Airlines & Lessors

Irish regional Aer Arann has taken delivery of its first of eight ATR 72-600s.

LATAM Airline Group, the merger of Chile’s LAN Airlines and Brazil’s TAM Airlines, will meet June 11 to discuss expanding its capital $1 billion through the issuance of ordinary shares.

Alaska Airlines’ flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), have filed for mediation with the National Mediation Board, AFA said in a statement.

Flight attendants for Compass Airlines, a Delta Connection carrier, have ratified their first contract with assistance from the National Mediation Board.

People

Pinnacle Airlines has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and will move forward as a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines.

Lufthansa Group posted a first-quarter net loss of €459 million ($605.1 million), widened 16.5% from a net loss of €394 million in the year-ago period.

Oneworld CEO Bruce Ashby believes the new cooperation Qantas, a founding alliance member, and non-alliance member Emirates, will not hurt other alliance partners such as American Airlines or British Airways.

Passengers not booking tickets via Frontier Airlines’ website will start being charged this summer for overhead bin carry-on bags.

Taipei-based EVA Airways will join Star Alliance June 18 as the alliance’s 27th member, according to several media reports.

Air Lease Corp. announced long-term lease agreements with Korean Air for two new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, which are scheduled for delivery in November 2014 and May 2015.

Lufthansa and the Verdi union, which represents the German carrier’s ground staff, have struck a new 26-month pay deal ending bitter tensions between the two sides.

Icelandair reported a first-quarter net loss of $18.3 million, widened 38.6% from a $13.2 million loss in the year-ago period.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is assisting the Afghanistan Ministry of Transportation and Commercial Aviation in the investigation of the crash of a National Airlines Boeing 747-400 freighter shortly after takeoff from Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan Monday.

Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsia, has banned its carriers from flying over Syria after a Nordwind Airlines Airbus A320 crew spotted combat activity and felt threatened during a flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to Kazan April 29.

Thomson Airways has confirmed it will soon take delivery of its first Boeing 787, which will enter commercial service July 8.

Republic Airways—parent of Chautauqua Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Republic Airlines and Shuttle America—reported first-quarter net income of $0.3 million, reversed from a net loss of $7.1 million in the year-ago quarter.

China Eastern Airlines reported a first-quarter net loss of CNY132.4 million ($21.3 million), reversed from a net profit of CNY266.5 million in the year-ago period.

The AviancaTaca group of airlines will begin to place all its carriers under the single Avianca brand in the late second quarter.

Russia’s Yakutia Airline has taken delivery of its second Bombardier Q400, which will be based at Krasnodar Airport.

Aeroflot will transfer some flights from Moscow Sheremetyevo to Vnukovo airport in the winter schedule 2013-14 due to infrastructure limitations at Sheremetyevo Airport.

Airline Routes

Etihad Airways’ president and CEO James Hogan has numbers at his fingertips that speak of ambition, growth and deliverability. In 2012, the Abu Dhabi-based carrier recorded a $42 million profit, 200% higher than the previous year; revenues increased 17% to $4.8 billion; passenger numbers grew 23% to 10.2 million; and earnings before interest and tax rose 24% to $170 million.