United's low-fare airline-within-an-airline Ted is planning to expand its fleet by 20% and increase its service from its Denver, Washington Dulles and Chicago hubs to markets in Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean this year, employees were told yesterday. The carrier's fleet of A320s will grow from 47 to 56, but United stressed that this will be achieved by converting nine mainline passenger aircraft to the Ted configuration and not by adding more aircraft. Specific flight increases will be announced at a later date.
Hainan Airlines selected CFM56s to power eight A319s in an engine order valued at $90 million. Deliveries begin this year and continue through 2007. Hainan holds options on 12 additional A319s.
CSA Czech Airlines is looking to increase its passengers by 1 million to 5.4 million in 2005 and to move up to seventh place among AEA members, it said in a statement issued yesterday. This year it will add two A320s and one 737-500 to its fleet and dedicate two A321s for charter flights. In addition, new flights to Sarajevo, Minsk and Skopje are on its agenda, as well as service from Riga to Rome. CSA also plans to add 30 frequencies on existing routes.
EasyJet plans to boost service significantly from its base at Berlin Schoenefeld this fall with three new routes, which will bring to 27 the number of its routes from the airport. Under the expansion, the carrier will begin double-daily flights to both London Gatwick and Rome Ciampino and one daily flight to Milan Linate. All new flights will start Sept. 21. According to easyJet, Berlin is now its largest base outside of the UK, and with delivery of its 100th aircraft at the end of March, Schoenefeld will account for 10% of its total operations.
The Christmas week travel meltdowns at Comair and US Airways were the result of different factors, but US Airways officials had the advantage of knowing ahead of time that they faced potentially serious staffing shortfalls, while in the case of Comair heroic efforts by ground staff to overcome a crippling snow and ice storm were undone by a software glitch.
B/E Aerospace was selected by several Asian, European and other international airlines to provide a wide range of products. The company said the deals are valued at up to $145 million, including more than $100 million in firm orders. China Eastern Airlines selected B/E to manufacture and deliver a version of its MiniPod business class seat as well as a range of galley equipment for A330s. Turkish Airlines and AirAsia selected versions of B/E's Spectrum coach seats to outfit their new fleets of Boeing and Airbus narrowbodies. Turkish also chose B/E galley equipment.
South East Asian Airlines, a small regional carrier based in the Philippines that operates a fleet of 15 aircraft including nine Let 410s and two former Minerve Do-328 turboprops, plans to expand its network this year. SEAIR Chairman Irene Dornier told this website that the airline easily could add up to six more Do-328s to cover the demand for international tourism. It transported 200,000 passengers last year on 23 sectors and looks to double the figure this year. It is evaluating expanding into neighboring countries in the region, such as Cambodia.
US Dept. of Transportation said yesterday that the 19 carriers reporting ontime performance recorded an overall ontime arrival rate of 71.4% in January, down from January 2004's 74.9% rate and December 2004's 71.6% rate. Of all flight delays in January, 6.1% were caused by weather, down from January 2004 when 6.2% of flights were delayed by weather and up from December 2004's rate of 5.4%. Hawaiian Airlines again posted the highest ontime arrival rate at 92.6%, with Continental Airlines at 78% and Southwest Airlines at 75.6% rounding out the top three.
Swissport launched operations at Singapore Changi yesterday, well ahead of a planned start date in July, becoming the airport's third ground handling provider.
Pilots at Delta Connection carrier Comair agreed to a pay freeze that the airline said is needed in order to increase its fleet and attract new business. Comair, which has among the highest labor costs in the Regional airline industry, plans to add 35 more jets to the fleet of 164, said spokesperson Nick Miller.
Lufthansa yesterday reported that it had a net profit of around eur400 million ($530 million) in 2004, improved from a massive loss of eur984 million in 2003. Although results for the quarter ended Dec. 31 were not supplied, the annual result implies a fourth-period profit of eur236 million compared to a loss of eur575 million in the year-ago period.
Airports of Thailand finally confirmed the widespread industry assumption that the opening of the new Bangkok airport, Suvarnabhumi, has been postponed by six months and now is scheduled for March 2006. Over the weekend, AOT Chairman Srisook Chandrangsu told Thai media that the postponement was not caused by construction problems but instead would give the company more time to test the facility. Thai media are viewing the delay as a blow to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who continually has assured the airline industry that the new airport would be operational by Sept. 29.
ASI Entertainment said it completed implementing the first stage of its G3CARS system, which provides electronic flight log and high-speed crew communications, with Italian carrier Air One. ASI signed a five-year agreement with Air One to install the system on its fleet of 28 737s.
Lufthansa Technik Philippines, a 51/49 joint venture between Lufthansa Technik and Philippines-based MacroAsia Corp., is looking to increase its third-party MRO activities, including potentially expanding into narrowbody work. The organization offers a four-bay hangar at Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Two bays are dedicated for A330/A340 heavy checks. "We are looking for more business [in Asia]. There are around 180 A330s/A340s here in the region.
Austrian Airlines Group reported a 2004 operating profit in line with its own lowered forecast as it cut costs and targeted Eastern Europe and Asia for growth to offset high fuel costs and weak fourth-quarter demand. The company said earnings before interest and tax totaled eur10.5 million ($13.9 million), up from eur4.2 million in 2003 after adjustments to account for asset disposals, currency fluctuations and other special items in both years. But annual net profit fell 12.2% to eur40.2 million from eur45.8 million in the prior year.
Hainan Airlines selected Rockwell Collins avionics for eight A319s/A321s and six 737NGs. In addition, the agreement calls for an option for 12 Airbus aircraft. Deliveries of both aircraft types are scheduled to begin this year.
Air-India, Viking Airlines and Uni Air have placed orders for the SafTGlo floorprox system. Air-India is fitting several of its 747-400s with the system, while Viking ordered one MD-83 kit and Uni Air placed an order for seven kits for its MD-90 fleet.
Pakistan International Airlines 777 caught fire at Manchester Airport yesterday at 9:15 a.m. local time shortly after touching down, prompting the evacuation of passengers via emergency chutes. Flight PK789 with 323 passengers and 12 crew had landed for refueling after flying from Karachi. It was en route to Toronto. Airport authorities said it suffered a small undercarriage fire while taxiing. Three people were taken to a hospital.
Kronos said its Altitude Preferred Bidding System was purchased by Pinnacle Airlines. The system will manage the schedules of Pinnacle's 1,000 pilots and 600 flight attendants and is expected to increase productivity.
Teledyne Controls will supply its Integrated Data Management Unit for retrofit installation on 16 Japan Airlines 767-200s/300s. Teledynes iDMU will replace the legacy DMU currently in service, providing enhanced aircraft condition monitoring and recording capabilities.
Air France-KLM Group most likely will migrate its departure control system to Amadeus's Altea Fly, a well-placed source told ATWOnline, adding that AF will be the first to switch with KLM following in a second stage. AF and KLM at present use two different systems--KLM uses its in-house KLM Systems solution--but the new group realizes a common platform will create further synergies and facilitate cooperation. "We are studying the possibility [of migrating to Altea Fly], but no decision has been taken," an AF spokesperson said.
APV, the state privatization agency of Hungary, announced that five investors are competing to buy a 99.95% stake in flag carrier Malev. According to Reuters, three of the applications submitted can be regarded as bids while the other two are letters of intent. APV said it will not release the names of the investors before it announces the winner, which should occur within 30 days.
Emirates-CAE Flight Training received Type Rating Training Organization certification by the JAA, which means that European aircraft operators can have their crews trained at ECFT without needing to revalidate the type ratings with their national licensing authorities.
Emirates SkyCargo purchased three used A310-300Fs that will join its fleet between June 2005 and January 2006. The carrier also will add two A380-800Fs in 2008. Separately, the airline appointed Hiran Perera to the newly created position of VP cargo-freighters. In his new role, Perera will be responsible for the carrier's expanding freighter fleet.
