Bmi Group reported pre-tax profit of £15.5 million ($30.6 million) for 2007, a 47.8% decline from the £29.7 million earned in the prior year, as revenue increased 12.9% to £1.02 billion including £112.9 million attributable to the operations of BMED that were integrated fully in November.
UPS will transfer its intra-Asia air hub to Shenzhen from Diosdado Macapagal (Clark) in the Philippines in order "to improve customer service by reducing transit times across Asia," it said. The 89,000-sq.-m. hub will be operational in 2010 and will "slash at least a day of shipment times-in-transit for Asian customers." UPS will invest $180 million at Shenzhen, which will include a sorting hub with five times the capacity of Clark--up to 36,000 pieces per hr.--and employ 400. UPS's new hub at Shanghai Pudong will open in November.
British Airways' transatlantic subsidiary OpenSkies will operate its first daily Paris Orly-New York JFK flight on June 19 with one-way fares starting at $1,746 in business class, $720 in its Prem+ premium economy and $554 in economy, it announced yesterday as tickets went on sale. Each 757 frequency will have no more than 82 passengers onboard. Its Biz business class will feature lie-flat beds while Prem+ offers reclining seats at 52-in. pitch. There will be 30 seats in economy.
Lufthansa will launch all-business-class service between Boston and Munich Oct. 26. Route will be served six-times-weekly with a 48-seat A319 Corporate Jet operated by Swiss VIP carrier PrivatAir. New service is a premium extension of LH's existing daily BOS-MUC summer service.
JetBlue Airways announced the election of Vice Chairman Joel Peterson as chairman and Frank Sica as vice chairman. Peterson joined the board in 1999 and is the founding partner of Peterson Partners, a private equity capital firm. Separately, this week JetBlue launched thrice-weekly San Jose-Long Beach, twice-daily LGB-Seattle, twice-daily Washington Dulles-Burbank, daily Las Vegas-BUR, daily SEA-San Diego and its seasonal New York JFK-Nantucket service that will operate through Sept. 2.
Southwest Airlines will launch thrice-daily flights from Denver to San Francisco and Omaha on Sept. 2. Delta Air Lines will begin four-times-weekly Atlanta-Kuwait City Nov. 7 and will increase its six-times-weekly ATL-Dubai to daily in October. Both services are aboard 777-200ERs.
British Airways yesterday announced a $30 million, 18-month initiative to "enhance its premium ground facilities" at New York JFK. Scheduled to launch next month, the project will involve creation of a new premium check-in "pavilion" with dedicated curbside drop-off for first and Executive Gold Club customers, an enhanced and dedicated check-in area for Club World and Executive Club Silver customers and renovation of Terraces, First Class and Concorder Lounges to the Galleries specification now operating at London Heathrow's Terminal 5.
Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced the following policies that will take effect when Tokyo Haneda's fourth runway opens in 2010, the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation reported: Night curfew will be reduced to 10 p.m. from 11 p.m. to "allow more convenient schedules for US and European flights," international slots will be restricted to 30,000 until October 2010 and eventually will increase to 60,000, with new slots going to "expansion of Asian city routes where business need is strongest," and domestic slots will double to 20,000 annually.
Turkish government is planning to build a third airport in Istanbul, which already is the home of Ataturk International and Sabiha Gokcen. Plans soon will be announced for the facility, which will be located on the European side of the Bosporus like IST.
Miami International asked for more than $60 million to finish its new baggage handling system and people-mover, key components of an expansion program already years past deadline and nearly $1 billion over budget. MIA said it needs another $43.5 million for the Siemens baggage system and $20.8 million for the rooftop automated train system built by Sumitomo. Train cars are finished but the mile-long terminal must be completed before the track can be installed, so the airport is paying Sumitomo more than $54,000 per month to store and "exercise" the 20 cars in Japan.
Jet Airways will start its daily Mumbai-Shanghai Pudong-San Francisco on June 14 using a 777-300ER. It originally was scheduled to launch May 5 ( ATWOnline, April 8). "Now we are close to being a round-the-world carrier," CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer told ATWOnline in Vienna. Jet currently operates 18 long-haul aircraft (10 777-300ERs and eight A330-200s). "We will get another four A330s this year, resulting in a fleet of 22 widebodies," he added.
Delta Air Lines will launch four-times-weekly Atlanta-Kuwait City Nov. 7 aboard 777-200ERs. It called the Middle East "a key component" of its ongoing international expansion and said it is upgrading ATL-Dubai service to daily from Oct. 6. It also serves Tel Aviv from ATL and operates 767-300ER flights from New York JFK to Amman, Cairo and Tel Aviv. United Airlines inked a codeshare agreement with Hawaiian Airlines allowing UA passengers traveling on its 18 daily flights from the continental US to Hawaii to connect to HA's inter-island flights.
AirAsia X announced that Perth will be its next Australian destination. The low-cost, long-haul airline started operations last year to Australia's Gold Coast. The Kuala Lumpur-based carrier will launch service to Perth with six weekly flights from Nov. 2, which coincides with the delivery of its first new-build A330-200, before moving to daily services in March. Chief Executive Azran Osman-Rani said, "AirAsia X will feed passengers from its extensive network into Perth, effectively creating a low-cost link from Southeast Asia and China to Western Australia."
British Airways said speculation that it will defer the launch of OpenSkies, its new transatlantic subsidiary, to later this year or cancel the project "is not true."
Air One will launch its first service to the US with five-times-weekly Milan Malpensa-Boston flights aboard A330-200s from June 14. It will start six-times-weekly MXP-Chicago O'Hare service aboard A330-200s from June 21.
London Heathrow MD Mark Bullock will leave BAA, the airport operator said, noting that he had "chosen to leave." He will be replaced by Mike Brown, currently COO of the London Underground train system, in September. It is unclear if Bullock will remain on the job through the summer or if an interim MD will hold the post until Brown arrives. Last month, British Airways announced the departure of Operations Director Gareth Kirkwood and Customer Services Director David Noyes following the troubled opening of LHR's Terminal 5.
Ahead of second-stage EU-US open skies negotiations, which will begin with a round in Ljubljana Thursday and Friday, US State Dept. Deputy Asst. Secretary-Transportation Affairs John Byerly said the US is seeking to broaden the scope of talks to achieve an "ancillary multilateral agreement" to replace the current bilateral structure that governs international air transport.
US air travelers should expect another "challenging summer," Air Transport Assn. President and CEO James May said yesterday in Washington, while adding that "it is our expectation that delays will improve over last summer."
Menzies Aviation said it signed a contract with Orient Thai Airlines to provide ramp handling services for 747Fs at Hong Kong International. OX operates five freighter flights per week to HKG. Menzies also provides ramp handling services to OX's passenger aircraft at HKG.
Virgin America said yesterday that it will seek government approval to serve Chicago O'Hare and hopes to launch flights to ORD from San Francisco and Los Angeles later this year. Chicago would be the eighth city in its network. "With legacy airlines representing 99% of the domestic departures at O'Hare and low-cost airlines only representing 1%, Virgin America intends to add some healthy competition to the market," the carrier said. "We want to be part of O'Hare's future."
British Airways will begin shifting long-haul flights to London Heathrow's Terminal 5 next month, it said in a joint statement with airports operator BAA. The move will be phased, in contrast to the short-haul transfer that coincided with an operationally disastrous opening of its £4.3 billion ($8.4 billion) new home in March. "We will move our Terminal 4 long-haul program into Terminal 5 in phases," BA CEO Willie Walsh said, noting that the carrier took this decision "in the interests of customers." He added: "Terminal 5 is now working well."
Finnair will launch flights from Helsinki to Incheon (five-times-weekly from June 2 aboard A340-300s) and Yekaterinburg (thrice-weekly from early September aboard A319s). Swiss International Air Lines launched daily Zurich-Shanghai Pudong. Air France will suspend London City-Belfast City service operated by its CityJet subsidiary on May 24.
Delta Air Lines will begin four-times-weekly New York JFK-Georgetown, Guyana, on June 1, four-times-weekly JFK-Malaga on June 4 and five-times-weekly JFK-Lyon on July 17. Southwest Airlines announced the following new services from Denver: Twice-daily to Portland, Ore., and Indianapolis beginning June 4; an eighth daily flight to Las Vegas beginning June 4; new twice-daily to Sacramento, daily to Fort Lauderdale and New Orleans and a seventh daily flight to Phoenix from Aug. 4; a second daily flight to San Antonio from Aug. 23.
