American Airlines is creating a sub-fleet of 16 ETOPS-certified Airbus A321s to fly between the West Coast and Hawaii, an airline spokeswoman told ATW’s sister publication Aviation Daily.
Russia’s Ural Airlines has become a member of IATA, which will allow the carrier “to optimize costs of international audit which the airline is required to pass, to get the information on the airline business new technologies and implement them,” the carrier said in a statement.
Vietnamese flag carrier Vietnam Airlines (VA) plans to implement codeshare links with its part-owned low-cost carrier (LCC) Jetstar Pacific, and has introduced new schedules to India as part of its newly announced expansion.
International passenger traffic in the Asia-Pacific region has increased 10% to 23 million in April, according to the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA).
Air Canada rouge’s 20 Airbus A319s will be converted by mid-June 2015 from current 3x3 seating configuration with a blocked middle seat to two side-by-side business class seats in a 2x2 configuration.
Belgian chemical company Solvay has launched Tegralite, a family of high performance lightweight materials that offers the aviation industry new downstream solutions and part-making capabilities to improve fuel efficiency and speed up the production, refurbishment and maintenance of planes at a lower cost.
Eastern European-based Wizz Air will launch two additional routes from Vilnius, Lithuania, after Air Lituanica ceased operations, offering rescue fares to passengers.
Kazakhstan-based Air Astana has opened a training center for engineers in Almaty, with certification in European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Part 147 standards by Kazakh and European aviation authorities.
Lufthansa is considering setting up a task force to evaluate implementing random medical checks of pilots to improve safety in the cockpit, Lufthansa spokesperson Barbara Schaedler told ATW in an email.
Irish budget carrier Ryanair has posted a 15% net profit margin for 2014-15, after generating €867 million ($944.5 million) in net income, up 66% from €523 million in the prior year.
Malaysian Airline Systems’ (MAS) new CEO, Christoph Mueller, has said he will run the new state-owned Malaysian airline “like a startup,” and that there is “very little margin for error” in the cost reduction schedule he has mapped out for the crisis-hit flag carrier.
The coalition of US airlines and labor groups that is campaigning against the three major Gulf carriers has claimed broad support from US lawmakers, local chambers of commerce and local unions.
US Airlines with over 1000 Full-time Equivalent (FTE) employees, ranked by increase in employees, year-over-year. FTE calculations count two part-time employees as one full-time employee.
