Thomsonfly.com launched services from its base at the new Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield April 28. The LCC, which is part of Thomsonfly and formerly was called Britannia Airways, anticipates that it will book more than 350,000 customers through Robin Hood within the first 12 months of operations there. It will base three 737-300s there and will operate flights to 11 destinations--Palma, Pisa, Prague, Paris, Ibiza, Alicante, Malaga, Valencia, Dublin, Jersey and Faro--throughout the summer season.
Swiss International Air Lines may increase its fuel surcharge again to help cushion the impact of rising fuel prices, CEO Christoph Franz said during a media meeting in Zurich, Reuters reported. The carrier currently charges an extra CHF48 ($40) on long-haul services and CHF18 on European flights. Such surcharges only cover about a quarter of the additional costs, Franz added. Swiss previously said that it had hedged about 27% of its fuel needs for 2005 as of the end of 2004 after selling all of its 2004 hedges.
Alitalia intends to postpone its planned rights issue to September, which will be after the group approves its first-half results, Il Sole 24 Ore reported. The company also could reduce the amount of the capital increase to less than the planned €1.2 billion ($1.54 billion). The rights issue will dilute the stake of the Italian government to below 50% from the current 63%. Alitalia did not deny the report and no reason was given for delaying the rights issue. Separately, Alitalia cabin crews called a 4-hr. strike for May 18.
American Airlines, which lost $162 million in the first quarter ( ATWOnline, April 21), late Thursday announced that it filed to increase most domestic US and US-Canada fares by $5 one-way and $10 roundtrip effective immediately in order to help offset rising fuel prices.
Cathay Pacific Airways has commenced work on the passenger-to-freighter conversion of a 747-400 to create the 747-400 Special Freighter. The project was launched last week during a ceremony at the Taikoo Aircraft Engineering Co. Ltd. engineering works in Xiamen, China, when a huge hole was cut in the aircraft's side to provide for the rear cargo door. TAECO will conduct the prototype's conversion work under Boeing's supervision. The project is part of a major expansion plan to boost Cathay Pacific's fleet to 104 aircraft in two years.
When members of the Regional Airline Assn. get together in Cincinnati this month for their annual meeting, they will discuss many of the same issues facing their Major airline partners. But they will do so from a decidedly different perspective, because unlike the US network carriers that have lost more than $27 billion since the end of 2000, the Regional segment is firmly in the black. According to FAA data, that part of the industry enjoyed an aggregate operating profit of $1 billion and net earnings of $432.8 million in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2004.
Chris Browne, the fashionable MD of Manchester-based First Choice Airways Ltd., does not mince words. The last three years have been "really, really" hard work, she says. "We suffered like everybody and had to downsize, reduce costs." But, she adds, "It forced us to refocus. We took a very long hard look at what we were doing with the business." Browne, who began her aviation career with Iberia and rose to the position of GM-UK and Ireland, was named to her current position in April 2002, three years after she joined First Choice Holidays.
China's airline industry is an improbable blend of state control and regulation, traditional culture, modern market reality and a zeal for profit, yet it works. Twenty-five years ago there were just 180 air routes in the country, 18 of them international, and only 3.43 million passengers took to the vacant skies annually. Today China has overtaken Japan as the largest air travel market in Asia and is second only to the US in terms of total scheduled departing seats, according to the ITTC consultancy division of Airclaims, which is headed by former IATA Chief Economist Peter Morris.
AirLiance Materials promoted Roscoe Musselwhite to COO. ASIG appointed Michael J. Snyder senior VP-operations-North America. Big Sky Transportation tapped Fred L. deLeeuw as its new president. Charles River Associates welcomed Robert Gallamore and Michael Gorman as senior consultants to the transportation practice. FedEx Corp. chose Christine Richards to succeed Kenneth Masterson, who is retiring, as general counsel. Inflight Logistics announced the addition of Julie Redmond to its team of consultants.
In the future, some observers believe, commercial airlines will continue to offer long-haul services, but some of their passengers will connect with a new generation of microjets operated by private charter companies to complete short-haul legs of their trips. George Khairallah, president of New York-based BusinessJet Class, is prepared for that day. His company has launched a GDS for private aircraft charters.
The INITIAL phase of the RJ revolution is over. Since the first CRJ200 was handed over to Lufthansa CityLine in 1992, Embraer and Bombardier have combined to deliver more than 1,700 jets in the 37/55-seat class.
Think weight and balance and "safety" is the word that naturally springs to mind. But how about "revenue"? Using an array of new tools and techniques, Regional carriers are trying to boost both through faster and more precise calculations of the critical equation.
When Southwest Airlines decided to retrofit Blended Winglets on its 170 737-700s two years ago, managers had the advantage of a clear, concise cost-benefit tradeoff: The $750,000 drag-reducing devices would save the discount carrier an average of 92,000 gal. of jet fuel per aircraft per year and boost payload by about 6,000 lb., paying for themselves long before the aircraft would have to be retired.
It was pointed out at the recent Aviation and Environment Summit in Geneva that ICAO has been active on all environmental fronts, its Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection progressing through a series of standards-setting meetings with more to come, the roadmap of future progress clearly delineated. It was just three months ago that ICAO adopted NOx standards taking effect in 2008 that are 12% more stringent than levels set in 1999.
One does not have to go all the way back to the postwar era captured in Carol Reed's film noir masterpiece "The Third Man" to recall a time when Vienna was a popular conduit between East and West for the movement of people and goods. Until the end of the Cold War, Austria's status as a member of the nonaligned community of nations and its geographic location astride the Iron Curtain enabled flag carrier Austrian Airlines to develop an effective route network into the East Bloc and USSR, while Vienna Airport itself became the preferred gateway for such journeys.
Not for nothing is the training branch of Airbus designated the Airbus Training & Flight Operations Support and Services Division. This reflects the recognition that a holistic approach to training and day-to-day operations is critical to the safe and efficient operation of the fleet. Training in new technologies and procedures for the A380 has served as a catalyst for revision of the Airbus training methodology and, where appropriate, is already being integrated into training programmes for the rest of the Airbus fleet.
Six former executives of Volare Airlines have been arrested and accused of diverting funds to set up a new carrier, Reuters reported. "The diversion of funds was aimed at creating the necessary capital for the new airline, which not by coincidence used people, means and structures from the Volare Group," financial police investigating the demise of the Italian carrier said in a statement. The statement did not name the new airline.
Boeing yesterday said it delivered the final 757 to Shanghai Airlines. The aircraft, actually rolled off the production line in Renton on Oct. 28 ( ATWOnline, Nov. 1, 2004) but Shanghai had requested an April 2005 delivery so Boeing kept the airplane in storage for six months, a spokesperson told this website.
BMED, formerly British Mediterranean Airways, placed a firm order with Airbus for seven A321s with first delivery scheduled for January 2006. The order is the first the airline has placed directly with Airbus. The BA franchise partner currently operates three A320s and three A321s with a further A320 to be delivered in May. Based at London Heathrow, it serves 15 destinations across the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa that include some of the longest A321 sectors in the world.
United Airlines' settlement with the US Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. that permits the bankrupt carrier to terminate its defined benefit pension plans ( ATWOnline, April 26) also requires it to transfer to PBGC securities having a face value of $1.5 billion. These include $500 million in principal amount of 25-year 6% senior subordinated unsecured notes, 5 million shares of 2% convertible preferred stock with a liquidation value of $100 per share and $500 million in principal amount of 8% contingent senior subordinated unsecured notes.
Although high fuel prices resulted in $37.3 million in added expenses during the quarter, LAN Airlines' net income for the three months ended March 31 fell just 3.7% to $46.3 million from $48.1 million in the year-ago period.
Austrian Airlines Group's first-quarter loss widened to €80.8 million ($104.3 million) from €47.9 million a year ago. The 2005 period was marked by load factor weakness, overcapacity and extremely high fuel costs, while "December's disastrous tsunami. . .proved to be a terrible continuation of the series of external shocks to which the Austrian Airlines Group has been repeatedly exposed in recent years," the carrier explained.
United Airlines and Jet Airways of India reached a new codeshare agreement under which United will place its code on Jet Airways-operated London-Mumbai flights, which will begin May 23, and on flights from Mumbai to other cities in India. Additionally, Jet will codeshare on United services from London to the US. The agreement is subject to US and Indian government approvals and would be the first international codeshare offered by a privately owned Indian airline, United said.
