Ryanair will set up its 37th base, and first in Norway, at Oslo Rygge in March with three aircraft and 16 new routes, it announced yesterday. It currently service six destinations from RYG. New destinations will be Aarhus, Berlin Schonefeld, Dublin, Dusseldorf Weeze, Eindhoven, Gdansk, Krakow, La Rochelle, Malaga, Memmingen, Palma, Paris Beauvais, Riga, Wroclaw, Valencia and Treviso. The LCC said its investment at the airport will exceed $200 million and that it eventually expects to serve 1.7 million passengers per year.
Qantas dismissed rumors out of London that it is interested in restarting merger talks with British Airways, stating yesterday that "consolidation is not on the carrier's agenda."
Japan Airlines yesterday said it reached agreement with the Development Bank of Japan for an emergency bridge loan "necessary for continuance of our flight operations." The troubled airline said the Japanese government had approved the loan. JAL did not reveal the loan's amount but Japanese media pegged it at around ¥100 billion ($1.12 billion).
Spring Airlines expects to report a CNY120 million ($17.5 million) net profit for 2009, a sixfold increase from the CNY20 million earned last year, according to the Chairman Wang Zhenghua. The Shanghai Hongqiao-based LCC was CNY140 million in the black through September owing to rapid growth in the domestic market, "but the fourth quarter is the traditional low season, so it's not surprising that we are suffering from a daily loss of CNY600,000 this month," Wang noted. Spring is planning a dramatic fleet expansion.
AirAsia's growth continued unabated in the third quarter despite the recession, as the LCC posted a MYR130.1 million ($38.4 million) profit that represented a reversal from the MYR465.5 million loss suffered in the year-ago period.
US Airways yesterday announced that it is deferring 54 of the 72 aircraft it was scheduled to receive from Airbus in 2010-12, comprising 46 A320s and eight A330s, and will push back the launch of its A350 service from 2015 to 2017.
Blue Wings 48% shareholder Alexander Lebedev is preparing to transfer his stake to Aeroflot, German daily Handelsblatt reported, adding that he hopes to generate €100million ($148.6 million) from the sale of his shares.
Gulf Air plans to add regional aircraft and more A320s while downsizing its widebody fleet, including selling its five A340s, as part of a three-year "realignment program" aimed at making the unprofitable carrier a "commercially sustainable business" by 2012, it announced yesterday.
Eurofly and Meridiana will merge into Meridiana Fly, the Italian carriers confirmed last week. Meridiana already owns 60.7% of Eurofly. The new airline will focus on medium- and long-haul services while "peak" summer and winter short-haul and charter operations will be handled by a newly incorporated company called Meridiana Express that will be part of Meridiana Fly. Deadline for the integration is Jan. 31.
Japan Airlines President Haruka Nishimatsu yesterday told former employees that the company's pension benefits must be cut significantly to enable it to become sustainable long-term.
Air Berlin said it is seeking to recruit 700 flight attendants and 120 pilots. The new employees would be based in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Munster/Osnabruck, Nuremberg, Paderborn-Lippstadt and Stuttgart in Germany as well as Basel/Muhlhausen and Zurich in Switzerland, AB said. It currently operates 129 aircraft. It has retired all of its 737 Classics and plans to ground two 757s and one 767-300ER by the end of January.
Oxford Aviation Academy signed a five-year agreement with Icelandair for provision of simulator training for 757s and 767s as well as Dash 8-100/-300 training for Air Iceland.
KLM yesterday operated the first biofuel demonstration flight in which passengers were aboard, flying a 747-400 partially powered by camelina-derived fuel from Amsterdam Schiphol. The flight, carrying 40 select passengers including KLM President & CEO Peter Hartman and a number of Dutch officials, stayed in the air for about 1 hr. before returning to AMS. One of the aircraft's engines was powered by a 50/50 mixture of traditional jet fuel and camelina-based fuel. Honeywell subsidiary UOP converted the plant-based crude oil to biofuel and then blended it with jet fuel.
Boeing Commercial Airplane's Training & Flight Services unit (formerly Alteon) signed an agreement with ANA to update the visual systems on ANA's three 767-300 full-flight simulators in Tokyo.
Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choon Seng called for airlines in the Asia/Pacific region to line up in support of the Assn. of Asia Pacific Airlines in order to counter the regulatory strength of the EU and US.
Ascent Aviation announced the launch of its commercial aircraft MRO operation at Tucson International. It will specialize in 737 Classics, 737NGs and MD-80s, performing heavy and line maintenance, modifications, transition services, storage, paint, disassembly and consignment parts sales. It recently purchased the assets of Hamilton Aerospace Technologies and World Jet Corp. and "has retained a substantial base of skills and experience from those two firms," it said.
Air Works, a third-party MRO company based in India, received EASA repair station certification for its maintenance facilities in Hosur, marking the first time EASA has awarded repair station approval to an airframe MRO company in India, it said. The approval will cover airframe and component maintenance on ATR 42/72-500s and 737 Classics.
China's cargo industry appears to be moving toward consolidation as airfreight players look to mitigate damage from continuing losses that have resulted from the global economic downturn.
Air Berlin officials yesterday touted their strong third-quarter results, first reported Wednesday ( ATWOnline, Nov. 18), with CFO Ulf Huettmayer telling analysts and reporters that the more than doubling of its net income to €95.2 million ($142.4 million) "distances ourselves from other carriers" struggling through the economic downturn. CEO Joachim Hunold said AB's results "would be better by €10 million. .
Air Canada said it has begun trials of onboard Wi-Fi on select flights to Los Angeles from Toronto and Montreal using Aircell's Gogo Inflight Internet service. Initially the system will be available only while flights are over the continental US. AC said it plans eventually to extend it to other routes in North America, pointing out that development of appropriate infrastructure in Canada is required to allow air-to-ground wireless communications in that country.
GECAS delivered one new 737-700 to Aerolineas Argentinas and one new A320-200 to Tiger Airways as part of sale/leaseback deals. Avia Solutions Group received one ex-British Airways 737-300; it plans to acquire three more this year. BOC Aviation delivered one new 737-800 on long-term lease to Skymark Airlines of Japan, its first delivery to a Japanese carrier.
Assn. of Asia Pacific Airlines' Assembly of Presidents started on a sober note yesterday with DG Andrew Herdman telling media that the group of 17 Asia/Pacific carriers is expected to lose $4.8 billion this year owing mainly to the global economic downturn.
ARINC renewed its contract with Korean Air to continue to provide GLOBALink data and voice communications and AviNet wide-area network service. Terms were not disclosed. Lufthansa Systems won a five-year contract extension with Germanwings to continue to provide its Lido RouteManual navigation charts and will begin providing its electronic version, Lido eRouteManual.
Delta Air Lines revealed yesterday that it has made a comprehensive offer to Japan Airlines to switch from oneworld to SkyTeam that includes financial assistance and guarantees totaling $1 billion, saying it wants JAL to be "the face of Asia" for DL.
