Flexing its muscle following its acquisition of Maersk, Sterling announced it intends to open a base in Helsinki next spring and offer services to 11 European destinations from the Finnish capital. The carrier initially is allocating two 737-700s to the base. Flights will start on March 27 to Barcelona, Bologna, Budapest, Chania, Edinburgh, Faro, Malaga, Nice, Paris Beauvais, Prague and Rome Ciampino. Ticket sales began yesterday with prices from €79 one way.
EADS board is scheduled to meet Thursday to decide whether to support the launch of the A350, Les Echos reported last week. It noted that Oct. 6 is the last day of an agreement signed in 1992 between the US and EU that authorizes the four European state Airbus shareholders--Britain, France, Germany and Spain--to provide interest-free loans equaling up to 33% of the development costs of the program. The A350 program is worth more than €4.5 billion. To date Airbus has received agreements to purchase 110 aircraft and expects this to grow to 200 by year end.
British Airways CEO Willie Walsh reiterated earlier statements from the board that BA will remain true to its full-service concept, again rebuffing rumors that he intends to copy the low-fare strategy he implemented at Aer Lingus to turn to Irish carrier around. BA has "a renowned reputation for premium travel, and my aim is to make sure that we deliver a world-class experience for all," Walsh said in an interview with the Financial Times.
Lufthansa Group Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber is no fan of the European Commission's proposal to bring air transport into the EU's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme.
Bmi said it plans to increase its four-times-weekly service from Heathrow to Mumbai to daily and introduce thrice-weekly Heathrow-Jeddah service in 2006 following the "successful launch" of its three-times-weekly Heathrow-Riyadh service Sept. 1. Separately, bmi will suspend at the end of this month its service from Manchester to Washington Dulles, which it operates on a six-times-per-week basis with a leased 757.
Japan Airlines Group appointed Katsuhiko Nawano to serve on the boards of JAL International and JAL Domestic with responsibility for China business activities for JAL International. He also will handle special assignments at the direction of President Toshiyuki Shinmachi in both JAL International and JAL Domestic. Nawano, 58, is a former senior official at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
Eos Airlines moved forward its planned startup of services between New York JFK and London Stansted to Oct. 18 from Nov. 1 owing to earlier-than-expected route approvals from the US Dept. of Transportation and UK Dept. of Transport. The carrier intends to operate 757s configured for 48 passengers in an all-business-class cabin featuring lie-flat seatbeds. The base unrestricted roundtrip fare is $6,500 but Eos is offering an introductory fare of $5,000.
SAS reached an agreement with Sabre under which the GDS will continue to distribute its "comprehensive and complete content" while achieving lower distribution costs. "We endeavor to give the market full access to SAS's products through the global distribution systems, but while doing so, we need to seek new means to reduce our distribution costs to a competitive level. The agreement with Sabre is a step in the right direction," said SAS Senior VP-Commercial Robin Kamark. Details of the agreement were not released.
US Airways pilots, with an eye on JetBlue, reached a tentative agreement with the airline to operate the Embraer 190 as part of mainline service at a rate that will make the jets competitive with the low-cost carrier that launched the 100-seater. "We agreed on a pay rate as well as a restriction to fly only as mainline," Jack Stephan, a spokesperson for the US Airways pilots, told ATWOnline. "That one issue was sent out for member ratification with a strong endorsement to ratify the agreement."
Boeing said it will introduce passive radio frequency identification "smart labels" on significant 787 maintenance parts. Typical parts to include RFID tags will be "serialized end items such as LRUs and life-limited parts, as well as onboard emergency equipment."
New British Airways CEO Willie Walsh, who formally took over from Rod Eddington last Friday, said he is determined to realize his predecessor's goal of a 10% operating margin. "We have made tremendous progress in the last five years but I've been very impressed by the fact that everyone I've met at British Airways believes there is room for further improvement," Walsh said. "We must redouble our efforts to make this airline more efficient, more focused and better able to serve our customers."
US Airways, which merged with America West Airlines last week, said it reached agreement with the Air Transportation Stabilization Board to repurchase approximately 7.7 million warrants that have an exercise price of $7.27 per share. The warrants originally were created in conjunction with America West's $439 million ATSB-guaranteed loan in 2002 and reissued to ATSB in connection with the merger of America West and US Airways. The total purchase price will be around $115.8 million.
US FAA on Friday gave the green light to the City of Chicago's massive O'Hare Modernization Program and Airport Layout Plan that calls for realignment of the airport's runways to eliminate most intersecting runways. Currently, six of ORD's seven runways cross paths. In its Record of Decision, FAA said the plan "is the best alternative to improve safety, increase capacity and reduce delays with the least environmental impact."
News from Travel Technology Update: One of the more contentious "partnerships" of the era of online travel sales has landed in court again -- or rather, in two courts. Orbitz accused Worldspan, its GDS provider, with a long-running "scheme" to conceal its position on certain contractual issues in order to entice Orbitz into signing amended agreements. Worldspan then "sprang" claims of wrongdoing on Orbitz and demanded $40 million, Orbitz's complaint charged. Worldspan, meanwhile, accused Orbitz of "stealing" its "valuable data."
China Southern Airlines added three weekly roundtrips between its hub at the new Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou and Ho Chi Minh City, bringing the total to 10 weekly using A320s.
Boeing on Friday said it selected Thales "as the first recommended inflight entertainment provider" for the Dreamliner program. Thales has been competing with Panasonic for the designation and is offering its TopSeries I-8000, which uses a wireless network to deliver audio/video on demand programming to each passenger. The system interfaces with the Connexion by Boeing connectivity product offering. Thales had a chance to demo its system on the 777-200LR Worldliner marketing aircraft that toured Europe in July to demonstrate capabilities to airline executives.
Austrian Airlines will add a fourth 777-200ER to its fleet by December 2006. "This aircraft is a first replacement for our two A340-200s we just sold. And we can use the 777 as a backup for our Australia operations and as well when there is a need for higher capacity to destinations like Delhi or Bangkok," CEO Vagn Soerensen told ATWOnline. In an effort at further streamlining, Austrian plans also to sell its last 737-600 and three CRJ100s.
Continental Airlines selected General Electric's GEnx engine to power its recently ordered fleet of 10 787s, becoming the first North American customer for the powerplant on the 787. GE valued the order at more than $250 million. Deliveries are set to begin in 2009. The other customer for the GEnx on the Dreamliner is First Choice of the UK with six aircraft on order. The GEnx still is the exclusive engine being offered on the proposed A350 and GE and Airbus have signed agreements to transition to firm orders for 122 aircraft with seven customers.
American Airlines said Friday that "the skyrocketing price of jet fuel" had "forced" it to suspend 15 daily roundtrips at its Dallas/Ft. Worth and Chicago O'Hare hubs and end service between Chicago and Nagoya at the end of October. The temporary cuts take effect beginning Oct. 5 and last at least through Oct. 29, when AA will make the decision whether to resume service.
Aegean Airlines is a possible candidate to be the next Star Alliance regional member. The Greek carrier begins codeshare services with Lufthansa this autumn. Lufthansa, which was the sponsoring airline for Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines to join Star regional, could offer the same option to Aegean. "Normally the carrier decides which sponsoring partner they want. But we would be interested to help," Lufthansa Group Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber told ATWOnline.
Discover the World Marketing opened an office in Malta to handle sales and marketing representation for Alitalia, bringing the number of Discover offices to 83 in 54 countries.
Independence Air expects to eliminate some 600 jobs in the coming weeks, representing 18% of the workforce, as it matches employment levels to a reduced number of aircraft and daily departures. "As a result of the change in our operations, our overall employment will go from 3,400 to 2,800," spokesperson Rick DeLisi told ATWOnline Friday. "This will be accomplished through a variety of methods." In addition, the current 350 daily departures will be reduced to 230. At startup the carrier had up to 600 daily departures.
Lufthansa Commercial Holding GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, is selling its 52.6% stake in Loyalty Partner GmbH to British private equity company Palamon Capital Partners. Lufthansa said it will realize a book profit of around €100 million ($121 million) in the just-ended third quarter. After the sale, the carrier will continue "the successful cooperation between Miles & More and the Payback bonus card program operated by Loyalty Partner." Iberia board is expected to approve its 2006-08 Director Plan when it meets Thursday.
