British Airways will implement e-ticket interlining with 80 new partners through Amadeus in the next two years. BA, which is hosted on the Amadeus e-Ticket Server, already has implemented e-ticket interline links with 40 airlines, including its oneworld partners. "These new interline links will allow us to grow the number of routes on which our customers can travel using an e-ticket and help British Airways advance towards the 100% e-ticket target set by IATA for the end of 2007," Product Delivery Manager Jerry Foran stated.
Reporting its first quarterly results since exiting Chapter 11 in February ( ATWOnline, Feb. 2), United Airlines parent UAL Corp. said it lost $306 million excluding bankruptcy-related items, widened from a deficit of $302 million in the year-ago period. Including noncash gains related to its restructuring, United earned $22.9 billion in the three months ended March 31 versus a loss of $223 million last year.
Stung by vocal criticism of its A350 offering from ILFC, Emirates and Singapore Airlines, Airbus is close to announcing a radical revamp of the aircraft, according to insiders in Toulouse. CEO Gustav Humbert told reporters two weeks ago that the airframer would make some sort of decision by summer ( ATWOnline, April 26).
Aviation Capital Group reported first-quarter activity comprising leases of two new A320s by Air Deccan, one 737-300 by BRA Transportes Aereos of Sao Paulo, a new A320 by Royal Jordanian, a new A320 by Wizz Air, a 737-400 by Aegean Airlines, an A319 by Mexicana de Aviacion and an A320 by Air China and extension of leases on three 767s by LOT Polish Airlines. ACG also acted as agent and sold nine 757s subject to leases with US Airways on behalf of a group of institutional investors and three 757s to US on behalf of an institutional client.
Delta Air Lines launched its five-times-weekly New York JFK-Budapest service last night. Flights will be daily from Aug. 3 to Sept. 30. Daily Atlanta-Nice service starts this evening. All flights are aboard 767-300ERs. Delta also announced the launch of a twice-daily ATL-Killeen-Fort Hood, Tex., service from Sept. 7 aboard Atlantic Southeast Airlines CRJ200s and addition of a second daily flight to its yet-to-begin Aspen-Salt Lake City service from July 1. Daily flights begin June 8.
Qantas said it will open a QantasLink base in Canberra and increase capacity on flights to Sydney "by more than 12%" as it places its sixth 72-seat Q400 on the route in August. It will add another Q400 to the service in October. It currently operates a 50-seat Dash 8 on the route. The move will create at least 30 jobs in Canberra.
Bahrain and Thailand reached an open-skies agreement allowing designated airlines to offer unlimited flights. Annual air traffic between the countries has been growing at 15% over the past five years.
Hawaiian Holdings, parent of Hawaiian Airlines, reported that its net loss for the first quarter ended March 31 widened to $12.3 million from $2.1 million in the year-ago period. The 2005 results are only for the parent company, which acquired the airline as part of the latter's emergence from bankruptcy in June 2005. On a pro-forma basis with the results of Holdings and the airline combined for the 2005 period, the year-ago loss was $1.7 million.
Mesaba Airlines mechanics, represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn., followed the lead of the carrier's pilots union by setting up strike headquarters. Union groups representing pilots, mechanics and flight attendants are at an impasse with the carrier over its effort to cancel labor contracts ( ATWOnline, Feb. 7). A bankruptcy court judge is scheduled to rule May 11.
European Union reached agreement Friday with 10 neighboring countries to work toward establishment of a European Common Aviation Area by 2010 that would comprise 35 nations and more than 500 million people. Eight non-EU nations in Southeast Europe, including Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania, signed what the EU called a "political agreement" to create a single aviation market encompassing most of the European continent. Iceland and Norway also signed the accord.
Northwest Airlines flew 6.04 billion RPMs in April, a 4.6% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 8.8% to 7.12 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 3.7 points to 84.9%. Domestic traffic dropped 5.7% to 3.58 billion RPMs as capacity decreased 12% to 4.25 billion ASMs, sending load factor up 5.6 points to 84.3%. International RPMs lowered 3% to 2.46 billion while capacity fell 3.8% to 2.87 billion ASMs. Load factor inched up 0.7 point to 85.9%. United Airlines flew 9.81 billion RPMs in April, an 8.4% rise over the year-ago month.
Boeing widened its lead over Airbus in terms of aircraft orders in April, while the Toulouse-based manufacturer held its edge in deliveries. Boeing received orders for 149 aircraft last month comprising 144 737s and five 787-9s. More than half of the orders came from Southwest Airlines (79 737-700s), while AirTran signed for 24 737-700s and an unidentified customer took 24 dash 800s. All five 787 orders came from Air Pacific. Boeing also booked orders for two BBJs in the month.
ExpressJet announced Friday that it will retain 69 regional jets removed from its capacity purchase agreement with Continental Airlines and use them to "pursue various strategic options outside the...agreement." Continental notified its largest Regional partner in January that the aircraft--25 ERJ-145LRs and 44 ERJ-145XRs--would be taken out of the Continental Express network after the two sides failed to reach a financial agreement on their continued deployment.
Continental Airlines and the Air Line Pilots Assn. issued statements Thursday protesting the US Dept. of Transportation's revised Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued Wednesday that clarified its position on foreign control of US airlines ( ATWOnline, May 4).
TAM's first-quarter net income soared 107.9% compared to the year-ago period to R$111.2 million ($53.6 million) on a 24.6% rise in revenues to R$1.7 billion. Brazil's leading airline said the addition of four A320s and two A330s facilitated an expansion of services that increased revenue-generating opportunities, while costs were lowered by upping fleetwide aircraft utilization from 10.6 to 12.4 average block hr. per day.
Cathay Pacific Airways will offer early retirement to 1,600 cabin crew with more than 15 years experience, according to a Cathay spokesperson cited by the Associated Press. Those who elect to take the buyout will receive 17 months' salary in addition to standard benefits and will be replaced by new staff.
Air Berlin late Thursday delayed the launch of its IPO, scheduled for Friday, owing to the market's concern over the share price, according to press reports. AB reportedly was asking for €15-€17.5 ($19-$22.10) per share. The IPO now is planned for May 10 with 42.5 million shares priced at €11.5-€14.5, with AB hoping to generate €489-€616 million.
EasyJet cabin crew and ground staff represented by the Transport & General Workers Union will vote on whether to call a strike in a long-running pay dispute, the union announced Friday. T&G said it has been negotiating a two-year deal since last October and warned the strike could begin in six weeks.
Sabena Technics hangar at Brussels Airport was destroyed Friday by a heavy fire that damaged three A320s plus a C-130 belonging to the Belgian Air Force that were in the shop for heavy maintenance. One A320 belonged to Armenian airline Armavia, which lost another A320 two days earlier when it crashed into the Black Sea ( ATWOnline, May 4).
Finnair Group on Friday unveiled a cost-cutting plan aimed at achieving annual savings of €80 million as it reported a first-period loss of €3.8 million ($4.8 million), reversing last year's March quarter profit of €12.2 million.
Hawaiian Airlines announced a "significant" expansion of its service to the western US from this fall, when it will add four 767-300s to its fleet, recall 22 furloughed pilots and hire some 100 new flight attendants. New or expanded services are: Kahului to San Diego (increasing from a summer-only schedule to year-round daily flights from Sept. 6), Seattle (from four-times-weekly to daily from Oct. 13) and Portland, Ore. (from thrice-weekly to daily from Oct. 13); Honolulu to Sacramento (from daily to 11-times-weekly from Nov. 19), Seattle (from daily to 10-times-weekly effective Nov.
Armavia said yesterday that the A320 that crashed into the Black Sea off the Russian coast Wednesday had undergone all proper maintenance checks, including an overhaul in Belgium last month ( ATWOnline, May 4). Rescue workers continued to search the sea for debris and clues to the cause of an accident that killed all 113 aboard. The black box has not been retrieved from the aircraft, which sits 500 m. below the water surface, according to Russian media reports. Heavy rain and low visibility have been offered as the accident's cause by the airline and Airbus.
Avion Group said its new Germany-based carrier, Star Europe, will start flying this summer from Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Cologne and Stuttgart to unspecified destinations in Eastern and Southern Europe and the Middle East. It initially will operate three A320s with plans for additional aircraft in the future. Martin Greiffenhagen was appointed CEO. "There are significant opportunities to develop a strong market presence and we look forward to an exciting future for this operation," Avion Executive Chairman Magnus Thorsteinsson said.
Star Alliance joined American Airlines in questioning the recent content-sharing deal between Amadeus and Sabre ( ATWOnline, March 9). The two GDSs announced in early March that they had entered into an agreement that enables "Amadeus customers to complete bookings on an airline [through Sabre] in the unlikely event of that airline withdrawing from participation in Amadeus" and vice versa.
