Brazil's passenger traffic in October grew 12.7% internationally and 14.7% domestically from the same month last year, reports Brazil's civil aviation department (DAC). Traffic for the 10-month period through October 2004 increased 7.6% internationally and 11.9% domestically year-over year, and load factor in the first nine months of the year averaged 75% internationally and 65% domestically, compared with 75% and 59%, respectively, in 2003.
Airport Concessions and Development Limited (ACDL), a Spanish consortium, last week launched a friendly public offering on British airports Group TBI, which operates London Luton Airport, the home base of easyJet.
LSG SkyChefs CEO Hanns Rech resigned last week, following continued losses in the catering unit's U.S. division. Walter Gehl, LSG SkyChef's current CFO, will replace Rech on an interim basis. While the timing of Rech's resignation was a surprise to analysts, it was not unexpected, as two of three management board members resigned in the summer.
Uruguay is considering two proposals for the acquisition of a 49% stake in Uruguay's Pluna, CEO Jorge Neves told DAILY affiliate AvNews Latin America & Caribbean. One offer comes from the U.K.'s Ashmore Group, which also has a stake in Uruguay's low-cost carrier Uair. The second bid is from Aerolineas Argentinas, but local sources discount that bid because the government is more interested in non-regional equity player. -LZ
Colombian cargo carrier TAMPA last week took delivery of a Boeing 767-200SP, the second of four that will renew its fleet in 2005. TAMPA's management said the new fleet will play a major role in supporting Colombia's new regional trade agreements and make the airline more competitive. It recently began operations to Santiago, Chile.
LAN Airlines signed a five-year deal with GE Engine Services to maintain CF6-80C2 engines powering part of the carrier's Boeing 767-300 fleet. LAN flies 10 CF6-powered 767-300ERs and four powered by Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines. GE also maintains the CFM International CF56-5Cs powering LAN's Airbus A340s.
A bankruptcy court last week granted ATA an extension that lets the carrier continue to use its available cash as collateral while under bankruptcy protection. The latest extension will expire at the close of business tomorrow and required the agreement of the Air Transportation Stabilization Board and ATA's lenders. The court first allowed the cash to be used as collateral on Oct. 29.
Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein says that despite discussions about an oversupply of 50-seat jets and waning demand for the planes, other signs point to a tighter market for the planes. Fewer than a dozen are available worldwide, and those are older Bombardier CRJ-100s, he tells analysts.
Colombian carrier AeroRepublica will offer eight daily options to fly between Bogota and Medellin and more frequencies and connections from Medellin to other major destinations in Colombia. AeroRepublica recently started three weekly flights from Medellin's Rionegro airport to Cartagena on Colombia's Caribbean coast.
Taiwan's EVA Air signed a contract with Airbus to order an additional A330-200, adding to its commitment to fly 10 planes -- eight A330s the carrier leases from GECAS and two it bought from the airframer. EVA's A330s have 252 seats, with 24 in business class and 228 in economy.
Atlanta Hartsfield may start the second phase of its expansion by yearend, which would include a new international terminal. If construction starts this year, the terminal could open in spring 2008, says General Manager Ben DeCosta. Phase I, which includes building the fifth runway, is "well ahead of schedule and on budget," as contractors have moved almost 20 million cubic yards of dirt to build the runway.
American estimates it will fly more than 136,000 passengers to Shanghai from Chicago O'Hare in the route's first year, if it is awarded new China service by the U.S. Dept. of Transportation. The airline wants to begin flying this route May 1, using Boeing 777s. Continental, Delta, Hawaiian and North American are also vying for the new rights.
Air France-KLM expects to exceed the original targets specified when the two airlines joined forces earlier this year, and Chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta said the combined results will be closer to EUR100 million (US$132 million) than the EUR75 million originally forecast. As a result of the merger, from 2008 on the sustainable annual cost reduction will be EUR580 million, he predicted, compared with EUR385-EUR495 million announced in May (DAILY, May 6).
Continental will soon meet with its unions to outline the cost cuts it wants from each group. The unions will have a chance to say which areas they think the cuts should come from, but no agreement is expected before the end of the year. The airline hopes the unions will view the $500 million labor cost cut target as appropriate and conservative, a Continental spokesman tells The DAILY.
Southwest will likely announce more new service soon, as three of its 12 scheduled first-quarter aircraft deliveries are not yet assigned to a specific market. The airline won't say where the three aircraft are going, although it admits Chicago is still its major growth priority. The airline added 24 flights to its Chicago Midway schedule in the past month.
The U.S. Dept. of Transportation (DOT) fined Blue Moon Aviation $60,000 for providing unauthorized air transportation by arranging charter service operated by Frontier Airlines.
Despite the difficult political and economic climate in Venezuela, Santa Barbara Airlines has been growing steadily since its 1996 founding on the strength of the profitable niche catering to large communities of Spanish and Canary Islands travelers with four weekly flights from Caracas each to Madrid and Tenerife.
Embraer executives tell analysts and investors that aircraft production cycles at the company have fallen in the past decade. In 1994, the cycles ran about 14 months, but by 2004, they had dropped to 3.3 months.
