Midwest Airlines flew 254 million RPMs in May, up 38.2% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 26.7% to 358.2 million ASMs and load factor gained 5.9 points to 70.9%. For the five months ended May 31, RPMs rose 22.8% to 1.21 billion, ASMs increased 12.4% to 1.69 billion and load factor jumped 6.1 points to 71.3%.
ARINC's Asia/Pacific division will establish a joint venture with China's Aviation Data Communication Corp. to "research and develop new products and services for the global aviation market."
Slovak government plans to sell 66% of its holdings in both of the country's international airports at Bratislava and Kosice by year end, the country's transportation minister said last week. The remaining 34% stakes will stay state-owned. Bratislava has seen a sharp increase in passenger traffic in the past few years primarily because of Slovakian low-cost carrier SkyEurope.
Hooters Air will begin nonstop service from Allentown and Myrtle Beach to Orlando on July 9. The airline also will begin new nonstop service to Chicago/Rockford from Myrtle Beach on July 14.
TAP Portugal ended negotiations to acquire a 20% stake in Varig following the Brazilian carrier's bankruptcy filing Friday. The bankruptcy filing voided the agreement, a senior Varig official told the Associated Press. The carrier will continue to operate as it seeks to reorganize under the New Bankruptcy and Restructuring Law of Brazil, which took effect June 9 and is similar to US Chapter 11. The filing became necessary, Varig said, to prevent lessors from repossessing aircraft for which payments are in default.
Continental Airlines named Mike Bonds senior VP-human resources and labor relations replacing Michael Campbell, who retired at the end of 2004. In this position, Bonds will be responsible for all of Continental's human resources and labor relations including compensation, benefits, staffing and corporate training. Bonds, who has served as VP-human resources since 2003, will continue to report to President Jeff Smisek.
Following a meeting with senior management, leaders of the pilots union at America West Airlines expressed "deep concern" that AWA management continues to ignore "reasonable requests to help the union protect its membership" if the proposed merger with US Airways is approved.
Frankfurt Airport said it will become the world's first airport to operate a shared network of common-use self-service kiosks for passenger check-in and other services for all airlines and other partners following an agreement between Frankfurt CUTE Club and SITA. Initially the airport will deploy eight CUSS kiosks and the service will begin this fall.
LTU German Airlines, which will offer low-fare scheduled service under the brand City Quickies by November, is expecting the arrival of a new financial investor. MD Juergen Marbach told the German daily Welt am Sonntag that in a few days a positive acceptance from a potential investor could be announced.
CAE was awarded a contract to provide a Dash 8-400 full-flight simulator to ANA. The simulator will be used for training at the ANA Flight Training Center at Haneda with delivery slated for fall 2006.
Lithuanian Airlines carried 48,081 passengers in May, up 18.7% over the year-ago period. Of the total, 42,792 were carried on the carrier's 478 scheduled flights and 5,289 on its 28 charter flights. For the first five months of the year, Lithuanian carried 186,622 passengers, a 43.9% increase over the prior-year period.
Basel Airport opened a new facility it dubbed the South Terminal on June 7. This represented the last of several infrastructure investments totaling €230 million ($278.1 million) that have been completed at the airport over the past seven years. Basel expects 3.4 million passengers for 2005, up 900,000 from 2004. EasyJet, which is basing four A319s at Basel from mid-June, will increase its network from the multinational airport in phases during the summer to 13 destinations and expects to carry 1.5 million passengers in its first year there.
Independence Air celebrated its one-year anniversary last week. In addition, the carrier greeted its 5 millionth passenger at a ceremony at Washington Dulles.
Northwest Airlines named William Lentsch as its new VP-station operations. He replaces Suzanne Boda, who became VP-inflight services earlier this month. Lentsch joins Northwest from Champion Air, where he served as COO.
Finnair's board of directors appointed Jukka Hienonen as the company's next president and CEO effective Jan. 1. He will replace Keijo Suila, who is retiring on Dec. 31. Hienonen has worked for Stockmann Oy since 1995 and has been executive VP of that company since 2003. "Suila has very successfully piloted Finnair through difficult years for the airline industry and he saw early on the growth opportunities in Asian traffic.
Germanwings placed an order for 18 156-seat A319s and took options for 12 more, the carrier announced Friday, adding that the new aircraft are scheduled to arrive between 2006 and 2008.
TAT Industries will purchase Sabena Technics following several months of discussions, as first reported by this website in March ( ATWOnline, March 21). TAT and Sabena signed an MOU at the Paris Air Show last week for the acquisition by TAT of the share capital of the MRO subsidiary of Sabena, which filed for bankruptcy in 2001. The MOU was approved by the various players involved, including the company's works council. The workforce agreed to a cut in salaries, which was a condition for TAT to keep the current level of employment.
LAN Airlines implemented interline e-ticketing with the alliance's member airlines--American Airlines, British Airways, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, Finnair and Aer Lingus--and their 17 affiliates.
America West Airlines began daily nonstop service between Las Vegas and Monterey. America West Express, operated by Mesa Airlines, is operating the new flights using 86-seat CRJ900s.
Alaska Air Group's board of directors elected Marne McCluskey to the newly created position of VP-employee resources for Horizon Air. In this role, she will be responsible for the employee resource teams in Seattle and Portland and oversee recruiting and staffing, learning and development, performance management, employee compensation, employee relations and employee records and systems.
Iberia flew 3.99 billion RPKs in May, up 9.4% on the year-ago period, while capacity increased 7.3% to 5.35 billion ASKs. Consequently, load factor improved 1.4 points to 74.7%, the highest level ever reached by the airline in the month of May. The number of passengers carried grew 6.8% to 2.5 million. For the first five months of the year, passengers increased 2.8% on the year-ago period to 11 million, RPKs grew 7.1% on a 6.2% rise in ASKs, and load factor gained 0.6 point to 74.5%.
