Royal Air Maroc announced creation of an A320 and 737 MRO subsidiary called Aerotechnic Industries to be based at Marrakech-Menara. RAM's initial investment of MAD70 million ($7.5 million) will be directed largely toward the construction of an 11,000-sq.-m. hangar with room for two aircraft.
Aer Lingus will order four A330s for delivery beginning later this year, according to sources at the carrier, possibly indicating it will favor the A350 over the 787 for its upcoming fleet expansion. It has a need for up to 12 A350-type aircraft. The deal is worth $400 million, according to media reports.
Chinese airlines reported robust growth in passengers and cargo for 2005 thanks to surging traffic, and in the case of China Eastern and China Southern the gains from mergers completed last year. Air China reported a 13% increase in passengers to 27.7 million while cargo jumped 10.2% to 732,818 tonnes. China Eastern saw a 37% leap in passengers to 24.3 million and a 14% rise in cargo to 755,010 tonnes. China Southern also had impressive numbers as passenger totals jumped 56.4% to 44.10 million and cargo climbed 42.1% to 774,550 tonnes.
Murray Air Certifications announced it completed Virgin America's operating manuals process and assisted it in its effort to become a US FAA-certified FAR 121 carrier.
Austrian Airlines Group transported a record 10.1 million passengers in 2005, 7.6% more than in 2004. Yearly traffic in RPKs increased 7.6% to 22.8 billion, ASKs rose 5.7% to 30.8 billion and load factor improved 1.3 points to 74.1%.
ATR of France logged firm orders for 90 new aircraft--17 42-500s and 73 72-500s--plus 26 options in 2005 against only 12 firm orders in 2004. Revenues amounted to $542 million, an increase of 15% compared to 2004, prompting CEO Filippo Bagnato to declare, "2005 was our best year since 1989" during a Paris press conference yesterday.
Jet Airways' net profits fell 53% to INR610 million ($13.8 million) in the third fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, a "positive result," according to Executive Director Saroj Datta, who cited "industrywide capacity addition that was far in excess of demand growth," surging fuel costs that outstripped fare increases and operating losses on Jet's new international routes. The report came on the heels of the carrier's $500 million acquisition of Air Sahara, which will create the country's largest domestic airline ( ATWOnline, Jan. 20).
ATA Airlines announced new service from Hawaii, Oakland and Houston yesterday and an accompanying expansion to its successful codeshare agreement with Southwest Airlines. ATA announced that new service from Oakland to Honolulu (twice-daily), Hilo (daily) and Maui (daily) will begin April 27 replacing its operations at San Francisco. The following day it will launch daily Honolulu-Ontario service and on May 25 it will add a frequency to its Honolulu-Los Angeles service.
Embraer unveiled a corporate restructuring plan giving voting rights to all shareholders and making it easier to raise capital to fund future development. The plan must be approved by shareholders, who are scheduled to meet March 31. As part of the plan, CEO Mauricio Botelho would relinquish his title in 2007 and become chairman for a three-year period. A successor has not been named, but sources suggested Executive VP Frederico Curado as a possibility. According to Brazilian news reports, Botelho said the company might develop a business jet based on its commercial aircraft program.
Delta Air Lines will add service from New York LaGuardia to Chicago O'Hare and Dallas/Ft. Worth this spring. Service will be operated by Shuttle America aboard 70-seat Embraer 170s. Five-times-daily flights to ORD and twice-daily service to DFW will commence April 3. A third flight to DFW will begin May 1. Norwegian Air Shuttle will operate flights from Oslo to Varna and Bourgas in Bulgaria beginning in May.
China Eastern Airlines will acquire five 50-seat ERJ-145LRs from Harbin Embraer to be delivered between November 2006 and June 2007. Harbin Embraer is a joint venture between Embraer and China Aviation Industry Corp. II.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines said it was forced to cancel hundreds of domestic and European flights from Copenhagen and Norway yesterday and this morning due to a strike by its Denmark-based pilots and a sickout by pilots at its SAS Braathens subsidiary. An announcement on Copenhagen Airport's website said "most flights" were called off and that passengers holding tickets for all but the "few flights" unaffected by the work stoppage were "advised not to come to the airport."
Pilots at Comair, a Regional subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, narrowly approved a measure last week designed to save the carrier $17.3 million annually. Represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn., Comair pilots voted 50.57% in favor of an agreement that reduces pay and retirement benefits and extends the pilot contract for four years. The deal is subject to approval by the US Bankruptcy Court. Last October, Comair announced plans to lower costs by up to $70 million to aid Delta's emergence from bankruptcy.
Atlasjet of Turkey signed a $107 million deal to acquire three 90-seat CRJ900s. The airline has been using two 70-seat CRJ700s since last May on domestic routes. "Our decision to acquire the Bombardier CRJ900 as our larger regional jet was based directly on our experience with the CRJ700," Atlasjet GM Tuncay Doganer said.
Teledyne Controls said Shenzhen Airlines will add its AirFASE flight data analysis and reporting software tool and its Vision flight animation system to its existing flight operations quality assurance program.
SAS achieved what it called the first "four dimensional (4DT) managed revenue flight ever made." The event occurred on Jan. 19 and involved a 737 from Lulea to Stockholm Arlanda. It also marked the first Advanced Continuous Descent Approach into Arlanda. During the flight, the approach controller and tactical supervisor at Arlanda used data link to set up the approach procedure, enabling the 737 "to calculate its optimum trajectory." The ground also assigned a Required Time of Arrival for the runway threshold.
EasyJet's net profit for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 increased 38.5% to £59 million ($103.82 million) based on International Financial Reporting Standards, according to its annual report released Friday. In November, the airline reported a year-end profit of £42.6 million according to UK GAAP standards ( ATWOnline, Nov. 23). Turnover remained static at £1.34 billion. IFRS operating profit climbed 35.9% over the GAAP number to £66.2 million. Group Finance Director Jeff Carr called the changes "relatively minor in the current fiscal year and going forward."
Madrid Barajas' new Terminal 4 will open Feb. 5 rather than the originally scheduled date of Jan. 29. Spanish airport and air traffic authority AENA did not disclose a reason but said the decision was taken in consensus with affected tenants. Iberia will be transferring its operations, including nine divisions and more than 8,000 employees, from Terminals 1, 2 and 3 to the new building.
Lufthansa said Friday that AirTrust AG, a joint venture between LH (49%) and the Almea Foundation of Switzerland (51%), completed its acquisition of Swiss International Air Lines ( ATWOnline, June 6, 2005) in a deal reportedly worth €310 million ($374.9 million). The delisting of Swiss shares will occur Jan. 27. Shareholders keeping Swiss shares in bank safe-custody accounts automatically will be compensated CHF8.96 ($6.98) per share, the same amount offered during the public purchase offer period.
Aeroflot reported 2005 traffic of 20.75 billion RPKs, an "average 1%-2% decline" from 2004 "mainly due to reducing passenger load as prices rose as a result of rocketing fuel prices." Passenger load factor was 69.1%. Cargo volume grew 1.4% to 2.74 billion RTKs. Separately, Aeroflot transferred its Paris CDG flights from Terminal 2B to Terminal 2C on Tuesday. Departure and arrival times are unchanged.
UAL Corp., parent of United Airlines, received from the US Bankruptcy Court in Chicago the expected approval of its reorganization plan on Friday, positioning the company to emerge from more than three years of Chapter 11 protection early next month. UAL did not provide a specific exit date. Creditor distributions will commence shortly afterward, it said. The airline sought bankruptcy protection on Dec. 9, 2002, after it was turned down for a federally guaranteed loan by the Air Transportation Stabilization Board.
Qantas confirmed to ATWOnline last week that its evaluation of the 777-200LR is ongoing despite local media reports indicating it had been shelved. Qantas CFO Peter Gregg told this website that the 777-200LR is "definitely under serious evaluation," although he was coy on the finer details of the operational options under examination.
ANA filed an application Friday with Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to raise the fuel surcharge on international fares from March 1, saying it has "little choice but to reluctantly ask customers [to] share this burden." Sample surcharges include to ¥8,000 ($69.41) from ¥5,000 on routes to Europe, North America and the Middle East; to ¥6,500 from ¥3,600 on routes to Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, and to ¥3,900 from ¥1,300 on routes to China (over 2,000 km.), Taipei, Guam and Vietnam and from ¥1,200 to Hong Kong.
