Hansung Air, a new low-cost carrier based in Cheongju 85 mi. south of Seoul, has been given the green light for domestic air service from the Ministry of Construction and Transportation. The airline, a JV between the Jeju provincial government and Aekyung Co., plans to lease an ATR turboprop for flights between Cheongju and the resort island of Jeju off the south coast of Korea. It will begin services in June and follows the launch of another LCC in Korea, Jeju Air, which started operations March 25.
Delta Air Lines reached an agreement with Mesa Air Group under which Mesa subsidiary Freedom Airlines will operate up to 30 CRJ200s in the Delta Connection feeder network over a 12-year period beginning in October.
An alphabet soup of aviation interest groups testified yesterday before the US Congress on future funding for FAA and the air traffic control system, but organizations representing airlines, airports, air traffic controllers, corporate and general aviation disagree widely over whether the current funding mechanism is in trouble and if so, how it should be fixed.
Embraer on Tuesday announced it will enter the market for small business jets with two new programs. The aircraft, currently designated the Very Light Jet and the Light Jet, are twin-engine jets targeted for entry into service in mid-2008 for the VLJ and a year later for the LJ. The VLJ will seat between six and eight including pilot and copilot and will sell for $2.75 million. The LJ will seat up to nine and list for $6.65 million. Embraer put its investment to develop both at $235 million. They will be powered by Pratt & Whitney engines.
Southwest Airlines flew 4.81 billion RPMs in April, up 2.5% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 13.2% to 6.96 billion ASMs and load factor declined 7.1 points to 69.1%. For the four months ended April 30, RPMs increased 9.5% to 18.05 billion, ASMs gained 10.9% to 27.19 billion and load factor decreased 0.8 point to 66.4%.
Frontier Airlines took delivery of its 38th 132-seat A319 that is on lease from ILFC. With the delivery, the carrier's fleet now totals 45 aircraft comprising 38 A319s and seven A318s.
Northwest Airlines announced that CFO Bernie Han resigned from the company and will be replaced by former US Airways Executive VP and CFO Neal Cohen. Han was named CFO at Northwest in October 2002 following a seven-year stint as CFO at America West Airlines. No reason was given for his departure.
SITA SC has responded to the extreme financial pressures facing many North American airline customers by providing substantial price reductions, SITA DG and CEO Hans-Peter Kohlhammer told ATWOnline yesterday as he reported that SITA SC generated North American revenue of $212.5 million in 2004. "SITA's restructuring is gaining significant momentum," Kohlhammer said, noting that a goal was to "help the air transport industry save money."
Pinnacle Airlines Corp. reported net income of $23.3 million for the first quarter ended March 31, which included an $11.3 million one-time gain related to the retirement of its note payable to Northwest Airlines. Excluding this item, net income totaled $12 million. This compares to net income of $8.1 million in the year-ago period. Total operating revenue rose 45.5% to $194.7 million while total operating expenses climbed 46.1% to $174.7 million. This produced operating income of $20.1 million, a 39.9% increase over operating income of $14.3 million in the 2004 first quarter.
In what is normally its weakest quarter, SAS Group reported a net loss of Sek971 million ($135.7 million) for the three months ended March 31, narrowed from a loss of Sek1.37 billion in the year-ago period. "The first quarter of 2005 was challenging for the airline industry," President and CEO Joergen Lindegaard said. "In particular, there was the continued challenge of handling the overcapacity situation from Copenhagen, which is leading to profitability problems for all players."
Continental Airlines flew 6.39 billion RPMs in April, up 6.6% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 5.1% to 8.25 billion ASMs and load factor gained 1.1 points to 77.5%. For the four months ended April 30, RPMs increased 10.1% to 245 billion, ASMs rose 4.3% to 31.83 billion and load factor jumped 4.1 points to 77%. For April, consolidated and mainline passenger RASM are estimated to have increased 2%-3% compared to April 2004. For March 2005, consolidated passenger RASM rose 4.6% compared to March 2004 and mainline passenger RASM climbed 5.3%.
Lufthansa Systems in cooperation with Amadeus successfully transferred all of TACA's inventory, consisting of more than 200,000 data sets and close to 500,000 e-tickets, during the night of April 23 to LHS's integrated passenger management solution. Migration included the successful merge of the inventories of Aviateca, Lacsa and TACA into a single inventory. Additionally, LHS implemented a next-generation revenue management system at TACA.
EADS Sogerma Services subsidiary EADS Revima won a long-term contract for exchanges and overhauls of landing gears on Cathay Pacific Airways' fleet of 15 777s. Cathay is the launch customer for EADS Revima's 777 landing gear activities and this follows an "important" investment program by the company to develop the expertise to support 777 landing gear as well as A330/A340 gross weight gear. EADS Revima will use the EADS Sogerma Services Hong Kong offices to coordinate regional product support relationships with Cathay maintenance teams.
European Commission authorized rescue aid in the form of a six-month, £30 million ($56.7 million) loan guarantee at market rates for Cyprus Airways. The aid will "allow the authorities to organize the restructuring of the airline," the EC said in a statement, adding that it complies with community rules on state aid.
Southwest Airlines and Sabre Airline Solutions signed a seven-year agreement under which Southwest will use a customized passenger management solution for its reservations system and customer interactions at the airport. The new agreement replaces a previous contract signed in 1998.
US and Paraguay signed a full open skies agreement that will allow carriers of the two countries to operate between them without restriction. With the new deal, the US now has full open skies agreements in place with 68 countries.
JetBlue Airways plans to open its new terminal facilities at Boston Logan today. In addition, the carrier will launch new daily service from Boston to Las Vegas and San Jose.
Flight attendants and mechanics at United Airlines both threatened to engage in strike action if the carrier's agreement to terminate its pension plans is approved by the US Bankruptcy Court at a May 11 hearing.
Japan Airlines will expand its inflight Internet service to flights between Tokyo and New York from May 10. The Pacific rollout will be the first for the region and is provided by Connexion by Boeing. The JAL Inflight Internet Service enables passengers to use their own wireless LAN-compatible PCs to gain real-time Internet access during flight. Using VPN technology, the service also lets passengers access their company's network, e-mail and Intranet sites securely. Initially the service will be available on alternate days but toward the end of June it will be available daily.
