. 15. The slots became available when Spirit Airlines ceased service to Myrtle Beach on Nov. 10, according to the US Dept. of Transportation, which said AirTran Airways and Comair also applied for the exemptions.
Lufthansa flew 9.74 billion RPKs in May, a 2.2% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 1.4% to 13.06 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 0.6 point to 74.5%. Iberia flew 4.33 billion RPKs in May, an 8.1% rise over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 6% to 5.68 billion ASKs and load factor increased 1.5 points to 76.2%. Copa Airlines flew 309.5 million RPMs in May, a 31.3% rise over the year-ago month. Capacity increased 22.6% to 418.4 million ASMs and load factor jumped 4.9 points to 74%.
Goodrich Corp. was selected by Hawaiian Airlines to perform heavy maintenance checks, interior standardizations, painting and ETOPS modifications and other work on four 767-300s prior to their entry into service later this year.
Air France and Ryanair are at odds again, with AF initiating legal action to prevent Ryanair from benefiting from lower charges at Marseille-Provence and Ryanair filing another complaint to the European Commission concerning "Air France's latest attempt to block competition from low fares airlines in France." "We filed a case at the Conseil d'Etat in Paris last Friday against the CCI [Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie] Marseille-Provence, which holds the concession to operate MRS, claiming it is breaching the law by offering lower airport charges to Ryanair than to us for similar se
CSA Czech Airlines, which plunged to a CZK496 million ($22.1 million) loss in 2005 from a CZK324 million profit the year before ( ATWOnline, June 7), yesterday unveiled a three-year plan to return to profitability dubbed "OK 06-08" that will include a 10%-20% workforce reduction, "especially in administrative positions." President Radomir Lasak said, "An immediate change to internal procedures and business practices is critical to the future of Czech Airlines," adding that "CSA will not become a low-cost carrier.
Airbus has made 10 flights totaling 30 hr. with an A320 equipped with winglets and plans additional flights in July with an A320 equipped with a second winglet design. Senior VP-A320 Mario Heinen said no decisions have been made. "This is a research program still," he said. "We are collecting data." He added that customers such as JetBlue Airways, which provided one of its A320s for the test flights ( ATWOnline, Feb.
