Etihad Airways opened a lounge for Diamond and Pearl Zone guests arriving at and departing from Abu Dhabi. It offers areas for conducting business or enjoying a range of audio and video entertainment or relaxation and is equipped with laptop connections, high-speed Internet access, fax and telephone facilities. Hot and cold refreshments are offered and users can access the airport's gym and shower facilities.
Deepening battle over pilot poaching between airlines in India has ended up in court, with Indian Airlines securing an injunction preventing four of its pilots from leaving to join a rival. The court ruling is expected to stabilize the cat-and-mouse game between carriers and ensure that pilots serve out their contracts. IA has a shortage of 118 pilots while Air-India is short 40, which resulted in Air-India Express having to suspend service between Delhi and Mumbai, according to a spokesperson.
OnAir announced that Munich-based TriaGnoSys and Alabama-based Miltope Corp. will provide the software and server respectively for the OnAir onboard GSM solution that "will allow the safe and effective use of mobile phones on aircraft for the first time." With the recent selection of Siemens as the pico cell manufacturer, all suppliers for the system are identified and fully engaged with Airbus. A pre-production version of the server with the TriaGnoSys software is expected by year end.
Delta Air Lines' Song low-fare unit will add 12 daily frequencies from New York and Boston to Florida in November owing to additional capacity made available through a 20% reduction in turn times. Song also will launch service between San Francisco and Orlando and add a second daily Los Angeles-Ft. Lauderdale nonstop. "This new service and increased flight frequencies are the direct result of Song's efforts to reduce its [757] turn times at the gate from 50 minutes to 40 minutes systemwide," Delta said yesterday. Beginning Nov.
Air China, China Eastern, Shanghai Airlines and Xiamen Airlines yesterday finalized commitments for 42 787s, China's Xinhua News Agency reported. Orders originally were announced in January for 60 787s from six Chinese carriers ( ATWOnline, Jan. 31), but China Southern and Hainan Airlines reportedly have not finalized their orders. Air China and China Eastern each will take 15 787s, Shanghai will buy nine and Xiamen is taking three, the Associated Press reported citing Xinhua.
News from Travel Technology Update: Sabre Holdings Corp. said US Airways signed a renewal of its Direct Connect Availability Three-Year Option agreement, extending the pact one year beyond October. US Airways was the first carrier to sign a DCA-3 agreement and to join Galileo International's version of the program, Preferred Fares. In Sabre's second-quarter earnings briefing with investment analysts, chairman Sam Gilliland said the extension of the agreement incorporates "roughly similar terms and conditions" as the original.
South Korean government decided yesterday to step in to arbitrate an end to the labor dispute between Asiana's management and its pilots ( ATWOnline, July 19). The pilots have been striking for better working conditions and a greater voice in management. The move came after talks between the two sides broke down. The government had set a Sunday deadline for ending the three-week strike and warned that it would use emergency powers to end the job action by enforcing a 30-day cooling-off period.
Lufthansa will add six new destinations from Hamburg from Oct. 15. It will base four 737s there and start services to Budapest, Gothenburg, Madrid, Nice, Prague and Rome. Separately, Lufthansa said passenger traffic rose 6.8% in July to 10.23 billion RPKs, while capacity climbed just 2.1% to 13.13 billion ASKs. The result was a 3.4-point improvement in cabin factor to 77.9%. Most of the growth occurred on long-haul routes to the Americas and Asia/Pacific, LH said in an statement. The number of passengers rose 2.2 % to 4.76 million.
Korean Air placed into service its first 777-200ER equipped with AVOD interactive IFE systems in all three cabins as well as inflight Internet options. The aircraft, which will be used between Seoul and Los Angeles, also features the new-look interior and seats being installed progressively across the 777 and 747-400 fleets.
Gulf Air appointed Rohan Alce regional GM for Europe, Africa and the Americas. Clive Wratten succeeds Alce as UK GM. Alce has been with Gulf Air since 2002 and previously held positions at Qatar Airways, bmi, Virgin Atlantic and British Caledonian. Wratten joined Gulf Air in 2003 after stints with Qantas and British Airways
Timco Aviation Services said it has acquired tooling and other equipment for the repair and overhaul of CFM56 engines. The acquisition was financed through an operating lease agreement with Maxus Leasing Group. Timco President and COO Gil West said, "With the average age of CFM56 engines being used in North America exceeding 15 years, we believe that demand for their repair will grow rapidly in the future, and we intend to be a significant provider of CFM56 overhaul and repair services." The company expects to select a site for the facility shortly, with opening planned by year end.
Adria Airways and LOT Polish Airlines will launch service between Ljubljana and Warsaw Sept. 2. The four weekly flights will be evenly divided between the carriers, which are codesharing on the route.
Germanwings, the low-fare clone of Eurowings in which Lufthansa holds 49%, will open a new base at Hamburg this winter. The carrier will base two A319s/A320s at Hamburg and offer services to London Gatwick, Stockholm, Oslo, Krakow, Warsaw, Zagreb, Munich, Toulouse and Istanbul. It also will increase flights on its existing Hamburg-Stuttgart route to thrice-daily. Fares will start at €15 ($18.50) including taxes. It will add another domestic route from Hamburg in the near future and expects to carry around 500,000 passengers in its first year there.
Officials continue to investigate the Aug. 6 accident in which an ATR 72 fell into the sea off the coast of Palermo, killing 13 people. The charter flight was operated by Tuninter, a subsidiary of Tunisair. According to news reports, 23 people, including the pilot and copilot, survived the accident. The plane carrying vacationers had flown out of Bari bound for the Tunisian resort island of Djerba. Yesterday, rescue workers still were searching the choppy seas for three people who remain missing.
Bmi will add a third weekly Manchester-Barbados service beginning Oct. 24, Finncomm Airlines will launch a five-times-weekly service from Helsinki to Dusseldorf from Oct 30 using ERJ-145s. The route will be in codeshare with Finnair.
Continental Airlines will begin twice-weekly 737 service between George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston and Punta Cana Dec. 16 subject to government approval.
SAS Group flew 3.2 billion RPKs in July, up 5.2% over the year-ago period. Group capacity rose 1.8% to 4.4 billion RPKs and load factor improved 2.4 points to 74.1%. Flagship Scandinavian Airlines reported a 1.5% decline in RPKs to 2.4 billion while ASKs fell 5.4% to 3.1 billion, pushing load factor up 3 points to 76.9%.
Bangkok's new Suvarnabhumi Airport now is expected to be operational on a commercial basis by July. This is the second major postponement for the airport, which had been slated to open next month.
Aerleasing.com, which celebrated its first month in business on Aug. 4, aims to use Web auctions to bring together buyers, lessors and sellers of aircraft and engines. The site is the brainchild of Jason Bell, a UK-based software designer who admits his background is in software and systems, not wheeling and dealing in airplanes. "I've come from the outside in," he told ATWOnline. The site has "two tracks: You are either sourcing an aircraft or you have an aircraft you want to part with via sale or lease," he explained.
Bombardier confirmed it is in negotiations with a Turkish startup carrier, Izmir Hava Yollari AS, for a deal valued at $275 million. It would include the purchase of three CRJ900s, two Q400s and five of the proposed CSeries large regional jets. "What has been signed is a proposal or an LOI [letter of intent]," Bombardier spokesperson Burt Cruickshank told ATWOnline Friday. "We won't make a statement until a purchase agreement is signed." If the deal is consummated, the carrier would be the first customer for the new CSeries, which Bombardier has not launched formally as yet.
SriLankan Airlines extended its network with the launch of daily services to Sydney and 10 weekly flights to Cyprus. In addition, the carrier began thrice-weekly service to Beijing. With the new flights, SriLankan now provides service to 48 destinations in 27 countries.
Sun-Air of Scandinavia took delivery of a second Dornier 328JET specially configured for short takeoffs and landings and will use it for new service at London City Airport starting in November. The airline, which also operates 328 turboprops, is a franchise partner of British Airways. Private Wings, a charter carrier based at Berlin Templehof, also purchased a 328JET, boosting its total fleet to six.
Pakistan's Airblue ordered eight A320-200s and two A330-200s valued at $800 million. The airline, which started operations in 2004, operates three A320s. It is one of three private carriers in Pakistan. The order is in part a response to additional overseas route allocations from the Pakistan government. The A320s will be used on domestic routes and the A330s on flights to the UK.
