Sun Country Airlines yesterday named Stan Gadek as its new CEO and president, effective March 10. Gadek was formerly the CFO and senior VP of finance at AirTran. He announced in February that he was leaving that company, but originally planned to stay on until April 30. Because of this offer, he and AirTran agreed to speed up his departure.
Germany’s Fraport AG saw profits in 2007 drop 6% year over year to EUR213.7 million (US$325.2 million), but is predicting growth for 2008. Frankfurt Airport hit record traffic in 2007, up 2.6% to 54 million passengers, while air freight tonnage was up almost 2% to 2.1 million metric tons. Board Chairman Wilhelm Bender said that Frankfurt’s continued growth shows the need for a fourth runway and praised the Hesse government for giving zoning approval for the project in December (DAILY, Dec. 19).
Atlanta’s city council has unanimously approved a bill establishing a construction budget for the new Maynard Holbrook Jackson Jr. International Terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.
The Southeast Asia aviation market is holding up despite a U.S. economic slowdown, says asset manager Werner Aero Services, which is planning expansion from its Singapore location. “The market has gone soft in North America in the past two months,” says CEO Mike Cazaz. “I don’t see the same response from the rest of the world, although Europe is kind of flat. But places like Southeast Asia and South America are still doing fairly well.” That’s handy because Asia is a region where the company, based in New York, is keen to expand.
The Regional Airline Association named Liam Connolly manager-industry and regulatory affairs. “RAA’s longstanding team of Scott Foose, Faye Malarkey, Dave Lotterer and Scott Gordon has done an amazing job covering the whole court, and we’re appreciative our board has provided the resources, so we can add the “sixth man” to even better serve our members,” RAA President Roger Cohen said. Connolly was most recently national accounts manager for Blackboard Inc. His area of responsibility at RAA will include security and environmental issues as well as communications.
As part of a broader study on “green taxes,” the U.K. Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) March 5 called for higher aviation taxes. The EAC praised Parliament for changing the Air Passenger Duty from a per-passenger to a per-flight tax. But it called for establishing a separate tax on “very-long haul destinations.” Details on the proposed new tax were not available at press time.
Air New Zealand says increases in domestic and international capacity during the second half of 2007 were a major factor in boosting revenue nearly 10% over that period. The carrier saw its operating revenue rise to NZ$2.3 billion (US$1.8 billion) for the six months through Dec. 31. This helped increase net profit by 58% to NZ$115 million. As well as high fuel prices, Air NZ has had to contend with the rapid escalation of the value of the New Zealand dollar to 23-year highs, which is making it harder to attract overseas visitors.
Delta executives studying a merger with Northwest are laying the issue to rest — for now. The labor issues proved to be too laborious to tackle quickly. Delta hinted as much recently in an internal memo, saying it would not rush in until all criteria are met. An airline source says that merger work has now halted, and Delta is disappointed because of the money it was expecting to make by linking up with Northwest’s Pacific Network.
The European Parliament yesterday put its weight behind adding aviation to the EU’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) by proposing that airlines be required to buy emissions credit at auction.
With Adam Aircraft Industries assets set for auction April 4, manufacturers of very light jets (VLJs) — including Eclipse and Embraer — will likely be vying for the company’s VLJ order backlog. Englewood, Colo.-based Adam Aircraft, which entered Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in February, designed and manufactured carbon-composite, high performance general aviation aircraft, the twin-piston A500 and the A700 very light jet.
United distributed $110 million to its employees yesterday as part of their profit-sharing plan. The airline made $170 million in payments in 2007 tied to performance. The payments of $1,200 before withholding for every $30,000 of eligible earnings, will be paid to most U.S.-based employees, and union-represented employees will also receive their success-sharing payout. The flight attendants represented by the Association of Flight Attendants elected to receive theirs in the form of a company contribution to their 401K, to the extent possible.
The Philippines March 5 created a new aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), partially in response to international concerns over the safety of the country’s airports and carriers.
International Air Transport Association head Giovanni Bisignani this week warned the air cargo industry about its slipping competitive position, and he said the entire supply chain needs to take action to reverse this trend.
BAE Systems has agreed to sell its Flight Systems business to Calspan Corp. in a deal worth $62.5 million, plus possible future payments based on revenues over the next five years.
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The planned merger agreement between low-fare airlines TUIfly and Germanwings is taking longer than initially expected, and the deal may not yet be waved through at the next meetings of TUI’s and Lufthansa’s supervisory boards scheduled later this month, sources close to the matter say. The sources say Lufthansa’s negotiating team has been negatively surprised by a look at TUIfly’s financial situation, which was described as worse than expected.
German air travel was severely disrupted yesterday as public services union Verdi called for strikes at practically all major airports (DAILY, March 5). Lufthansa was forced to cancel more than 300 flights, as baggage handlers and security staff walked off the job. The airline recommended travelers to use trains on domestic routes. Disruptions were expected to continue throughout the day. Verdi is demanding an 8% wage increase for its members.
The two newest players in the U.S.-Colombia market will be low-cost carriers Spirit and JetBlue, which would be able to launch their services to the South American country in April, per a tentative order from the U.S. Transportation Dept. that also saw Delta and Continental winning additional frequencies to boost their current offering in the market.
China’s ARJ21 regional jet will pick up foreign orders this year, says chief designer Wu Guanghui, predicting the market breakthrough that the project needs to establish itself as a serious competitor to Embraer and Bombardier. Manufacturer Avic 1 says it has 171 orders so far, but that figure may include options on 50 of the aircraft. All orders have been taken from Chinese buyers, except for two ARJ21s for Lao Airlines. Avic 1 has described the initial model of the aircraft, the ARJ21-700, as tailored for the domestic market.
Air travel could be severely disrupted in Germany today, as public services union Verdi has called for strikes at airports. Verdi members are expected to stage work stoppages at the country’s two biggest airports in Frankfurt and Munich, among others. Early indications are that significant delays and cancellations have to be expected, particularly in the morning.
Singapore Airlines is converting five Airbus A340-500 long-range aircraft into an all-business class configuration for daily flights between Singapore and New York and Singapore and Los Angeles, becoming the first to operate an all-business class service on the transpacific route. The launch will be phased gradually from mid-May on the Singapore-New York route, with daily services in the new all-business-class to New York by the end of June and Los Angeles by late September.
Representatives from two regional airlines offered airports at the American Association of Airport Executives’ National Air Service conference a peek inside their process for choosing new cities. American Eagle looks at a route’s profitability, the airport’s facility and location, along with internal considerations, said Ralph Severson, senior analyst of planning. For ExpressJet, timing might be the answer on whether an airport gets service, said Trish Winebrenner, the airline’s VP-marketing.
