Stefan Gemkow will succeed Karl-Ludwig Kley as chief financial officer for Lufthansa, the airline revealed yesterday. Gemkow, 46, currently serves as CFO at subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo and will take up his new position on June 1. Roland Busch, currently head of corporate finance at the Lufthansa Group, will replace him at Lufthansa Cargo. Kley earlier this month submitted his resignation to join pharmaceuticals company Merck as deputy CEO (DAILY, March 15). -JF
The European Commission agreed to ban 92 airlines -- mostly from African countries -- from operating in the European Union. This first consolidated European black list will be formally published on March 24 but is already available on the web (see link below). All carriers registered in Equatorial Guinea, Sierre Leone, Swaziland, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo are excluded from the EU, as they "have an inadequate system for regulatory oversight," said the EC.
South African Airways successfully made the switch to a new reservations system, the last hurdle before it officially joins the Star Alliance April 10.
U.S. customers would be willing to pay extra for amenities that would make flights more comfortable and convenient, according to a new survey from travel technology provider Amadeus.
Senior FAA official Sharon Pinkerton is leaving the agency this month. Pinkerton is assistant administrator for policy, planning and environment, with responsibility for FAA's five-year Flight Plan. She also was heavily involved in FAA reauthorization and funding overhaul proposals. Pinkerton joined FAA in March 2003. Pinkerton's deputy, Nancy LoBue, will fill the position until a replacement is found.
The stalemate between pilots and flight engineers and management at Aerolineas Argentinas over salary and benefit adjustments (DAILY, March 13) continued this week, as both sides rejected a government proposal. Flight engineers insist on an across-the-board wage increase of 70%, while pilots want a 45% raise. The airline has not rejected these proposals and says they are still "under consideration".
FedEx yesterday reported a staggering 35% growth in net profit for the fiscal quarter ended Feb. 28, prompting the company to raise its profit guidance for the current quarter and the full year.
Former Star Alliance member Mexicana and Star carrier Air Canada will end their six-year-old code share on Canada-U.S.-Mexico routings on March 31 [OST-2000-6185]. Mexicana's Star membership ended March 31, 2004, and the carrier shortly thereafter inked bilaterals with oneworld carriers Iberia and American (DAILY, April 7, 2004). It continues some cooperation with Star members Lufthansa, Varig and Air New Zealand. -ARS
IATA yesterday made a significant revision of its industry financial predictions for this year and next, estimating that the world's airlines will lose $2.2 billion in 2006, about half of the $4.3 billion loss predicted three months ago, thanks to higher yields and economic growth in Europe and Asia.
KLM yesterday signed a multi-year, full-content agreement with Sabre that will give European travel agents full access to the airline's range of published fares and inventory, with no distribution surcharge.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. awarded Centurion Air Cargo an interim dormancy waiver through March 24 for its U.S.-Ecuador frequencies (DAILY, March 17). The DAILY incorrectly identified the waiver as regular dormancy waiver, which is still pending. Arrow Air has filed in opposition to the dormancy waiver. [OST-2002-12503].
EgyptAir this week ordered six sets of blended winglets for the Boeing 737-800s it has on order. The winglets will be installed as buyer-furnished equipment on new deliveries of 737-800s. The first two installations will occur in September and November, with the rest to be completed by 2008. EgyptAir has also taken six options for winglet-equipped 737-800s.
North American Airlines recently selected the Oracle-based Radixx Air Enterprise system to manage passenger reservations, Internet booking and departure control.
CRESDA LEADS: The Chinese Center for Resources Satellite Data & Application (Cresda) will lead the coordination of 18 new Chinese land observation satellites planned for launch through 2015. Cresda managers say the first of these will be the third in the series of Cbers Chinese/Brazilian Earth Resources Satellites planned for launch in 2007. An additional Cbers will be launched in about 2010. The first two were launched in 1999 and 2003.
The U.S. Air Force and contractor Lockheed Martin are upgrading 33 long-range air defense radars located in the continental U.S., according to company officials. Three complete upgrades to the radars have been completed over the past two years, with a third and fourth upgrade scheduled over the next two years, according to Ed Lane, product support program manager at Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors in Syracuse, N.Y. Most of the systems were fully manned when originally fielded, according to Lane, but now all but 10 are unmanned.
Michael O'Hanlon, senior fellow of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, is not too worried about an al Qaeda cell popping up in lawless Somalia because the U.S. military is increasingly orienting itself to fight such threats. O'Hanlon thinks Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be remembered at least as much for doubling the budget of special operations forces since 2001 as he will be for overextending U.S. ground forces. "Those will be the most important tools," he said of combating terrorist cells.
U.K.-based BAE Systems is denying a report in the British media that it is considering selling off its 20 percent stake in Airbus to fund a $10 billion bid for L-3 Communications Holdings. BAE, which has used acquisitions to establish a large presence in the U.S. defense market, said the report in the Guardian newspaper was baseless. A spokeswoman at L-3's New York headquarters said the company would not comment on rumors.
PREDATOR CRASHES: A U.S. military MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle crashed in Iraq on March 21, the Defense Department said. The UAV went down while operated by a pilot at Creech Air Force Base, Nev. The aircraft was based with the 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron at Balad Air Base, Iraq. The wreckage was recovered and returned to Balad Air Base.
Congress seems wary to grant immediate funds for the Navy's nascent Naval Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC), including for renewed riverine forces to free up Marines in Iraq for infantry duties.
