Air Berlin will hire 200 flight attendants from spring 2006. The new cabin crew will be based in Dusseldorf, Dortmund, Hamburg, Hannover and Leipzig. The carrier will add up to nine new A320s next year. In addition, it plans to strengthen its position at its Nuremberg hub, adding service to Paris, Catania, Lamezia Terme, Brindisi, Mykonos, Thira and Milan Bergamo and additional frequencies to London and Vienna.
Boeing and Ariana Afghan Airlines finalized a fleet renewal plan Tuesday in Dubai calling for the lease of two 757-200s from Boeing Capital Corp. to be delivered this month and the purchase of four 737-700s for delivery beginning in 2009. The agreement also includes an advanced training package for the 757-200s.
Varig and its controlling shareholder the Rubem Berta Foundation have chosen TAP Portugal as its partner in a debt-restructuring process aimed at saving it from liquidation, the Brazilian airline said yesterday. TAP's proposal was chosen over six other offers. The plan includes an initial $62 million in financing to pay off debts owed to overseas leasing companies, avoiding the repossession of 20-40 aircraft. In a second phase, TAP would help Varig with a $500 million recapitalization effort.
Indian state-run oil companies reduced the price of aviation turbine fuel by 1.85% effective Nov. 1 due to the drop in international oil prices, Newindpress reported. For domestic airlines the price per kiloliter has been cut approximately 2% to INR35,761 ($792.31) in Delhi and INR36,715 in Mumbai. For international carriers the price has gone down 4% to $609 per kiloliter in Delhi and $601 in Mumbai.
Delta Air Lines late Tuesday asked a US Bankruptcy Court to permit it to impose a new contract on its pilots under Section 1113 of the US Bankruptcy Code that would reduce pilot pay rates by 19.5%, providing estimated savings of $325 million annually, according to the airline. The pilots are the only unionized workgroup at Delta. The carrier is imposing $605 million in pay and benefit reductions on its 44,000 other employees.
Ryanair said it is bringing forward the launch of four of its 10 new routes from its recently announced 15th European base at Nottingham East Midlands due to record advance bookings. Service to Limoges, Bergerac, Wroclaw and Lodz will commence Feb. 7-8 rather than March 14-15.
Northwest Airlines is talking to its major unions about the possibility of delaying by two months a court hearing to rule on its request for pay and benefit reductions and work rule changes valued at $1.4 billion. In exchange, the unions would have to agree to provide "interim financial relief" valued at 60% of the targeted $840 million beginning this month. In a statement released yesterday, NWA said it has been in discussions with the Air Line Pilots Assn., the International Assn. of Machinists and the Professional Flight Attendants Assn.
FAA announced that it will deploy the Airport Surface Detection Model X at 15 major US airports beginning in January with Seattle-Tacoma International. Others are Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall, Boston Logan, Chicago Midway, Chicago O'Hare, Detroit Metro Wayne County, George Bush Intercontinental (Houston), Los Angeles International, New York JFK, LaGuardia, Newark Liberty, Reagan Washington National, Washington Dulles, William P. Hobby (Houston) and Minneapolis St.-Paul. Additional sites are being evaluated.
Jazeera Airways, a Kuwait-based LCC and the first privately owned airline in the Middle East, made its inaugural flight to Dubai on Oct. 30 with an A320 ( ATWOnline, Sept. 15).
Airbus has started testing the A380's range and fuel-burn characteristics, according to COO and Head-A380 Program Charles Champion. Speaking to ATWOnline, Champion said he didn't expect any surprises: "We have already done some tests with MSN 001 but these were done with engines that were not optimized. We are very confident of meeting our guarantees." The fuel burn and payload/range tests will be done with MSN 004, which flew recently ( ATWOnline, Oct. 19). Champion added that Airbus found no problems with the flight envelope and no issues with the structural tests.
ATA Airlines announced it will be suspending service to and from Indianapolis, Denver and San Juan as of Jan. 10. The bankrupt carrier intends to maintain its headquarters in Indianapolis. "By making these adjustments, we improve our ability to achieve a profit in a shortened timeframe. In turn, this strengthens our position in creating an appropriate structure for successful emergence in early 2006," VP-Strategic Planning and Chief Restructuring Officer Sean Frick said.
Alitalia's external auditor, Deloitte & Touche, declined to approve the carrier's accounts for the first half of the financial year ended June 30 owing to a lack of sufficient detail about its planned €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion) capital increase. The carrier has yet to provide evidence it has reached an agreement with underwriters, according to Deloitte, whose statement was published on Alitalia's website.
ACE Aviation Holdings, parent of Air Canada, reported third-quarter net income of C$270 million ($229.6 million) compared to an C$81 million loss in the year-ago period.
SAS Cargo finalized its purchase of Sterling's cargo capacity, adding approximately 30,000 tons to SAS Cargo's annual European capacity ( ATWOnline, Sept. 29).
Curtiss-Wright Controls announced the renewal of a long-term contract with Boeing Commercial Airplanes giving the North Carolina company exclusive rights to manufacture 737 and 767 trailing edge flap actuators, 747 leading edge slat actuators, 777 flap position gearboxes, 767 and 777 cargo door actuators, 747, 767 and 777 cargo hold smoke detectors and assorted flight control and pilot control position sensors.
AirTran Airways reported record traffic for October. RPMs grew 35.2% to 968.2 million against a capacity increase of 25.4%, producing a load factor of 73.1%, a rise of 5.3 points over October 2004.
United Airlines and Swiss International Air Lines announced a codeshare and frequent-flier agreement effective Nov. 9. United's code will appear on Swiss's service between Zurich and Los Angeles, Zurich and Chicago O'Hare, and connecting beyond Zurich to Dubai and Muscat. Swiss's code will appear on United's Washington Dulles-Zurich service as well as between Los Angeles and Honolulu, with more routes to be announced pending regulatory approval.
IATA yesterday unveiled the cargo component of its Simplifying the Business initiative--dubbed e-freight--which aims for global paperless cargo processing by 2010, saving $1.2 billion annually and reducing shipping times by 25%. E-freight is one of five Simplifying the Business projects launched with a target of cutting industry costs by $6.5 billion. The others are eliminating paper tickets by the end of 2007, common-use self-service check-in kiosks, barcoded boarding passes and radio frequency identification for baggage management.
Cathay Pacific Airways announced a passenger load factor of 76.4% for September, up 1.2 points over the same month in 2004. The carrier is adding a fifth daily flight between Hong Kong and Seoul beginning Jan. 27.
Oman Air retrofitted three 737-800s with Aviation Partners Boeing Blended Winglet shipsets. The installations were completed at Malaysian Air Systems in Kuala Lumpur. The airline said it is the first blended winglet operator in the Middle East.
US Airways announced that $777 million in debt, of which $752 is guaranteed by the US government, has been sold at a light premium to par to 13 fixed-income investors.
WestJet expanded its Internet check-in service to include baggage drop counters at each of its 23 Canadian airports. The carrier said more than 30% of its passengers have used the self-serve check-in feature this year.
Viva International said it executed a letter of intent to purchase Smyrna, Tenn.-based RegionsAir, previously known as Corporate Airlines. RegionsAir provides service to 11 cities under the Essential Air Services program. Under terms of the LOI, Viva will acquire the entire operation, including the certificate, maintenance facilities and airport station agreements.
OAG signed a deal with lastminute.com to distribute real-time flight status information directly to UK-registered mobile devices. The lastminute.com Flight Alert Service includes more than 190 airlines and relays any significant changes in the time, terminal or gate of a registered flight directly to individuals via SMS Flight Status Alerts.
