Indonesian police have arrested and charged the former chief of Garuda as an accessory to the murder of a human rights activist on one of airline's aircraft in 2004. The charge against former President-Director Indra Setiawan follows last year's successful appeal by the Garuda pilot convicted of the arsenic poisoning of activist Munir Saib Thalib, who had exposed human rights abuses by the Indonesian military. Rohainil Aini, secretary to Garuda's chief pilot, also was arrested and charged with assisting premeditated murder.
Etihad Airways wants to introduce narrowbody aircraft to develop a denser regional network, CEO James Hogan said in an interview yesterday. The aircraft are to be introduced by the end of 2008, he said. Etihad wants a narrowbody fleet of about eight units. The plans are a significant departure from the airline's current strategy, which seemed to have been modeled after Emirates, which does not operate narrowbodies. Hogan started as Etihad CEO late last year, coming from his previous assignment at Gulf Air. -JF
Airbus has achieved one of its long-running goals, winning an order from an Israeli customer in a market long monopolized by U.S. aircraft makers. Under a deal that is only a modest start, Israir Airlines signed up to buy three Airbus A320s. The carrier initially operated only domestic routes but, after receiving sanctions from the Israeli government, is becoming a rival to former flag carrier El Al on international markets.
Continental's employee credit union yesterday received a boost in its efforts to fight off a takeover by the former Northwest credit union, with a regulator ruling that credit union members cannot be offered a cash incentive to switch.
Lufthansa yesterday placed an order for 30 Embraer 190s and 15 Bombardier CRJ-900s. The company's supervisory board approved of the deals ahead of the annual shareholder meeting to be held today in Berlin. Deliveries will start by the end of next year. The decision shows a strategic shift in Lufthansa's regional network. The airline is moving upwards in aircraft size, as the Embraer and Bombardier jets will replace smaller Avro RJ-85s and CRJ-200s. 50-seat operations are moved more to affiliates, such as Eurowings and Contact Air.
Travelport named Steve Barnhart the new CEO and president of the Orbitz Worldwide division. Orbitz Worldwide includes online companies CheapTickets, ebookers, hotelclub, ratestogo and travelbag. Barnhart joined Orbitz in 2003 and helped take the formerly airline-owned Web site public. He was promoted to CFO when Cendant Corp. acquired Orbitz in November 2004, and was named president and CFO of Orbitz Worldwide last September. The company will appoint a new CFO shortly. Travelport operates 20 travel brands, including the Galileo GDS. -JLM
Nav Canada last week cut its service charges by another 3%, effective Sept. 1, citing cost controls and traffic growth as the major reasons. The company says its overall service charges will have grown just 7% since 1999, including the latest reduction. Last year, Nav Canada dropped its charges by 1.8%. "Our goal is to keep the growth in costs below the rate of growth in traffic, and therefore place ourselves in a position to continue to reduce service charges over the long term," said Nav Canada CEO John Crichton.
Hong Kong International Airport handled more than 45 million passengers and 3.5 million tons of cargo in 2006, setting a record. The airport credits growth of 8.5% and 2.8%, respectively in traffic and freight with steady regional and international economic expansion. Aircraft movement in 2006 reached 283,000, up 4.8% year over year. The airport will welcome Yangtze River Express Airlines, a Shanghai based all-cargo carrier, which begins service on April 17. Yangtze will fly five weekly flights on the Hong Kong-Hangzhou-Qingdao route.
Embraer 190s comprised the bulk of the airframer's deliveries during the first quarter with customers accepting 12 of the aircraft. Total commercial, business jet and defense deliveries for the first three months of this year reached 25, two fewer than the 27 aircraft delivered during the same time period last year.
Spirit Aerosystems rolled out the first complete Section 41 forward fuselage of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner yesterday in Wichita. The section will be flown to Boeing in Washington on the Dreamlifter in about two weeks. In 2006, the first year Spirit became a public traded company, 49% of its revenues ($1.57 billion) came from its fuselage systems, 28% from propulsion systems ($888 million), 22% from wing systems ($720 million), and 1% ($29.7 million) from other, according to its first annual report released yesterday.
Delta's creditors, who stuck by the company last year when US Airways tried to take it over, have approved management's reorganization plan by an "overwhelming" margin, the carrier said yesterday. The vote was the last substantial hurdle in Delta' bid to emerge from bankruptcy protection this month, after 19 months in Chapter 11.
Iberia CEO Fernando Conte said yesterday that Texas Pacific might want to consider adding partners to its potential takeover bid. "We have asked them if they have an airline that would go together with them," Conte said on the sidelines of the European Aviation Summit in Frankfurt, Germany. "Stakeholders would prefer that."
Following its recent buyout of Air Sahara, Jet Airways said the carrier would be renamed Jet Lite, adding to speculation that Air Sahara will be run as Jet's budget arm. Jet Airways new expansion plans announced today include a new corporate identity designed by London-based Landor Associates that will echo in its new seats, inflight service and staff uniforms designed by Italian designer Roberto Capucci.
Chinese aviation officials have given their strongest commitment yet that they want to reach a new -- and much more liberalized -- aviation deal with the U.S. by the end of May, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters tells The DAILY.
After being hit by two days of delays and cancellations due to Northeast spring storms, airlines, such as JetBlue, are confident they can restore operations to normal Tuesday. JetBlue was among the worst affected, with 175 cancellations Sunday and 84 flights canceled by Monday afternoon. Other carriers also reported hundreds of cancellations over the two days, but most attention was on JetBlue after the well-publicized problems the airline faced during severe February snowstorms.
Rockford, Ill.-based Ryan International Airlines, a subsidiary of Rubloff Jet Express, and Ameco Beijing (Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Corp.) plan to sign an engine overhaul contract during MRO USA this week in Atlanta.
Southwest will launch service June 17 between two of its network points, Norfolk and Tampa, with a single daily roundtrip, and add single nonstop roundtrips in five other markets. On June 4, the carrier will operate an eighth roundtrip between Albuquerque and Dallas, a fifth between Dallas and New Orleans and a second between Albuquerque and Seattle, and on June 17 it will add a fourth between Houston and Tampa and a fourth between Houston and Orlando.
JFK Airport Terminal 4 has signed a deal to install SITA's BagManager system to more efficiently handle passengers' baggage. BagManager will be integrated into T4's existing information systems, allowing airlines and ground-handlers to load aircraft more efficiently and locate baggage more quickly, said T4 IT director Daryl Jameson. "John F. Kennedy International Airport is the top international gateway to the U.S., and the amount of baggage passing through our terminal is extremely important to the millions of departing passengers every year," he said.
