US Dept. of Transportation named Dr. Karlin Toner to serve as a senior staff adviser and coordinator of inter-agency development of the NextGen air transportation system. She will chair the Senior Policy Committee overseeing NextGen and will work directly under the Secretary of Transportation.
Cabot Aviation, on behalf of Aircraft Solutions A320, arranged the purchase of three V2500-A1-powered A320-200s from Cyprus Airways. First aircraft was delivered on Jan. 14 and the other two are due in the first half of this year.
ANA board promoted Senior Executive VP-Marketing & Sales, Customer Service Promotion, Products & Services Strategy Shinichiro Ito to the position of president and CEO effective April 1, succeeding Mineo Yamamoto, who will become vice chairman of ANA Group the same day. Ito, 58, has been at ANA for 35 years and previously held positions in engineering and maintenance, airport administration, personnel and corporate planning.
Finnair will lay off 120 employees as part of an effort to save €25 million ($33 million) in personnel expenses. It said it will achieve the remainder of the targeted savings through furloughs and the scheduled upcoming conclusion of 400 fixed-term contracts. Senior VP-Human Resources Anssi Komulainen said the layoffs will be "widely applied" and "arranged so as to minimize disruption to the flight program." Finnair said it offered employee representatives a 5% temporary pay cut, the cancellation of holiday bonuses and salary freezes but was rejected.
JetBlue Airways promoted VP-Network Planning Martin St. George to senior VP-marketing and commercial strategy and Director-Network Planning Scott Laurence to VP-network planning.
Zest Airways MA60 sustained significant damage after undershooting the runway and hitting a concrete barrier when landing at Caticlan Sunday. Flight was en route from Manila with 22 passengers and three crew. Minor injuries were reported. Aircraft first flew last year. Manila-based Zest operates four additional MA60s, three Dash 7s and two A320-200s.
Cebu Pacific Air transported 683,204 passengers in December, a one-month record for the airline. It said it will add frequencies on flights from Manila to 11 domestic destinations by March "despite the weak economic forecast for the country," increasing the number of weekly domestic flights 16.6% to 1,252. It expects to take delivery of one A320 family aircraft and two ATR 72-500s by March. Frequencies to Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur and Macau also will increase during March.
SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines flew 1.35 billion RPMs in December, a 3.3% drop from the year-ago month. Capacity declined 9.1% to 1.72 billion ASMs and load factor rose 4.6 points to 78.2%. Hawaiian Airlines flew 652.8 million RPMs in December, down 0.4% year-over-year. Capacity rose 2.8% to 821.4 million ASMs and load factor dropped 2.6 points to 79.5%. Norwegian said December yield fell 29% year-over-year to NOK0.64 ($0.09). It flew 515 million RPKs, up 20%, against a 25% increase in ASKs to 697 million. Load factor fell 3 points to 74%.
SkyEurope Airlines received a one-month extension to Feb. 15 on a €15 million ($19.8 million) loan granted in December 2007 and a €10 million loan from last September from York Global Finance.
SR Technics reached a deal with easyJet to provide 157 intermediate layover checks on the carrier's A319 fleet. Work will take place in Zurich via a dual HMV line allowing for two simultaneous checks. Each check will take 14 days and all are scheduled between mid-March 2009 and summer 2015. Heroux-Devtek yesterday said Fokker Services awarded its Landing Gear Division a contract to manufacture replacement landing gear components for F100s. Valued at $15-$24 million, the contract calls for aftermarket kits including piston and cylinder components.
ST Aerospace subsidiary STA Engines will provide GE Aviation with on-wing support for GEnx-1Bs and -2Bs under a 20-year deal announced yesterday. STA will employ GE material and repair processes from its facilities in Singapore and the US, and GE will offer technical support including training manuals and equipment.
Ryanair announced expansions at its Edinburgh, Bristol and Alicante bases representing five additional 737-800s and an investment of $350 million. Edinburgh will double to four -800s in March and will see new service launched to Rome Ciampino (four-times-weekly on March 30), Limoges (twice-weekly on March 30), Carcassonne, Leipzig (both thrice-weekly on March 31), Malta (twice-weekly on March 31), Poitiers and Zadar (both twice-weekly on April 1). Frequencies will be increased to Alicante and Dusseldorf Weeze.
UK CAA yesterday reiterated its "strong support" for the Competition Commission's provisional decision requiring airports operator BAA to sell off London Gatwick and Stansted and either Edinburgh or Glasgow International ( ATWOnline, Dec. 18, 2008).
Lufthansa Group flew 11.27 billion RPKs in December, down 0.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 1.3% to 14.86 billion ASKs, lowering load factor 1.1 points to 75.8%. SAS Group airlines flew 2.22 billion RPKs in December, down 12.5% year-over-year. Capacity fell 10.2% to 3.42 billion ASKs and load factor dropped 1.7 points to 64.8%. SAS Scandinavian Airlines flew 1.64 billion RPKs, down 9.4%, against a 5% fall in ASKs to 2.48 billion. Load factor declined 3.2 points to 66.1%.
Turkish Airlines Chairman Candan Karlitekin told ATWOnline in Istanbul that despite the weak economic environment, THY is projecting growth in 2009 resulting in 26 million passengers plus an additional 5 million from its SunExpress subsidiary.
SAS Group took a major step toward achieving its goal of SEK4 billion in cost reductions following the finalization of labor agreements with its trade unions that it said will save SEK1.5 billion ($182.4 million).
Cathay Pacific Airways CEO Tony Tyler warned in the company's internal staff magazine that things "may get worse" as CX and Dragonair reported falling passenger and cargo numbers this week. The airlines flew a combined 7.79 billion RPKs in December, up 2.4% from the year-ago month, but saw a 0.3% dip in passengers to 2.1 million. Capacity rose 4.7% to 9.86 billion ASKs and load factor declined 1.8 points to 79%. Cargo plunged 23.9% year-over-year to 115.2 million tons and cargo load factor dropped 5.7 points to 62.9%.
Southwest Airlines announced the closure of the second tranche of a transaction with an unidentified lessor involving the sale and leaseback of 10 737-700s ( ATWOnline, Dec. 24, 2008), under which it sold the remaining five for approximately $175 million and immediately leased them back for 16 years each.
Mesa Air Group, which operates as a regional partner with Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and US Airways, narrowed its loss to $29.2 million for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2008, from $81.6 million the previous year. Chairman and CEO Jonathan Ornstein said 2008 "was a very challenging year operationally and financially. The business plan for us is to be cash positive and profitable this time next year."
Air China parent China National Aviation Holding Co. intends to take over struggling Wuhan-based East Star Airlines in an effort to expand its foothold in central China. Air China said in a statement yesterday that CNAC "has had an initial discussion with East Star about purchasing its shares," without revealing how much CNAC was planning to buy. There has been no formal agreement.
FedEx exercised options on 15 777Fs valued at $3.75 billion, bringing its firm backlog for the type to 30, and took options on an additional 15. The delivery giant originally ordered 15 777Fs plus 15 options in November 2006, when it cancelled an order for 10 A380Fs owing to Airbus production delays on the now-suspended large freighter program ( ATWOnline, Nov. 8, 2006).
Rapidly expanding Turkish Airlines will make its final decision on an order for 35 widebody aircraft (25 firm plus 10 options) within the next three months and is looking seriously at the 777.
New Alitalia faced problems common for its predecessor on its first day of operations yesterday as workers staged protests at Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa and Linate, causing some flight cancellations and delays. "I don't have any illusions," Alitalia CEO Rocco Sabelli told La Stampa, noting that the carrier had drawn up an emergency plan for the protests. "There are problems to be resolved, and there will be plenty more to resolve."
