Taiwanese government is facing increased pressure to agree to regular direct charter flights between China and Taiwan as the annual Spring Festival comes to a close. This year 27,000 passengers flew on 72 direct charter flights from Jan. 20 to Feb. 7 in conjunction with the Chinese New Year. Last year 10,000 passengers flew on 48 flights. According to China Daily, Pu Zhaozhou, General Administration of Civil Aviation of China director-Office of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Affairs, called regular charter flights the first step toward open skies.
Bratislava-based SkyEurope nearly doubled its revenue and reduced unit costs by more than 10% in its first fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31 but saw little improvement on its bottom line, which showed a €12 million ($14.4 million) loss that was just 0.5% better than the €12.1 million deficit in the year-ago quarter. Operating revenues climbed 42.5% to €26.2 million against a 23.8% rise in expenses. Totals were not provided, but the carrier said it spent €12.3 million on aircraft and traffic servicing and €11.9 million on fuel, the latter an increase of 29%.
Although United Airlines cut its annual budget by $7 billion through its three-year Chapter 11 reorganization, its unit costs do not appear to be significantly lower than those of its network competitors with the exception of Northwest Airlines. Furthermore, on a stage-length-adjusted basis excluding fuel, UA still has among the highest unit costs in the industry. This information is contained in an 8K filed yesterday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in which a presentation to the JP Morgan High Yield Conference is included.
Air Travel Price Index increased 6.4% in the third quarter of 2005 compared to the year-ago quarter, according to the US Dept. of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics. It marks the largest year-over-year increase in four years and is the highest index level (109.2) since the second quarter of 2001.
Lufthansa said that a new low-fare concept introduced in Hamburg last October is off to a successful start. The carrier discussed Program Hamburg with journalists Monday. The project is designed to achieve 20% higher productivity--resulting in lower production costs--and a capacity increase in Hamburg of 40%. Similar to low-cost airlines, LH offers 20% of its seats at fares starting from €99 ($118.8) including taxes and serves 23 direct destinations from the city.
Latin American Airline Assn. announced that the 2005 Federico Bloch Award was given to Constantino de Oliveira Junior, CEO of Gol. The award honors Federico Bloch, the visionary CEO of Grupo Taca who was murdered in an apparent holdup attempt in 2004. The first Rolim Amaro Award was given to SCL Terminal Aereo Santiago (Santiago International Airport). Named in memory of the late founder and chairman of TAM, the award is given to the Latin American airport with the best overall service to AITAL member airlines.
Pratt & Whitney and MTU will collaborate on a "technology readiness program" to develop high-pressure compressors for the next generation of mid-thrust engines powering eventual successor aircraft to the A320 and 737. Ground rig testing of the new compressor is scheduled for this fall in Munich. "Development of a whole new generation of single-aisle, medium-range aircraft will depend to a large degree on the availability of extremely efficient new engines," Pratt Senior VP-Engineering Paul Adams said.
Aeroxchange announced that Malaysia Airlines signed a marketplace subscription for products including AeroAOG, AeroBuy, AeroRepair, AeroSell and AeroSourcing.
Vueling reported revenues of €136 million ($163.2 million) in 2005 and said it was profitable in the second half of the year, without providing details. The Barcelona-based LCC carried more than 2 million passengers. "With these results we have easily exceeded the company's initial business plan forecasts," CEO Carlos Munoz said.
Connexion by Boeing and Air China reached a "preliminary agreement" to provide Connexion's high-speed connectivity solution to Air China passengers traveling to and from China. The agreement covers up to 15 firm and optional retrofit installations of the product on 747-400s and other long-haul models. Financial terms were not disclosed. Installations are planned to begin in October.
PSA Airlines, a US Airways Express partner, chose AeroData's ACARS Performance and Weight & Balance System for use by its pilots aboard its 49 CRJ200s and CRJ700s.
Air France-KLM reported systemwide traffic of 15.74 billion RPKs in January, a 9.5% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity grew 8.1% to 19.92 billion ASKs and load factor rose 1 point to 79%. EasyJet reported 2.3 million earned seats flown in January, up 11.2% from the same month a year earlier. Load factor dropped 2.3 points to 74.2%. "Our total revenue performance this month was in line with our expectations, and our guidance for the year to September 2006 remains unchanged," CEO Andrew Harrison said in a statement.
Gulf Air's remaining shareholders, the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Sultanate of Oman, have agreed to a recapitalization of the airline that will permit fleet renewal following the withdrawal of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi as an investor ( ATWOnline, Sept. 14, 2005). The announcement was made in Oman yesterday by Gulf Air President and Chief Executive James Hogan at the conclusion of a board of directors meeting.
European Low Fares Airline Assn. called on the European Commission to take a hard line against what it calls "the latest abuse" of the Public Service Obligation system by Italian authorities. "PSOs are being imposed on commercially viable routes between Sardinia and mainland Italy and this makes a mockery of the whole PSO system. Some of these routes are currently served by ELFAA members and consumers therefore have easy access to affordable air travel," stated ELFAA Secretary General Jan Skeels.
KLM will become a Worldspan Interchange participating carrier to "help [it] achieve the industry goal of 100% e-ticketing in 2007." According to the GDS, Worldspan Interchange is "a breakthrough e-ticket message communications hub with an advanced Editfact message translation process."
Emirates will launch a second daily service to Perth. It will operate the flight four times weekly from March 2 aboard A340-300s, increasing to daily Sept. 2 aboard 777-200s. It has been operating a single daily flight on the route since May 2003. Separately, Emirates SkyCargo launched eight-times-weekly service to Thiruvananthapuram on Feb. 1 using belly capacity of passenger A330-200s and 777-200s. It also will increase service to Cochin from five-times-weekly to daily and to Chennai from four-times-weekly to eight.
Former AMR Corp. Chairman and CEO Donald Carty was named chairman of startup Virgin America, which plans to launch US service this year. Carty served as chairman and CEO of AMR Corp. from 1998 to April 2003 before being forced to resign following disclosure of the existence of special compensation packages for top AMR executives at a time when other employees were being asked to take pay and benefit reductions. "I've known Don for many years, and he knows the airline business," said Virgin America CEO Fred Reid. "We feel fortunate to have someone with his expertise as our chairman."
CFM International completed a 63-hr. flight test program on its CFM56-5B/CFM56-7B Tech Insertion package, paving the way for certification in June and EIS in 2007 on the A320/737NG. The program incorporates technologies developed and validated as part of Project TECH56 and includes improvements to the high-pressure compressor, combustor and high- and low-pressure turbines. According to CFMI, the package will provide operators with longer time on wing, about 5% lower maintenance costs, 15%-20% lower NOx emissions and better fuel burn.
Qantas is considering acquiring a share of Indonesian budget carrier Adam Air to strengthen its position in the high-growth Southeast Asia market. Adam Air CEO Gunawan Suherman confirmed that Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon and CFO Peter Gregg were in Jakarta last Friday to discuss the acquisition of 20%-30% of the operation. According to Gunawan, Qantas is planning to establish Jakarta as a second Asian hub after Singapore. Adam Air began flying in December 2002 with 737s and currently operates 20 aircraft to 39 destinations, including Malaysia and Singapore.
The Assn. of European Airlines reported that its 30 member carriers will post an operating profit of $800 million for 2005 based on preliminary figures, double a 2004 total that was the group's first combined profit in six years, in spite of last year's record nominal fuel prices.
Gulf Air secured a $75 million syndicated loan that it will use to continue funding near-term development following its restructuring in the wake of the withdrawal of Abu Dhabi as a shareholder.
Mesaba Airlines, the bankrupt Regional partner of Northwest Airlines, filed documents Friday with the US Bankruptcy Court seeking approval to cancel labor contracts with its pilots, flight attendants and mechanics and eliminate approximately 1,600 jobs, according to media reports. "Mesaba will shut down if these proposals are pushed through, either by virtue of a work stoppage or by virtue of everyone quitting," said Tom Wychor, chairman of the carrier's Air Line Pilots Assn. unit. "These are not viable solutions for the airline and we believe management would be foolish to test them."
World Airways pilots, represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, announced Sunday they had reached a tentative agreement with the carrier, ending a nine-day strike ( ATWOnline, Jan. 31). Details of the accord were not released.
