Emirates President Tim Clark said the carrier is considering delaying next year's scheduled delivery of a dozen A340-600s and is close to choosing between the 787 and A350-900 for a 50-aircraft order.
Cargolux emerged as the unidentified customer that placed an order for two new 747-400Fs this month. The Luxembourg-based all-cargo airline simultaneously confirmed it canceled the introduction of a used dash 400F scheduled to join its fleet this year, as that aircraft has been sold in the meantime. The new aircraft, valued at $450 million at list prices, will be delivered in summer 2007 and summer 2008 and will fill the gap until delivery of the carrier's 747-8F fleet starting in September 2009.
Lufthansa Systems implemented its NetLine/Plan and NetLine/Sched solutions at Qatar Airways, including optimization modules Fleet Assigner and Hub Optimizer and further supplementary modules.
Sterling launched a new website March 2 allowing passengers to reserve flights, hotels, rental cars and concert tickets as part of the same transaction.
American Eagle passengers nixed the airline's effort to sell sodas and fruit juice onboard for $1. The idea of buying a beverage apparently didn't fly with customers during a trial period conducted recently in California. The jury is still out, however, on Eagle's sales of cashews and pillow and blanket sets, which are being evaluated based on "positive feedback from customers," according to the airline. Eagle will continue sales of onboard snack boxes for $3 each. The boxes contain raisins, crackers, shortbread cookies and a cheese spread.
Pegasus Airlines was identified by Boeing yesterday as the carrier that placed an order for six 737NGs earlier this year. The order is valued at $406.5 million at list prices and includes six options. Deliveries begin in 2008. Pegasus operates a fleet of 14 737s.
EasyJet opened its 16th base at Milan Malpensa yesterday and said it expects to handle more than 1.2 million passengers there in the next 12 months flying three domestic and nine international routes. Three A319s will be based permanently at the airport, creating 100 pilot and cabin crew jobs and an additional 1,200 jobs in the Milan area, the carrier said. It already flies to Berlin, London Gatwick and Dortmund from Malpensa and also operates from Milan Linate serving Gatwick and Paris Orly. Italy is one of its fastest-growing markets and now accounts for 5% of its total network.
At Wednesday's unveiling of the Air Transport Assn.'s Smart Skies initiative, which calls for, among other things, a more equitable funding of the Airport and Airways Trust Fund through fees tied to operation frequencies and flight times ( ATWOnline, March 9), CEO James May predicted the proposal would meet with spirited dissent and debate. He did not have to wait more than a few hours, as the National Business Aviation Assn., the General Aviation Manufacturers Assn. and the National Air Transportation Assn. delivered their rebuttal later Wednesday.
US House of Representatives voted 265-158 Wednesday to instruct House negotiators to accept provisions in the Senate pension bill aimed at protecting airline pensions. The measure, offered by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), would give airlines that freeze their plans up to 20 years to fully fund them. The bill also would stop benefit cuts to pilots forced to retire at age 60 whose pensions are funded by the government.
Frontier Airlines named Roger Morenc senior director-revenue and market management. He comes from ATA Airlines. Star Alliance appointed Philip Saunders VP-sales, marketing and loyalty effective March 20. He joins Star from SN Brussels Airlines, where he was executive VP-commercial. He also held senior positions at British Airways and DBA.
United Airlines and United Express will offer regional jet service on the following routes from June 8: Denver to Toronto and Cincinnati (daily), Washington Dulles to Cincinnati and Halifax (daily) and Chicago O'Hare to Bozeman (seasonal daily), Missoula and Billings (both seasonal weekend). On May 4 UA will expand its Los Angeles-Boise service to twice-daily aboard United Express and its mainline Dulles-Vancouver flight to daily.
Qantas confirmed yesterday the closure of its 747 heavy MRO operations in Sydney after 55 years in service, resulting in the loss of approximately 480 jobs although up to 140 employees may be transferred elsewhere in the company, CEO Geoff Dixon said. The airline, which has been considering the move since October as part of the restructuring of its maintenance and engineering operations, said it would make an effort to keep the work in Australia but is looking at securing a cost base that will ensure profitability with oil costing more than $60 per barrel.
Barco in cooperation with NCS Group was selected by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore to "optimize the arrival management at Changi Airport." According to the companies, the contract encompasses integration of Barco's Osyris arrival manager solution with the Singapore ATC system.
Amadeus said it signed a "global Preferred Supplier Agreement" with ITP-International Travel Partnership, a UK-based consortium of 400 associate travel agencies worldwide. Amadeus will provide its Vista browser-based point-of-sale platform and a corporate self-booking portal. Separately, Amadeus said it is close to completing a project to upgrade travel agencies to browser-based technology. It said 99% of travel agencies connect to its reservation system via the Internet.
DBA signed a three-year contract with SR Technics for support of the Honeywell APUs installed on its Boeing fleet. Service will be provided at SR Technics' Dublin facility.
Ethiopian Airlines began issuing e-tickets on the Addis Ababa-Nairobi sector last month. Further e-ticketing will be launched on routes from Addis Ababa to Johannesburg, Frankfurt and Washington.
AirTran Airways launched thrice-daily Chicago Midway-Newark service yesterday aboard 717s. Wizz Air will operate thrice-weekly Warsaw-Gothenburg service from June 18.
European Commission authorized a €25 million ($29.9 million) six-month guarantee from the Italian government to ailing Volare Airlines. "This short-term aid is intended to rescue the firm from bankruptcy and allow it to take steps to continue operating," the EC said, noting that Volare will be able to use the guarantee to obtain credit for that amount from banks. The airline, part of Volare Group, went into extraordinary administration on Nov. 30, 2004, and recommenced flights June 2005 from Milan Linate to Naples, Brindisi, Bari, Catania and Palermo.
Ryanair is reducing its Cork-Liverpool service from seven flights per week to four following recent cost increases at Cork Airport, which according to the LCC will raise its costs there by more than €30,000 ($35,849) per year. Among the fee increases is a 300% hike in rental rates for check-in and ticket desks, Ryanair said. It will start a new thrice-weekly Kerry-Liverpool service "as a much cheaper alternative to Cork."
WestJet Executive VP-Finance and CFO Alexander Campbell will be leaving the company June 15. In a statement, he said that "now is the best time to make a change." He will assist during the transition period. He becomes the second senior executive to depart in recent months. Last fall, Executive VP-Operations Tim Morgan, a WestJet co-founder, announced his departure for personal reasons ( ATWOnline, Oct. 24, 2005).
American Airlines yesterday said it believes that a content-sharing agreement between Sabre and Amadeus may violate its contracts with the global distribution systems. On Tuesday, the GDSs said they entered into an agreement that enables "Amadeus customers to complete bookings on an airline [through Sabre] in the unlikely event of that airline withdrawing from participation in Amadeus," and vice versa ( ATWOnline, March 8).
Gol's February traffic increased 58.2% over the year-ago month to 940.5 million RPKs. Capacity rose 60.4% to 1.34 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 1 point to 70.1%. Domestic traffic climbed 55.6% to 860.8 million RPKs against a 56.1% lift in capacity to 1.22 billion ASKs. Load factor dipped 0.3 point to 70.5%. International traffic increased 93.9% to 79.7 million RPKs, ASKs rose 122.9% to 120.8 million and load factor fell 9.8 points to 66%.
UPS announced yesterday that it will retrofit much of its fleet with Boeing's Class 3 Electronic Flight Bag. The program will begin with 107 757s and 767s operated by the express package and expedited freight provider. UPS said the effort is believed to be the first of its type attempted by any airline, cargo or passenger, "and basically reflects our belief that this technology is ready and should be applied to jets now in service," according to VP-UPS Airline and International Operations Bob Lekites.
