SriLankan Airlines unveiled what it termed a "radically revamped schedule." It will launch new daily return service from Colombo to New York JFK March 27 and will add two frequencies to Singapore for a total of 16 and to Kuala Lumpur for a total of 12. In addition, the airline plans to operate a total of 33 weekly flights to Frankfurt, Munich and Dusseldorf in partnership with Emirates. This summer SriLankan will begin daily A330 flights to Abu Dhabi with four of them continuing to Doha and three to Bahrain.
Air France-KLM Group flew 12.94 billion RPKs in February, up 3.8% on the year-ago period. Capacity increased 1.9% to 16.76 billion ASKs and load factor gained 1.4 points to 76.6%. AF load factor reached 74.6%, up 2.3 points, as traffic increased 3.3% on 0.2% higher capacity. KLM traffic grew virtually in line with capacity, up 4.7% and 5% respectively. Load factor was down just 0.3 point to 80.1%. The group carried 4.7 million passengers in February, 2.3% more than in the year-ago period.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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%.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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%.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 a new report from the ITTC consultancy division of Airclaims, which is headed by Peter Morris, former IATA chief economist.
Online travel sites such as Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity are "outperforming" most airline websites in terms of "customer experience," according to a study by California-based Keynote Systems. The study noted that "greater selection is a major inherent advantage for online travel agencies," but stated that the sites are "also creating a better overall online experience for customers." Among airlines, Southwest and JetBlue were rated among the best sites in terms of customer experience.
Ryanair's recent order for 225 Aviation Partners Boeing Blended Winglet Systems to outfit its entire fleet of 737-800s in service and on order represents the largest single order for the program. The deal was announced in conjunction with the Irish LCC's order for up to 140 new CFM56-7B-powered 737-800s ( ATWOnline, Feb. 25). Ryanair will begin retrofitting its existing fleet immediately, while from January 2005 all new 737-800s will arrive with winglets installed. Southwest Airlines also is a strong believer in the winglets.
Bmi Group reported a £2.1 million ($2.8 million) pre-tax profit for the financial year ended Dec. 31, reversing two years of red ink at the pre-tax level comprising losses of £9.8 million in 2003 and £19.6 million in 2002. EBIT remained negative, however, with an operating loss before interest of around £4 million, according to preliminary figures. This compares to operating losses of £12.5 million in 2003, £21.7 million in 2002 and £29 million in 2001.
British Airways flew 7.8 billion RPKs in February, up 1.4% on the year-ago period. Capacity fell 1.4% to 11.04 billion ASKs and load factor consequently moved up 2 points to 70.8%. The increase in traffic comprised a 6.8% rise in premium traffic and a 0.4% increase in nonpremium traffic. Passengers carried decreased 3.1% to 2.5 million. Cargo tonne-kilometers declined 5.9%. The traffic and capacity figures versus last year are impacted by some 3 points because 2004 was a leap year, BA noted.
LAN Airlines (formerly LanChile) posted record net income of $47.6 million for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, up 35.4% over income of $35.2 million in the year-ago period.
