Cirrus Airlines inked an agreement with AD Aerospace for installation of the FlightVu Cockpit Door Monitoring System, a video security system, on its 737-500s.
CommutAir, which operates as Continental Connection out of Plattsburgh, NY, signed an agreement with Continental Airlines to increase service from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. It will expand its fleet by up to 16 turboprops. Spokesperson Joel Raymond told ATWOnline that the Regional is looking at Q Series aircraft from Bombardier as well as Saab 340s. No final decision has been made on the type, but Raymond said the carrier expects to be operating the new aircraft by late 2006 or early 2007. "It's very exciting for us," he said.
AerCap Group said it completed a $346 million credit facility with a consortium of banks led by Calyon. The facility was raised from $275 million owing to strong market demand. AerCap will use the five-year facility to finance a portion of the acquisition and planned expansion of its newly acquired subsidiary AeroTurbine. Separately, AerCap announced the completion of a $1 billion, six-year warehouse credit facility with UBS. It will use the facility "to finance aircraft acquisitions to substantially expand its portfolio over the coming years."
GECAS President and CEO Henry Hubschman has a gut feeling that Airbus will unveil a significantly redone A350 by the Farnborough Air Show in mid-July ( ATWOnline, April 26). Speaking to media in Washington Friday, Hubschman said, "I don't know what they are going to do, but my tummy says they are going to make changes." He also noted that although GECAS has signed an MOU for 10 A350s, it has not finalized the order.
Amadeus announced the availability of FareAnalyzer, an "airfare display innovation in the Amadeus e-Travel Management online booking solution that lets travelers evaluate a large number of air itinerary options based on multiple criteria such as price, trip duration, departure time, connections, etc."
Alaska Airlines flight attendants ratified a new four-year labor contract that the Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA said "provides a more generous profit-sharing program." No other details of the deal were released. Parent Alaska Air Group also announced the conversion of $150 million in outstanding convertible notes due in 2023 into Alaska Air common stock. "With this transaction, we have converted $150 million of debt into equity," CFO Brad Tilden said.
Thai Airways and Bangkok Airways signed an MOU to develop coordination further on their respective networks. Thai signed a similar agreement with Laos Airlines in early April.
Affected by its lack of fuel hedging contracts, Norwegian posted a net loss of NOK43.1 million ($6.9 million) for the quarter ended March 31 compared to a net loss of NOK34.3 million in the year-ago period. The jet fuel bill more than doubled from NOK56.7 million to NOK123.3 million and now represents 21% of the carrier's total operating costs against only 15% in the year-ago quarter.
ANA Group posted net income of ¥26.7 billion ($233.1 million) for its fiscal year ended March 31, a 0.9% decrease from income of ¥26.9 billion the previous year but a performance considered a success by the Japanese airline company given rising fuel costs and other negative factors.
Iberia will place its code on Malev Hungarian Airlines' thrice-weekly Malaga-Budapest service beginning May 2. It also will codeshare with charter carrier Iberworld on four-times-weekly Madrid-Cancun service from May 1.
US Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said Friday it has assumed responsibility for the pensions of nearly 4,000 employees and retirees of Aloha Airlines, which emerged from bankruptcy in February, two months after it received US District Court permission to cancel its defined-benefit pension plans to which it owed $155 million ( ATWOnline, Dec. 19, 2005). PBGC said the three plans are 55% funded, with $190 million in assets covering $345 million in benefit promises.
IATA said international passenger traffic increased 5.9% in the first quarter but fell 5.7% in March compared to the year-ago month. It attributed the decline to the fact that Easter was in April this year rather than in March. Three-month load factor was 74.4% and March load factor was 75.5%. Assn. of Asia Pacific Airlines member carriers reported a 3.7% increase in March passengers to 11 million. RPKs grew 4.1% while capacity lifted just 2.3%, improving load factor 1.3 points to 74.4%.
Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation Executive Chairman Peter Harbison said the volatile price of fuel is emerging as a serious threat to consumer demand for travel. Speaking at the opening of the second annual Middle East and Indian Subcontinent Aviation & Tourism Investor Summit in Mumbai, he warned, "The growing oil price crisis sees the express train of demand growth coming into a lake of treacle as consumer demand slows while fares rise.
Malev Hungarian Airlines reported a loss of HUF1.3 billion ($6.1 million) for its fiscal year, a HUF3.6 billion improvement over a loss of HUF4.9 billion in 2004.
GE Commercial Aviation Service President and CEO Henry Hubschman Friday cited a "disconnect" between air traffic and capacity growth, with the former expected to rise at a rate of 4.5% annually compared to an average increase in the number of aircraft seats of 5.5% over the next five years. Speaking to the Aero Club of Washington, Hubschman said, "I would argue that the [aircraft] orders are too large. We wish they would moderate a bit, but we don't control that."
Iberia, at long last, confirmed it will launch a low-cost airline to compete with the ever-growing herd of LCCs operating to and within Spain. The still nameless no-frills carrier will be based at Barcelona International Airport and is due to launch in October with five aircraft. The aim is to increase this number to 30 by the end of 2008, when a listing will be considered.
Amadeus signed a partnership with DOB Systems, a provider of market intelligence solutions to the airline industry, under which DOB products will be integrated into the Amadeus offering in order to deliver a portfolio of data analysis solutions.
Pinnacle Airlines said it surpassed the operating performance levels outlined in its services agreement with Northwest Airlines during the first quarter and posted a profit of $13.3 million, 43% lower than a $23.3 million profit in the year-ago quarter that was boosted by an $18 million pre-tax gain related to the repurchase of a note payable to NWA. Pinnacle's operating revenues rose 6.3% to $207.1 million against a 6.2% climb in expenses to $185.6 million and operating profit improved 7.3% to $21.5 million.
Lufthansa Technik launched Total Material Operations support service offering integrated supply of components, spare parts and consumables for airline networks.
China Airlines played down suggestions that it is to become the launch customer for the 747-8 Intercontinental passenger version. According to Taiwan's Economic Times, the carrier will place a $2.5 billion order in June for 10 dash 8s. However, an airline spokesperson cautioned that "we are still evaluating options." Boeing is keen to secure orders for the passenger version of the 747-8, which was launched late last year by Cargolux and Nippon Cargo.
Comair's request to cancel its labor contract with 1,100 flight attendants was rejected Wednesday by the US Bankruptcy Court, which ordered the carrier to resume negotiations with cabin staff represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The Cincinnati-based Regional, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, is seeking $8.9 million in annual concessions.
Struggling to contend with fast-rising fuel costs, AirTran Airways posted a $4.6 million net loss for the first quarter but continued its expansion push by converting options into firm orders for 14 737-700s. "We continue to be challenged by the high cost of fuel impacting our bottom line," said CFO Stan Gadek. Orlando-based AirTran has posted annual profits for seven consecutive years, but last year's net was only $1.7 million and its first-quarter fuel costs jumped 63% year-over-year to $129.3 million.
Republic Airways Holdings posted first-quarter net income of $16.9 million, a 14% increase over the $14.8 million earned in the year-ago quarter. Revenues increased 22.7% to $257.3 million while operating expenses rose 20.9% to $209.4 million. RPMs jumped 42.9% to 1.37 billion on a 36.5% increase in ASMs to 1.97 billion, sending load factor up 3.1 points to 69.9%. The parent of US Regionals Chautauqua Airlines, Republic Airlines and Shuttle America took delivery of two new Embraer 170s during the quarter, placing them into fixed-fee service for Delta Air Lines.
