Varig representatives said yesterday at a hearing in New York that a second, unidentified investor offered $450 million in cash for the airline, a figure higher than the bid offered last week by a group of employees that included just $125 million in cash, Bloomberg News reported. The employees' bid was approved in principle yesterday by a Rio de Janeiro bankruptcy court judge ( ATWOnline, June 13), who asked the group to double its cash commitment before he issues a final ruling today.
Delta Air Lines said it received US approval to launch Atlanta-Leon Del Bajio flights from Dec. 1 aboard Atlantic Southeast Airlines CRJ700s. Mexican approval is pending. North American Airlines will launch thrice-weekly New York JFK-Lagos service from July 17 aboard 767-300ERs. NAA already flies to Accra and Banjul.
Embraer consolidated its offices in France into a single location near Paris Charles de Gaulle. The new office provides customer support, administration, information technology and spare parts sales for Embraer operators in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Only one day after SAS Braathens CEO Petter Jansen resigned ( ATWOnline, June 13), the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (Okokrim) said it filed charges against the airline for illegal computer access and misuse of business secrets.
Dreamliner will feature dual flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders. Speaking to media on the 787 global tour, Mike Sinnett, chief engineer for 787 systems, said there will be units combining the FDR and CVR located both under the cockpit and in the tail.
A Brazilian bankruptcy court judge granted Varig a glimmer of hope yesterday, approving an employee group's BRL1.01 billion ($445.5 million) offer for the beleaguered airline with certain conditions. NV Participacoes (TGV), composed of pilots and flight attendants, presented the only bid at last week's auction, one that fell well below the minimum ( ATWOnline, June 9).
Aer Arann appointed Garry Cullen as its new chief executive, ending a months-long search for a successor to the airline's founder and outgoing MD, Padraig O'Ceidigh. He will take up the post of executive chairman while outgoing chairman Paul D'Alton will become a nonexecutive director. Cullen was chief executive of Antigua-based LIAT. Separately, Aer Arann will launch four-times-weekly London Luton-Newquay service from July 3 aboard a 66-seat ATR 72. It already serves Newquay from Cork.
Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd. issued a statement Sunday protesting Cathay Pacific's acquisition of Dragonair ( ATWOnline, June 12) and application for a self-handling air cargo facility at Hong Kong International, saying the combination would "create a dominant, vertically integrated air cargo operation" that would "negatively impact airlines, cargo terminal operators, freight forwarders and other participants in one of Hong Kong's key business sectors." HACTL said CX and Dragonair account for 40% of cargo vo
747-8 Intercontinental order booked last week ( ATWOnline, June 12) is a VIP transport for a Middle East-based buyer, ATWOnline understands. According to sources in London, the order is linked to the order for 20 777s also booked last week. That order is believed to be for Qatar Airways. Meanwhile, Virgin Blue Airlines is the customer that exercised purchase rights for nine 737-800s last month, Boeing said yesterday.
SAS Braathens CEO Petter Jansen resigned from the airline yesterday, a day after disagreeing with the airline's board about the future direction of the Norwegian carrier, which is the largest member of the Scandinavian Airlines Businesses unit of SAS Group. Although SAS Braathens was the only member of SAB to post an operating or pre-tax profit in 2005, it has been hit by labor unrest in 2006 that contributed to first-quarter losses.
Aerosim Technologies said UPS extended a contract for Web-based FMS training for MD-11 pilots. The extension covers a two-year term following an initial term of three years.
US Airways yesterday announced a significant expansion of frequencies across its domestic network. It will add 106 one-way flights to its schedule beginning Aug. 21 to/from its bases at Phoenix, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Washington National and New York LaGuardia. Largest increase is at Charlotte with the addition of frequencies on 13 city-pairs and the launch of thrice-daily service to New York JFK. US also will launch a daily Orlando International-Key West service on Sept. 6 to be operated by a Republic Airways Embraer 170.
Japan Airlines and Finnair will expand their codeshare agreement to include thrice-weekly JAL-operated flights from Nagoya Chubu to Sapporo and Fukuoka. China Airlines will launch a twice-weekly cargo service between Taipei and Osaka on July 4 with a 747-400ERF. Hapag Lloyd Express will start a twice-weekly Cologne-Innsbruck service by December. It also is looking to start flights from Cologne to Linz in the first half of 2007.
Sabre Airline Solutions said Mexico's Aviacsa selected its AirMax Revenue Manager including Low-Fares Manager modules. The revenue management technology will be delivered via Sabre eMergo Web access, an ASP delivery method.
Northwest Airlines and the Professional Flight Attendants Assn. agreed to resume contract negotiations Wednesday after union members last week voted overwhelmingly to reject a tentative agreement between the airline and union negotiators ( ATWOnline, June 7).
News from Travel Technology Update: The recent flap over Air Canada's withdrawal of its Tango fares from the GDSs is unlikely to dampen airlines' enthusiasm for the kind of "product differentiation" that Tango represents. And far from being opposed to the concept, some of the GDS companies are making strides in their attempts to accommodate the airlines' desires. Amadeus plans to be aggressive in this new arena, Stephane Pingaud, senior manager of airline marketing and sales, said, and plans to roll out new merchandising features beginning next year.
AirTran Airways said its 50 stock clerks based in Orlando and Atlanta, represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, ratified the five-year agreement reached last week ( ATWOnline, June 6) by a three-to-one margin.
CAE won orders for four full flight simulators from Flight Simulation Co. and Flight Training Finance. With a list price value of C$52 million ($46.6 million), the contracts bring the number of FFS sales CAE has announced in FY07 to seven. It will provide two 737-800 FFSs and one A320 FFS to Flight Simulation Co.'s training facility at Amsterdam Schiphol. All three will feature electromechanical motion systems and Tropos II Enhanced visual systems. Flight Training Finance ordered an Embraer 170/190 FFS that also features the Tropos visual system.
Tassili Airlines, an affiliate of Algeria's Sonatrach state energy group, ordered four Q400s in a deal valued at $84 million, according to a Sonatrach release and press reports, which said Bombardier beat out Airbus and ATR for the order. The aircraft are expected to be delivered between July and October 2007. A Bombardier spokesperson told ATWOnline that the company still is negotiating with Sonatrach.
The recent flap over Air Canada's withdrawal of its Tango fares from the GDSs is unlikely to dampen airlines' enthusiasm for the kind of "product differentiation" that Tango represents. And far from being opposed to the concept, some of the GDS companies are making strides in their attempts to accommodate the airlines' desires. Amadeus plans to be aggressive in this new arena, Stephane Pingaud, senior manager of airline marketing and sales, said, and plans to roll out new merchandising features beginning next year.
Nine SkyTeam member carriers signed an MOU with BAA Friday confirming their co-location at London Heathrow's Terminal 4 in 2008, when the new T5 opens and the airport reorganizes ( ATWOnline, March 28).
Brazilian bankruptcy court postponed its Friday decision on whether to allow a group of Varig employees, NV Participacoes, to buy the bankrupt airline for a bid that came in at about half the $860 million minimum at last week's auction ( ATWOnline, June 9). The judge opted to delay his ruling until today in order to learn more about the bid, according to a court statement cited by press reports.
