Midwest Air Group, parent of Midwest Airlines and Skyway Airlines, reelected three directors to new three-year terms on its board: Samuel Skinner, Elizabeth Solberg, and Richard Sonnentag.
Boeing yesterday signed a definitive agreement to purchase aviation parts and services provider Aviall for $48 per share or $1.7 billion plus the assumption of $350 million in debt. Dallas-based Aviall, which generated revenues of $1.3 billion in 2005, will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Boeing Commercial Aviation Services once the cash transaction closes, likely in the third quarter. Boeing said the purchase is expected to be "modestly accretive" to its 2007 earnings and will have an "immaterial earnings impact" this year.
The spate of airline bankruptcies around the globe and the challenges they have presented to the leasing and finance sector will impact the way commercial transports are financed in the future, says GE Commercial Aviation Services President and CEO Henry Hubschman. Commenting on lessons learned from the ongoing bankruptcy reorganizations in the US, Hubschman noted, "We don't do leveraged leases anymore. Period. We're [also] more cautious about doing single-investor leases." He added, "We have not been harmed that much when someone breaks an operating lease."
Finnair announced a summer schedule that will feature new flights to Nagoya and Geneva in June; elimination of the Bangkok stopover on its Helsinki-Hong Kong service, which will increase from thrice-weekly to five-times-weekly from July through October, and increases in operations to Osaka, Shanghai, Guangzhou and St. Petersburg. The carrier also announced it will launch a thrice-weekly Helsinki-Kuala Lumpur service, operating via Bangkok, in May 2007. Separately, Finnair said its ground handling subsidiary Northport Oy will close its loss-making Tampere unit this year.
Air Pacific reached agreement to acquire the assets and business of domestic carrier Sun Air. Under terms of the agreement, Air Pacific subsidiary Fiji Airlines Ltd. will take over the operations of Sun Air from July 1 subject to the transfer of Sun's licenses and AOC. Based in Nadi, Sun operates a fleet of 11 aircraft comprising Twin Otters, Islanders and Queen Airs to eight resort destinations on six islands.
United Express flights moved from Washington Dulles's Concourse G to the newly reopened Concourse A. The transition finished May 1. Concourse G was a temporary structure that eventually will be demolished to make way for future airport expansion.
To go anyplace from South Bend by commercial transportation, head for the airport. South Bend Regional is the terminal for nine Regional airlines, three bus companies and the South Shore Railroad.
Southwest Airlines Chairman Herb Kelleher used to say that his airline's primary competitor was the automobile. Some 10,000 mi. away, Tony Davis, CEO of Singapore-based LCC Tiger Airways, makes a somewhat similar argument. For example, Davis points out that 12 million people travel by train in Vietnam and the train trip from Hanoi in the north to Ho Chi Minh City in the south takes 34 hr.
Manufacturers of regional aircraft booked orders for nearly 300 airplanes last year, among them just a handful of jets in the 40/50-seat class. That's hardly surprising. Interest in new CRJ200s and ERJ-135s/-145s has been trending downward for the past few years. After all, with more than 1,700 in service, the industry's appetite has been pretty well satisfied.
Airports in Tokyo, capital city of the world's second-largest national economy, long have been sources of puzzlement and irritation, hobbled by numerous constraints and far too small for such a vibrant area. Now, with Japan's economy reviving after several years of recession and deflation, expansion projects at both airports offer the prospect of at least temporary relief from restrictions, along with unhinderedwell, less hinderedgrowth.
Air Malta elevated COO Joe Cappello to CEO. Air Transport Assn. welcomed Sharon Pinkerton as VP-government affairs. Alaska Airlines elected Benjamin Forrest VP-flight operations and chose Jay Schaefer staff VP-finance & treasurer. Amadeus named Mary Keagul VP-product strategy & operations-North America.
Nottingham East Midlands Airport has all the prerequisites of a regional airport: Located in the middle of nowhere and growing rapidly, mainly owing to low-cost carriers. No-frills airlines generated 60% of passenger traffic in 2005 against only 33% in 2002 and naught in 2001. The 24-hr. airport, which has no slot restrictions, has three LCCs with bases here: bmibaby, easyJet and Ryanair. Located in the heart of England some 140 mi. north of London, it is the UK's 13th-largest passenger airport, according to CAA data for 2005.
Six months into the merger of US Airways Group and America West Holdings Corp., executives here are confident that the deal to create what they call "the largest nationwide low-cost carrier" already is paying big dividends, with industry-leading unit revenue growth, improving operational performance and declining unit costs.
In 1960 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the DC-3, a British aviation magazine showed a cartoon of two executives overlooking a production line of DC-3s with the caption "It's a DC-3 replacement."
On May 4, Air Canada withdrew its Tango fare for travel within Canada and between Canada and Florida from the GDSs and from its own dedicated travel agency Web site, aircanada.com/agents. In response, Sabre began "de-preferencing" Air Canada's displays in its GDS to ensure that flights by carriers that provide full content are displayed before Air Canada flights. Galileo said it would no longer return Air Canada results in low-fare shopping inquiries unless they are specifically requested.
Sabre Travel Network president John Stow spelled out some of the key elements of his company's new deals at the recent TravelCom conference in New York: full content; parity with other vendors; the flexibility for agents to select their product platform; the ability to use agency incentives when and where they are appropriate, and protection from certain airline service fees.
With delays creeping back up again and Europe edging ever closer to what Eurocontrol DG Victor Aguado describes as a "capacity wall," the approaching summer peak is expected to put pressure on the region's increasingly congested airport infrastructure.
Although after all that has transpired over the past six years it may be difficult to recall, there have been times in the not-too-distant past when the primary news interest in airlines was not on which ones would or would not survive. Throughout much of the deregulated period, far more attention was paid to answering the question of whether airline safety had deteriorated compared to the previous era. It hadn't, although it was also clear that deregulation put some stress on the system that was not there before.
Forecasts for airline traffic among the nations of Central and Eastern Europe are good. Actually, they are very good, with Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania featuring in IATA's worldwide list of the top 10 countries with the highest average annual growth rates in passenger traffic for 2005-09. Poland leads the group with an AAGR of 11.2% while the Czech Republic is third at 9.5%. This compares with an overall industry AAGR of 5.6% for international passenger traffic between 2005 and 2009, and 5.1% within Europe.
The March sky was steel gray and snow swirled in the bitter wind outside Bombardier's Montreal CRJ production plant, but the mood inside the hangar was warm and festive as company officials prepared to celebrate the delivery of their 250th CRJ700.
Aeroflot reported a 4.7% year-over-year decline in annual profit to RUB6.03 billion ($220.3 million), according to a company statement cited by press reports. Revenues for 2005 increased 11.5% to RUB62.85 billion. The airline carried 6.7 million passengers, 2.3% fewer than in 2004. Aeroflot also posted a Reuters story on its website saying that Russia's State Property Agency intends to transfer all of its stakes in Russian airlines to Aeroflot, which would boost its share to at least 75%. The government now holds a 51% share in the flag carrier.
Spirit Airlines will launch twice-daily Detroit Metro-Boston service aboard A319s Aug. 15. The carrier added its 16th A319 Thursday. It will take nine additional A319s this year and will operate an all-Airbus fleet by fall. Wizz Air will launch thrice-weekly Katowice-Lubeck service on Sept. 18. Hawaiian Airlines will add a third weekly Honolulu-Pago Pago flight from June 14 to Aug. 23.
Transaero said last week that it aims to raise $250 million by floating 15%-18% of its stock in an IPO in Russia in 2007. According to Reuters, the plan has received the backing of the airline's board of directors. A general meeting of shareholders will vet the issue on May 27.
LOT Polish Airlines signed a deal with BRE Leasing for the purchase of four Embraer 175s that will be owned by Polish leasing company PLL LOT and leased to the airline for seven years with an option for five more. The carrier also took delivery of its seventh 767-300, a leased plane owned by ILFC, to be operated by LOT until February 2009 on transatlantic flights.
