Boeing yesterday confirmed that Ryanair exercised options for nine 737-800s valued at upward of $500 million with deliveries beginning in September 2007. Five airplanes will be for replacement of 737-800s delivered in 1989 and four are for growth ( ATWOnline, Oct. 5). Separately, Boeing said it will supply its Enterprise One software to China Airlines, which will use selected modules to standardize management of airplane configurations and maintenance requirements across its entire fleet.
JetBlue Airways launched new service from Newark to Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando yesterday, offering five daily roundtrips in each market in a direct challenge to Continental Airlines, which maintains its most important hub at the New York-area airport. The low-fare carrier will continue its growth at Newark on Oct. 19 when it begins double-daily nonstop service to Ft. Myers, Tampa and West Palm Beach with single daily roundtrips. JetBlue adds San Juan Nov. 17 with daily service.
Wizz Air carried its 2 millionth passenger Tuesday. Martyna Lelinska was traveling from Katowice to Milan Bergamo and will receive unlimited tickets for a year on the Wizz Air network. The airline carried its millionth passenger in April, 11 months after it began operations.
AeroData's ACARS Performance and Weight & Balance System was selected by AirTran Airways, which operates more than 500 daily flights across North America, for use by its pilots.
JAL Group announced yesterday that Japan Airlines Domestic will be merged into Japan Airlines International effective Oct. 1, 2006. JAL Sales, which handles group travel sales, will transfer its activities to JAL International six months earlier, on April 1.
British Airways flew 9.85 billion RPKs in September, an increase of 7.8% on the year-ago period, on a 5.5% capacity hike to 12.37 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 1.7 points to 79.6%. The increase in traffic comprised an 11.6% gain in premium and a 7.2% rise in nonpremium traffic. Passenger boardings grew 2.8% to 3.21 million and compared with 3.03 passengers million on Ryanair's network. Cargo measured in CTKs rose 0.5% and overall load factor dipped 0.2 point to 72.2%.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, "there is no clear evidence" that US airlines operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection "harm the industry by contributing to overcapacity or underpricing their competitors," according to a new study by the US General Accounting Office, the investigative and research arm of Congress.
United Express is offering new service between San Francisco and Edmonton with daily roundtrip flights using a 70-seat regional jet. United also is adding three daily flights between Los Angeles and Albuquerque. The new service will begin Feb. 8. British Airways franchise partner Sun Air cancelled its services between London City and Copenhagen effective Oct. 30.
Michael Brag was appointed acting CEO of SAS Component following the departure of Per Boll. Brag is CCO at SAS Technical Services and will retain this position.
AirBaltic celebrated its 10th anniversary Oct. 1. Over the decade, the Latvian carrier enplaned more than 3 million passengers, launched direct flights to 46 destinations and opened a second hub in Vilnius. Main shareholders are the Latvian state with 52.6% and SAS AB with 47.2%. The fleet numbers seven 737-500s and seven F50s.
Wideroe, a Norwegian Regional carrier belonging to SAS Group, said negotiations between itself and labor organizations NFO and Parat have broken down. The labor dispute has resulted in a go-slow action among the organized technical and catering/cleaning personnel. Wideroe said it is doing everything possible to maintain a normal operation.
Gol today begins operating six weekly flights from Sao Paulo to Campina Grande via Recife. Separately Gol said it flew 890 million RPKs in September, up 77.8% over the year-ago period. Capacity rose 59.1% to 1.18 billion ASKs and load factor jumped 8 points to 75.5%.
Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.), a member of the powerful House Committee on Ways and Means, has sent a letter to Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) and Ranking Member Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) expressing support "for a one-year suspension of the 4.3 cents-per-gallon excise tax on aviation fuel as the House [of Representatives] considers ways to facilitate recovery and mitigate the economic impact of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita."
Sichuan Airlines selected Air France Industries to carry out three A320 D checks scheduled for completion by the end of November. The carrier operates 20 A320 family aircraft.
American Eagle flew 676 million RPMs in September, a 26.2% increase over the same period a year ago. ASMs were up 20.4% to 977 million while load factor rose 3.2 points to 69.2%. The number of passengers boarded increased 14.2% to 1.6 million. Year-to-date, RPMs grew 26.7% to 5.9 billion, ASMs were up 22.6% to 8.4 billion and load factor improved 2 points to 69.9%. Mesa Air Group's RPMs increased 12% in September to 509 million as ASMs grew at the same rate to 739 million. Load factor remained flat at 68%. The number of passengers carried rose 14% to 1 million.
American Airlines reported that system RPMs rose 9.1% in September compared to the same month last year to 10.74 billion. Strongest growth was registered on Pacific routes, where traffic jumped 21%, although this is AA's smallest division with RPMs of just 457 million out of total international RPMs of 3.74 billion. Latin America traffic was up 17.4% while transatlantic traffic climbed 6.7% and domestic traffic rose 7.3%. Total capacity (ASMs) increased 5% to 14.1 billion, with the strongest growth in the Pacific, up 32%.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines claims it is the first carrier to offer customers Internet check-in using their mobile phones. SAS MobilePortal, launched in Sweden Oct. 3- 4, also permits customers to check flight times and their EuroBonus points from their phones. They can book rental cars, read the latest news and even order flowers. SAS expects to roll the service out to the rest of Scandinavia later this fall. It developed the mobile portal in cooperation with Digital Act Stockholm AB. The solution is based on the adimo mobile platform and works with both GSM and 3G subscriptions.
Ryanair exercised options to buy nine further 737-800s for delivery in 2007 and confirmed the planned sale later that year of five of its older 737-800s, which it purchased in 1999. "This is a continuation of Ryanair's strategy of operating the youngest fleet in Europe, with the lowest unit operating costs and best technical reliability, thereby ensuring that Ryanair remains the number one ontime major airline in Europe," CEO Michael O'Leary said at an Investor Day in London.
The 27-day strike by assembly workers at Boeing that ended last Friday ( ATWOnline, Oct. 3) cut into third-quarter aircraft production as the company reported that it delivered 62 commercial aircraft in the period, down from 67 in the year-ago quarter despite rising production rates. Current-period deliveries comprised three 717s, 47 737NGs, two 747s, two 767s and eight 777s. This compares with three 717s, 49 737NGs, two 747s, three 757s, two 767s and eight 777s delivered in the third quarter of 2004.
One-day national strike by French public workers yesterday resulted in several hundred flight cancellations. According to the BBC, more than 400 cancellations occurred at Paris airports. Ryanair preemptively canceled more than 70 flights while easyJet dropped at least 10. Air France said it intended to operate all of its long-haul flights but short-haul travelers might experience some delays and cancellations. Other airlines merely stated that they expected some disruptions to service.
Russia lifted the ban on operation of Il-96-300 passenger jets, which were grounded for safety checks in August after problems with the braking system. Aeroflot, which has six of the 13 widebodies in use, or 40% of its long-haul fleet, said on Monday it will comply with the decision straight away. According to Reuters, first flights were scheduled for Tuesday to Shanghai and New Delhi. Aeroflot plans to acquire 12 A320s and 2-5 767s, it said last week. The Boeing planes are likely to be acquired in about a year.
Emirates SkyCargo and Korean Air Cargo agreed to share cargo capacity on KAL flights to Delhi and Mumbai. Emirates SkyCargo now has an additional 22 tons on offer to Dubai on Korean's 747-400F weekly services from Delhi (Fridays) and Mumbai (Wednesdays).
Qantas is offering year round service into Queenstown, New Zealand, from Sydney with the introduction of a permanent weekly return service using 737-800s from Oct. 1. Thai Airways will launch thrice-weekly service between Bangkok and Moscow Domodedovo Nov. 1 using MD-11s. American Eagle is adding nonstop service on Dec. 15 between Gulfport-Biloxi and Dallas/Ft. Worth. The two daily roundtrip flights will be operated with 50-seat ERJ-145s.
