British Airways Chief Executive Rod Eddington may leave the carrier in late summer or autumn, several UK newspapers reported Sunday. Eddington's departure depends on when Chairman Martin Broughton finds a replacement, but he is "likely to leave the airline within months of its annual meeting in July," according to the Sunday Times , which added that he wants to be back in his native Australia by early 2006.
Bombardier is introducing a longer-range version of its CRJ700 through an increase in MTOW and the use of the higher-thrust GE CF34-8C5B1, a variant of which powers the CRJ900. The CRJ700LR will have a range of 2,516 nm (4,048 km.), a 276-nm increase over the CRJ700ER. It also will provide increases in maximum payload and maximum landing weight. The variant will be available in the first quarter of 2006 and Bombardier said existing CRJ700s "can readily be retrofitted" to the new LR standard.
Boeing President and CEO Harry Stonecipher was ousted Sunday after the board of directors became aware that he was carrying on a consensual "personal relationship" with a female Boeing executive. "The board concluded that the facts reflected poorly on Harry's judgment and would impair his ability to lead the company," said Chairman Lew Platt. The resignation "was in no way related to the company's operational performance or financial condition, both of which remain strong," Platt said.
BAE Systems Regional Aircraft signed a long-term lease with West Air Sweden for an additional ATP freighter to bring the fleet to 14. Four of the freighters will be fitted with large freight doors while the remaining nine are configured as E-class aircraft, which are loaded via the passenger doors.
SAS Group reported that total traffic for group airlines rose 0.8% in February to 2.3 billion RPKs compared to February 2004. Noting that comparisons are skewed owing to the fact that February 2004 contained an extra day, SAS said traffic was weaker this year. Capacity climbed 4.2% to 4 billion ASKs and load factor slipped 1.9 points to 57.2%. On intercontinental routes, load factor plummeted 8.1 points. Scandinavian Airlines reported that ASKs fell 1.8% to 3 billion, RPKs were down 5% to 1.8 billion and load factor dropped 2 points to 58.7%.
Southwest Airlines will extend its precedent-setting codeshare agreement with ATA Airlines beyond Chicago Midway to Phoenix. Currently, ATA operates two weekly flights to both Maui and Honolulu from Phoenix, but the service will expand to six weekly flights on April 3 and to daily service on June 7. Phoenix is Southwest's second-largest city, with 191 daily departures to 40 destinations.
Singapore Airlines launched real-time high-speed Internet access on its London-Singapore flights. The service, which is being provided by Connexion by Boeing, will be available on all three of the carrier's daily flights on the route from mid-2005. SIA said it will introduce the service progressively on other long-haul flights and by year end it will be installed on more than 15 aircraft.
Song launched a fare sale for its New York JFK-Los Angeles flights, which begin May 1. From now until March 17, the carrier is offering $99 one-way fares on the route. The flights are part of Song's expansion at JFK, which also includes new services to San Francisco and Seattle and to leisure destinations Aruba and San Juan.
EasyJet carried 2.2 million passengers in February, up 16.3% from a year earlier. Load factor lost 2.7 points to 85.9%. "Passenger numbers rose by a satisfactory 16.3% in February, and load factors were ahead of the 12-month rolling average. It should be noted that the load factor for February 2004 was unusually high," CEO Ray Webster said. Last week, competitor Ryanair reported a 13% increase in February passengers to 2.1 million. For the rolling 12 months ending Feb. 28, easyJet carried 26.4 million passengers and average load factor was 84.2%.
AAR was selected by United Airlines to be the exclusive provider of heavy maintenance for the carrier's fleet of 737s. Under the terms of the five-year deal, AAR will operate up to four maintenance lines at AAR Aircraft Services-Indianapolis.
American Airlines' Tulsa Maintenance & Engineering Base, the largest airline MRO facility in the world, aims to achieve $500 million in revenue through third-party work and turn the base into a profit center by the end of 2006. The goal is based on the outcome of a joint planning session held earlier this year between Tulsa base management and the Transport Workers Union that represents most of the 7,000 people at the base.
Delta Air Lines flew 8.18 billion RPMs in February, up 9.7% over the year-ago period. Capacity declined 1.6% to 11.52 billion ASMs and load factor gained 2.4 points to 71%. For the two months ended Feb. 28, RPMs climbed 11% to 16.86 billion, ASMs increased 5.6% to 23.62 billion and load factor rose 3.5 points to 71.4%.
Assn. of Asia Pacific Airlines' 17 member carriers posted a thumping 22.5% increase to 117 million in international passenger numbers for 2004. RPKs grew 18.6% while capacity lifted 13.1%, resulting in a 3.4-point jump in load factor to 73.1%. The spectacular growth was due partly to the lower base in 2003 because of SARS, but nonetheless passenger numbers and RPKs grew 7.7% and 6.9% respectively when compared to 2002. The biggest growth area was China, which recorded a 51% increase in passengers although no mainland Chinese airlines are members of AAPA.
Austrian Airlines will introduce service from Vienna to Varna, Bulgaria, operating five days per week. It also will serve the Romanian city of Sibiu in cooperation with Tarom. Both destinations will be added to the summer schedule. Austrian will add frequencies to several destinations throughout its network, including boosting weekly flights between Vienna and Shanghai to five and to New York to 11. In addition, it will launch seasonal summer service to Montreal. It will begin new flights to Alexandria and Amman, with each being offered four times per week.
Leaders of the pilots union at Continental Airlines last week unanimously agreed to approve and support a new labor agreement and now will send the deal to union members for a ratification vote. According to the Air Line Pilots Assn., the agreement, which was reached late last month ( ATWOnline , March 1), will provide the airline with more than $200 million of the $500 million in annual cost savings Continental said it needs from employees.
European Commissioner for Transport Jacques Barrot intends to seek full ownership rights of US airlines by European companies, according to a report in the Financial Times . Barrot is scheduled to visit Washington March 21-22 to try to revive negotiations on a EU-US Open Aviation Area, which broke down last year when EU ministers rejected a proposal tabled by the US. The proposal excluded cabotage rights for EU carriers in the US, a priority at the time for European negotiators and politicians despite calls from the majority of European airlines not to concentrate on the issue.
EVA Air added cargo capacity by wet-leasing three MD-11 freighters from World Airways. Two are being placed into service this month and the third will be deployed in August. EVA Air is using the aircraft to boost cargo frequency on its Taipei-New York JFK route from eight to nine weekly flights and to increase Taipei-Atlanta service from six to seven weekly flights.
KLM signed an agreement with OnAir to provide SMS text messaging and e-mail on its 10 777s, which operate on routes to New York, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Cape Town, Dubai, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing and Manila. The accord follows a successful trial and the service will be available from mid-March onward. KLM also will install the OnAir service on six new A330s flying mainly to the Middle East and Africa from August onward. OnAir SMS and e-mail service will be available to KLM customers flying to the US on A330s of its partner Northwest Airlines as well.
US scheduled airlines should record an operating profit of $500 million this year, but "with continuing interest costs and income taxes," they will probably lose $2-$2.5 billion at the after-tax level, according to a forecast from AeroEcon, which is headed by former Air Transport Assn. Chief Economist David Swierenga.
Republic Airways Holdings, parent of Chautauqua Airlines and Republic Airlines, reported net income of $15 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, up 56.4% over net income of $9.6 million in the year-ago period. Total operating revenues rose 40.9% to $159 million while total operating expenses increased 37.6% to $125.9 million, resulting in an operating income of $33 million, up 55% from operating income of $21.3 million in the 2003 fourth quarter. CASM excluding fuel jumped 4.4% to 8.04 cents, primarily owing to a 9.7% decrease in average stage length.
Northwest Airlines flew 5.5 billion RPMs in February, up 6.6% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 2.4% to 7.09 billion ASMs and load factor gained 3.1 points to 77.6%. For the two months ended Feb. 28, RPMs increased 8.8% to 11.32 billion, ASMs rose 4.1% to 14.67 billion and load factor grew 3.3 points to 77.1%.
Bombardier introduced a significantly enhanced version of its CRJ900 that combines "substantially improved takeoff and landing performance and increased range." The company said the version was developed to provide better payload/range capability from shorter airfields. The improved takeoff and landing distances are made possible by combining optimization of wing leading-edge devices and a redesigned wingtip and winglet that results in a lower lift/drag ratio and reduced approach speeds. The winglet also contributes to lower fuel burn.
United Airlines flew 7.9 billion RPMs in February, down 1.8% from the year-ago period. Capacity decreased 4% to 10.55 billion ASMs and load factor rose 1.6 points to 74.8%. For the two months ended Feb. 28, RPMs were up 1.6% to 16.72 billion, ASMs declined 2.3% to 22.13 billion and load factor gained 2.9 points to 75.5%.
News from Travel Technology Update: The advent of GDS new entrants, dubbed GNEs, sparked an unusually acerbic response from the traditional vendors at ResExpo, who warned suppliers and agents that embracing new technology comes with risks. G2 SwitchWorks and ITA Software say they are close to rolling out systems that will take travel reservations off TPF mainframes and onto open systems that are more agile and a lot cheaper.
Qantas confirmed that further extensive restructuring planned for the airline could result in redundancies among the 38,500-strong workforce and the relocation of operations within Australia and offshore. Responding to media speculation about likely losses of up to 3,000 jobs, CEO Geoff Dixon said it is inevitable that existing efficiency programs and a review currently being undertaken will change the direction of the carrier. However, he said there is no definitive figure for the redundancies that may result from the process.
