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.
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.
Assn. of European Airlines is irritated that authorities are targeting air travelers with yet another tax proposal "for the most questionable motives." Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel provoked AEA's ire by suggesting last week that taxes on air travel and short-term financial transactions provide revenues that would solve recurring budget problems. Austria currently holds the EU's rotating presidency. "There seems to be a tax epidemic in the air at the moment," AEA Secretary General Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus said Friday.
Southwest Airlines' board of directors authorized last week the repurchase of up to $300 million worth of common stock, which the carrier said represented approximately 17.9 million shares as of Jan. 18. It has about 804 million shares outstanding. Repurchased shares may be retired or used to fund the carrier's employee stock plans.
The US Transportation Security Administration on Friday announced several parameters for a nationwide smart-card-based Registered Traveler program to be run by the private sector. In a statement, TSA said it could approve qualified RT programs "by June of this year." But the agency apparently is leaving it in the hands of airports and private companies to invest "in approved screening equipment, fund additional screeners and/or obtain space for separate RT screening" in order to provide participants in the program with a speedier trip through security lines.
Delta Air Lines announced that its New York JFK-Kiev Borispol service will operate five-times-weekly from June 5. Delta will be the only US carrier serving Kiev. Separately, the carrier said it is increasing summer service on Delta Connection to Orlando International with new daily flights from Bloomington, Ill. (May 25-Sept. 4 on Freedom Airlines), Moline, Ill. (May 25-Sept. 4 on Comair), Newport News/Williamsburg (May 25-Sept. 4 on Freedom Airlines), Rochester (May 25-Sept. 4 on Comair) and Wichita (May 27-Sept. 2 on Atlantic Southeast). All flights will be aboard 50-seat RJs.
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.
European Parliament advised against the conclusion of an air service agreement between the European Union and Russia absent "the immediate and complete abolition of Russian overflight charges." At the same time, it said a comprehensive aviation agreement between the EU and China is "considered desirable." The MEPs regard the charges imposed by Russia for flights over its territory as a "violation of international law," noting that the cost to European carriers in 2003 amounted to €250 million ($302.6 million).
American Eagle operated its last flight out of its 13-gate, 25,000-sq.-ft. satellite terminal at Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport yesterday. It now will fly out of Terminals A (domestic) and D (international) while gates in Terminal B are retrofitted to handle its smaller aircraft, according to the Fort Worth Star Telegram.
IATA announced the launch of its IATA Catering Quality Assurance program, which it called "the industry's first global food processing safety and quality assurance" initiative. The association will partner with Medina Quality Assurance Services, which will audit catering facilities in compliance with ICQA standards on a contractual basis for program participants.
Globespan Group, parent of Scottish LCC flyglobespan, reported an FY05 pre-tax profit of £6.2 million ($10.94 million), a 67.6% improvement over 2004 earnings of £3.7 million, according to media reports. The company's fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2005. Turnover increased from £98 million to £163 million. Flyglobespan contributed half of the group's profits, up from £2 million in 2004, and flew nearly 1.5 million passengers, an increase of approximately 50%.
Swissport signed a five-year deal with Tiger Airways to handle its entire ground operation at Singapore Changi, where Tiger will become the first tenant of the new Budget Terminal. Value of the agreement was not disclosed.
JetBlue launched service yesterday from Austin, its first Texas destination, to New York JFK (thrice-daily) and Boston (daily) aboard Embraer 190s. It also started a daily Oakland-Ft. Lauderdale service yesterday that is the first nonstop flight between the cities. Separately, JetBlue confirmed it applied last week to commence service to Mexico. A new route from New York to Cancun was opened by the liberalization of the countries' bilateral agreement reached last fall. Delta Air Lines and USA 3000 also applied to operate the route.
