Air France exercised options to purchase four additional GE90-115B-powered 777-300ERs, valued at $920 million at list prices. Deliveries will begin in April 2006. AF currently operates eight 777-300ERs and the new order brings its backlog of 777-300ER deliveries to 12.
SAS Trading AB , a wholly owned subsidiary of SAS Group that operates travel retail chain Euroshop, signed an agreement for the sale of its subsidiaries in Poland, Latvia and Estonia to Swedish-based Inflight Service Europe AB.
Teledyne Controls said LTU ordered its Aviation Quality Database, a comprehensive and integrated software tool designed to support safety management and quality assurance processes. LTU will rely on AQD to facilitate occurrence data collection, incident investigation and corrective action tracking.
Lufthansa Technik appointed Andreas Meisel as senior VP-aircraft overhaul and VIP Jet Services. He takes over the position from Wolfgang Gohde, who will become MD-Lufthansa Systems Group.
Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner made its first flight yesterday. The aircraft, piloted by 777-200LR Project Pilot Suzanna Darcy-Hennemann and 777 Chief Program Pilot Frank Santoni, flew for approximately 3 hr. during which it achieved an altitude of 15,000 ft. (4,572 m.) and an airspeed of 270 kt. (500 kph). US FAA and European JAA certification is expected during the fourth quarter. Two aircraft will be used in the 500-hr. flight test program.
British Airways yesterday confirmed media reports that CEO Rod Eddington will step down from the airline later this year and will be replaced by former Aer Lingus CEO Willie Walsh, who will begin work as CEO-designate on May 3 and will become CEO when Eddington retires at the end of September ( ATWOnline , March 8). "Many commentators have rightly said that Rod Eddington will be a hard act to follow but I am completely confident that in Willie we have captured the very best person for the job," BA Chairman Martin Broughton said.
Emirates will expand service to Accra with two nonstop weekly flights from Dubai that will begin March 27. The flights are in addition to the four weekly services Emirates operates to Accra via Lagos.
In what was a period of significant growth, Gol reported net income of 123.9 million reais ($46.7 million) for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, up 93.3% over net income of R$64.1 million in the year-ago period. "We continued our investment in our virtuous cycle of profitable growth through the addition of four new aircraft to the fleet, 51 flights and seven new market destinations," CEO Constantino de Oliveira said.
Alitalia's investment bankers Goldman Sachs and Mediobanca finalized the underwriting syndicate for the airline's eur1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) capital increase, Finanza & Mercati reported. Alitalia's restructuring plan and recap currently is being investigated by the European Commission.
Lufthansa today is expected to reveal details of a cooperative venture with NetJets, the business aviation and fractional ownership company owned by billionaire investor Warren Buffet. According to news agency n-tv.de, the program will be marketed under the name Lufthansa Private Jet and begin this summer using aircraft and crew from NetJets. Last fall, Executive VP-Marketing and Sales Thierry Antinori told this website that in order to enhance its offerings for ultra-premium passengers, LH was evaluating cooperating with private executive jet operators.
Panama's Copa Airlines and AeroRepublica , Colombia's second-largest carrier, announced a strategic alliance that includes Copa's acquisition of a majority stake in AeroRepublica. According to the carriers, the alliance incorporates "technical and commercial collaborative agreements." AeroRepublica will continue to operate independently and will maintain its corporate identity and current workforce. It flies nine aircraft to 11 destinations in Colombia. In 2004 it transported more than 2 million passengers.
Goodyear extended a multiyear contract with Airbus for the supply of aviation tires to the aircraft manufacturer for A300s, A310s, A318s, A319s, A320s and A321s.
SAS Group signed a catering contract with LSG Lufthansa Service Holding AG covering catering for Scandinavian Airlines Denmark, Scandinavian Airlines Sweden, SAS Braathens and Scandinavian Airlines International departures from Copenhagen, Stockholm Arlanda, Gothenburg, Malmo, Oslo and Bergen. It also includes the takeover of Braathens' catering department by LSG Sky Chefs. The contract is effective Aug. 1 and has a duration of three years with an option for SAS Group to extend it for a further two years. It is valued at about Sek700 million ($102.4 million) per year.
Star Alliance and Aeroports de Paris signed an agreement in principle to create a partnership to support the alliance's effort to build a minihub at Paris Charles de Gaulle's Terminal 1. ADP is in the second year of a eur220 million ($290 million) refurbishment and modernization of the 31-year-old T1 during which most Star carriers not currently using the terminal will transfer operations there. "We have to invest for a better standard in T1, to reach a comfort similar to T2E or T2F," ADP President Pierre Graff said during a news conference in Paris.
LaBarge was awarded a contract valued at $3.2 million by L-3 Communications Security and Detection Systems under which LaBarge will manufacture electronic equipment for an airline checked-baggage screening system that uses x-rays to detect the presence of explosives or other contraband.
Air France-KLM Group flew 12.94 billion RPKs in February, up 3.8% on the year-ago period. Capacity increased 1.9% to 16.76 billion ASKs and load factor gained 1.4 points to 76.6%. AF load factor reached 74.6%, up 2.3 points, as traffic increased 3.3% on 0.2% higher capacity. KLM traffic grew virtually in line with capacity, up 4.7% and 5% respectively. Load factor was down just 0.3 point to 80.1%. The group carried 4.7 million passengers in February, 2.3% more than in the year-ago period.
Japan Airlines announced a host of new services to China. From July 1, its China-Japan network will expand to 13 cities in China served by 29 routes and 237 flights per week. When codeshares are included, the number of cities jumps to 20. The expansion begins March 27 when JAL will codeshare beyond Beijing to six additional cities with China Southern Airlines. These services will be dubbed JAL China Express as per the arrangement already in place with Hainan Airlines to two cities. JAL also has codeshare arrangements with China Eastern Airlines.
US Airways flew 2.93 billion RPMs in February, up 3% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 1.2% to 4.21 billion ASMs and load factor gained 1.2 points to 69%. For the two months ended Feb. 28, RPMs rose 3.4% to 5.84 billion, ASMs decreased 0.4% to 8.47 billion and load factor jumped 2.6 points to 69%.
Southwest Airlines will extend its precedent-setting codeshare agreement with ATA Airlines beyond Chicago Midway to Phoenix. Currently, ATA operates two weekly flights to both Maui and Honolulu from Phoenix, but the service will expand to six weekly flights on April 3 and to daily service on June 7. Phoenix is Southwest's second-largest city, with 191 daily departures to 40 destinations.
Singapore Airlines launched real-time high-speed Internet access on its London-Singapore flights. The service, which is being provided by Connexion by Boeing, will be available on all three of the carrier's daily flights on the route from mid-2005. SIA said it will introduce the service progressively on other long-haul flights and by year end it will be installed on more than 15 aircraft.
SriLankan Airlines unveiled what it termed a "radically revamped schedule." It will launch new daily return service from Colombo to New York JFK March 27 and will add two frequencies to Singapore for a total of 16 and to Kuala Lumpur for a total of 12. In addition, the airline plans to operate a total of 33 weekly flights to Frankfurt, Munich and Dusseldorf in partnership with Emirates. This summer SriLankan will begin daily A330 flights to Abu Dhabi with four of them continuing to Doha and three to Bahrain.
Boeing President and CEO Harry Stonecipher was ousted Sunday after the board of directors became aware that he was carrying on a consensual "personal relationship" with a female Boeing executive. "The board concluded that the facts reflected poorly on Harry's judgment and would impair his ability to lead the company," said Chairman Lew Platt. The resignation "was in no way related to the company's operational performance or financial condition, both of which remain strong," Platt said.
British Airways Chief Executive Rod Eddington may leave the carrier in late summer or autumn, several UK newspapers reported Sunday. Eddington's departure depends on when Chairman Martin Broughton finds a replacement, but he is "likely to leave the airline within months of its annual meeting in July," according to the Sunday Times , which added that he wants to be back in his native Australia by early 2006.
