US Airways announced Tuesday the recall of approximately 400 furloughed flight attendants. Recall notices will be prioritized by seniority and will begin in April, putting the returning cabin staff in place for the carrier's summer schedule. Some 1,200 flight attendants remain on furlough from the former US Airways. "We continue to make great progress in building the new US Airways and today's announcement furthers that momentum," President and CEO Doug Parker said. The airline recalled 55 of its 1,574 furloughed pilots last month ( ATWOnline, Feb. 14).
AeroRepublica, the Colombian subsidiary of Copa Holdings, announced a firm order for five GE CF34-powered Embraer 190s worth a combined $175 million at list prices. The order includes 20 options. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in November. The aircraft will seat 108 in a single-class configuration.
British Airways is looking to strengthen its network to Eastern Europe, Area Commercial Manager-Central and Eastern Europe David Rousham told ATWOnline. New points will include Tirana and Varna, while flights to Izmir and Ankara will be operated by franchise partner GB Airways. Rostov and Gdansk also are to receive service. With Malev Hungarian Airlines set to join oneworld this year, Budapest could play a role as a hub to the Balkans. BA also is looking at additional destinations in the Ukraine beyond Kiev, Rousham said.
Airfoil Services Sdn. Bhd., an MTU Aero Engines and Lufthansa Technik affiliate, celebrated the groundbreaking for its global integrated Center of Excellence for airfoil overhaul. The facility in Kota Damansara, Malaysia, is expected to start operations by early 2007.
European Commission announced yesterday that its Aviation Safety Committee finished drawing up the list of carriers that will be banned from entering the European Union for safety or security reasons but did not make the blacklist public pending ratification by the Commission. "We have just taken a decisive step," EC VP Jacques Barrot said. "I am now in a position to ask the Commission to quickly adopt the blacklist and to publish it, so that we can make sure that the companies identified in it will not have the possibility to enter Europe before they have resolved their problems."
ANA said yesterday that it will dissolve Air Hokkaido, a wholly-owned Regional subsidiary of Air Nippon, in July following a cessation of operations scheduled for March 31. It operated two daily roundtrip flights between Hakodate and Okushiri on Hokkaido island with a 19-seat Twin Otter. Separately, ANA said it concluded a cargo codeshare agreement with Star Alliance partner Asiana to take effect April 1. It covers 18 weekly flights--10 operated by ANA, eight by Asiana--between Japan and Korea and is the first such accord between the two countries.
Delta Air Lines will launch daily Boston-Charleston, S.C., service from June 8 and daily Boston-Quebec City service from June 15. Comair will operate both flights.
Thomas Cook Airlines of Belgium reported a pre-tax profit of €3.2 million ($3.8 million) on revenues of €132.36 million in the financial year ended Oct. 31, 2005. The carrier will add a sixth A320 in the coming months to accommodate its forecast growth. Launched in 2002, it transported 997,100 passengers aboard 3,339 flights to 45 leisure destinations during the fiscal year.
SriLankan Airlines is preparing for possible changes to its ownership structure, with CEO Peter Hill telling ATWOnline, "In three to six months' time, the government, which holds 51% in SriLankan, will decide how it will go on with the carrier."
Northwest Airlines yesterday began a test of differential pricing for economy seats in its domestic fleet, charging $15 extra per flight segment for certain aisle and exit row seats. The Coach Choice product, which currently covers 5% of domestic seats, is intended to "provide added choice and comfort, particularly to late-booking business travelers, by saving some preferred coach seat assignments until check-in," according to the airline. A passenger purchasing Coach Choice seats for all four segments of a roundtrip connecting flight would pay a total of $60.
Iberia signed deals with Santa Barbara Airlines of Venezuela and Star Peru allowing the South American carriers to use its Resiber reservations management system.
Tiger Airways of Singapore chalked up a major milestone yesterday, carrying its millionth passenger. CEO Tony Davis told media he was "absolutely delighted to hit the one millionth passenger mark so early in the second year of operations." He predicted that "the rapid expansion with our A320 aircraft and new routes this year will allow us to shorten the time it takes to hit our second millionth passenger." The LCC will take delivery of two A320s in April and an additional three by year end.
Southwest Airlines has "increased the near-entirety of its fare structure," according to JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker, giving the green light to US carriers to raise their own domestic fares. Facing rising fuel costs and the erosion of its hedges, Southwest boosted one-way fares $2-$10 across two-thirds of its network over the weekend, Baker said. Its $299 fare cap, in place since 2002, has been raised $10 in "the largest single fare increase they have ever taken." A "significant" number of its one-way long-haul fares have increased by $10 as well.
United Airlines announced a $165 million commitment to upgrade its international first and business class seats through a deal with B/E Aerospace. The arrangement is part of UA's revamp of its entire international widebody fleet expected to take "roughly two to three years." It will begin introducing the new seats in 2007. "This program supports United's strategic business emphasis on international and premium services," B/E Chairman and CEO Amin Khoury said.
US Airways Group, comprising US Airways, US Airways Express and America West, flew a combined 4.43 billion RPMs in February, a decline of 8.7% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 14.5% to 5.86 billion ASMs and load factor rose 4.9 points to 75.7%. Domestic traffic was down 9% to 3.75 billion RPMs against a 16.7% decrease in ASMs to 4.84 billion. International traffic fell 6.8% to 686.1 million RPMs as capacity dropped 2.3% to 1.02 billion ASMs.
British Airways denied it is at an advanced stage of negotiations with Boeing to acquire up to 20 777-300ERs that would replace some early delivery 747s from 2008, as reported on this website last week ( ATWOnline, March 10).
South African Airways said it will terminate its loyalty program agreement with Qantas from April 9, at which time SAA Voyager members no longer will be eligible to earn or redeem points aboard Qantas flights.
Aer Lingus signed a contract yesterday for the purchase of one A330-200 and one A330-300, confirming an announcement made last month ( ATWOnline, Feb. 10). The aircraft will be delivered in mid-2007 and will be based at Dublin Airport. The dash 200 will seat 24 passengers in Premier and 245 in economy while the dash 300 will carry 24 in Premier and 303 in economy. Both will be powered by GE CF6-80E1s.
US FAA named Michael O'Malley chief of staff. He had served as Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta's deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy. Lufthansa Cargo announced that Executive Board Chairman Jean-Peter Jansen resigned effective March 31 for health reasons. Deutsche Lufthansa Chief Officer-Aviation Services and Human Resources Stefan Lauer was appointed interim chairman. Lauer will step down as chairman of the Lufthansa Cargo Supervisory Board and be replaced temporarily by Wolfgang Mayrhuber.
Lufthansa CFO Karl-Ludwig Kley is leaving the company for a position at Merck, the German pharmaceutical giant. He informed Supervisory Board Chairman Juergen Weber by telephone on Sunday, Lufthansa said. The board will discuss Kley's successor at its March 22 meeting.
NAV Canada announced a tentative agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers/Air Traffic Specialists. The four-year deal covers 850 flight service specialists. No details of the agreement were released pending ratification.
Precision Conversions said it entered into a "long-term cargo conversion program" with Cargo Aircraft Management, a subsidiary of Orlando-based Cargo Holdings International. Agreement covers completion of two 757-200 passenger-to-freighter conversions in 2006 "with plans to support multiple aircraft conversions over the next five years."
Japan Airlines and Korean Air are expanding their codeshare operations between the countries beginning March 26 when the number of routes and services will jump from seven routes and 104 flights per week to nine routes and 266 weekly flights. On a one-way basis, the two airlines will codeshare on an additional 84 weekly flights on the Tokyo Narita-Seoul route, 56 on the Kansai-Seoul route and 28 on the Nagoya Chubu-Seoul route. Separately, JAL will increase its 10-times-weekly Narita-Chicago O'Hare service to twice-daily from March 26. Flights are aboard 747-400s.
