Hemus Air of Bulgaria is planning a Sofia-Hannover service. MAP Jet, a proposed Austrian airline, plans to start operations from Vienna using the single former Helvetic Airways MD-83.
Lufthansa yesterday confirmed a second-quarter net profit of €116 million and an operating result of €279 million ( ATWOnline, Aug. 10). Revenues rose 4.3% to €4.55 billion. For the six months, operating profit was €253 million while net result was a breakeven €0.2 million. CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board Wolfgang Mayrhuber called the outcome "a fine feat in such a tough setting," adding that "all our business segments improved their result." LH expects full-year operating result to exceed €400 million.
Boeing is carrying out a three-week flight test program on a 777-300ER intended for ANA at its Glasgow, Mont., test facility to demonstrate lower noise features. The Quiet Technology Demonstrator 2 program is an equal cost-sharing project among Boeing, General Electric, Goodrich Corp.'s Aerostructures division and NASA. Concepts being tested include chevrons on the engine exhaust ducts and new acoustic treatment for the GE90 engine inlet. Aerodynamic fairings for the main landing gear designed by Goodrich under contract to NASA also will be tested.
Royal Air Maroc and Boeing signed an MOU July 31 covering the purchase of up to five 787s. Formal negotiations are expected to conclude next month. Engine choice and delivery dates were not disclosed.
EVA Air added a third MD-11 wet-leased from World Airways and a weekly cargo service between Taipei and the US, boosting the total to 44. EVA freighters operate to Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. Load factor on flights to the US is averaging 90% or better.
Blue1, the Finnish SAS subsidiary, carried 97,000 passengers in July, up 24% compared to last year. Year-to-date through July, 804,000 passengers flew with Blue1, 30% more than in 2004. RPKs increased 29% and ASKs dipped 4% in July. Load factor rose to 76.3%.
Garuda and Singapore Airlines will be able to increase services as the result of an MOU signed yesterday between Singapore and Indonesia that formalizes an agreement in principle reached in May. SIA will be given more access to Bali and Jakarta while Garuda will get fifth freedom traffic rights from Singapore.
Aviapartner will provide ramp handling to Scandinavian Airlines at both Dusseldorf and Hannover from Oct. 1 under a new three-year agreement. It already handles SAS at Brussels, Lyon, Nice, Turin and Venice.
Lufthansa, which reports complete results today, said it had an operating profit of €253 million ($312 million) for the first half ended June 30 compared to an operating profit of €33 million in the year-ago period. Net profit was €0.2 million, down from a profit of €39 million in 2004, but last year's six-month result was boosted by book profits of €292 during the first quarter from the sale of LH's stake in Amadeus. Revenues rose 2.4% in the 2005 first half to €8.5 billion.
Goodrich Corp. board of directors elected Scott Kuechle senior VP and CFO. He succeeds Rick Schmidt, who is leaving to become CFO of Spirit AeroSystems. Kuechle is a 22-year veteran of Goodrich and has served as VP and controller since 2004.
JAT Airways and Aeroflot will begin codesharing on flights between Belgrade and Moscow Oct 30. The two operate 13 weekly flights between the capitals. JAT marks its 40th anniversary of service to Moscow this week. Ryanair will drop its daily London Stansted-Klagenfurt route on Oct. 29 and the daily Frankfurt Hahn-Klagenfurt service by Oct. 31, citing poor performance.
American Airlines will resume service between St. Louis and Houston Oct. 30. The twice-daily ERJ service will be operated by American Connection partners Chautauqua Airlines and Trans States Airlines. Also, American Eagle will add daily roundtrips from St. Louis to both Cedar Rapids and Des Moines starting Oct. 1 using ERJs.
Boeing and Qualcomm said they successfully demonstrated "the simultaneous use of CDMA and GSM mobile phone technology over an onboard network inflight mobile phone" on Boeing's Connexion One 737demonstrator. Passengers were able to download a variety of applications, send and receive e-mail and use instant message functions.
AirBridge Cargo, the scheduled cargo airline of Volga-Dnepr Group, launched thrice-weekly 747 freighter flights from Amsterdam to Moscow Sheremetyevo "to provide a fast and reliable supply line for Russia's $1 billion import market for fresh flowers." Around 60%-80% of flowers imported into Russia are from the Netherlands. AirBridge Cargo also operates five weekly 747F flights from Frankfurt to Shanghai and Beijing via Moscow and Krasnoyarsk.
EVA Air will offer OnAir's two-way SMS beginning with its first 777-300ER that enters service this month. An English-language version will be followed by a Chinese version later in the year. The service will be available to passengers in all cabins and will cost $1.50 per message sent or received. It allows passengers to use the in-seat entertainment system to send messages to mobile phones and e-mail addresses and also to receive replies. The system will be installed on the entire EVA Air fleet over the next few years.
General Electric announced that Bradley Mottier, currently president of Unison Industries LLC, a wholly owned GE subsidiary, will become VP and GM of the Services business within GE Transportation, Aircraft Engines, beginning next month. Mottier, a 25 year-veteran of Unison, was appointed president in April 2002 when GE acquired the company. He will be succeeded at Unison by Christina Alvord, GM at Middle River Aircraft Systems.
United Airlines parent UAL Corp. said it largely has "completed its aircraft restructuring effort," saving it approximately $300 million annually. The contractual savings associated with the agreement-in-principle reached with the Public Debt Group, which controlled 105 United aircraft, is subject to approval by the bankruptcy court. When coupled with previous restructurings, UAL said it will result in the company reducing its fleet costs by approximately $850 million in average annual savings since entering Chapter 11.
Royal Jordanian carried 186,300 passengers in July, up 3.8% over the same month in 2004 and a record for July. VP-Commercial Hussein Dabbas said load factor rose 3.8 points to 81.6% . The airline carried approximately 984,000 passengers between January and July, up 4.2% over the year-ago period. Based on preliminary figures, it expects to carry around 192,000 passengers in August.
FLYi, parent of Independence Air, reported that its loss for the second quarter ended June 30 widened to $98.5 million from $27.1 million in the year-ago period. Current-period results are net of a $43.4 million pre-tax noncash impairment charge related to asset writedowns, while last year's results included $21.9 million in pre-tax special charges. Excluding special items from both periods, net loss widened from $14.1 million in 2004 to $55.5 million in 2005.
Boeing yesterday announced orders from EgyptAir and Turkish Airlines covering up to 20 737-800s, while the Boeing Orders website also showed new orders from AeroMexico for five and AirTran for six as well as 21 new 737 orders from "unidentified" customers. The EgyptAir order covers six firm 737-800s plus options on an equal number valued at $850 million. Turkish Airlines' order represents the firming of eight options from an order placed in 2004 for 15 737s. Boeing valued the new business at $542 million.
US Bankruptcy Court overseeing US Airways' Chapter 11 reorganization authorized the carrier to solicit votes from its creditors in favor of its Plan of Reorganization, which if approved will clear the way for the company to exit bankruptcy and merge with America West Airlines in late September/early October, the airline said yesterday. A hearing on confirmation of the reorganization plan is set for Sept. 15.
Aviareps opened a new North American branch in Toronto. It already has one in Miami. GM is Matt Bloom, who is responsible for all sales and marketing activities. He has more than 17 years of experience in the tourism industry and previously acted in leading positions for both airlines and destinations.
Lufthansa Systems announced that Airbus successfully integrated its Lido eRouteManual and electronic airport and route charts into the On-board Information System of the A380. The eRouteManual presents a worldwide data set of airport and en route aeronautical information and detailed taxi, departure and approach charts, "as well as global, seamless en route moving charts." LHS will offer it for all Airbus electronic flight bags.
