The situation of troubled Bolivian carrier Lloyd Aereo Boliviano worsened earlier this week as payment came due on debts for aircraft leasing, fuel, employees' back wages, reimbursement for tickets held by stranded passengers, and other essential obligations -- with no resources in sight to pay them.
American yesterday announced that Thomas Horton is returning to the airline as its CFO, a position he previously held before leaving to join AT&T. American also made several other executive appointments, as it prepares for "the expected retirement of two key executives in the next few years."
South African Airways last week held an emergency response drill out outside Johannesburg to simulate a problem away from the airport. The full-scale emergency exercise, code named "Operation Kaizen," meaning continuous improvement in Japanese, was held at a site where two other simulations were completed in 2001 and 2003. "The exercise tested the airline's readiness to respond to a full-scale airline emergency, as well as the emergency policies, procedures and operational capacities of various departments within SAA," the airline said.
The Malaysian government surprisingly approved low-fare airline Air Asia to operate up to 96 routes under the rationalization of the domestic network, while Malaysia Airlines will operate 19 routes, an increase of 13 from the proposed six. Under the plan, which becomes effective Aug. 1, Air Asia will also take over the rural air service (RAS) routes from MAS. Air Asia will get financial assistance from the government to operate RAS.
Shareholders at Frontier Airlines gave management their consent to form a holding company incorporated in Delaware despite Institutional Shareholder Services' (ISS) negative response to the proposal (DAILY, March 6). In response to ISS concerns, Frontier management told shareholders the holding company would help the airline build the corporate framework to possibly form subsidiaries to support its growing Mexican network or new Canadian operations.
Glitches with the Embraer 190's entry into service continue to wane as software upgrades and targeted training for operator crews on the plane's systems boost the aircraft's dispatch reliability rate. JetBlue started flying the 190 in November, and CEO David Neeleman has noted the airline might have been too aggressive in putting the planes into service and aiming for 20-minute turn times. After three months of operations, Embraer VP Programs for the Airline Market Mauro Kern said, "Operations are much better," but "they're not perfect."
FAA's massive telecommunications modernization program is seriously behind schedule, and this will likely reduce the cost savings the agency can achieve from the program, the U.S. Transportation Dept.'s chief watchdog warned Senate lawmakers yesterday.
Northwest is pressing for a June launch of its new subsidiary, Compass, and plans to hand either Bombardier or Embraer a new aircraft order to supply 76-seat planes for the airline in April. The carrier outlined the plans for Compass, formerly dubbed Newco, in a filing with the U.S. Transportation Dept. after buying FLYi's operating certificate for $2 million.
Mexicana unveiled plans to cut its annual costs by 20%, or $150 million, to stay competitive with the burgeoning low-cost carriers in the country and it if it can lower labor costs, the carrier will grow its Click operation by 50% this year.
FAA yesterday issued an order extending the Chicago O'Hare flight caps for another seven months, rejecting calls from the City of Chicago to raise the flight cap level. The latest order extends the flight caps through Oct. 28. This is the third time the caps have been extended since they were imposed in August 2004. The caps, which primarily affect United and American, were introduced to help alleviate delays resulting from over-scheduling.
Airbus plans to boost its A320 family production to 32 planes per month, confirms Chief Operating Officer John Leahy. The company is "studying" taking production as high as 34 aircraft per month in 2007 or 2008 due to the large backlog, he said in Orlando at the ISTAT conference. A rate of 34 planes, however, would likely be the peak, as it would be nearly impossible to go higher.
Airbus within the next six months needs to make a significant and potentially expensive decision on whether to go ahead with the latest design of the A350 or make a major product shift, according to one of the industry's most influential aircraft lessors.
Air Jamaica plans to boost its fleet utilization by four hours per day as part of a larger strategy to transform Jamaica into an alternative hub linking the U.S. and Europe to the Caribbean and Latin America.
Qantas at its engineering maintenance facility in Avalon, Victoria, will convert four Boeing 737-300s to freighters and will wet-lease the aircraft to Australian Air Express. The converted freighters will replace Australian Air Express' fleet of four aging 727-200Fs. AAE is jointly owned by Qantas and Australian Post.
Boeing has committed to building a second stretched version of its 787 aircraft -- to be called the 787-10 -- which some airlines have been lobbying for, although timing and configuration details are still being worked out, 787 program head Mike Bair said yesterday. It is "not a matter of if, but when" Boeing begins building the -10s, Bair said. Entry into service could be as early as the last quarter of 2012, a target that "seems to suit the customers we are talking to...and fits nicely into our development program," Bair said.
Mexican carrier Aeromar in April will expand its Maya Route Network from Mexico City to Villahermosa, Merida and Cancun. In June, the carrier will add the roundtrip circuit Villahermosa/Tuxtla Gutierrez/ Oaxaca/Huatulco and return. CEO Ami Lindenberg said Aeromar is now in fifth place in the Mexican domestic airline sector with more than 120 daily takeoffs and landings. The carrier operates a fleet of 15 ATR 42-500s and 42-320s. -LZ
At the behest of management at troubled carrier Lloyd Aereo Boliviano, Bolivia's constitutional court last week issued an injunction against transportation regulator Wilson Villarroel and inspector Angel Zaballa that in practice would suspend their involvement in the LAB intervention (DAILY, Feb. 28). The injunction would also force the men to appear in court to explain their actions.
