Volga-Dnepr Group and Vnesheconombank, described as one of Russia's oldest financial institutions, concluded an agreement regarding financing arrangements for the resumption of An-124-100 production and the IL-76 freighter modernization program. The long-term cooperation agreement was signed in Moscow by Vladimir Dmitriyev, chairman of Vnesheconombank, and Volga-Dnepr Group President Alexey Isaikin. The companies said that as part of the agreement, the bank will participate in the financial analysis for Volga-Dnepr Group projects.
SkyTeam introduced a corporate travel program under which customers who contract with the alliance will receive discounts for increased business with alliance carriers. Individual travelers will earn miles on the member airline of their choice redeemable on other partners. Corporate travel buyers will have the ability to work with one key airline contact to manage the agreement on behalf of the alliance.
United Airlines and TAP Portugal will codeshare on their transatlantic flights "offering customers a variety of travel options between the US and Portugal through Newark, London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam, Brussels and Zurich." The codeshare will give United passengers access to the Portuguese cities of Lisbon, Faro, Porto and Madeira and in Africa Sal, Dakar and Maputo. Both carriers are members of the Star Alliance.
Thai Airways International said it will slash loss-making routes and restructure its foreign operations in a bid to turn its fortunes around. Low-cost subsidiary Nok Air is set to be the big winner by picking up a number of domestic routes. The announcement came less than two weeks after President Kanok Abhiradee was suspended from day-to-day responsibility for managing the airline in the wake of a 7 billion baht ($171 million) loss for the June quarter ( ATWOnline, Aug. 15).
State-owned Garuda Indonesia and domestic operator Merpati are to be merged and bailed out by the Indonesian government, it appears. Garuda has debts of $830 million and lost $85 million in 2004. A proposal is being worked up to be presented to the government shortly.
News from Travel Technology Update: Garber Travel became the first travel agency to deploy ITA Software's alternative distribution system. The Chestnut Hill, Mass.-based agency, one of the top 25 in the U.S. (its 2003 sales totaled $334 million) is funneling about "10 or 20" United Airlines bookings a week through the system, executive vice president Joan Kaplan said. "We hope to get it up to 50 or 100," she said. United was selected because it is a preferred partner of the agency, Kaplan said.
Component Control announced an agreement with Aeroxchange, an e-business solutions provider, whereby both entities will begin design and implementation of a seamless interface between Component Control's aviation enterprise resource planning software products and Aeroxchange's e-procurement product modules. Blue Sky Network announced the release of SkyRouter, "an interactive Web portal for tracking transportation assets anywhere on earth."
Berlin's International Aerospace Exhibition ILA and Russian air show MAKS announced an MOU outlining future cooperation to promote each other's events. The agreement between the German Aerospace Industries Assn. and the Russian Federation's Federal Agency for Industry was signed at last week's Moscow air show. ILA2006 will take place May 16-21, 2006.
Malaysia Airlines MD Ahmad Fuaad Dahlan announced his retirement after a 32-year career with the carrier as MAS reported a loss of MYR280.7 million ($74.5 million) for the three months ended June 30 compared with income MYR26.6 million in the year-ago period. He was named MD in April 2004.
US Dept. of Justice, in comments filed with the US Dept. of Transportation last week, opposed the granting of antitrust immunity to Northwest and Delta Air Lines and Alitalia, KLM, Air France and Czech Airlines, all of whom are members of SkyTeam, citing a "significant risk that the requested immunity would reduce competition on certain international routes" while arguing that the "claimed benefits are modest."
Garber Travel became the first travel agency to deploy ITA Software's alternative distribution system. The Chestnut Hill, Mass.-based agency, one of the top 25 in the U.S. (its 2003 sales totaled $334 million) is funneling about "10 or 20" United Airlines bookings a week through the system, executive vice president Joan Kaplan said. "We hope to get it up to 50 or 100," she said.
China appears to be pulling out all stops to assist Taiwan's airlines, which are seeking overflight rights to cut fuel costs. CAAC told China Daily that it "will handle the applications as soon as possible." The Taiwan government announced in early August that it would allow the country's airlines apply for the rights.
British Airways said it will resume serving hot meals to customers departing London Heathrow on long-haul flights today, while hot meals will be offered to long-haul inbound passengers beginning Wednesday. Customers in the first class and Club World cabins will have three hot meal choices and a deli box option, while World Traveler and World Traveler Plus customers may select from two hot meal options and a deli bag offering. A limited bar service is being offered as well.
Latin America Airline Assn. said its 22 members flew 9.57 billion RPKs in June, up 11.2% compared to the year-ago period, on a 9.2% rise in capacity to 13.91 billion ASKs. Load factor gained 1.2 points to 68.8%. The airlines carried 6.1 million passengers, up 13.8% over June 2004. Growth was fueled by the traffic increase on intra-Latin America routes, where 1.1 million passengers were carried, up 26.7%. Domestic and North American traffic rose 10.9% and 9.3% respectively.
Jetstar, the Qantas low-fare airline, had an operating profit of A$44.1 million ($33.2 million) in the fiscal year to last June 30 compared to negative EBIT of A$23.4 million in FY04, when it "was largely in startup mode," and achieved lower costs than low-fare rival Virgin Blue, according to Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon.
Singapore Airlines' traffic continues to grow, with the carrier recording a 6.9% lift in passengers and a 9.7% increase in cargo for July. Traffic rose 7.2% while capacity grew 6.8% for an overall load factor lift of 0.3 point to 69.1%. Strongest passenger load factor was to the Americas at 88.1%, while Europe had the highest cargo load factor at 69.5%. During the month, SIA introduced passenger flights to Ahmedabad and Amritsar and cargo flights to Johannesburg.
Virgin Blue's exposure to higher fuel costs forced the airline to downgrade earnings expectations by one-third for the current financial year. In an announcement to the Australian Stock Exchange, the carrier said its full-year profit will fall from A$159 million ($120 million) to A$90-A$100 million for the 12 months to next June 30. It blamed the profit warning on a A$150 million increase in its fuel costs due to price rises. It has no hedging in place.
Connexion by Boeing named Lianne Stein VP-Commercial Aviation Business, succeeding Stan Deal, who was named VP-sales and marketing operations at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Stein most recently served as VP of BCA for Washington operations. Prior to joining Boeing in 2001, she spent 10 years at ILFC. Earlier she was with Flying Tigers.
Dublin-based RBS Aviation Capital, a unit of Royal Bank of Scotland, has ordered 20 737NGs, according to Boeing's orders website. RBS was established in 2001. Boeing also lists one new 737NG sold to an unidentified customer.
US Airways received bankruptcy court approval to sell four of its 767s and one spare engine to Mountain Capital Partners LLC, an affiliate of Goldman Sachs, as part of a sale/leaseback agreement. The deal will provide the carrier with $30.8 million initially and another $10 million after recurrent maintenance checks through 2009. US Airways said it has been operating under a month-to-month agreement with Mountain Capital enabling it to return planes and the spare engine as it takes delivery of new aircraft.
China Airlines revised its financial forecast for the 2005 year, telling the markets that it is increasing its operating revenue prediction by 5.8% to TWD$111.69 billion ($3.48 billion) but downgrading its profit forecast from TWD$4.4 billion to TWD$3.08 billion. The airline recorded a 17% growth in passenger revenue and a 12% lift in cargo for the first six months.
Lufthansa Systems said Mexicana will use its ProfitLine/Price module to support its pricing analysis and decision-making. Mexicana will be using LHS as an ASP. LAN Airlines recently signed an agreement with Teradata, a division of NCR Corp., to expand its data warehouse to 4 terabytes. In addition, the agreement includes training on the latest Teradata enterprise data warehouse platform.
Northwest Airlines appeared to come through the first day of a strike by its 4,400 mechanics and aircraft cleaners with flying colors, operating most of its flights on Saturday and achieving a 57.8% ontime departure rate and 97.9% outbound completion factor through 5:15 p.m. EDT, according to an analysis by JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker. To ease the burden on the mix of replacement workers and third-party providers who are filling in, the airline began flying its fall schedule Friday, operating around 300 fewer daily flights than during the peak summer season.
AirTran Holdings filed a shelf registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission covering the sale of up to $225 million of its debt securities, preferred stock, common stock or warrants to purchase any of these securities.
El Al Israel Airlines earned $29.9 million in the second quarter ended June 30, a fourfold increase over $7 million earned in the year-ago period and a record for any second quarter. Revenues rose 30% to $423 million. The carrier attributed the strong performance "to enormous growth in passenger traffic during the period." A 16% increase in capacity resulted in a 26% jump in passengers on scheduled flights, pushing load factor up 7 points to 80%. El Al noted that it overcame a 52% surge in fuel prices during the quarter that raised operating expenses by approximately $33 million.
