Gulf Air announced that approximately $900 million in funding for the "first phase of its fleet upgrade" is scheduled to be in place by May. The carrier's shareholders, the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Sultanate of Oman, agreed to a recapitalization at a board meeting in Oman earlier this month ( ATWOnline, Feb. 8).
DBA, days after announcing that it doubled its capital through the sale of a 25.1% stake to investor Lutz Helmig ( ATWOnline, Feb. 14), acquired a 60% share of charter carrier LTU Friday through majority owner Hans Rudolf Woehrl's Intro Verwaltungs investment group, creating a low-cost alliance it hopes can compete with Lufthansa.
Iberia flew 3.9 billion RPKs in January, up 3.1% over the year-ago month, on a 0.4% rise in capacity to 5.4 billion ASKs. Load factor improved 1.9 points to 73.2%. Number of passengers grew 3.6% to 1.96 million, of which 1.05 million flew on the domestic network. Norwegian reported a 101% increase in January traffic to 226 million RPKs. Capacity climbed 76% to 313 million ASKs and load factor rose 8 points to 72%. The carrier expected a yield of NOK0.72 (10.7 cents), a decrease of 8% from the year-ago month.
Kenya Airways unveiled its new website, which features a state-of-the-art online booking engine developed by E-Travel. The carrier is offering a 10% discount on tickets purchased on the site. It said it carried more than 2 million passengers in 2005 and recorded turnover in excess of KES42 billion ($583.5 million). It plans to launch service to Paris and Freetown "in the near future."
Air France-KLM announced the signing of a protocol agreement finalizing implementation of a European Works Council to "inform and consult workers about all matters concerning the Group as well as issues of a transnational character." The joint body, established to conform with European law, will supersede those of the individual airlines but will not replace staff representative bodies from each company and in each country. The council will comprise 37 members appointed or elected for a period of four years.
In observance of the Presidents' Day holiday in the US, the next edition of Daily News will appear on Wednesday, Feb. 22. However, ATWOnline will report the latest news from Asian Aerospace in Singapore on Tuesday, Feb. 21.
Cenco International will supply a new flagship testing facility in Arnstadt, Germany, to N3 Engine Overhaul Services, a joint venture between Lufthansa Technik and Rolls-Royce. The facility will provide technical support for Trent 500, 700 and 900 engines.
Reed Exhibitions' plan to move Asian Aerospace to Hong Kong International Airport in 2007 also calls for a shorter show, with the elimination of public days ( ATWOnline, Feb. 14). The newly named Asian Aerospace International Expo and Congress will take place Sept. 3-6, 2007, at the AsiaWorld-Expo complex at HKIA. A three-day "major international aerospace congress" will be held in conjunction with the event. This year's edition of Asian Aerospace, running Feb. 21-26, takes place at its traditional location and venue, the Changi Exhibition Center in Singapore.
Thai Airways released details of its fiscal first quarter performance Friday, confirming it earned a net profit of THB3.81 billion ($96.7 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31 ( ATWOnline, Feb. 15), a 33.4% decrease from the THB5.72 billion earned in the year-ago quarter.
US Dept. of Transportation released its expected ruling Friday eliminating the prohibition on airlines that own, control or operate computer reservations systems from denying access "to two or more carriers whose flights share a single designator code and discriminating against any carrier because the carrier uses the same designator code as another carrier." DOT said its rationale hinged on changes in the industry. It said the rise in Internet distribution is "reducing the [GDS] market power over airlines" and US carriers have divested their GDS ownership interests.
American Eagle will begin daily New York JFK-Baltimore/Washington service from April 3 aboard 37-seat ERJs. Jet2.com will launch Belfast-Tenerife service next winter. It also will increase its Belfast-Blackpool service to daily throughout the summer. Virgin Express is upping frequency for its new Brussels-Palermo route from two to three times weekly. Service will commence March 29.
Star Alliance member carriers at Paris CDG Terminal 1 have begun moving into new check-in Hall 4, the alliance announced last week. Thai Airways and bmi already are using the new Star Alliance facilities and Adria Airways, ANA, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa and SAS Scandinavian Airlines will relocate by the end of the month. There are 24 check-in desks currently available. Singapore Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways and Varig will start making use of the new facilities in 2008 once additional areas of the terminal are refurbished.
Cirrus Airlines of Germany joined the European Regions Airline Assn. Cayman Airways and Cielos Airlines, the latter a cargo carrier from Peru, joined the Latin American Airline Assn.
Lufthansa Technik signed a contract to deliver its Total Component Support service for seven CRJ200s operated by Danish Regional Cimber Air over a two-year time period and also signed a TCS deal covering a CRJ900 for Spain's Air Nostrum.
US Rep. Harold Rogers (D-Ky.), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on homeland security, said Thursday that the US Transportation Security Administration's request to raise passenger security fees by $1.4 billion this year and ask airlines to pay retroactive security costs of about $300 million has little chance of passing. "The budget contains the perennial gimmick of raising aviation security fees even though Congress and the airlines have rejected this before," Rogers said. "It may very difficult to adopt this proposal this year."
Gol announced the expansion of its Gollog cargo operation to Rosario, Cordoba, Montevideo and Asuncion. Gollog is a pre-paid, online freight service the carrier unveiled earlier this month ( ATWOnline, Feb. 6). It already was available on Gol flights to 38 Brazilian destinations and Buenos Aires.
SkyEurope Airlines denied forcefully last week any assertion that it is decreasing its service to the Polish market, announcing it will base four of the six new 737-700s it will add this year at Krakow Balice. Rival Wizz Air said it would offer free tickets to SkyEurope passengers left "stranded" by the Slovakian carrier's decision to cancel service from Warsaw to London Stansted and Bratislava and to postpone two additional flights from Poland ( ATWOnline, Feb.
Air Canada Jazz and Toronto Port Authority exchanged broadsides over the former's eviction from Toronto City Centre Airport Wednesday. Jazz, which operates five weekday roundtrips to Ottawa and is the airport's only scheduled commercial carrier, said it would be suspending service there during March due to "continuing uncertainty" and the "surprising unwillingness of the [TPA] to assist its longest-standing commercial airline in finding alternate facilities at the Island Airport." The carrier said it was served a notice of termination on Jan.
China Eastern Airlines contracted EADS EFW for the conversion of three A300-600 passenger aircraft to freighters. The first is expected to enter EADS EFW's Dresden facility in December. The remaining conversions will take place during 2007.
Rising fuel costs and "aggressive competitor capacity increases" contributed to a 9.6% decline in Qantas's half-year profits to A$352.6 million ($261.3 million) in the six months ended Dec. 31 from A$390.2 million in the year-ago period. The airline expects those difficult conditions to continue through the current semester, saying, "While further reforms in the business are underway, and coupled with the high fuel price, we do not expect to achieve the same levels of profitability in the current financial year."
Finnair lost €2.9 million ($3.4 million) in the quarter ended Dec. 31 compared to a profit of €3.9 million in the final quarter of 2004, but still managed to end the year with an impressive bottom line as its annual profit more than doubled to €61.4 million from €25.6 million.
Caribbean Sun Airlines and Caribbean Star Airlines are working with Decision Strategies Inc. on a comprehensive "strategic business plan" for long-term growth and development, the companies said in a statement. The carriers are affiliated but operate as separate companies providing Regional service to 18 Caribbean destinations, although they now are considering expanding "to other areas of the region and beyond," according to CEO Skip Barnette.
