Midwest Air Group, parent of Midwest Airlines, announced it adopted an updated shareholder rights plan replacing the one that expired last week. It is effective through Feb. 15, 2016, and "is designed to protect shareholder value over the long term and provide fair treatment of our shareholders in the event of a takeover attempt," according to Chairman and CEO Timothy Hoeksema.
Landmark Aviation said it will provide fueling services for American Airlines when AA begins its Dallas Love Field service March 2. The agreement covers AA's MD-80s and American Eagle's ERJ-145s, which will operate 98 weekly flights to Kansas City, St. Louis, Austin and San Antonio.
Lufthansa and Air Malta signed an MOU Tuesday in Malta to begin a "bilateral cooperation" that will start with the adjustment of their schedules to give passengers of each airline the "opportunity to increase connections to worldwide destinations." Lufthansa VP Joachim Steinbach said LH hopes to integrate Air Malta into the new Terminal 2 in Munich. In addition, the two are planning to introduce codeshare flights from November.
Triumph Group of Pennsylvania said its Frisby Aerospace subsidiary was awarded a $300 million contract by Saab Aerostructures to produce the 787 Large Cargo Door Actuation System.
Air New Zealand will go ahead and outsource the heavy maintenance of its long-haul fleet after all following the failure of unions to secure adequate support for a compromise proposal that would have kept the operation in-house. The airline had accepted the union's proposal late last month ( ATWOnline, Jan. 31). ANZ CEO Rob Fyfe said he was "extremely disappointed" by the decision that will result in the loss of 507 maintenance jobs.
A little more than a month after announcing a record annual profit of nearly $15 million ( ATWOnline, Jan. 12) Indian Airlines put pen to paper on a deal for 43 A320 family aircraft that was approved by the Indian government last September.
Trans States Airlines expects to complete its transition to an all-jet fleet by September when its six remaining Jetstream 41s are retired. Four of the nine markets currently operated with J-41s will be upgraded to jet service. Trans States will end service to five other J-41 markets: Columbia, Joplin and Springfield, Mo., and Decatur and Springfield, Ill. It said it will work with its partner American Airlines to continue service to these communities. TSA also flies for US Airways and United Airlines.
Jet Airways committed to equip its 10 A330-200s from an order confirmed in October ( ATWOnline, Oct. 26, 2005) with GE CF6-80E1s. The deal is worth more than $300 million. Delivery of the new aircraft will begin next year.
Boeing mulling possible 787-10 range, payload options ATR poised to be RRJ entree to world market Pratt aims to double CFM56 repair business with parts program Additional stories
US FAA announced a five-year partnership with Ordinate Corp. of California to develop a standard Aviation English Test. "This is another step in FAA support to ICAO member states, air carrier operators and air traffic service providers to help them meet the ICAO March 2008 English language proficiency requirement," said Graham Elliott, manager of the FAA Academy's Aviation Language Training Program.
Washington Dulles received a $200 million pledge yesterday from the US Dept. of Transportation to help build a fourth runway. The funding will be provided over the next 11 years. The airport's third north-south runway will be completed in 2008, costing $356 million, and will allow Dulles to handle up to 50% more flights per hour "during the right conditions," DOT said. Passenger throughput has increased from 12 million in 1996 to more than 27 million in 2005.
Air France-KLM Group said it will pursue a "profitable growth strategy" during the summer by boosting capacity 5.6% over summer 2005, comprising a 6% increase on its long-haul network, a 6.3% rise on its international medium-haul network and a 1.1% increase domestically. Long-haul growth, including a 19.7% ramp-up in capacity to the Middle East, will come from additional frequencies and larger aircraft. KLM will offer a new destination, Chengdu, with twice-weekly service from Amsterdam. The group will offer 47 weekly flights to China.
US Airways Group reported a $261 million net loss in the fourth fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, the first full three-month period following the September 2005 merger of US Airways and America West Airlines, which is treated as the acquiring company for accounting purposes.
The Australian government, as expected, yesterday rejected Singapore Airlines' plans to offer service on the transpacific route to the US, bowing to a concerted campaign by Qantas to limit competition on its most profitable route and ruling that there would be minimal benefits to Australia.
Etihad Airways will launch daily Abu Dhabi-Manchester service from March 27 aboard an A330. Separately, Boeing said Etihad will implement its Airplane Health Management maintenance condition monitoring system on five new 777-300ERs being delivered in the first half of this year.
Continental Airlines said it will return to its pre-Hurricane Katrina departure frequency from New Orleans by May. It operated 111 flights per week from MSY prior to the storm and now has reached 86% of its former capacity.
AirBaltic will eliminate business class service on routes from Riga to Bergen, Hamburg, Helsinki and Oslo from March 1. Service on the routes will be all-economy with buy-on-board food and beverage.
Austrian low-fare airline Niki is planning to add A319s to its fleet of four A320s and one A321 in order to access new markets. "Currently we take delivery of our new A320s to phase out leased aircraft. With the A319 from 2007, we can operate nonstop services from Vienna to Barcelona, increase frequencies to Palma and look for new markets in Italy like Milan and also to Amsterdam," founder and majority owner Niki Lauda told ATWOnline. The carrier has two A320-200s on order.
Sabre Travel Network signed a "long-term" agreement to provide GDS services to Priceline.com, another erosion of Worldspan's position as the online technology leader. Priceline president and chief executive Jeffery Boyd said a principle reason for the deal is that it "provides us with redundancy in case of technical problems at Worldspan."
IATA DG cautions on aircraft orders as Asian Aerospace gets underway SIA downplays likelihood of major order this week Hello-Goodbye for Asian Aerospace in Singapore
Airbus confirmed that an A380 suffered wing damage during a stress test last week, according to press reports. The rupture between two engines occurred when the aircraft was going from 1.45 to 1.5 times its limit load. The airframer said it still expects to deliver the first A380 on schedule at the end of 2006.
