Cathay Pacific announced yesterday that the heads of Cathay, Air China, China National Aviation Co., Swire Pacific and CITIC Pacific met in Hong Kong to "finalize details of the formal agreement" related to CX's acquisition of Dragonair, confirming this week's reports ( ATWOnline, June 8). A press conference was scheduled in Hong Kong for Friday morning local time.
El Al hopes to make Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport a connecting hub for transport to the Far East. "We already have passengers who are traveling with us from Europe and the US to Asia. We see some potential for us in this business," Chairman Israel Borovich told this website at the IATA AGM in Paris. Asian destinations currently comprise Beijing, Hong Kong and Bangkok. El Al will add two more 777s by next year and has begun installation of a new business class product, including lie-flat seats, on its long-haul fleet.
Delta Air Lines continued to expand its network yesterday with the launch of 23 new North American routes that will serve 19 states and Canada and each of DL's major hubs. Six of seven new routes from Atlanta are operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines, four of five from New York JFK are flown by Comair and six of seven from Salt Lake City are handled by SkyWest. More routes will be inaugurated throughout the month. Separately, Delta raised fuel surcharges on "most" transatlantic flights by $10 effective yesterday.
EasyJet said it is "targeting British Airways' business passengers" with an expansion at London Gatwick, adding thrice-daily flights to Glasgow (it already flies there from Stansted and Luton) from Oct. 2 and increasing frequencies to Amsterdam to five-times-daily, Berlin Schoenefeld to twice-daily, Athens to 11-times-weekly, Madrid to four-times-daily, Milan to five-times-daily and Cologne/Bonn to thrice-daily. EasyJet will fly up to 500,000 passengers per month on 33 routes from LGW by this summer, accounting for 18% of the airport's capacity.
United Airlines flew 10.13 billion system RPMs in May, a 4.5% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 2.1% to 12.13 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 2 points to a May-record 83.8%.
Sky Airlines of Turkey placed an order for three firm 737-900ERs and two purchase rights, becoming the first European customer for the type launched last year, Boeing announced. The aircraft are valued at $226 million at list prices and are scheduled to begin delivery in the first quarter of 2009. Sky is a vacation airline operating a fleet of six 737-400s and one dash 800.
Air China took delivery of its first A330-200 yesterday in Chengdu. The aircraft seats 283 passengers in a two-class configuration and will serve high-altitude routes for the carrier's Southwest Branch, which operates six A340-300s and 11 A319s.
Air France-KLM said May traffic rose 6.2% over the year-ago month to 16.18 billion RPKs against a 4.3% lift in capacity to 20.45 billion ASKs. Load factor gained 1.4 points to 79.1%. The company posted a "significant increase" in unit revenue last month, "once again driven by sustained levels of premium traffic." EasyJet carried 2.9 million passengers in May, up 15.2% on the year-ago month. Load factor dipped 0.2 point to 83.9%.
Emirates will increase its Dubai-Abidjan service to five-times-weekly from four starting today. JAT Airways resumed weekly flights from Belgrade to Monastir and Tunis. It will add a twice-weekly Belgrade-Cairo service this summer. Flights will be operated with two CRJ200s leased from Adria Airways that eventually will be replaced by two purchased CRJ700s.
Air Transat ground handling subsidiary Handlex opened a base at Vancouver International last month and hired 80 new employees. Handlex already operates at Montreal Trudeau, Montreal Mirabel and Toronto International airports. Separately, Transat said it has partnered with Canadian tour operator Nolitours to offer flights from Toronto and Montreal to Madrid.
Skyways Aviation arranged the sale of a Saab 340A from the fleet of sister company Skyways Express of Sweden to Bridges Worldwide, a global provider of network solutions to freight companies. Bridges previously acquired two other Saab 340s that are being converted to full cargo configuration.
Royal Jordanian intends to make a decision before year end on the replacement of its long-haul fleet, President and CEO Samer Majali told ATWOnline during the IATA AGM in Paris. He said the initial version of the A350 "could have worked for us" but that deciding between the 787 and A350 has become problematic as "it is difficult to base an analysis on an aircraft that is not yet defined." The long-haul fleet renewal should start in 2010 and comprise 8-10 aircraft. RJ currently deploys three A310s and four A340s on its long-haul network.
Jade Cargo International will begin operations at the beginning of August, immediately after taking delivery of its first 747-400ERF. It initially will serve Amsterdam and Seoul Incheon three times a week from its hub in Shenzhen. Its second 747-400ERF is due to arrive in November. It has ordered a total of six with deliveries through January 2008. "We will rapidly expand our route network and serve intra-Asian, European and American destinations. From the start, Jade Cargo will assume a leading role in China's fast-growing air cargo market," MD Rudolf Tewes said in a statement.
JetBlue Airways broke ground yesterday on its $24.5 million crew facility at Orlando International. Scheduled for completion in 14-18 months, the JetBlue Crew Lodge will include 292 guest rooms, a 4,000-sq.-ft. assembly hall, fitness facilities and other features. The LCC already operates a training center at MCO that opened in June 2005 and a three-bay hangar facility used by LiveTV, its wholly owned subsidiary. Separately, JetBlue will launch thrice-daily New York JFK-Nashville flights aboard Embraer 190s from Aug. 31.
Cathay Pacific's acquisition of Dragonair and its routes into mainland China appeared imminent yesterday as trading in the Hong Kong-listed shares of Cathay, Air China, China National Aviation Co., CITIC Pacific and Swire Pacific was suspended for a third consecutive day, according to press reports. CITIC MD Henry Fan told reporters he expected an official announcement to come by today. Cathay already holds 17.8% of Dragonair and reportedly will pay approximately HK$8 billion ($1 billion) in cash and stock for the rest.
AirAsia will develop Kota Kinabalu and Kuching into fully operational hubs by July as part of its takeover of Malaysia Airlines' domestic network. It will have four bases in Malaysia. AirAsia also announced it will launch a daily Kuala Lumpur-Bandar Seri Begawan service from July 11. It said it will be the first low-fare carrier to fly into Brunei.
British Airways intends to resolve its pension issue before it moves forward with significant long-haul aircraft orders and does not want to take delivery of any new types ahead of its 2008 move into London Heathrow's Terminal 5, CEO Willie Walsh confirmed earlier this week at a meeting of oneworld executives ahead of the IATA AGM.
Air One is set to become a regional member of Star Alliance in the future, but the Italian carrier is aiming higher, Head of Network & Marketing Giorgio De Roni told this website at the IATA AGM. "First, I think, it makes sense that we become a regional member, then we will apply for full membership," he said. As a first step, Air One is planning to introduce more codeshare agreements with Star carriers.
Lufthansa Cargo in a significant operational change is closing its station in Fairbanks, which was used for 16 years for technical stops on flights to Japan, in favor of routing all services through Astana in Kazakhstan for refueling and crew changes. The move should reduce flying time and complexity. The station at Almaty also will be closed. From July, 40 weekly LHC flights will take off and land in Astana, making it the cargo giant's second-biggest airport.
The replacement carrier for troubled Olympic Airlines is supposed to start operating this fall, Sabre Aviation Consulting Services President Nejib Ben-Khedher told this website during this week's IATA conference in Paris.
CSA Czech Airlines posted a CZK496 million ($22.6 million) loss in 2005, a significant reversal from the CZK324 million profit earned in 2004, and expects to finish 2006 in the red, the carrier told the CTK Czech News Agency. Operating revenues rose 12% to CZK22.4 billion against a 21.4% increase in costs to CZK23.4 billion. CSA transported 5.2 million passengers last year, a 20% increase that "was achieved at the cost of inadequately high expenditures," President Radomir Lasak told CTK. "This problem has roots in 2003, when CSA decided to increase its fleet by 45% in a leap.
British Airways flew 9.66 billion RPKs in May, a 6.9% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 5.1% to 12.97 billion ASKs and load factor went up 1.3 points to 74.5%. Separately, BA and Malev Hungarian Airlines signed a codeshare agreement effective Nov. 1, placing BA's code on Malev's twice-daily London Gatwick-Budapest flights and seven Eastern European routes from BUD. Malev will place its code on BA's thrice-daily London Heathrow-BUD service and on flights to five British markets from LGW.
