BAA's board accepted Ferrovial Group's increased bid for the airports company early Tuesday and is recommending that shareholders approve the Spanish firm's takeover by a June 26 deadline. Ferrovial's earlier bids were dismissed by the operator of London Gatwick, Stansted and Heathrow airports as "on the cheap" ( ATWOnline, May 29), but a revised, final bid of £10.1 billion ($19 billion), up from an original bid of £8.75 billion, "represents an attractive price," BAA said in a statement.
Boeing and FedEx jointly have initiated a 120-day in-service evaluation of active radio frequency identification tags on some major airplane parts for a FedEx MD-10F. Active tags provide considerably greater read range than passive tags, 300 ft. compared to 10 ft., giving the ability to inventory an aircraft without opening access doors, according to Boeing. Active tags also operate more quickly and provide more storage memory. The tags were created by Identec Solutions, are battery powered and contain a microchip and transmitter that operate at 915MHz.
Northwest Airlines flight attendants overwhelmingly rejected a tentative agreement reached in March that would have provided the bankrupt carrier with $195 million in annual work rule, benefit and salary concessions ( ATWOnline, March 2). According to the Professional Flight Attendants Assn., 85% of the 7,625 eligible workers cast votes and of those, 80% voted to reject the agreement. "The Flight Attendants understood how harsh and unfair the bankruptcy process can be to loyal employees.
IATA AGM formally approved a resolution making membership conditional on IATA Operational Safety Audit certification despite plenty of protest, mainly from African carriers, against the new prerequisite. Under the regulation, all new IATA members will be required to pass IOSA before they join while existing members must contract for an audit by year end and complete it by the end of 2007. "Safety is our number one priority," IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani stressed.
Ryanair called its growth "inexorable" as it reported a record €302 million ($390.9 million) after-tax profit for the financial year ended March 31, a figure approximately €7 million above forecast and 12% higher than the €268 million earned in the previous fiscal year. It did issue a "cautious" outlook for the coming term, predicting that traffic will climb 20%, yields will remain flat and profit will grow by a more "modest" 5%-10%.
Lufthansa appears to have been unsuccessful in its bid to cut pilot costs in the face of strong earnings last year ( ATWOnline, Dec. 21, 2005), announcing a new deal yesterday with the approximately 4,000 pilots represented by the Vereinigung Cockpit union that offers a 2.5% pay raise from July 1, a further 1.5% raise on March 1, 2007, a small one-off payment and an incremental reduction in regular work hours.
Mettis Aerospace was selected by Teleflex Aerospace Manufacturing Group to be an exclusive supplier of aluminum outlet guide vanes in a deal with GE Aircraft Engines. The five-year deal includes a newly designed vane for the GEnx.
In a rare commitment by a US Major for widebody aircraft, Continental Airlines yesterday announced an order for 10 additional 787s, doubling the order it placed in December 2004 ( ATWOnline, Jan. 4, 2005) and making it the largest US customer for the Dreamliner. CO also said it will acquire 24 more 737NGs, bringing the number of firm orders for the type to 66. The 20 787s begin delivery in 2009, with the first additional 737 arriving in 2008.
Rolls-Royce signed a 15-year Total Care engine services agreement with UPS covering 40 RB211-535s powering 757 freighters. The pact "covers work which would not be performed by UPS's own maintenance program," according to Rolls.
Malev Hungarian Airlines, scheduled to become a oneworld member early next year, expects to report breakeven results for 2006. "We are expecting a drastic growth in terms of passengers thanks to the oneworld membership, which should double passenger figures from the 3 million of today," CCO Andras Zboray, told ATWOnline at the IATA AGM in Paris. Malev is planning to extend its network to more destinations in Eastern Europe starting with the Balkans, cities in the southeastern Mediterranean and other markets within 3 hr. of Budapest.
IATA yesterday moderated industry profit and loss expectations for 2006 in the face of expectations that the price of oil will average $66 a barrel, a level that is offsetting revenue growth and efficiency gains. Speaking at the opening of the World Air Transport Summit and AGM in Paris, CEO and DG Giovanni Bisignani said airlines will lose $3 billion this year. In late March he put the figure at $2.2 billion based on $57 per barrel oil ( ATWOnline, March 24).
Japan Airlines on Sunday in Paris received a formal invitation to join the oneworld alliance seven months after the world's largest unaligned carrier announced its intentions ( ATWOnline, Oct. 26, 2005).
MAT Macedonian Airlines hopes to establish Skopje Airport as a regional hub for the Balkans and southeastern Europe. The carrier is evaluating Saab 340s/2000s for feeder services from cities like Sofia, Istanbul, Pristina and Podgorica. "We are also joining IATA's IOSA program, which should be completed by September this year," MAT MD Bojan Sodnik told this website. The airline operates one CRJ900, one 737-300 and one MD-80 during the summer season. It carried 200,000 passengers in 2005 and expects 7% growth this year.
Varig announced that the auction of its aircraft and routes in Rio de Janeiro has been postponed until Thursday by a bankruptcy court judge. It had been scheduled for yesterday ( ATWOnline, June 5) but was moved at investors' request, the airline said. So far Gol, TAM, TAP Portugal, OceanAir and Brookefield, a US investment firm, have paid to have access to Varig's books, Reuters reported.
Israel Aircraft Industries said its Bedek Aviation division received an FAA STC for conversion of a 747-400 Combi into a pure freighter. The aircraft used for the certification process is owned by Guggenheim Aviation and will be operated by Air China. IAI said certification also was received from the Israeli CAA and certification from EASA and CAAC are expected shortly.
Iberia is only "cutting nonprofitable routes" at Barcelona International, Chairman and CEO Fernando Conte stressed to ATWOnline at the IATA AGM in Paris ( ATWOnline, June 2). "There is a lot of misunderstanding on this matter. We are not leaving BCN.
AirTran Airways announced a five-year tentative agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters yesterday covering approximately 50 stock clerks at its Atlanta and Orlando MRO bases. Ratification is expected in the next 10 days.
Texas Pacific Group Founding Partner David Bonderman warned of the "deeply cyclical" nature of the airline business during the CEO Forum on Shaping the Air Transport Industry at the IATA AGM in Paris yesterday. "Although disguised by high fuel prices, this is about as good as it gets," he said, predicting that in two years time "we will see everybody cancel orders for over 1,000 new aircraft." Ironically, Bonderman also is chairman of Ryanair, which has outstanding firm orders for 143 737-800s and 193 options.
US Federal Communications Commission said AirCell of Colorado and LiveTV, a JetBlue Airways subsidiary, won the 144-round auction concluded June 2 for two air-ground spectrum licenses in the 800MHz band ( ATWOnline, Jan. 16). Verizon Airfone's license to use the spectrum expires in May 2010 and it must relinquish three of the four MHz bands on which it operates within the next two years. AirCell bid $31.3 million for a 3-MHz block and LiveTV will pay $7 million for a 1-MHz block.
Privately held Italian carrier Air One is seriously considering launching long-haul flights from its Rome Fiumicino base, Head of Network and Marketing Giorgio De Roni told ATWOnline at the IATA AGM in Paris. "We are evaluating the opportunities," De Roni said. "Alitalia is going through a difficult time, but they will recover. Maybe we should seize the opportunity."
Southwest Airlines will launch a daily Denver-Houston Hobby flight on July 17 (increasing to twice-daily on Aug. 4), a four-times-daily DEN-Kansas City service and daily flights from DEN to Orlando International and Nashville, all on Aug. 4, and a daily Baltimore/Washington International-Oakland service from Aug. 17. It also will add one more daily flight from DEN to BWI, Chicago Midway and Phoenix on July 17 and to Las Vegas on Aug. 4. Frequencies will be added between HOU and Tampa on July 17 and between Boise and Oakland on Aug. 17.
Continental Airlines estimated an 8.5%-9.5% year-over-year rise in consolidated May RASM and a 7%-8% increase in mainline RASM as May system traffic increased 14.6% to 7.65 billion RPMs. Capacity rose 11.9% to 9.44 billion ASMs and load factor climbed 1.9 points to a May-record 81%. Domestic RPMs increased 7.9% to 3.63 billion as capacity grew 4.6% to 4.33 billion ASMs and load factor went up 2.7 points to 83.9%. International traffic jumped 20.9% to 3.12 billion RPMs on a 20.9% climb in capacity to 3.99 billion ASMs, leaving load factor steady at 78%.
US FAA yesterday moved expeditiously to begin implementing a new contract for members of the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. following a 60-day mandatory Congressional review period that expired Monday. In a statement, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey noted "that the period for review has ended without modification of our proposal by Congress.
Royal Jordanian took delivery of an IAE V2500-powered A321 last month. The 167-seat aircraft is the fourth of a group of six new A320s/A321s acquired to replace older A310s and A320s. Separately, RJ licensed the PROS Airline Solutions Suite, which includes the PROS 6 Revenue Management System, the PROS Group System and the PROS Network Revenue Planning System.
SkyTeam said at Friday's Governing Board meeting in Paris that Portugalia Airlines now is a candidate to join the alliance's Associate Airline Program and China Southern Airlines "continues to make progress on fulfilling alliance joining requirements" that should be finalized next year. Air France will sponsor Portugalia's effort to join SkyTeam by 2008. It serves nearly 1 million passengers per year operating to 20 destinations in six countries in Europe and North Africa with a fleet of 17 aircraft that include eight Embraer 145s and six F100s.
