Japan Airlines Corp. announced resignations and demotions effective immediately related to a series of incidents involving Japan Airlines International. Taking ultimate responsibility for several events that have drawn reprimands from the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, highly respected JAL Group Chairman and CEO Isao Kaneko will step down and assume the post of chairman of the company's executive committee from April 1. He also will resign as chairman of JAL International.
DBA , which will take over aircraft and routes from Germania Express ( ATWOnline , Feb. 21), on Wednesday also exchanged financial capital with Gexx. Germania Express Gmbh will take 64% of dba Luftverkehrsgesellschaft Gmbh. Hans Rudolf Woehrl, who currently holds 80% of DBA, will keep 28.8% of the airline and take a stake in Germania Express Gmbh. Financial terms of the deal were not released. By the end of March, DBA will operate 27 aircraft on 16 domestic German and 18 international routes. By autumn it plans to operate 30 aircraft.
Aeroports de Paris will demolish and rebuild the entire roof of the departure area of Terminal 2E at Charles de Gaulle, which collapsed last May. "On the basis of internal and external studies, Aeroports de Paris has chosen the solution of rebuilding the roof," the state-owned operator said in a statement.
Lufthansa aims to announce the planned takeover of Swiss International Air Lines by next Wednesday, according to media reports. The reports said the large shareholders of the Swiss carrier have agreed in principle to a takeover by Lufthansa and an announcement is due either Tuesday or Wednesday. LH is scheduled to report its financial results for 2004 next week.
FAA continues to be "cautiously optimistic" in its aviation forecast released yesterday, noting that the number of passengers carried by US airlines rose to 688 million in 2004 from 642 million in 2003. The agency is projecting that the demand for capacity will make "a complete return by the end of the year." By 2015, some 1 billion passengers will take to the skies in the US, it predicted.
Boosted by revenue from FedEx Kinko's which the company acquired in February 2004, FedEx Corp. reported a $317 million net profit for the fiscal third quarter ended Feb. 28, up 53% over a $217 million net profit in the prior-year period, which included $14 million in business realignment expenses associated with voluntary early retirement and severance programs. For the nine months ended Feb. 28, the company posted net income of $1 billion, up significantly over net income of $426 million in the year-ago period.
Jetstar Asia , the Qantas low-cost joint venture, has decelerated its fleet growth plans as it continues to struggle to secure traffic rights on key routes out of Singapore. According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald , Jetstar Asia asked ILFC to find another operator to take its fifth A320, which was due to enter service by May. It also is considering arrangements to lease out some of three additional A320s ordered from ILFC if its plans to expand to new destinations in Indonesia and China are frustrated.
All Nippon Airways , which serves nine cities in China with 92 frequencies per week, wants to start flights to Guangzhou as soon as possible. "After that, we want to extend our network to the inner cities of the Chinese mainland," Executive VP-International Relations Katsuhiko Kitabayashi told ATWOnline at the Star Alliance meeting in Lisbon earlier this week. ANA, which is looking to increase its Asian network, wants to begin flights next to Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and points in India, as well as to destinations in eastern Russia like Khabarovsk.
Although its employees have accepted significant pay and benefit cuts as part of UAL Corp.'s restructuring, top executives at the bankrupt United Airlines parent received bonuses totaling roughly $1.3 million in 2004. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Chairman, President and CEO Glenn Tilton received a bonus of $366,393, and also received a salary of $756,832 last year. However, he has agreed to several salary reductions recently and this year he will receive an annual salary of just $605,625.
Centralwings , the new Polish low-cost airline formed by LOT that began operations Feb. 1 with flights to London Gatwick from Warsaw and Krakow, will acquire two more 737 Classics by May, bringing its total fleet to five. Two more 737s should join the carrier in 2006.
ICAO released its preliminary safety and security statistics for airlines in 2004, which show an increase in aircraft accidents on scheduled services but a decrease in fatalities from those accidents. Last year there were nine accidents involving passenger fatalities on scheduled services worldwide for aircraft with maximum takeoff weights of more than 2,250 kg. (4,960 lb.). The total number of fatalities was 203, the lowest figure since 1945. In 2003 there were 466 passenger fatalities from seven accidents.
Varig Engineering and Maintenance delivered a 767-200SF-ER to Tampa Cargo earlier this week, marking the first widebody conversion by VEM and the first ever in Latin America. The conversion is part of an 18-year partnership contract with Israel Aircraft Industries, which provides engineering knowhow and mod kits while VEM, as the only 767 conversion center outside Israel working for IAI, provides the structural work.
Australia's largest international airport has joined the push to establish Singapore Airlines on the lucrative corridor to the US in direct competition with Qantas. Sydney Airport head Max Moore-Wilton said that "at the appropriate time" the airport will be "strongly supportive" of SIA's plans to take up services between Sydney and Los Angeles. "Undoubtedly we support Singapore Airlines; the trend in world aviation is opening up the markets," Moore-Wilton said.
Swire Pacific, parent of Cathay Pacific, yesterday responded to media reports that it is nearing a deal to sell its stake in Cathay to Air China in return for a stake in the latter by saying that it plans to remain as the principal shareholder in Cathay.
In what could be seen as a next step in its legalistic approach to get what its wants--an Open Aviation Area between the EU and US--the European Commission announced yesterday that it has decided to send letters of formal notice and reasoned opinions to 11 member states that have air service agreements with the US.
IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani lashed out at the European Commission, saying that the annual cost the EC "inflicts" on aviation is a staggering €5.9 billion ($7.91 billion). "This is the legacy of neglect left by the previous Commission and it is an enormous burden on the competitiveness of Europe's airlines," Bisignani said in a speech to the European Aviation Club in Brussels. "If we don't have urgent action to restore a balanced playing field, the European industry will be damaged, not by competition, but by inefficient European systems."
Boullioun Aviation Services reached a medium-term lease with TAM for two new V2500-powered A320s. The first aircraft was delivered March 4 and the second is scheduled for delivery later this month. With the new aircraft, TAM's fleet will comprise 55 Airbus and 29 Fokker aircraft.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines , which owns 47.2% of AirBaltic and 49% of Estonian Air, is continuing its plan to take over 100% of the two airlines. "The main reason for us not to establish Riga or Tallinn as a hub is we want to take advantage of the very low operational costs of these carriers," SAS CEO Jorgen Lindegaard told ATWOnline . SAS's strategy is to employ the two on secondary routes out of its hubs in Stockholm or Copenhagen to European destinations where operations with SAS mainline would be too expensive. But in order to do so, SAS needs 100% ownership.
Hawaiian Airlines moved one step closer to emerging from Chapter 11 this week after its flight attendants ratified a new three-year contract. The carrier now needs its pilots to ratify their new deal before it can submit a formal order to the court to emerge from bankruptcy, which it expects to do in early April. The pilots are expected to conduct their ratification process next week.
Air Berlin announced that it is expecting 13.7 million passengers for 2005, up 14% over last year. Turnover should be eur1.27 billion ($1.69 billion), which would be a 20% increase versus 2004. The carrier this year will start taking delivery of the first two of 50 A320s it has on order, 10 of which are for its Austrian partner Niki.
Northwest Airlines , citing high fuel costs, fare restructuring by other airlines and general overcapacity in the domestic marketplace, trimmed its domestic capacity forecast for 2005. In January it forecast a 2%-3% increase in domestic capacity versus 2004. However, in February it said it was studying a reduction in 2005 domestic capacity and now it believes its domestic capacity will be flat year-over-year.
Oneworld said its consumer fares and corporate sales products generated almost $600 million in revenue in 2004 for its eight partner carriers--American Airlines, British Airways, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, LAN, Finnair and Aer Lingus--with roughly two-thirds of that total representing incremental revenue for its members that they would not have earned had it not been for the alliance. Interlining between oneworld carriers generated total revenue of more than $1.5 billion for members, including benefits from alliance fares and sales products.
United Airlines announced that its new premium coast-to-coast service p.s. is now available on all flights between New York and California. The service, which offers customers access to an adapter-free 110-volt power outlet as well as phone, e-mail and premium onboard entertainment at every seat, was launched on flights between Los Angeles and New York in October with reconfigured three-class 757s ( ATWOnline , Dec. 15) and expanded to San Francisco in December.
