Some 3,800 Air Canada customer service and sales staff represented by the Canadian Auto Workers union went on strike June 14 citing the airline’s intransigence on demands for reducing its pension liabilities. The strike appears to have had some limited effect on services, with cancellations and delays reported at the airline’s Toronto Pearson International Airport hub. Air Canada, however, at press time had not released any operational data.
Qatar Airways has hired advisers for an initial public offering (IPO), according to a statement by CEO Akbar Al Baker. The IPO “will definitely be earlier than people expect,” Al Baker said at the opening of a new terminal in Doha, Qatar. He has mentioned the possibility numerous times before, but referred to much later launch dates. Al Baker stated that “as the performance of the airline improves, the closer will be the IPO.” He did not disclose the identity of advising banks.
Los Angeles-based Air Lease Corp. has announced 25 lease agreements stretching from South America and the Caribbean to Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The leases range from six new ATR 72-600s and six Embraer E-190LRs for TRIP Linhas Aereas in Brazil to six Boeing 737-800s spread among China’s Hainan, Xiamen and Shanghai Airlines, Turkey’s Sun Express and Canada’s Sunwing.
FL Technics has signed an $11 million, one-year support agreement with Russian operator Donavia for support on CFMI International's CFM56-3 engines. The Lithuanian maintenance facility is managing supply chain services for the overhaul of six CFMI CFM56-3 engines, which Donavia leases from FL Technics’ parent company Avia Solutions Group. Donavia is leasing the engines for its fleet of Boeing 737-400/500 aircraft, and the first engine entered the shop for overhaul last week.
Air India has entered into an agreement with Slovenian flag carrier Adria Airways, and the two will soon sign a code-sharing pact, a senior official of the airline says. “The agreement will forge greater cooperation between Air India and Adria Airways in view of aircraft compatibility, with the fleet of Airbus and CRJ aircraft types, and complementary network,” the official says. While Adria Airways will be able to access Air India’s network by generating traffic beyond Delhi, Air India will receive access to the Eastern European market.
Honeywell is acquiring EMS Technologies, an Atlanta-based network and satellite communications company, for $491 million, and the deal is expected to close in the third quarter this year.
The Air Transport Association of the U.S. has named Sean Kennedy to lead its lobbying effort as senior VP-global government affairs. With Kennedy’s appointment, ATA President Nicholas Calio’s senior leadership team is completely in place, says ATA spokeswoman Jean Medina, although it still intends to fill one or more lobbying positions. Kennedy joins the association on July 15.
Emirates is adding Baghdad to its network in mid-November. The airline will operate a four-times-weekly service using Airbus A330-200s. Baghdad is the airline’s second destination in Iraq after Basra, which it started serving in February. Emirates says it expects the service to be used mainly by government and industry officials and hopes to benefit from the fact that only few international airlines fly to Baghdad so far.
Political tensions and unrest in the region prompted Air Arabia to shelve plans to open a base in Jordan. CEO Adel Ali said that he would revisit the idea once the situation improves. While there has been little violence in Jordan, there are massive protests and fighting in neighboring Syria. Air Arabia is based in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, and has bases in Casablanca, Morocco and Alexandria, Egypt.
Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo will launch international operations in September by starting direct flights to Dubai, Singapore and Bangkok. “We will target high-density-traffic international routes and will use a total of eight to nine aircraft for these operations by March,” says Aditya Ghosh, president of IndiGo, which is the country’s largest budget airline in terms of its 19.7% market share.
Chinese airlines have won a reprieve against extreme competition from fast rail on their premier route, between Beijing and Shanghai, with the railways ministry announcing fairly high fares for its imminent service. For the fastest services, a one-way second class ticket, roughly equivalent to an airline’s economy class, will cost 555 yuan ($86), while the somewhat better first class will cost 935 yuan, says the ministry.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) is reviewing a proposal from its 21,600 engineers and technical workers represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) to institute binding arbitration in 2012 contract talks. “I believe that disputes over wages and benefits can be rationally resolved if both sides will voluntarily subject such disputes to binding binary interest arbitration,” SPEEA Executive Director Ray Goforth told the union’s 150-member governing council June 11 at its annual meeting.
Copa Airlines on June 13 marked its fifth anniversary on the New York Stock Exchange by announcing three more routes for 2011, adding to the four scheduled to be launched this month. The new routes, which will be launched in December from the operator’s hub at Panama’s Tocumen International Airport, include Paraguay’s capital city Asuncion, Cucuta in Colombia and Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
U.S. airline baggage fee revenue increased by more than 24% in 2010 over 2009, according to newly released data on 20 carriers compiled by the U.S. Transportation Department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The data show the 20 airlines collected $3.4 billion in 2010, up from $2.7 billion in 2009. An analysis by Aviation Week, using BTS figures on the total number of passengers carried by those airlines in 2010, shows that amounted to about $6.39 per passenger.
Southwest Airlines is nixing the marketing relationship that newly acquired subsidiary AirTran Airways had with regional carrier SkyWest Airlines, effective Sept. 6. The pilots union at Southwest praised the decision to end the arrangement, which it says violates their contract's prohibition on domestic code-sharing. AirTran will use its own Boeing 717 aircraft to continue service to two of the markets: Des Moines, Iowa, and Akron/Canton, Ohio.
United Continental Holdings’ 14,300 ramp workers and fleet services staff at will begin voting July 7 on whether the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers or the International Brotherhood of Teamsters will represent them as the company proceeds toward operating as a single carrier.
FAA is proposing an airworthiness directive (AD) that would require U.S. operators of more than 1,000 Bombardier CRJs to replace certain pitot-static tubing components. Transport Canada already has issued a similarly worded AD.
Defense budgets are under the microscope. Business aircraft sales are weak. Fuel prices threaten airlines. But the Aerospace Industries Association has seen a 50% growth rate in its full membership ranks since January 2010. That expansion, which included eight new members accepted by the AIA board of governors in May, reflects an attitude among aerospace and defense (A&D) companies that there is strength in numbers.
FedEx is using its growing fleet of Boeing 777Fs “opportunistically” to capture share in emerging international markets, Michael Ducker, chief operating officer and president-international at FedEx Express, said last week when the express package carrier exhibited its newest 777 freighter at Washington Dulles International Airport. The aircraft, delivered to FedEx June 3, is the 12th of an expected fleet of 44 777Fs by 2019.
U.S. Regional carrier Gulfstream International, under new ownership and a new leadership team, is back in growth mode after a Chapter 11 restructuring. The carrier is in the market for larger turboprops and is planning a major expansion in its Bahamas service this fall. The Fort Lauderdale-based carrier already serves eight of the islands from several locations in Florida — mostly Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach — with 19-seat Beechcraft 1900D aircraft.
