Varig's creditors earlier this week approved the airline's restructuring plan, which will split the airline into two companies, operational Varig Domestic and commercial Varig International.
Northwest's flight attendants will soon be asked to vote on whether they want to change unions and be represented by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), rather than the Professional Flight Attendants Association (PFAA).
Lloyd Aereo Boliviano's renewal of the lucrative service to Spain was delayed by the carrier's suspension from IATA's Billing and Settlement Plan, which provides for ticket sales through travel agents. Meanwhile, 1,054 LAB workers signed a document to contribute salaries owed for February to the solidarity fund (DAILY, May 10) required to form to cooperative to take over the carrier by the May 31 deadline. Until this prerequisite is met, the majority of equity shares continue in possession of former president Ernesto Asbun. -LZ
Air Jamaica this summer plans to boost service to Grenada by adding a fifth weekly nonstop flight from New York Kennedy, starting June 25. The flight currently operates on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, but the carrier will add a Thursday departure next month. The fifth flight will be operated with a leased Boeing 757 and will fly seasonally between June 25 and Sept. 10.
Sabre and Worldspan this week launched a new message routing systems that aims to streamline communications links between the two interline e-ticketing providers.
ExpressJet is looking at potential business in Asia aside from finding new platforms for 69 planes leaving its Continental Express network. Airline CEO Jim Ream told analysts this week that an ExpressJet team is in Asia looking at potential opportunities. "Some of the stuff we are looking at there would be a new aircraft order," he said, "if we are able to bring those deals to a close."
British Airways now has until Aug. 14 to appeal FAA's proposed $25,000 fine for a 2005 Los Angeles-London Boeing 747-400 flight the carrier operated on three engines after shutting down a malfunctioning No. 2 engine. BA elected to fight the fine after receiving notice of the penalty in January. This is the second extension the carrier has received to file the appeal, after FAA moved the deadline to May 16 last February.
NetJets this week promoted Bill Noe to be president of the Columbus-based fractional aircraft service provider. Effective immediately, Noe will assume all day-to-day responsibility for the operations and administrative functions of NetJets. Since joining NetJets in 1993, Noe has served as a pilot, director of operations and VP of operations. Noe replaces Bill Boisture who resigned from NetJets after working just over two years at the company (DAILY, Jan. 9). Boisture has since formed his own consulting service, W. Boisture & Associates.
FAA Assistant Administrator for Communications Greg Martin is leaving the agency to take up a senior communications role with General Motors. Martin has been FAA's main spokesman since October 2002, having previously served as communications head at NTSB when it was chaired by current FAA Administrator Marion Blakey. Martin is scheduled to leave FAA today, and his acting replacement will be Geoffrey Basye, who joined the agency recently.
BMI British Midland Chairman Michael Bishop yesterday increased his personal shareholding in the airline group by acquiring the minority interests in the BBW Partnership Ltd. Bishop now owns 50% plus one share, Lufthansa has 30% minus one share and SAS has a 20% holding in the carrier.
Mexicana subsidiary and low-cost carrier Click next month will cease to operate from Toluca International Airport near Mexico City, citing Toluca's inability to provide effective connections for its passengers.
IATA has filed a lawsuit against the French government over plans by Aeroports de Paris (ADP) to boost charges at Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports by 5% a year. Director General Giovanni Bisignani has been quite vocal about the lack of cost controls among Europe's airports, saying ADP is one of the biggest offenders of increasing fees that are out of line with other airports. This lack of control, in turn, hurts airlines' efforts to control costs, he claimed.
New Aerolineas Argentinas (AR) CEO Esteban Maccari reported progress in negotiations with AR's pilots and flight engineers union, after the airline improved upon a previous offer with new concessions. AR is maintaining its offer of a 19% across the board salary increase (DAILY, May 3) but also agreed to pay workers outstanding benefits for seniority as well as non-remunerative bonuses.
Northwest management and one of its most powerful labor unions labor yesterday came together to lobby Congress to pass a pension-reform bill that has been stuck in conference for weeks.
Kitty Hawk Aircargo won from the U.S. Transportation Dept. a dormancy waiver for its all-cargo service from Ft. Wayne, Ind., to Guadalajara and Monterrey in Mexico. But the new 90-day dormancy period would start after DOT renders a decision for the Ft. Wayne-Mexico City segment, which it hasn't yet. Kitty Hawk told the DOT that its ability to profitably serve Guadalajara and Monterrey without the Mexico City authority is questionable and it is not in a position to start the new service without a decision on Mexico City [OST-2005-22751].
Air Berlin's stock shares will start trading at the Frankfurt stock exchange today in an initial public offering the carrier hopes will give it sufficient capital to fund an aggressive expansion plan.
Olympic Airlines was forced to cancel more than 100 flights yesterday because of a public sector strike against the government's planned labor market reform and privatizations. The company operated a minimum service of one flight per destination on domestic routes and one per country on international routes. No other carriers were affected, said Athens airport sources. The company is already in trouble, as the European Commission is demanding the reimbursement of several hundred million euros in illegal aid (DAILY, April 27). -MT
Reorganization costs and special items bumped Northwest's first-quarter net loss to $1.1 billion compared to a loss of $537 million last year, the carrier reported yesterday. Excluding reorganization and one-time items, the loss was $129 million, considerably lower than the $450 million loss from the same period last year. The airline saw an operating loss of $15 million, which was also down from last year's operating deficit of $301 million.
ExpressJet CEO Jim Ream says the airline should have the tail numbers of the 69 planes Continental is cutting from its contract within 30 days, which should give ExpressJet "a better understanding," of what planes should work best in the business plan the carrier is considering. One of the options is flying the planes outside the U.S.
