FedEx Express unveiled an expansion plan for its Indianapolis hub yesterday that includes construction of up to 14 widebody gates. The project will boost its processing capacity at the airport by 30% to 99,000 packages per hr. and is expected to be completed by late 2008. As part of its agreement with IND, FedEx extended its lease by 12 years to 2028. Indianapolis Airport Authority will fund, construct and lease back to FedEx five widebody gates by December, with options for nine more. Construction on the initial five will begin this month.
Arik Air exercised a firm order for two CRJ900s, making it the first African carrier to operate the type. List price for the two aircraft is $69 million. The Lagos-based startup, which assumed the assets of the former Nigerian Airlines, plans to launch in July and also will operate three three-year-old 50-seat CRJ200s and two 737 Classics built in 1990. Arik intends to introduce service to the US, UK and Far East by 2008.
Wizz Air launched services from Ljubljana to Brussels Charleroi and London Luton this week. The airline said it expects 80% load factors on the routes this summer. Thomas Cook Airlines (Belgium) today launches a seasonal Brussels-Tivat service, operating weekly aboard an A320 through Sept. 29.
SAS Group reported a 2006 first-period loss of SEK1.06 billion ($144.4 million), marginally worse than last year's deficit of SEK971 million in the March 2005 quarter. Group loss before capital gains and nonrecurring items remained virtually flat at SEK1.32 billion. Parent company operating revenues rose 11.1% to SEK14.47 billion while operating loss widened to SEK1.16 billion from SEK1.05 billion. Group airlines transported 8.5 million passengers in the quarter, up 8%, while average load factor for the carriers climbed 5.4 points to 66.6%.
Discover the World Marketing was chosen by Delta Air Lines to handle sales in Hungary, including establishment of a ticketing office in Budapest. Discover already represents Delta in Austria.
Delta Air Lines flew 9.42 billion consolidated RPMs in April, a 5.9% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 7.3% to 12.15 billion ASMs and load factor rose 1.2 points to 77.6%. Domestic traffic decreased 11.6% to 6.86 billion RPMs against a 13.5% drop in capacity to 8.88 billion ASMs, raising load factor 1.6 points to 77.2%. International traffic rose 13.9% to 2.56 billion RPMs, capacity climbed 15.1% to 3.27 billion ASMs and load factor fell 0.8 point to 78.5%. Ryanair transported 3.4 million passengers in April, a 29% increase over the year-ago month.
Niki plans to start using Vienna Airport as a hub early next year when the Austrian LCC launches daily flights to Moscow. "Air Berlin will feed us with flights from six German destinations to Vienna and on to Moscow. This is just the beginning for us to Eastern Europe," founder Niki Lauda told ATWOnline in Palma de Mallorca. Air Berlin owns a 24% stake in Niki, which soon will decide which Moscow airport it will serve. Lauda said his airline is considering other Eastern European destinations, including St.
AirTran Airways is relocating its two-gate Minneapolis-St. Paul operations from the main Lindbergh Terminal, home to Northwest Airlines and other Major carriers, to the Humphrey Terminal on May 18 in order to "further streamline our operating costs." AirTran flies from MSP to Atlanta five times daily, Chicago Midway four times daily, increasing to five on May 9, and Orlando International daily.
Korean Air credited rising passenger and cargo demand and a strong won for an impressive first quarter during which it more than doubled its net profit to KRW127 billion ($134 million) from the KRW59 billion earned in the quarter ended March 31, 2005. "The operating environment in the first quarter of 2006 was not without challenges," President Jong-Hee Lee said. "Fuel costs remained at a high level, yet we were able to offset these and keep the increase in operating expenses at a reasonable level by lowering maintenance and rental expenses."
Northwest Airlines pilots ratified the Restructuring Tentative Agreement reached with the carrier in March by a 63.4% to 36.6% margin, the Air Line Pilots Assn. said yesterday. By the time voting closed at 10 a.m., 4,554 of 4,801 eligible pilots had cast ballots, with 2,888 voting in favor and 1,666 voting in opposition. The 5.5-year deal will reduce NWA's pilot costs by $358 million.
SkyWest, parent of Regional carriers SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, posted first-quarter net income of $34.6 million, an 84.3% increase over the $18.8 million earned in the year-ago quarter. Operating revenues rose 118.3% to $742.9 million as RPMs jumped 123.4% to 3.65 billion. Capacity increased 110.8% to 4.7 billion ASMs and load factor improved 4.4 points to 77.6%.
EasyJet posted a net loss of £28.9 million ($52.9 million) for the six months ended March 31, widened from the £15.4 million deficit in the year-ago period yet a figure that "encouraged" CEO Andy Harrison, who said "successful cost reduction and revenue improvements, especially in ancillaries, have largely offset the considerable hike in fuel prices and the effect of Easter moving from the first half in 2005 to the second half in 2006."
Continental Airlines and Orlando International Airport successfully completed testing of SITA's AirportConnect Open program, which allows airlines to use the same application software on common-use terminal workstations.
Thai Airways is to launch a new airline to compete with LCCs on regional routes to Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. According to the carrier's new president, Apinan Sumanaseni, who spoke to the Bangkok Post, the airline will be called Euarng Luang, which means Royal Orchid, and will be positioned differently from Nok Air, Thai Airways' own LCC, in that it will target the market between budget and premium.
Armavia A320 carrying 105 passengers and eight crew crashed early yesterday morning into the Black Sea about 3 mi. off the Russian coast near Sochi. All 113 aboard are believed dead as the result of the accident that occurred in what Airbus called "very poor weather conditions." The Armenian airliner coming from Yerevan reportedly missed its first approach into Sochi and was making a second approach when it lost contact with air traffic control and crashed at about 2:15 a.m. local time in a driving rainstorm.
Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings named William Flynn president and CEO. He will replace retiring Jeffrey Erickson on June 22. Flynn, formerly president and CEO of GeoLogistics, joins the parent of Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo at a time of transition. Spokesperson Alan Caminiti confirmed to ATWOnline that Polar will retire four 747-200Fs, a dash 100F and a dash 300F by July 1, reducing its fleet of 11 freighters to five dash 400Fs that be joined by a sixth from Atlas Air's fleet.
European Union and Georgia signed an agreement yesterday allowing European carriers to have "nondiscriminatory access" to Georgia and to fly between it and any EU member country. It is the fourth "horizontal" agreement signed by the EU, the others being with Ukraine, Moldova and Chile. New Zealand and India reached a new air services agreement allowing daily flights between Mumbai and Auckland with codesharing onward to other cities in each country. Services can be nonstop or via Australia or Singapore.
US Dept. of Transportation, responding to negative comments regarding its proposal to ease how it interprets foreign control of US airlines, yesterday issued a revised Notice of Proposed Rulemaking it said ensures that areas involving safety, security and national defense obligations will remain under the control of US carrier decision-makers.
American Airlines notified the Chicago Dept. of Aviation that it will cease operations at Midway on Sept. 1, according to press reports. AA operates a five-times-daily MDW-Dallas/Ft. Worth service. ATA Airlines will continue to operate the route nonstop. Separately, AA chose ARINC's Web-based OpCenter to serve as a backup to its flight operations host computer, a move the carrier said will allow it to maintain its full flight schedule without interruption if its host system shuts down.
United Airlines consolidated its airport operations and cargo divisions into one unit to be led by Senior VP-Cargo Scott Dolan. Senior VP-Airport Operations Larry De Shon will leave the airline and Alex Marren will assume the role of VP-operational services. Executive VP and COO Pete McDonald said the move will "further streamline United's operations" and drive down costs. Dolan, formerly COO of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, joined UA in 2004 and focused on lowering cargo operating costs as the carrier navigated through bankruptcy reorganization.
Software maker IBS said that Nippon Cargo Airlines is the launch customer for iCargo, its "next-generation air cargo and logistics management system that has the functionality to fully support supply chain management from shipper to consignee in all aspects of cargo logistics."
Transaero plans to launch flights this year from Moscow to Vienna and to Rio de Janeiro, possibly via Vienna using 747-200s. It also is considering serving Vienna from Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk and Ufa.
United Airlines will launch daily Chicago O'Hare-Cancun flights from July 5 using A320s. Delta Air Lines began daily Atlanta-Copenhagen service Monday aboard a 767-300ER. Air Canada Jazz launched daily flights between Edmonton and Los Angeles Monday with CRJ705s.
April featured record load factors and significant RASM increases for Continental Airlines. The carrier reported that its estimated consolidated RASM increased 12.5%-13.5% over the year-ago month, while mainline unit revenues rose an estimated 11.5%-12.5%. Consolidated March RASM grew 7.4% and mainline RASM was up 5.3%.
