Southwest Airlines announced a series of schedule changes beginning next May that include the addition of the new airport in Panama City, Fla., to its network ( ATWOnline, Oct. 22). It will serve ECP twice-daily beginning May 23 from Nashville, Houston Hobby, Baltimore and Orlando International. Overall, the schedule from May 9 features 65 new roundtrip flights and 24 eliminated flights. Additional new services comprise twice-daily flights from St.
A UK High Court judge is scheduled to rule today on British Airways' claim that the strike ballot conducted by Unite flight attendants was flawed, a procedure that may constitute the desperate airline's only chance to avoid the 12-day strike called for Dec. 22 if emergency talks convened yesterday fail to produce an agreement.
Ryanair will open bases at Faro in March and Malaga next June, it announced yesterday. The LCC will base three 737s at Faro and invest $200 million at the airport, from which it will launch service to Bergamo (March 25), Birmingham (March 28), Billund, Derry, Kerry, Knock, Marseille, Oslo Rygge, Stockholm Skavsta (all March 30), Eindhoven, Madrid, Maastricht, Memmingen and Paris Beauvais (all April 27). It will serve 28 destinations from Faro following the expansion.
Airlink said the South African Civil Aviation Authority decided not to ground the regional carrier following two recent accidents and confirmed its "status as a safe airline." CAA conducted an audit of Airlink's operation and still is investigating separate incidents in Durban, Port Elizabeth and George ( ATWOnline, Dec. 10).
British Airways said it is "commencing legal action" in an effort to forestall the 12-day flight attendants strike set to begin on Dec. 22 ( ATWOnline, Dec. 15). It also claimed that "irregularities" in Unite's balloting of union members may render the strike vote invalid.
Delta Air Lines expects to report a $1.5 billion net loss for 2009, compared to an $8.9 billion deficit in 2008 that largely was the result of goodwill impairment, and an operating profit of $100 million, it said yesterday in a presentation to investors. Excluding special items, the 2009 loss is expected to be $1.1 billion. It expects December passenger unit revenue to fall just 1% year-over-year to 10.8 cents. The largest decline was June's 23%. Next year's consolidated unit cost excluding fuel is expected to be flat compared to 2009's 8.25 cents.
Air France KLM flew 15.47 billion RPKs in November, down 3.2% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 2.9% to 19.83 billion ASKs and load factor dropped 0.2 point to 78%. Lufthansa Group airlines flew 13.59 billion RPKs in November, a 14.9% increase year-over-year, while capacity rose 16.2% to 18.1 billion ASKs. Load factor fell 0.9 point to 75.1%. Lufthansa Passenger Airlines flew 9.59 billion RPKs, up 0.2%, against a 1.3% lift in capacity to 12.81 billion ASKs. Load factor was down 0.9 point to 74.8%.
Air France A380 was held at New York JFK Monday night because of a fuel transfer problem. Passengers scheduled to fly to Paris Charles de Gaulle on Flight AF007 were put on alternate flights yesterday. AF took delivery of the aircraft on Oct. 30 and it first flew from CDG to JFK on Nov. 20 ( ATWOnline, Nov. 2).
AerCap signed two debt facility agreements that will provide $127 million in funding, the lessor announced. The first, worth $67 million, was inked with Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale for two existing A330s on long-term leases. The second, worth $60 million, was signed with Natixis Transport Finance to finance AerCap investments.
AerData, which provides software and back office services for aircraft asset managers, said that DVB Bank acquired a 2% stake. Other shareholders are AerData Management and AerCap with 49% each.
Nearly a year after it operated the first second-generation biofuel test flight, Air New Zealand continues to be focused on ensuring that "a material portion of its annual fuel use comes from sustainable second-generation sources," according to GM-Operations and Chief Pilot Dave Morgan.
Colgan Air and the Air Line Pilots Assn. issued contradictory findings regarding the cause of the February Q400 crash that killed 50 people near Buffalo. The airline said the pilots' "loss of situational awareness and failure to follow Colgan Air training and procedures," along with a lack of low-speed warnings from the aircraft, were the principal causes, while the union blamed the carrier for inadequate training ( ATWOnline, May 15).
Austrian Airlines Group will rethink its network as it restructures and will focus on high-volume routes rather than connectivity between Western and Eastern Europe, CEO Peter Malanik told ATWOnline at last week's Star Alliance event in Brussels.
International Aero Engines named Executive VP-Customer Business Ian Aitken president and CEO, succeeding Jon Beatty, who will return to United Technologies Corp. Aitken joined IAE in June 2008 after nine years at Rolls-Royce.
Sky Holding Co. and Oaktree Capital Management announced formation of a new aircraft finance and leasing partnership in which funds managed by Oaktree invested $500 million in Sky.
British Airways faces a Christmas crisis following yesterday's announcement that 92.5% of voting flight attendants represented by Unite are in favor of a 12-day strike beginning Dec. 22, a decision that Unite Assistant General Secretary Len McCluskey said was taken with a "heavy heart."
Embraer and Shenzhen-based CDB Leasing signed an MOU last week providing up to $2.2 billion in financing "designed to enhance financing opportunities for acquiring Embraer aircraft in the People's Republic of China and abroad, focusing on developing regional aviation in China," the manufacturer said. CDB will work with potential customers on aircraft acquisition and also may purchase planes directly.
British Airways will keep full ownership of its OpenSkies subsidiary, which launched last year and currently operates between Paris Orly and New York JFK and Newark. It abandoned Amsterdam-JFK service in August, which raised questions about the all-business-class carrier's viability ( ATWOnline, July 28). In July, BA appointed Reynolds Partners to assess options for the loss-making startup, including selling part or all to external investors.
Virgin America reported a $5.9 million loss in the third quarter, narrowed significantly from the $59.1 million deficit in the year-ago period, and reported its first three-month operating profit since launching service in August 2007.
Republic Airways Holdings CFO Hal Cooper said the CSeries represents "a pretty interesting opportunity" as the company considers fleet renewal at its Frontier Airlines subsidiary. Republic also in talking with Airbus and Boeing, he said at an investor conference last week, according to Reuters, but "unlike Airbus and unlike Boeing, we believe we can tap into some very attractive export financing through the [Export Development Canada] there," he said.
Tiger Airways parent Tiger Aviation suffered a S$50.8 million ($36.5 million) loss in its fiscal year ended March 31, reversed from a S$9.9 million profit in 2007-08, according to a recent company statement cited by press reports. Revenue rose 24.3% to S$378 million.
US Airways said consolidated November RASM was flat year-over-year, while mainline unit revenue fell approximately 2%. It flew 4.35 billion consolidated RPMs, down 1.6%, against a 1.4% cut in capacity to 5.65 billion ASMs. Load factor slipped 0.1 point to 76.9%. Air Canada and Jazz flew 3.18 billion RPMs in November, a 1.2% drop from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 2.7% to 4.26 billion ASMs and load factor declined 2.9 points to 74.7%.
Turkish Airlines will continue its aggressive expansion next year with a planned capacity increase of more than 20%, CEO Temel Kotil told ATWOnline at last week's Star Alliance event in Brussels. Most if not all of the growth will occur on its international network. "Crisis is the perfect opportunity to grow. We are growing through [taking] market share [from competitors]," he said. According to the Assn. of European Airlines, through the first nine months of 2009 THY increased ASK market share by 1.3 points to 5.4% and RPK market share by 1 point to 5%.
Lufthansa Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber confirmed last week to ATWOnline that the company is targeting a 40% reduction in costs on its European network, with the LH mainline bearing the responsibility and no plans in place to use Germanwings aircraft instead.
