Iberia is no longer bidding for its domestic rival Spanair. The airline said late yesterday it has withdrawn its proposal to take over Spanair together with Gestair. Iberia stated this takes into account that “until now there has been no agreement regarding conditions.” It also cited “other circumstances and determining factors” as reasons without elaborating.
Frontier remained in search of debtor-in-possession financing Tuesday, but reached a tentative deal with the last of its employee groups on the temporary pay cuts it hopes will help the airline attract investors. The agreement Tuesday with the Teamsters, which represents about 430 employees including mechanics, also comes on the heels of a slew of fee increases for customers announced by the airline Friday.
Lufthansa plans to add a Boston-Munich nonstop service on October 26 to its all-business network. The route will be served during the winter by a 48-seat Airbus A319LR operated by Switzerland’s PrivatAir. This aircraft is part of a fleet of three — two A319s and one Boeing 737 — currently operated by PrivatAir as Lufthansa Business Jet.
El Al recorded a $20 million charge in its first quarter to cover expected penalties arising from the U.S. Justice Dept.’s probe of cartel practices among airline cargo operations. The provision and a $9.1 million charge to meet new accounting standards contributed to a more than three-fold increase in the Israeli carrier’s first quarter net loss, despite record revenue.
A new deal that could see Germany’s Deutsche Post shift its entire North American airfreight network to rival UPS is being valued as high as $10 billion by the U.S. cargo operator. The deal was revealed yesterday as part of a cost-cutting program that could cut the European company’s annual costs by $1 billion by 2011. Under the initiative, Deutsche Post’s DHL U.S. Express unit intends to contract UPS for all intra-North American airlift for 10 years.
ExpressJet will cut capacity by about 30% in the fall schedule in response to spiraling fuel prices, with a plan that CEO Jim Ream says will see the carrier cutting back its nonstop and long-haul services.
Competition in Kuwait City is set to rise with the launch of the Gulf state’s third carrier, the newly announced Wataniya Airways. The airline, which is scheduled to launch Airbus A320 service in January 2009, is being promoted as a precedent-setting premium carrier and management is even comparing its 122-seat A320s favorably to similar aircraft operated by European giants Air France and British Airways.
American is cutting its flight between New York JFK and London’s Stansted airport, just seven months after it began. The airline says the cut is part of its previously announced capacity reduction targets (DAILY, May 22). However, its decision was undoubtedly helped by the fact that Maxjet and Eos are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and no longer operating New York-Stansted flights. American already offers several daily flights to London Heathrow.
Bahrain’s national carrier Gulf Air placed a big Airbus order, with plans to more than double its fleet during the next five years. The airline ordered 15 A320s and 20 A330-300s, which will be used partly for replacement but mostly to expand capacity. The airline currently operates ten A320s, six A330-200s and nine A340-300s. The fleet is to expand to around 55 aircraft within the next five years, CEO Bjoern Naef said.
China’s two main aircraft-making groups, Avic 1 and Avic 2, will merge back together, nine years after they were separated, industry executives say. The merger is the next step in China’s long campaign to turn its aircraft sector into an internationally competitive industry that operates on a fully commercial basis.
JetBlue, citing the rise in fuel costs, is deferring 21 Airbus A320 deliveries for several years. Under the new schedule, instead of taking delivery between 2009 and 2011 the airline will get 12 of the aircraft in 2014 and nine in 2015. In an SEC filing May 27, the airline said the deferrals “will help us further moderate our growth rate in 2009 and beyond, and help us enhance liquidity, defer future debt obligations and drive improved profitability.”
Changing U.S. ownership and control laws could be a major impediment to the second stage of U.S.-European Union open-skies talks, as the European Commission remains firm in wanting to see investment opportunities in U.S. carriers fully liberalized.
Delta’s flight attendants remain without union representation after the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) failed to persuade enough flight attendants to vote. But the union is not giving up yet, vowing to file formal interference charges with the National Mediation Board (NMB) by June 6 against Delta management for waging an aggressive campaign to “discourage flight attendants from voting.” It also believes Delta’s flight attendants will join the AFA if a merger with Northwest is successful.
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The U.S. Commerce Dept.named new members to the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board for 2008-2009, who will study ways to balance national security needs with calls for better treatment of visitors at U.S. ports of entry. The new chairman of the board is returning member Marilyn Carlson Nelson, chairman and CEO of The Carlson companies.
Delta Air Lines’ finishing touches on upgrades to its international BusinessElite product should make it competitive with similar offerings by other carriers, says Jake Frank, the carrier’s managing director of global product development and delivery.
The European Commission plans to release a new Single Sky legislative package sometime this fall, despite earlier signals that it would be coming out in June. The EC is expected to propose ways to speed the consolidation of European airspace into functional airspace blocks (FABs). Airlines have criticized states for moving too slowly to form the FABs.
BAA’s ownership of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports is likely to prevent, restrict and/or distort competition, according to a new report from the U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
Air Comet increased nonstop Madrid-Buenos Aires long hauls to five weekly (Monday through Friday) with plans for daily service in December. Immediate connections are available to Europe via Madrid and to South America via Buenos Aires. Airbus A340-300 aircraft will be used, configured for 30 in business, 28 in “Tourist Comfort” and 227 in economy class.
The U.K. hit the 1 million user mark for its Iris Recognition Immigration System (IRIS), used for automated biometric border crossings. The Home Office created IRIS under the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. The system uses a photograph of the iris pattern, converts it into a digital code and then compares it with others stored in a secure database. When a match is made, enrolled travelers can enter the U.K. by passing through an IRIS gate, located in an airport’s immigration arrival hall.
Management at Air France-KLM wants to find €150 million (US$236.3 million) in further cost savings this year and plans to unveil another round of efficiency improvements in the coming months to combat high fuel prices.
Wayne County Airport Authority (WCAA) launched its new Small Business Enterprise (SBE) Program, designed to attract more commerce at Detroit Metro and other WCAA-managed airports.
American claims its pilots’ contract proposal would add about $3 billion a year in recurring costs, not including signing bonuses. In addition, the airline would have to chip in an extra $1 billion to keep pension plan funding above 80%. American is officially rejecting the Allied Pilots Association proposal. Talks continue under the National Mediation Board’s aegis.
