Sabre Airline Solutions said it signed 15 contracts in the first quarter with airport operators around the world. The deals are with Macquarie Airports, Turin International Airport, Singapore Changi and 12 French and Swiss properties. Sabre also reached agreement with Caribbean Star Airlines and Caribbean Sun Airlines to create customized "user-friendly front-end access" to the sister carriers' reservations and airport check-in applications using Sabre's Qik Business Processing Solutions and Qik Developer Tool.
American Airlines is "looking under every rock" for additional cost savings and has launched initiatives "that we believe will save us $700 million year-over-year," AMR Corp. Chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey said at yesterday's annual shareholders' meeting. Citing rising fuel prices, employee medical costs and facility charges, he stated, "Just to keep costs flat with last year we would need more than $1 billion in savings" ( ATWOnline, May 11).
SAS Flight Academy is moving into larger facilities in Copenhagen and adding two full flight simulators, a 737NG and an MD-80. The training center also signed a contract with Sterling Airlines to be the exclusive training provider for its pilots and cabin personnel through 2010. Separately, SAS Flight Academy and AirBaltic signed a five-year agreement covering pilot and cabin crew training on 737s and F50s. The 737 training eventually will take place at a new center under construction at Riga International Airport.
Singapore Airlines flew 7.06 billion RPKs in April, an 11% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 4.1% to 9.26 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 4.8 points to 76.3%. SAS Group reported a 6.4% year-on-year increase in April system traffic to 3.23 billion RPKs. Capacity slipped 2.7% to 4.4 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 6.3 points to 73.4%. SAS Scandinavian Airlines traffic fell 1.3% to 2.31 billion RPKs against a 9% decrease in capacity to 3.04 billion ASKs, sending load factor up 6 points to 76.1%.
Set to benefit from expected downsizing at Varig, Gol said it will take delivery of an additional two 737-700s this year and an additional eight in 2007 along with two dash 300s.
Copa Holdings, parent of Panama's Copa Airlines and Colombia's AeroRepublica, reported first-quarter net income of $32.2 million, a 42.9% increase over the $22.6 million earned in the year-ago quarter and a record quarterly result for the company. "We continue to execute both operationally and financially," CEO Pedro Heilbron told analysts in a conference call.
ATR and the government of Equatorial Guinea signed a contract for two new ATR 72-500s and one new 42-500. The deal is valued at $50 million, according to ATR, which will deliver the aircraft over the next three years. "We are convinced that ATR represents the best choice to achieve our goal of renewal and expansion of our national airline," Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo said. ATR said it has received orders for 136 aircraft since Jan. 1, "some of which have not yet been announced."
Northwest Airlines flight attendants union expressed anger this week over a May 12 letter from Suzanne Boda, the airline's VP-inflight services, that promised the carrier was through bargaining and warned of potential ramifications if Professional Flight Attendants Assn. members reject the tentative labor agreement reached in March that provides $195 million in annual savings to NWA ( ATWOnline, March 2).
China Southern Airlines launched a thrice-weekly Beijing-Pyongyang service aboard 737s, a four-times-weekly Urumqi-Moscow service (resumption of a route suspended in 2003) and a six-times-weekly Guilin-Macau flight aboard newly delivered 737-800s. It also announced it will increase to daily its four-times-weekly Guangzhou-Beijing-Amsterdam 777 service. Flights will be five-times-weekly from June 24 and daily from Aug. 14.
AirBaltic will launch twice-weekly Riga-Tel Aviv service aboard 737-500s from June 5, becoming the only carrier in the Baltics or Scandinavia to offer direct service to Tel Aviv. AirBaltic carried 113,723 passengers in April, 44% more than in the year-ago month. Load factor rose 12 points to 62%.
Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson yesterday opened its fifth runway, 10-28, its first new runway since 1984. Delta Air Lines said the 9,000-ft. runway will improve arrival and departure rates by 25%-35%.
Airbus has chosen Russia as its initial partner in the eventual passenger-to-freighter conversion of its A320 family aircraft, announcing yesterday at the ILA Airshow in Berlin the execution of a preliminary cooperation agreement with EADS EFW, MiG and Irkut. Conversion activities for A320s and A321s will include design, kit production, conversion and maintenance and are scheduled to begin in Russia in 2011. This is the first announcement of any A320 passenger-to-freighter conversion program.
Jet Airways named Dale Moss COO. He most recently was director-worldwide sales and marketing-worldwide cargo for British Airways. Southwest Airlines named Jeff Lamb VP-people and leadership development. He joined Southwest in 2004.
Allegiant Travel Co., parent of Allegiant Air, filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed IPO of its common stock. The carrier, which provides both scheduled and charter services for leisure travelers, operates a fleet of 21 MD-80s and employs 670 people. The number of shares and price range have not been determined. According to analysts from Raymond James & Assoc., Allegiant's revenue for 2005 was $153 million, a 51% increase over the previous year.
SAS Group President and CEO Jorgen Lindegaard, who kept the airline aloft through the most challenging period in its history, announced yesterday that he will resign this fall, saying in a statement, "I feel that the time is right for a new CEO to take over."
Lufthansa 747-400 collapsed onto its nose at Frankfurt Monday when the nose gear gave way. A spokesperson told ATWOnline that the airline is investigating the incident, which occurred shortly before the aircraft was scheduled for pushback for a flight to New Delhi. None of the 242 passengers and 16 crewmembers onboard was reported injured. The 747 was delivered to LH in 2001, according to Reuters.
CSA Czech Airlines moved its operations at New York JFK to privately operated Terminal 4 from T3. It offers daily service to Prague aboard an A310-300. Alaska Airlines became the first carrier to conduct an RNP landing at Portland (Ore.) International. It said the RNP approach, which it first used on March 8, will save 2 min. and 28 gal. of fuel per arrival.
Air Canada reported a 6.4% rise in consolidated traffic in April to 3.77 billion RPMs. Capacity increased 4.7% to 4.63 billion ASMs and load factor gained 1.2 points to 81.2%. Domestic RPMs grew 3.1% to 1.16 billion, capacity lifted 6.9% to 1.48 billion ASMs and load factor dropped 2.9 points to 78%. International RPMs rose 4.4% to 1.91 billion against a 1.5% increase in capacity to 2.27 billion ASMs, boosting load factor 2.3 points to 84.1%. Hawaiian Airlines flew 552.3 million RPMs in April, a 5.3% increase over the year-ago month.
Global fleet of freighter aircraft is expected to increase more than 50% over the next 20 years, growing from the current 1,797 to nearly 3,400, according to a market forecast from BACK Aviation. Of that number, nearly 60% will be widebodies as the demand for long-haul capacity remains steady. The forecast also noted that converted passenger aircraft account for 70% of the freighter fleet.
Air One plans to install Teledyne Controls' Flight Data Interface Management Unit and Wireless GroundLink technologies on the 30 A320s it recently purchased.
AMR Corp., parent of American Airlines, announced yesterday the pricing of a public offering of approximately $400 million of newly issued shares of common stock. Based on a late-day trading price of $25.60 per share, that would equate to about 15.63 million shares. AMR granted the underwriter, Merrill Lynch & Co., a 30-day option to purchase up to $60 million worth of additional shares to cover any overallotments. AMR said issuance and delivery of the shares is scheduled to occur Friday. Separately, AA set a goal of reducing fuel usage this year by an additional 30 million gal.
United Airlines will launch six North American routes Sept. 6: Daily San Francisco-Toronto on an A319, twice-daily Los Angeles-Vancouver on a CRJ700, daily Denver-Grand Rapids on a CRJ700, daily Los Angeles-Oklahoma City on a CRJ700, daily Washington Dulles-Albuquerque on an A319 and daily IAD-Birmingham on a CRJ200. Continental Airlines today will begin daily Newark-Barcelona service aboard a 172-seat 757-200. Route will be served five-times-weekly during the winter.
Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways signed an 18-month maintenance agreement covering a range of maintenance checks and work on Jazeera's A320 fleet. Separately, Jazeera launched flights from Kuwait to Alexandria and Luxor, its seventh and eighth destinations.
Aerolineas Argentinas announced last week that it will grant a 19% salary increase to approximately 7,000 employees represented by five unions in an effort to achieve long-sought labor peace. The raise will go into effect once "social peace" is reached with the mechanics and pilots unions, the carrier said.
