Snecma Services won a seven-year Engine Services per Operation contract with CSA Czech Airlines to provide MRO support for CFM56-3s. Snecma will furnish remote engine monitoring services and Snecma Services Brussels will handle shop visits.
Iberia promised to cooperate fully with an inquiry by Spain's Public Works Ministry into alleged mistreatment of passengers during a major winter storm in Madrid that caused hundreds of cancellations last Friday and Saturday. "We've had reports of [IB] conduct toward its passengers that is unacceptable," Public Works Minister Magdalena Alvarez told reporters, according to Reuters.
Austrian LCC Niki's partnership with S7 Airlines continues to be delayed by Russian regulators, CEO Othmar Lenz told ATWOnline. "S7 needs traffic rights between Moscow Domodedovo and Vienna. If S7 gets these rights, then we can implement codeshare operations," Lenz said. Bilateral talks should be completed next month ( ATWOnline, Oct. 17, 2008).
American Airlines flew 10.32 billion system RPMs in December, an 8.2% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 8.6% to 13.03 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 0.4 point to 79.2%. American Eagle flew 588.1 million RPMs, down 12.4%, against a 13.5% fall in capacity to 837.3 million ASMs. Load factor rose 0.9 point to 70.2%. Alaska Airlines flew 1.48 billion RPMs in December, down 5.2% year-over-year. Capacity dropped 10.9% to 1.84 billion ASMs and load factor was up 4.9 points to 80.7%.
China Eastern Airlines is taking a series of measures to curb rising operating costs and try to engineer a turnaround from what it expects to be a significant 2008 loss.
Air France KLM flew 16.83 billion RPKs in December, up 1.3% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 0.9% to 21.32 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 0.3 point to 78.9%. Southwest Airlines flew 5.79 billion RPMs in December, up 1.1% from the year-ago month, against a 1% decline in capacity to 8.32 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 1.5 points to 69.7%. LAN Airlines flew 2.44 billion RPKs in December, up 10.7% year-over-year. Capacity rose 12.6% to 3.26 billion ASKs and load factor dropped 1.3 points to 74.7%.
FlyLAL Lithuanian Airlines has been purchased by SCH Swiss Capital Holdings for $1 million plus an agreement to cover debt of some €1 million ($1.4 million). "We were looking for an airline to purchase, and this is a good company to invest in. . .FlyLAL can be a very strong regional carrier," SCH CEO Jan Erik Jansson told the Associated Press, adding that the firm does not "see these debts as a big problem." The sale will take effect on Jan. 23, according to reports.
SkyEurope Airlines announced that GECAS terminated leases on six 737s effective Jan. 8 and the aircraft have been returned to the lessor. The LCC said the capacity has been "replaced" and that all scheduled flights are being operated, although it provided no further details. It also said that Longstock SAPO, a Greek/Portuguese investor ( ATWOnline, Dec.
French investigators now have access to data from the flight data and voice recorders salvaged from an Air New Zealand A320 on lease to XL Airways that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea in late November, killing all seven onboard ( ATWOnline, Dec. 5, 2008). The data were extracted successfully in the US, raising hopes that France's Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses will gain insight into the accident, as the crew had given no indication of any problem to air traffic control.
Lufthansa Technik announced the establishment of Lufthansa Technik Maintenance International, a 100% subsidiary integrating the former Condor/Cargo Technik it previously acquired. LTMI will be based in Frankfurt and will assume responsibility for airline third-party MRO business previously handled by LHT. It will continue to maintain Lufthansa Cargo's MD-11s as well. The unit has some 1,000 employees.
Metropolitan Airports Commission, which manages Minneapolis-St. Paul International, last week declined to approve a tentative agreement reached in December with Delta Air Lines that would have allowed DL to retain many of the financial benefits subsidiary Northwest Airlines received for basing its headquarters at MSP.
Aer Lingus CEO Dermot Mannion and CFO Sean Coyle agreed to waive a controversial new clause in their contracts that provided for a €2.8 million ($3.8 million) parachute payment for Mannion if they left EI following its acquisition. Ryanair, which has offered to buy its rival, claimed the payments proved that EI did not foresee a future as an independent carrier ( ATWOnline, Jan. 8). The amount of Coyle's prospective payment was unclear.
European Commission, as expected ( ATWOnline, Jan. 9), granted conditional approval for the merger of Clickair and Vueling Airlines Friday. Clearance depends upon the release of slots at Barcelona "and other European airports to address competition concerns." Clickair, Vueling and Iberia, which will hold 45% of the new airline, have offered to cede slots on "all routes where competition concerns were identified," according to the EC.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes will cut some 4,500 positions from its payroll this year in "an effort to ensure competitiveness and control costs in the face of a weakening global economy," it said Friday.
SkyWest Inc. reached an agreement with Delta Air Lines for subsidiary Atlantic Southeast Airlines to operate 10 CRJ900s on Delta Connection service starting later this year. The aircraft were ordered by DL and will be contracted to ASA, the principal Delta Connection carrier at DL's Atlanta hub. ASA currently operates 110 CRJ200s and 39 CRJ700s. Separately, ASA announced Friday that 80 pilots will be furloughed effective Feb. 9. "We do everything we can not to have to do that. It's a last resort option for us," a spokesperson told ATWOnline.
Disgruntled with what it believes is an overcrowded low-cost airline terminal at Kuala Lumpur International, AirAsia revealed plans to shift its operation to its own new airport just 30 min. outside the capital.
Oneworld announced the following London Heathrow relocations: Finnair will transfer to Terminal 3 from T1 on Jan. 27; Iberia will switch to T3 from T2 on Feb. 25; British Airways will transfer remaining flights at T1 to T3 on Feb. 25. American Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Japan Airlines and Royal Jordanian all are based in T3. Qantas will switch over from T4 later this year.
US National Transportation Safety Board in a preliminary report issued this week offered no scenarios to explain what factors may have caused a Continental Airlines 737-500 to depart the runway during takeoff on Dec. 20. The aircraft was destroyed when it veered from the left side of the runway on its takeoff roll, crashing into a ravine and catching fire, injuring 38 ( ATWOnline, Jan. 7). NTSB said the runway "was bare and dry and free of debris." Winds of 24 kt. gusting to 32 kt.
Delta Air Lines flew 9.78 billion system RPMs in December, a 0.7% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 2.4% to 12.2 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 2.4 points to 80.1%. Northwest Airlines flew 6.04 billion system RPMs in December, down 3.6% year-over-year, against a 4.5% decline in capacity to 7.38 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 0.7 point to 81.9%.
Vietnam Airlines reported a $14 million pre-tax profit in 2008, down 39% from the $23 million earned in 2007, according to a statement cited by Agence France Presse. GD Pham Ngoc Minh said the carrier "has never faced so many continuous challenges and disadvantages," even though full-year revenue climbed 22.8% to $1.56 billion. It transported 8.8 million passengers and load factor rose more than 1 point to approximately 76%.
Air Berlin's single largest shareholder, Dutch investment company AI Aviation Cooperatief, sold its 18.94% stake in the carrier, AB said yesterday. AI is a subsidiary of Access Industries, which is controlled by Len Blavatnik, a Russian/American investor. No details were released regarding the buyer. "We made this ad hoc announcement today. According to company law it is not possible to say more about the deal at the moment," an AB spokesperson told ATWOnline in Berlin.
Lufthansa confirmed yesterday that it did not make an offer for Alitalia, which Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi revealed Wednesday ( ATWOnline, Jan. 8). An LH spokesperson told both Germany's dpa news agency and Reuters that the airline preferred to cooperate with its Star Alliance partners in the Italian market. In November, LH announced the launch of an Italian subsidiary based at Milan Malpensa ( ATWOnline, Nov.
