Cyprus Airways is closing in on full union approval for its restructuring plan, with four out of five unions having already given their go-ahead for a scheme aimed at trimming C£21 million ($44.3 million) from its cost base. It awaits the pilots' support. It expects the cuts to be finalized in the next few weeks and for everything to be in place by around March 1. It also will begin to implement new working practices among the remaining staff in the hope that the measures will gain EC approval for a state-guaranteed loan.
FL Group of Iceland purchased 6% of Finnair, adding to airline holdings consisting of Sterling and 16% of EasyJet, which has been the subject of recent takeover speculation. The investment in Finnair brings the total holding by Icelandic interests in the Nordic airline to 18%. The Finnish government has control with 57%. Finnair plans to add an eighth long-haul aircraft to support its Far East expansion, which could be an A340-300 rather than another MD-11 "depending what is available on the market," a spokesperson said.
Assn. of Flight Attendants lost a bid to break its concessionary agreement with United Airlines. In April AFA told the carrier it would revoke the contract because management failed to document annual cost savings of $112 million from the salaried and management work group. An arbitrator ruled against the union in the matter. World Airways' 400-plus pilots, represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, were released from mediation by the US National Mediation Board Monday.
JAL Group had mixed results during the Japanese New Year vacation period from Dec. 28 to Jan. 9. Total number of passengers traveling on international routes was down 5.1% while domestic passenger numbers rose 1%. Internationally, JAL recorded strong increases on transpacific and Korean routes, up 4.2% and 4.3% respectively. Despite soft traffic to Indonesia, Southeast Asian routes showed signs of recovery with passenger numbers rising 1.6%. Load factor on transpacific routes was particularly high at 91.2%.
Aeroflot is targeting a 6.7% rise in enplaned passengers, a 4.2% growth in RPKs, a 5.4% increase in RTKs and a 12.2% gain in revenue for 2006. It will launch scheduled service to Krasnoyarsk and Yuzhno-Sakhalisnk and increase frequencies domestically to St. Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Volgograd, Irkutsk and Novosibirsk and internationally to Beijing, Shanghai, Simferopol, Baku, Athens, Belgarde, Dusseldorf and Vienna. It will "consider" adding service to Hanoi. It also said it will continue work on "restructuring and replenishment" of its fleet and improving customer service.
Copa Airlines CEO Pedro Heilbron is the new president of the Latin American Airline Assn.'s executive committee. He replaces Juan Emilio Posada, who left the position after four years.
Spirit Airlines launched service yesterday from Dallas/Ft. Worth to its Ft. Lauderdale hub aboard two-class A319s. Copa Airlines launched a second frequency between Panama City and Santiago yesterday aboard a two-class, 124-seat 737-700. Wizz Air will begin four-times-weekly Zagreb-London Luton service on March 27.
Germanwings said turnover rose 60% in 2005 to around €400 million ($480 million). It transported 5.5 million passsengers, up 57%. Load factor reached 83%. The number of employees grew from 459 to 704. For 2006 the carrier expects a 36% increase in passengers to more then 7.5 million. Turnover is expected to exceed €570 million.
Austrian Airlines Group announced yesterday that it plans to start scheduled services to Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The twice-weekly service will be operated with A319s from March 9 and will increase to three flights per week in May.
Emphasis Media of Hong Kong and Publicitas Promotion Network named Moritz Wuttke CEO of Emphasis Media and CEO-Asia/Pacific of PPN. US FAA named David Bowen chief information officer and assistant administrator for information services. He replaces Daniel Mehan, who retired in September.
Singapore completed its new Budget Terminal for low-cost carriers at Changi. The facility, which will open in March, is 25,000 sq. m. in size, or about a tenth as large as Terminal 1 at Changi. The name of the terminal was selected through a naming contest that drew 12,000 entries, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore.
EasyJet said it flew 2.4 million passengers in December, an 11.1% increase over the year-ago month. Load factor dipped 0.2 point to 80.5%. For the year, the carrier reported 17.8% passenger growth to 30.3 million and a 0.3-point rise in load factor to 84.9%. It also said unaudited annual revenue jumped 20.5% to £1.38 billion ($2.44 billion) from £1.15 billion. Separately, EasyJet announced that Group Finance Director Jeff Carr was appointed company secretary, replacing Deborah Abrehart, who resigned.
US Airways is cutting fares on 21 routes between markets in the eastern and midwestern US and its hubs in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Charlotte. Sample fares provided by the airline show reductions of between 42% (Charlotte-Indianapolis, Philadelphia-Akron) and 61% (Pittsburgh-Syracuse).
Air France-KLM Group reported an 11.9% increase in December traffic to 15.6 billion RPKs. Capacity climbed 9% to 19.54 billion ASKs and load factor rose 2.1 points to 79.8%. Passengers enplaned increased 8% over the year-ago month to 5.6 million. Cargo RTKs grew 7.5% to 985 million against a 9% lift in ATKs to 1.4 billion and cargo load factor declined 1 point to 70.4%. Northwest Airlines reported systemwide December traffic of 5.82 billion RPMs, a decline of 5.7% from December 2004. ASMs dropped 8.6% to 7.21 billion and load factor was up 2.5 points to 80.7%.
Qantas launched thrice-weekly Sydney-Beijing service yesterday. The carrier said it intends to operate daily service to Beijing and Shanghai "within two years" aboard two-class A330-300s and noted that the travel market between the countries has increased 22% in the past year. It flies to Shanghai four times weekly. AeroMexico will expand its Mexico City-San Diego service from two to four flights per week beginning Jan. 12. It is pulling service from Dallas/Ft. Worth on Feb. 5 ( ATWOnline, Jan. 9)
US FAA last week proposed to fine Alaska Airlines $500,000 for flying a 737 without required cabin floor lighting on 478 revenue flights between July 12 and Dec. 2, 2004. The agency said Goodrich Aviation Technical Services performed "extensive" MRO on the aircraft but did not reinstall the floor proximity lighting system's emergency exit identifier lights. Following 40 additional inspections, Alaska discovered the problem and installed the identifier lights on Feb. 2, 2005.
United Airlines parent UAL Corp. remains on course to leave bankruptcy in early February after the company announced the launch of its oversubscribed exit financing loan for up to $3 billion. The six-year loan consists of a $300 million revolving credit facility and an up-to-$2.7 billion term loan, both priced at LIBOR plus 450 basis points. It is secured by "substantially all available assets."
Australia's business-only airline OzJet is showing further signs of stress after only two months, announcing a two-for-one fare deal designed to overcome slow business during the domestic holiday season. The giveaway offer comes as the fledgling carrier struggles with threadbare loads on the three 737-200s it operates on the busy business route between Sydney and Melbourne. Launched Nov. 29, Ozjet also has halved its schedule to four return flights per day but plans to return to full service at the end of January.
Gulf Air and Thai Airways signed a codeshare agreement covering Thai's services from Bangkok to Muscat, Phuket and Chiang Mai and Gulf Air's services from Bangkok to Bahrain and Muscat. Gulf Air VP-Network Fareed Al Alawi said the carrier will continue to expand into the Asia/Pacific region.
Alitalia won the bidding for Volareweb.com, the LCC subsidiary of Volare Airlines. It reportedly offered €38 million ($46.2 million), some €10 million more than Air One, for the carrier, which has been in extraordinary administration since Nov. 30, 2004, Il Sole 24 Ore reported. Air One is considering suing Alitalia, questioning its right to participate in the auction, Corriere della Sera said. Official results of the sale are due to be announced Jan 15.
JAT Airways will become a member of SkyTeam with sponsorship from Air France, according to media reports in Serbia citing JAT Commercial Director Milutin Popovic.
Smiths Detection announced yesterday the deployment of its Sentinel II explosives detection walkthrough trace portals at Washington National and Washington Dulles.
News from Travel Technology Update: The worldwide travel management scene is undergoing seismic changes as several companies split up, re-form and acquire others. TUI AG agreed to sell its business travel operations to BCD Holdings N.V., the Dutch parent company of World Travel BTI. The terms of the deal, which is subject to approval by TUI's advisory board and regulatory authorites, were not disclosed. If approved, the sale is expected to close in March.
Japan Airlines announced it is increasing the number of 747-400BCFs it has on order to eight with four options, up from its October 2004 commitment of three firm orders and four options. Value of the contract was not disclosed. JAL's first 747-400 passenger-to-freighter conversion entered modification at Taikoo Aircraft Engineering in Xiamen last month and will be delivered in May. Boeing said it now has 37 firm orders and 29 options for the aircraft. JAL also ordered four 767-300Fs last year.
