LAN Airlines reported a 5.8% year-over-year rise in system traffic in February compared to a 7.1% increase in capacity, which dropped load factor 1 point to 75.5%.
Lufthansa plans to expand its lower-fare strategy for European flights, Executive VP-Marketing and Sales Thierry Antinori said during the ITB tourism fair in Berlin last week. The carrier recently introduced short-haul return flights starting at €99 ($118) at Hamburg and Dusseldorf with slightly better than expected results. Additionally, it has taken share away from Air Berlin, according to Antinori. "We will definitely roll out this concept. I assume that we will also move into other catchments in the coming months," he said.
Following a fourth quarter in which it lost €2.9 million ($3.5 million) owing to surging costs ( ATWOnline, Feb. 17), Finnair's new president and CEO, Jukka Hienonen, told this website in Helsinki that the carrier will keep working toward securing a cost base that will ensure profitability even as it continues to demonstrate operational improvements.
Oneworld and BAA signed an MOU ensuring consolidation of the alliance members' operations at London Heathrow's new Terminal 5, to be occupied by British Airways, and an upgraded Terminal 3. Currently, oneworld carriers are split across all four Heathrow terminals. They account for more than 50% of LHR's traffic, with 35 million passengers per year onboard around 700 departures and arrivals each day.
Norwegian started a thrice-weekly Oslo-St. Petersburg service on March 3. Sterling launched thrice-weekly Copenhagen-Edinburgh service yesterday. Frequency will increase to six-times-weekly from March 27. It also will launch twice-weekly Edinburgh-Helsinki service beginning March 27 aboard 737s.
Cathay Pacific Airways is looking at a variety of options for its growing freighter fleet, according to COO Tony Tyler, who told ATWOnline that the airline likes the 747-400BCF and may convert six options to firm orders. "If and when we do, we are likely to convert some of our own 747-400s but not all, because we will still need the passenger lift," he said.
Sabre Airline Solutions said Jet Airways chose its AirFlite Schedule Manager and AirFlite Fleet Manager software. Sabre also was appointed technical adviser to Arabesk Group, a partnership of seven Middle East carriers (now including Tunisair) established earlier this month ( ATWOnline, March 7).
Royal Jordanian will transfer its Paris operations from Orly to Charles de Gaulle on March 26, allowing it to join its future oneworld partners in Terminal 1 when it becomes a full member of the alliance later this year. RJ operates five weekly flights to Paris aboard A320s.
OzJet, Australia's first premium-only airline, suspended scheduled operations after only three months, citing its failure to break the stranglehold of Qantas and Virgin Blue on the business travel market. It cancelled its Sydney-Melbourne service and will not proceed with plans to establish flights to Perth next month. About 70 employees lost their jobs. The airline is expected to continue a limited charter operation, scaling down its 737-200 fleet from four to two and keeping approximately 30% of its staff.
Alaska Airlines will transition to an all-737 fleet by the end of 2008 by accelerating the retirement of the 26 MD-80s it planned to phase out over the next 11 years, replacing them with 39 737-800s in 2006-08 from an order placed last summer ( ATWOnline, June 16, 2005).
Northwest Airlines confirmed that it "executed an agreement to purchase FLYi's operating certificate and related assets" subject to certain conditions. According to the Associated Press, which cited a FLYi bankruptcy filing, NWA paid $2 million for the certificate, which should enable it to expedite the startup of a new subsidiary that will operate 76-seat regional jets using furloughed mainline pilots ( ATWOnline, March 7). FLYi, which operated as Independence Air, shut down in January.
European Commission launched a public consultation on RFID "as their power to report their location, identity and history raises serious concerns about personal privacy and security, as well as technical interoperability and international compatibility." It added that addressing some of the concerns "may well require legislative responses." The Commission said it also is stepping up exchanges with the US and Asia on RFID technologies in order to define globally accepted interoperability standards and practices with regard to data privacy and ethical principles when applying the technolo
TAM raised nearly BRL1.5 billion ($689.8 million) Friday through stock issues on both the Bovespa exchange in Brazil and the New York Stock Exchange, according to press reports.
A380 program reached the 1,000-flight-hr. milestone last week. Four A380s have been tested with Trent 900s. A fifth will join the program this year with Engine Alliance GP7200s.
Air Europa signed a seven-year, CHF20 million ($15.3 million) deal with SR Technics for component support for its new A330 fleet, which will number 6-8 aircraft. The Spanish carrier takes delivery of its first A330 this month. The pair also concluded an MRO agreement for the APUs on Air Europa's fleet of 737NGs, which it expects to enlarge from 28 aircraft at present to 40-50.
Air Berlin announced last week that it is "ready for the stock market" and intends to go public. The timing of the flotation on the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange was not announced, and the airline said it was "impossible" to forecast the proceeds from the move. German media reported earlier this year that the IPO is designed to raise €700 million ($834.8 million) ( ATWOnline, Jan. 13). Commerzbank and Morgan Stanley were appointed as joint global coordinator and joint bookrunner.
Gol's year of explosive expansion ended with record annual and quarterly profits as the Brazilian LCC posted net earnings of BRL513.2 million ($236 million) for 2005, an increase of 33.4% over the previous year's BRL384.7 million.
European Council last week formally closed the first reading on the new EU-OPS Regulation, which seeks to integrate technical requirements and administrative procedures in the field of civil aviation. EU-OPS includes harmonizing flight time limitations across Europe, setting a minimum FTL level directly applicable to all EU countries.
JetBlue Airways announced a new leadership structure in its human resources department, naming Vinny Stabile senior VP-people, Santo Barravecchio VP-people services and compliance and Dean Melonas VP-recruitment.
Tarom Romanian Airlines selected Rockwell Collins to provide a comprehensive avionics package, inflight entertainment and moving map systems for four new A318s scheduled for delivery beginning in November.
AirTran Holdings said last week that it was forced to adjust its fourth-quarter loss to approximately $1.4 million from the $0.4 million it announced in January ( ATWOnline, Jan. 25) "due to changes in estimates as a result of information which became available to management subsequent to the date of the press release." Its 2005 profit falls from $2.7 million to approximately $1.7 million due to the change.
Malaysian government ended the wrangling over domestic routes between Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia last week, announcing that MAS will operate flights to more popular destinations like Penang, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu and others tied to its international network while AirAsia will fly the remaining routes, according to local press reports. Further details will be announced in the future. MAS has been losing money on its domestic operations on behalf of parent company PMB.
Air Canada will launch daily Toronto-Salt Lake City service from June 2 aboard Air Canada Jazz CRJ705s and daily mainline flights from Toronto to San Diego beginning July 1 aboard A319s. SAS Scandinavian Airlines will codeshare with Swiss International Air Lines on its Bangkok-Singapore service Aloha Airlines will launch six-times-weekly Sacramento-Orange County service from May 2. Indonesia AirAsia began daily Medan-Penang service Friday.
Finnair announced the beginning of its transition to the "Airbus era" with the signing of an MOU with Virgin Atlantic Airways for acquisition of an A340-300. The aircraft will enter Finnair service in July. It ordered nine A350-900s and three A340-300Es late last year ( ATWOnline, Dec. 8, 2005).
