Delta Air Lines named John "Ned" Walker senior VP and chief communications officer. Walker joins DL from Continental Airlines, where he spent 21 years, most recently serving as senior VP-corporate communications.
Austrian state holding company OIAG, which owns 42.75% of the troubled flag carrier, delayed Austrian Airlines Group's privatization until year end in order to attract better offers.
Bmi and Brussels Airlines, which each have Lufthansa as a shareholder, signed a codeshare agreement effective last Sunday that will see bmi add its code to SN flights from Brussels to Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and Newcastle. SN will add its code to bmi flights from Edinburgh, Leeds Bradford and Nottingham East Midlands. According to bmi Deputy CEO Tim Bye, the agreement is not a result of LH's recent investment in SN ( ATWOnline, Sept. 25). "We were not brought together by a common shareholder," he told ATWOnline.
Arab Air Carriers Org. elected Saudi Arabian Airlines CEO Khalid Abdullah Almolhem as its new president, succeeding current Tunisair President and CEO Nabil Chettaoui.
Russian Finance Ministry is "ready" to issue RUB30 billion ($1.1 billion) in loans to airlines to cover fuel purchases, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov told RIA Novosti. He also revealed that in the next couple of weeks the government will propose six-month deferments of payment of taxes and duties on foreign-made aircraft, engines and training equipment. Meanwhile, KrasAir, a former member of the failed AiRUnion alliance, cancelled all flights to/from its Krasnoyarsk hub and is operating only Moscow Domodedovo-Norilsk service, a spokesperson told Itar-Tass.
Gol and Condor Airlines reached an interline agreement allowing Condor passengers to purchase tickets from Condor destinations Recife and Salvador to Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Fortaleza, Maceio, Natal, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
Hawaiian Airlines reached lease agreements with AWAS that will add two more A330-200s to its fleet in the first half of 2011. The carrier already has six A330-200s and six A350 XWB-800s on order, plus purchase rights for six of each ( ATWOnline, Feb. 5). Hawaiian also announced a separate agreement with AWAS to extend leases on two 767-300ERs to 2011. The newly leased A330s will replace those 767s.
TNT reported a 32.3% drop in third-quarter net profit to €113 million ($142.5 million), with its Express unit's EBIT declining 23.8% to €99 million. Overall revenue grew just 1.5% to €2.69 billion while Express revenue rose 2.3% to €1.66 billion. The Dutch delivery giant revised its revenue outlook for full-year 2008 downward to "mid-single-digit" growth. CEO Peter Bakker said TNT's European Express business "significantly worsened in September and the first weeks of October. Air volumes in September were down an unprecedented 10%. .
DHL and Polar Air Cargo yesterday launched their transpacific partnership ( ATWOnline, Feb. 28) with a 747-400F flight from Hong Kong to the express operator's US air hub in Wilmington, Ohio. Polar, a subsidiary of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, now will serve as a DHL carrier by operating six 747-400Fs between US and Asian destinations. US flights will depart from Los Angeles, Wilmington and New York JFK and fly via Anchorage to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo.
Norwegian reported a NOK414.4 million ($59.1 million) profit in the third quarter, more than five times greater than the NOK76.3 million posted in the year-ago period, which it called its "best result" in its six years as an independent European carrier. "The demand for tickets has so far not been affected by the turmoil in the global financial markets.
Emirates President Tim Clark expressed confidence that his airline will post a profit in the current financial year ending March 31, "but maybe we won't be as profitable as we might like," he said at last week's Arab Air Carriers Org. annual general meeting in Tunis.
Assn. of European Airlines said its 31 member carriers transported 31.4 million passengers in September, down 4.8% year-over-year. RPKs fell 1.1% to 68.47 billion against a 2.3% rise in capacity to 89.35 billion ASKs. Load factor dropped 2.6 points to 76.6%. Alaska Airlines flew 1.43 billion RPMs in September, up 0.2% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 5% to 1.89 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 4 points to 75.8%.
Jet Airways reported a INR3.85 billion ($71.5 million) loss in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, reversed from a INR283 million profit in the year-ago period, as the grave conditions that forced it into an alliance with rival Kingfisher Airlines and prompted Jet's failed attempt to cut 1,900 jobs wreaked havoc on its P&L.
Emirates took delivery of its second A380 and 122nd aircraft overall Friday in Dubai. It is scheduled to enter service on Dubai-New York JFK today. It will seat 14 in first class, 76 in business and 399 in economy.
Chautauqua Airlines, a subsidiary of Republic Airways Holdings, agreed to amend its service contract with American Airlines and reduce the number of ERJ-140s it operates to 13 from 15 beginning in June. It also will lower reimbursement rates by 3% from April 1. In exchange, the date on which AA can terminate the deal shifted to March 2012 from March 2009. Chautauqua will continue to be reimbursed for the two extra ERJs unless it is able to sell, sublease or place them.
UPS Friday started construction on its new intra-Asia air hub at Shenzhen International, a $180 million investment. The airport additionally will provide 150,000 sq. m. of ramp space dedicated to the delivery giant's operations. The 89,000-sq.-m. facility is slated to open in 2010 and initially employ 400.
SR Technics finalized a 10-year deal with South Korea's Eastar Jet for its Integrated Airline Solutions package offering technical management services and support for components, engines, APUs and landing gear on 737NGs.
Air France KLM said Friday that "it will be very difficult" to reach its €1 billion ($1.28 billion) full-year EBIT target "taking into account current economic conditions," but said its operating result "will remain comfortably in profit as long as market conditions do not deteriorate."
Amadeus announced the deployment of its e-Retail solution at Hainan Airlines. The booking engine allows customers to book their tickets in English, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese.
China Eastern Airlines received CAAC permission to resume operating from Kunming to Dali and Xishuangbanna yesterday, six months after its suspension resulting from a highly publicized incident in which disgruntled pilots returned outbound flights ( ATWOnline, April 21).
United Airlines flew 8.33 billion system RPMs in September, down 9.2% year-over-year. Capacity fell 8.6% to 10.46 billion ASMs, lowering load factor 0.5 point to 79.7%. Lufthansa Group airlines flew 13.73 billion RPKs in September, up 5.8% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 8.3% to 17.15 billion ASKs and load factor fell 1.9 points to 80.1%. Ukraine International Airlines transported 168,000 passengers in September, up 5% year-over-year. Load factor rose 7.4 points to 76.1%.
Ryanair announced the closure of its Valencia base, following through on its threat in a dispute with the Valencian regional government ( ATWOnline, April 21). The LCC said it will pull more than 70 weekly flights from the airport on Nov. 4 and invest $140 million in another base set to be unveiled this week.
Allegiant Air parent Allegiant Travel Co. reported a $4.9 million third-quarter profit, down 30.3% from $7 million in earnings during the year-ago period, citing "aggressive capacity management" as the principal reason for its continued profitability.
Lufthansa was the only carrier to confirm its interest in bidding for Austrian Airlines Group by the Tuesday deadline, Austrian competition authorities confirmed yesterday.
UPS posted third-quarter net income of $970 million, down 9.9% from $1.08 billion in the year-ago period, and CFO Kurt Kuehn warned, "We anticipate a challenging environment for a number of quarters going forward." Revenue increased 7.4% to $13.11 billion while expenses lifted 9.4% to $11.48 billion, producing an operating profit of $1.63 billion, off 4.4% from $1.63 billion last year. International package revenue, which is highly dependent on UPS Airlines, rose 16.6% to $2.95 billion. "Export volume per day increased 7%. .
