Air Transport World

European Commission and the relevant regulatory authorities in the US cleared the proposed joint takeover bid for Amadeus by current airline shareholders Air France, Iberia and Lufthansa and Amadelux, which was formed by two venture capital funds, BC Partners and Cinven. Amadeus is owned 23% by AF, 18% by Iberia and 5% by Lufthansa. The airlines and private equity funds have formed a takeover vehicle, WAM Acquisition, to bid for the whole of Amadeus, which they valued at around €4.3 billion ($5.67 billion).
Safety, Ops & Regulation

Southwest Airlines will add several new flights from Chicago Midway this summer. Beginning May 4, the carrier will launch one more daily nonstop flight to San Jose and one additional daily nonstop to Tampa Bay for a total of seven. Also, it will begin a daily nonstop flight to Austin and New Orleans May 31. On the same day, it will launch two additional flights to Philadelphia for a total of seven and a second daily nonstop to Albuquerque.
Airports & Networks

Swiss International Air Lines will add four more cities to its network this summer, bringing its total to 74 consisting of 47 points in Europe and 27 intercontinental destinations. The carrier will launch several new flights from EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, including four weekly services to Valencia and five to Mallorca. Two or three weekly seasonal services will be offered between June and September to Ajaccio, Olbia and Naples. Swiss will add a fourth daily frequency to London City Airport, but service to Birmingham will be withdrawn.
Airports & Networks

British Airways' outgoing CEO, Rod Eddington, will become an adviser to the UK's Dept. of Transport and the Treasury on the country's long-term transport needs and priorities. The unpaid post will be for 12 months and starts in July. "My energy of work for BA will be undiminished and will not conflict with my new role with the government," Eddington said in a statement. He announced earlier this month that he will leave BA in September and move back to Australia in January ( ATWOnline , March 9).
Safety, Ops & Regulation

US Airways will launch new daily seasonal flights from Philadelphia to both Barcelona and Venice using 199-seat 767s as part of its summer 2005 schedule. Venice service will begin May 9 while service to Barcelona will start May 16. Additionally, daily A319 flights to Bermuda from Boston, Charlotte and New York LaGuardia will be launched, as well as a second daily Philadelphia-Bermuda flight. A seasonal Orlando-Bermuda Saturday service will resume in June and service to Glasgow, Dublin and Shannon will resume in May.
Airports & Networks

Loren Farrar
Embraer reported net income of $83 million for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, up 22.2% over net income of $67.9 million in the prior-year period. For the full year, the company posted record net income of $380.2 million compared to net income of $136 million in the previous year. "The driving force behind these positive results was the entry into service of the Embraer 170" in March 2004, Embraer said.
Aircraft & Propulsion

SAS said the Borgarting Court of Appeal confirmed a ruling by Asker and Baerum District Court that exonerates SAS/SAS Ground Services, which had been named in a lawsuit brought by the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions and the Norwegian Confederation of Vocational Unions following the takeover of Braathens' ground handling operations by SAS/SGS in autumn 2002. In its ruling, the Court of Appeal found that there were no unfair redundancies and the takeover was not deemed a transfer of ownership of a business, which supports SAS's own assessment and actions.
Safety, Ops & Regulation

JAT Airways mechanics launched a new strike over pay Thursday, the third to hit the company in six months. The work action halted JAT's international and domestic flights, Reuters reported. Pilots and aircraft engineers will hold meetings to decide whether to join the strike. The protest began after the government, which appointed an interim administrator a month ago and launched a restructuring of the airline, failed to pay three months of wages to its workers. The board now is looking into ways of restoring traffic, which may include hiring aircraft from other airlines.
Safety, Ops & Regulation

Air Transport World introduces the newly redesigned ATWOnline .

Michele McDonald
The Airlines Reporting Corp. delayed the date for the elimination of the travel agent coupon to May 9. It said the delay will give ARC-accredited travel agencies and corporate travel departments an extra month to become more familiar with enhancements to the ARC Document Retrieval Service that will be rolled out in early April.
Safety, Ops & Regulation

Loren Farrar
Continental Airlines late last week warned in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it expects to post a loss in the first quarter and a "significant loss" for full-year 2005.

Cathy Buyck
TAT Industries, the maintenance arm of TAT Group, is in final negotiations to buy Sabena Technics, ATWOnline has learned. "Discussions are ongoing," Sabena Technics MD Jack Waldeyer confirmed to this website. "The administrator [for bankrupt Sabena Group] is hopeful to conclude the negotiations by the end of April."
Aircraft & Propulsion

Northwest Airlines , which last week cut its domestic capacity forecast from an increase of 2%-3% to flat year-over-year owing to high fuel prices, overcapacity and fare restructuring by other carriers ( ATWOnline , March 15), said it plans to remove 30 aircraft from its fleet and cut up to 930 jobs this year. According to the Air Line Pilots Assn., NWA will remove 24 DC-9s from service in addition to the six DC-9s it previously said it would park.

Kurt Hofmann
All Nippon Airways , which serves nine cities in China with 92 frequencies per week, wants to start flights to Guangzhou as soon as possible. "After that, we want to extend our network to the inner cities of the Chinese mainland," Executive VP-International Relations Katsuhiko Kitabayashi told ATWOnline at the Star Alliance meeting in Lisbon earlier this week. ANA, which is looking to increase its Asian network, wants to begin flights next to Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and points in India, as well as to destinations in eastern Russia like Khabarovsk.
Airports & Networks

Loren Farrar
Although its employees have accepted significant pay and benefit cuts as part of UAL Corp.'s restructuring, top executives at the bankrupt United Airlines parent received bonuses totaling roughly $1.3 million in 2004. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Chairman, President and CEO Glenn Tilton received a bonus of $366,393, and also received a salary of $756,832 last year. However, he has agreed to several salary reductions recently and this year he will receive an annual salary of just $605,625.

Geoffrey Thomas
Japan Airlines Corp. announced resignations and demotions effective immediately related to a series of incidents involving Japan Airlines International. Taking ultimate responsibility for several events that have drawn reprimands from the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, highly respected JAL Group Chairman and CEO Isao Kaneko will step down and assume the post of chairman of the company's executive committee from April 1. He also will resign as chairman of JAL International.
Safety, Ops & Regulation

DBA , which will take over aircraft and routes from Germania Express ( ATWOnline , Feb. 21), on Wednesday also exchanged financial capital with Gexx. Germania Express Gmbh will take 64% of dba Luftverkehrsgesellschaft Gmbh. Hans Rudolf Woehrl, who currently holds 80% of DBA, will keep 28.8% of the airline and take a stake in Germania Express Gmbh. Financial terms of the deal were not released. By the end of March, DBA will operate 27 aircraft on 16 domestic German and 18 international routes. By autumn it plans to operate 30 aircraft.
Safety, Ops & Regulation

Cathy Buyck
Aeroports de Paris will demolish and rebuild the entire roof of the departure area of Terminal 2E at Charles de Gaulle, which collapsed last May. "On the basis of internal and external studies, Aeroports de Paris has chosen the solution of rebuilding the roof," the state-owned operator said in a statement.
Airports & Networks

Kurt Hofmann
Lufthansa aims to announce the planned takeover of Swiss International Air Lines by next Wednesday, according to media reports. The reports said the large shareholders of the Swiss carrier have agreed in principle to a takeover by Lufthansa and an announcement is due either Tuesday or Wednesday. LH is scheduled to report its financial results for 2004 next week.

Sandra Arnoult
FAA continues to be "cautiously optimistic" in its aviation forecast released yesterday, noting that the number of passengers carried by US airlines rose to 688 million in 2004 from 642 million in 2003. The agency is projecting that the demand for capacity will make "a complete return by the end of the year." By 2015, some 1 billion passengers will take to the skies in the US, it predicted.
Safety, Ops & Regulation

Air Transport World introduces the newly redesigned ATWOnline .

Loren Farrar
Boosted by revenue from FedEx Kinko's which the company acquired in February 2004, FedEx Corp. reported a $317 million net profit for the fiscal third quarter ended Feb. 28, up 53% over a $217 million net profit in the prior-year period, which included $14 million in business realignment expenses associated with voluntary early retirement and severance programs. For the nine months ended Feb. 28, the company posted net income of $1 billion, up significantly over net income of $426 million in the year-ago period.

Ian Thomas
Jetstar Asia , the Qantas low-cost joint venture, has decelerated its fleet growth plans as it continues to struggle to secure traffic rights on key routes out of Singapore. According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald , Jetstar Asia asked ILFC to find another operator to take its fifth A320, which was due to enter service by May. It also is considering arrangements to lease out some of three additional A320s ordered from ILFC if its plans to expand to new destinations in Indonesia and China are frustrated.
Aircraft & Propulsion

Cathy Buyck
IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani lashed out at the European Commission, saying that the annual cost the EC "inflicts" on aviation is a staggering €5.9 billion ($7.91 billion). "This is the legacy of neglect left by the previous Commission and it is an enormous burden on the competitiveness of Europe's airlines," Bisignani said in a speech to the European Aviation Club in Brussels. "If we don't have urgent action to restore a balanced playing field, the European industry will be damaged, not by competition, but by inefficient European systems."
Safety, Ops & Regulation

Kurt Hofmann
Centralwings , the new Polish low-cost airline formed by LOT that began operations Feb. 1 with flights to London Gatwick from Warsaw and Krakow, will acquire two more 737 Classics by May, bringing its total fleet to five. Two more 737s should join the carrier in 2006.
Aircraft & Propulsion