Boeing announced that Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, TUIfly and Virgin Blue have joined the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group, which already comprised Air France, Air New Zealand, ANA, Cargolux, Gulf Air, Japan Airlines, KLM, SAS Group and Virgin Atlantic Airways as well as Boeing and Honeywell subsidiary UOP ( ATWOnline, Sept. 26, 2008).
Cabot Aviation, on behalf of TCS Investment Holding, arranged the purchase of two V2500-powered A320-200s from Cyprus Airways; both aircraft were leased back to Cyprus Airways until the end of October.
Qantas last week was fined C$155,000 ($133,000) by Canada's Competition Bureau after it pleaded guilty to participating in an air cargo cartel. The guilty plea in a Canadian court is the latest consequence of the airline's admission of price fixing between 2002 and 2006. It was fined A$20 million ($15.5 million) by the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission in 2008 and $61 million by the US Dept. of Justice in 2007 for the same offences. Qantas is the fourth carrier to be convicted in the Canadian investigation.
Air France will review crew training and the quality of its weather information, CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said last week in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, adding that not being able to detect a severe storm on radar may have played a role in the May 31 A330-200 accident that killed all 228 passengers and crew.
Lufthansa Technik and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) will intensify their cooperation on testing of fuel cells, with DLR stationing the Antares DLR-H2 experimental fuel cell aircraft at Lufthansa Technik's base in Hamburg. LHT will support DLR with material supplies, assist in the installation and removal of components and provide a mobile hydrogen filling station for fueling Antares. The aircraft successfully completed its first public flight July 7.
Delta Air Lines flew 17.78 billion system RPMs in June, a 6.3% fall year-over-year. Capacity dropped 5.8% to 20.81 billion ASMs and load factor slipped 0.5 point to 85.5%. Lufthansa Group airlines flew 13.15 billion RPKs in June, down 5.2% from the year-ago month. Capacity was cut 2% to 16.76 billion ASKs, lowering load factor 2.7 points to 78.4%.
US Dept. of Transportation said it fined Delta Air Lines $375,000 for violating the department's denied boarding compensation rules. DOT said a recent inspection of DL's internal passenger complaint records from January to July 2008, as well as a review of complaints directly to DOT, revealed "numerous instances in which the carrier bumped passengers but did not follow one or more of the provisions of Part 250" governing denied boarding compensation.
Air France yesterday rolled out its first A380, which was painted in the airline's updated livery and is scheduled to enter service in November on a daily Paris Charles de Gaulle-New York JFK service. Powered by GP7200 engines, the A380 will be configured for 538 passengers in a three-cabin layout with 80 business and 106 economy seats on the upper deck and nine first class and 343 economy seats on the main deck. That compares with 450 seats on Qantas A380s, 471 on Singapore Airlines and 489 on Emirates.
Delta Air Lines and Virgin Blue announced, subject to regulatory approval, a joint venture that will expand both carriers' reach in the US, Australia and the South Pacific through an alliance involving route and product planning, codesharing and loyalty program linkage.
Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China began construction on its new research and development center near Shanghai Pudong that is scheduled to open in 2012. The facility will be responsible primarily for production of China's 150-seat "trunk liner" narrowbody and regional aircraft such as the ARJ21. It is one of three centers planned for the trunk liner program, including a customer service center launched last year and a final assembly base to be located at Pudong and Dachang in Shanghai.
AirAsia yesterday launched RedBox, a Malaysian courier service that delivers packages in 2-3 days at prices the airline describes as "up to 50%" lower than other domestic delivery options. RedBox says on its website that it "leverages AirAsia's extensive route network" to ferry packages between the country's central region (Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and selected parts of Negeri Sembilan) and the eastern cities of Kuching, Miri, Sibu, Kota Kinabalu, Labuan and Sandakan.
Iberia Chairman and CEO Fernando Conte has resigned and will be replaced by former IB board member and former CEO of Spanish tobacco company Altadis Antonio Vazquez.
Air Dolomiti, the Verona-based regional that is 100% owned by Lufthansa and mainly operates feeder flights from northern Italy to LH's hub in Munich, is planning to introduce larger aircraft with lower seat-mile costs.
Naverus said Air China successfully completed its RNP validation flight into Lhasa from Chengdu on June 26 using an A330-200. "The flight clears the way for Air China's entire fleet of Airbus A330s to fly the Naverus-designed procedures at the Lhasa Gonggar Airport," Naverus said.
Jazeera Airways appointed Stefan Pichler as its new CEO, replacing Andrew Cowen, who left the company after only five months. It also commenced thrice-weekly service from Kuwait City to Isfahan, its fourth destination in Iran, aboard an A320.
Alaska Airlines began testing continuous descent approaches into Seattle/Tacoma with a 737-700 using RNP technology on June 16 during a noncommercial flight. The carrier pioneered RNP in the 1990s for challenging approaches in Alaska. The current effort, dubbed Greener Skies, is being done in cooperation with the Port of Seattle, Boeing and FAA and also will involve regional affiliate Horizon Air. Horizon's Q400 fleet is being equipped for RNP as well. Alaska Air estimates the procedures will cut fuel consumption by 2.1 million gal.
US Airways Chairman and CEO Doug Parker told Reuters yesterday that the carrier has "no plans to reduce capacity any further" in 2009, adding, "If anything, we will have a modest expansion internationally." US this month launched daily Philadelphia-Tel Aviv flights using A330s.
Okay Airways Chairman Wang Junjin said the Tianjin-based carrier will add one or two new investors within two months that will provide a capital injection of CNY200 million ($29.2 million) to bolster the troubled airline.
UPS said it has adopted a plan to cut the carbon dioxide emissions of UPS Airlines by an additional 20% by 2020 to bring its cumulative reduction to 42% compared to 1990 levels. The company said its jet aircraft "are the source of 53%" of UPS's total CO2 output. The delivery giant also operates fleets of trucks and vans and manages warehouses.
American Airlines and Gol said they intend to enter a codeshare agreement "in the near future" and will initiate a frequent-flyer accord from Aug. 1 that will allow members of AA's AAdvantage and Gol's Smiles programs to cross-access benefits. Passengers from the two programs will be able to earn miles on each airline's flights and in the fall will begin to be allowed to redeem miles on each. Gol CEO Constantino de Oliveira Jr.
Transaero Airlines reported a RUB109.4 million ($3.5 million) profit in 2008, a 7% increase over the prior year, on an 82.4% surge in revenue to RUB37.4 billion. Passenger numbers rose 50% to 4.9 million, boosting its market share by 3.6 points to 14.3%. Traffic was up 49% to 17.5 billion RPKs. It said it is "following through with its ambitious domestic route network expansion plans."
EU and Azerbaijan signed an aviation agreement yesterday granting all EU carriers the right to fly between any member state and Azerbaijan. More than 210,000 passengers flew between the markets in 2007, the EU said.
United Airlines flew 10.57 billion consolidated RPMs in June, down 7.5% from the year-ago month, while capacity fell 8% to 12.31 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 0.5 point to 85.9%. Southwest Airlines said June passenger RASM decreased an estimated 9%-10% year-over-year. It flew 6.73 billion RPMs in June, down 2.1%, against a 3.8% fall in capacity to 8.46 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 1.3 points to 79.5%.
Air India parent National Aviation Co. of India Ltd. is expected to report a loss of approximately INR50 billion ($1.02 billion) for its fiscal year ended March 31, some 25% more than the figure targeted last month, Indian Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel informed the national parliament's upper house yesterday. He wrote that NACIL's deficit is "largely due to high operating expenses, which have been compounded due to the present economic recession resulting in a drop in passengers," in addition to high fuel prices and debt servicing, the Press Trust of India reported.
