Belgian and French aviation regulatory authorities, as promised, are providing via the Internet the names of airlines that have been banned from operating to their respective countries ( ATWOnline, Aug. 29). The Belgian Ministry of Transport listed nine carriers on its website, all of them cargo airlines and most of them from Africa. The website of the French DGAC identified five airlines on its blacklist: Air Koryo, Air St. Thomas, International Air Service, LAM and Phuket Airlines.
Cambridge Auto ID Labs announced the formation of a global partnership with companies including Boeing, Airbus and Aviall as well as SITA SC and the Air Transport Assn. "to address barriers to wide-scale adoption of Radio Frequency Identification and other ID technologies in the aerospace sector." The Aerospace ID Technologies Program is being led by the Cambridge lab as part of the global consortium of Auto ID Labs, it said.
Japan Airlines and Mexicana Airlines reached a codeshare agreement based on connections in Los Angeles that will expand JAL's network in Mexico to four cities and provide Mexicana with access to Tokyo and Osaka. Subject to government approval, the accord will come into effect Oct. 30. Implementation of a frequent-flier program partnership also is being discussed and will be put into effect once its scope and terms are finalized.
Air New Zealand earned NZ$180 million ($125.6 million) in its fiscal year ended June 30, up 8% over income of NZ$166.2 million in FY04, and Chairman John Palmer flagged that the airline is carrying on "a comprehensive review" of its engineering business, some parts of which are "financially underperforming." Profit before unusuals and tax was NZ$235 million, down 3% from NZ$243 million last year. Group operating revenue rose 3% to NZ$3.62 billion. EBIT declined 9.8% to NZ$212 million from NZ$235 million.
China Southern Airlines Group reported a hefty first-half net loss under IFRS of RMB907 million ($112 million), reversing income of RMB266 million in the January-June 2004 period. Turnover for the group totaled RMB17.84 billion, up 60% compared to the previous period. Passenger revenue of RMB16 billion represented 91.5% of the total. Domestic passenger revenue was RMB13 billion, up 64%, while revenue on services to Hong Kong rose 12% to RMB599 million and international route revenues climbed 77.5% to RMB2.4 billion.
Infratil agreed to purchase the assets and business of Kent International Airport for £17 million from the administrators of Planestation Plc. Completion of the purchase was expected Friday. Planestation, which also owns Irish low-cost carrier EUjet, went into voluntary administration earlier this month. EUjet ceased all operations on July 26 with the loss of 200 jobs after bankers to Planestation decided not to support the company with additional funding. The Irish Commission for Aviation Regulation officially revoked the airline's air carrier license Aug. 9.
Gate Gourmet and the Transport and General Workers Union, assisted by the Trades Union Congress, reached a nonbinding agreement on the terms of a voluntary redundancy program at its London Heathrow kitchens and the implementation of work rule changes. Gate Gourmet aims to cut some 670 jobs, downsizing the workforce at Heathrow to about 1,400. According to the terms of the framework agreement, all staff including the dismissed workers will be given the chance to take voluntary redundancy. However, the deal does not include the union's demand that all dismissed workers be reinstated.
Korea's Ministry of Construction and Transport gave the green light to low-cost operator Jeju Air, which is expected to start domestic operations in June.
Scandinavian Airlines reached agreement with Amadeus on a new distribution contract that will ensure its product is available to Scandinavian travel agents while also addressing its concerns over the high cost of using the GDS channel. The airline did not provide terms of the deal but said it is "a step in the right direction," adding that it is in negotiations with all its GDS providers "to obtain lower distribution costs." It intends to "alter its current full content strategy" as of Oct.
Malev Hungarian Airlines' privatization process failed for the fifth time. State Privatization and Holding (APV) cancelled the sale Friday. According to Budapest Business Journal, the board of APV decided that none of the bids met its expectations and closed the tender. The sale had been criticized by some, with both opposition party Fidesz and the airline's trade union calling for a halt citing various reasons.
Lufthansa Systems and Ryanair signed a 10-year deal for the LHS NetLine network planning solution. Ryanair also selected LHS as its long-term IT strategic partner.
US Airways Group earned $2.3 million in July net of $7.2 million in Chapter 11 reorganization-related expenses. Comparisons with the year-ago period were not supplied. In its monthly operating report to the bankruptcy court, the carrier also said it achieved an operating profit of $33.6 million on revenue of $678.3 million. Operating expense totaled $644.7 million. Fuel was the largest expense category at $161 million, followed by labor costs at $139 million.
Volga-Dnepr Group, Antonov Design Bureau and Aviastar-SP Aircraft Factory signed an agreement at the Moscow Air Show to establish a branch of Antonov Design Bureau at the Aviastar-SP factory in Ulyanovsk. Earlier this week, Volga-Dnepr said it would acquire five An-124s ( ATWOnline, Aug. 25). It called the new agreement "another significant step towards relaunching serial production of the 150-tonne capacity An-124 cargo aircraft."
Singapore and India inked an agreement that allows airlines of both countries to expand services between Singapore and Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Fifth freedom rights also were granted.
Asiana's pilot dispute has been referred to the National Labor Relations Commission, which has full power to solve industrial disputes. The South Korean government stepped in to resolve the dispute early in August and worked between the parties without success to reach agreement. The pilots have a range of issues including less stick time, more days off and a lift in retirement age from 55 to 60.
Northwest Airlines has largely recovered to pre-strike levels of reliability, the carrier claimed on Friday. In the first public disclosure of operating metrics since the carrier's mechanics and aircraft cleaners went on strike at 12:01 a.m. Aug. 20, Executive VP-Operations Andy Roberts said system completion factor was running at 98.2% as of mid-afternoon Friday.
Austrian Airlines will launch weekly seasonal 737-600 service from Innsbruck to Moscow Dec 16 and to Warsaw Dec 18. AAG also will operate three weekly services to London from Innsbruck in the winter season. It will transfer its remaining Vienna-Ljubljana services to codeshare partner Adria Airways with the beginning of the winter schedule. Midwest Airlines will launch single daily nonstop service in three markets from Kansas City: San Diego, Orlando and Pittsburgh.
CAE received an order for a 737-800 full flight simulator from Zhuhai Flight Training Center, its joint venture with China Southern Airlines. At list prices, the contract's value is C$16 million. The order brings the number of CAE-built simulators that the facility operates to 10, making it the largest independent training facility in China, according to CAE.
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Shenzhen Airlines chose CFM56-5Bs to power three A320s and two A319s on order. CFMI valued the engine deal at $60 million at list prices. GE will provide total maintenance support for the engines under a 15-year OnPoint Solution services agreement potentially worth up to $240 million.
Cash-strapped Delta Air Lines reached a revised agreement with its existing Visa/MasterCard processor to extend the terms of its contract to Oct. 31 and reduce the amount of cash "holdback" required by the processor. The contract had been set to expire Aug. 31. In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission late last week, Delta said that under the amended agreement, it estimates that the holdback will reach $625 million by the new expiration date, down from $750 million it previously expected to have tied up as collateral by the end of October ( ATWOnline, Aug.
Following France's example, Belgian and Swiss authorities announced plans to publish a list of airlines and aircraft that are banned from serving their airports ( ATWOnline, Aug. 26). The Belgian blacklist is expected to be on the website of the Ministry of Transport. The ministry also is considering the publication of other data, including a list of aircraft that have had technical problems.
Air Baltic will start a four-times-weekly F50 service from Riga to Liepaja on Sept. 5. This will be its first domestic route and the first in Latvia in 20 years.
In a move opposed by IATA ( ATWOnline, Aug. 25), the French DGAC on Monday will publish a blacklist of airlines deemed unsafe, Transport Minister Dominique Perben announced yesterday. The website lists will include carriers banned from landing in France, scheduled and charter airlines whose aircraft have permission to fly from France and the names of carriers likely to be chartered by authorized airlines.
Northwest Airlines "is prepared to operate the airline with our new maintenance organization indefinitely," the carrier said in a statement. NWA's mechanics and aircraft cleaners have been on strike since Saturday. The airline has experienced a small increase in the number of cancellations, part of which has been attributed to an alleged work slowdown by the mechanics prior to the walkout.
