Reed Exhibitions announced that Hong Kong will be the venue for the 2007 Asian Aerospace air show and subsequent editions of the event. This year's show begins next week in Singapore, site of the previous 12. However, after a falling out with the Singapore government last year, Reed announced it would find a new venue for its biennial branded show while Singapore committed to staging a Changi International Air Show beginning in February 2008 at a 24-hectare site to be constructed in Changi North ( ATWOnline, Oct. 19, 2005). The next Asian Aerospace will take place Sept.
Qantas executives may be taking a second look at buying into Indonesia's Adam Air ( ATWOnline, Feb. 7) after one of Adam's 737-300s was flown for 4 hr. without any navigation and communications Saturday. According to the Jakarta Post, the aircraft lost the systems about 20 min. after takeoff on a domestic flight and the pilot continued over the island of Java before landing on Sumba on an 1,800-m. runway. The 737 was on a flight from Jakarta to Makassar on South Sulawesi. None of the 145 passengers was injured.
Champ Cargosystems, a subsidiary of SITA and GF-X (Global Freight Exchange), reached agreement on offering a turnkey GF-X solution to Champ customers. "The cost for a Champ customer joining GF-X will be based on their predicted traffic volumes and the benefits they receive through GF-X," the companies said.
Royal Air Maroc is adding three weekly flights from New York JFK to Casablanca from the week of May 14 through the week of Oct. 22 and a fourth flight from the week of June 18 through Sept. 5. Weekly frequency will increase to nine. United Airlines' Regional operation United Express launched the following new or expanded services last week: San Francisco-Edmonton and Denver-Knoxville (no frequency provided on either route); Los Angeles-Albuquerque (thrice-daily); Washington Dulles to Daytona Beach (twice-daily), Myrtle Beach (increased to thrice-daily) and St.
US Airways is recalling up to 55 of its 1,574 furloughed pilots. The addition of three 757s played a part in prompting the carrier's decision. The US Airways MEC of the Air Line Pilots Assn. said in a message to members last week that bidding will close on Feb. 19 and become effective in May and June.
Jet Airways' acquisition of competitor Air Sahara for $500 million ( ATWOnline, Jan. 20) is running into a little turbulence as hundreds of passengers were left stranded after 25 Air Sahara pilots went on strike Sunday over what they call a lack of clarity over their future. There is little chance of the pilots losing their jobs, but they may face salary cuts as the new group readies itself for battle with startups such as Air Deccan and Kingfisher.
AMR Corp., parent of American Airlines, announced that Senior VP and CFO James Beer will leave to take a job with California software firm Symantec. Beer became CFO in December 2003 after 15 years at AA. He will remain with the company through the filing and certification of its annual report. "While it is always disappointing to unexpectedly lose an executive of James' exceptional capabilities and leadership, American continues to have one of the strongest management teams in the industry, including a very strong finance department.
Bombardier, which shut down production of its 50-seat CRJ200 in October, said it will restart production "primarily to meet present and anticipated demand" for the Challenger 805 business jet. Work will begin in April at the company's Dorval facility and 50 workers will be recalled. "The flexible platform will permit us to offer three different aircraft--the CRJ200, a corporate shuttle or the Challenger 805," spokesperson Marc Duchesne told ATWOnline.
Worldspan announced a new five-year agreement with distributor partner Stargate Cyber Active giving Stargate exclusive rights to distribute Worldspan travel technologies and services to travel agencies in the Republic of South Africa. Stargate is the largest distributor of Worldspan products and services
Delta Air Lines likely will seek to terminate its pilot pension plan during its bankruptcy reorganization, a top member of the Air Line Pilots Assn. said on Thursday as he repeated a warning that the union will go on strike if the carrier attempts to cancel the existing labor contract and impose a new one. In a letter to members posted on the ALPA website, Delta MEC Chairman Lee Moak said, "Management has not funded our plan in bankruptcy and now acknowledges that due to their actions, our pension plan will likely be terminated."
Ryanair was granted an injunction Friday from the TAR Lazio court stopping the diversion of flights to Rome from its base at Ciampino to Fiumicino. Seven Ryanair flights arriving after midnight have been diverted to FCO in the past six weeks, affecting more than 1,000 onboard passengers with a further 1,000 delayed the following morning at CIA as aircraft arrived from FCO. Ryanair bases five aircraft at CIA. "Ryanair is committed to using its new quieter aircraft to minimize noise generation at Rome Ciampino.
Lufthansa flew 8 billion RPKs in January, up 0.8% over January 2004 on a 2.6% rise in capacity to 11.13 billion ASKs. Load factor fell 1.3 points to 72%. The number of passengers rose 3.1% to 3.64 million. European traffic grew 5.8% on 7.1% capacity growth attributable to new connections to Eastern Europe and the BetterFly low-fare offers from Hamburg and Dusseldorf ( ATWOnline, Feb. 8).
ACE Aviation Holdings, parent of Air Canada, announced it will lay off 600 management and salaried employees, representing 20% of the nonunion workforce, as it reported a fourth-quarter net loss of C$103 million ($89.7 million), largely attributed to a C$146 million increase in fuel expense during the seasonally weak fall quarter although other costs rose as well. ACE reported a slender profit of C$15 million in the 2004 fourth quarter owing to foreign exchange gains.
FL Group announced Friday that it intends to spin off Icelandair Group into an independent subsidiary through a listing on the Iceland Stock Exchange as the parent "has undergone considerable changes recently and is now an investment company." Kaupthing Bank and Islandsbanki will manage the process, which is scheduled to be completed by mid-year. Further details will be available in the spring. FL Group also has opted to sell Reykjavik Excursions and Icelandair Car Rental, which are part of FL Travel Group, whose remaining companies will be brought into Icelandair Group.
Boeing said last week that it will close its Melbourne, Ark., facility during the second quarter. "This decision reflects the unfortunate business realities facing the Melbourne operations," said Joy Romero, director of the Boeing Commercial Airplanes Salt Lake City facility, which will absorb Melbourne's remaining work. The facility served as an MRO station for MD and dash 700 series doors and flight controls.
Horizon Air will purchase two Q400 turboprops previously operated by Hainan Airlines. Aircraft will transfer from China to Calgary for refurbishment with entry into service scheduled for June and July. Horizon operates 18 Q400s.
Assn. of European Airlines members' punctuality fell in 2005 for the second consecutive year as 80.7% of short- and medium-haul flights departed within 15 min. of schedule compared with 82.7% in 2004 and 70.8% of long-haul flights took off within 15 min. of schedule, down from 72.6% in 2004. The 27 AEA member carriers that provided punctuality data operated some 3.64 million short- and medium-haul flights at a 98.5% completion rate. Regularity of long-haul flights stood at 99.4%, with a total of 274,003 flights operated by 21 AEA members.
Iberia introduced online check-in for passengers flying from London Heathrow. It said it is the first of 29 carriers at LHR's Terminal 2 to offer the service.
American Airlines and the Transport Workers Union representing its mechanics reached agreement on a goal "to obtain $150 million in value creation" at its Kansas City Maintenance & Engineering Base and to make the base a profit center by the end of 2007 through developing third-party business and implementing Continuous Improvement. The base, acquired in AA's purchase of TWA in 2000, employs 900 people. The goal was set by a joint team of base management and labor leaders who met recently under the carrier's Working Together initiative.
US Airways will become the second carrier in the US after JetBlue to operate the Embraer 190 after altering an existing order for 85 170s--57 of which are still to be delivered--to an order for 25 190s and 32 additional "firm 190s subject to reconfirmation," according to a joint statement from Embraer and US Airways. The deal also includes up to 50 options for other aircraft in the 170/190 family. Deliveries will resume in November. US Airways announced the original order for 170s in May 2003 in between its two bankruptcy reorganizations.
US Airways will launch flights from Philadelphia to Milan, Lisbon and Stockholm. Daily Milan service will begin May 30 aboard 767s, daily Stockholm service will operate June 3-Oct. 8 aboard 767s and four-times-weekly Lisbon service will run June 7-Oct. 28 aboard 757s. Finnair will launch twice-weekly Helsinki-Krakow service on Apr. 13 and double its service to Warsaw with the addition of five weekly flights from March 26. All flights will be operated using Embraer 170s. It will launch weekly flights to Kiev from March 30 with a 170.
