Air New Zealand is doubling the number of premium economy seats on its 777-200ER fleet, with the first of eight aircraft reentering service this week after being refitted by the carrier's Technical Operations division in Auckland. Work on the 777s will be completed in mid-June, with the number of premium economy seats doubling to 36. The change will result in an additional 72,000 Pacific Premium Economy seats on its long-haul network annually.
British Airways and cabin staff represented by Unite sparred over the carrier's proposed cost-cutting measures last week, with the union proposing Friday a "major package of negotiated efficiencies, temporary cost savings and deferred payments worth millions over the next two years."
Asiana Airlines, Cargolux Airlines International and Nippon Cargo Airlines yesterday became the latest carriers to reach an agreement with the US Dept. of Justice to plead guilty to conspiring to fix air cargo prices and will pay criminal fines totaling $214 million. Asiana, which agreed to pay a $50 million fine, also will plead guilty to "carrying out [an] air passenger price-fixing conspiracy," according to DOJ. Cargolux will pay a $119 million fine and NCA will pay a $45 million penalty.
Swiss Aviation Training started training pilot crews from Air Dolomiti and Augsburg Airways on its E-190/195 full flight simulator at Lufthansa Flight Training's Munich facility that opened two weeks ago. The Swiss subsidiary said commissions to date ensure that the new simulator will be at least 80% utilized this year with crews from Dolomiti, Augsburg, Flybaboo and Alitalia its principal users.
TUIfly was hit by a wildcat strike yesterday at Hamburg, Hanover and Dusseldorf. Forty flights and 6,000 passengers suffered delays of up to 5 hr. as some 190 employees stopped working, although no flights were cancelled. The ver.di union called the strike and is seeking a 5% pay increase for its members. TUIfly staff has been concerned over job security since the announcement of the carrier's alliance with Air Berlin, which will begin operating 17 TUIfly 737s on scheduled routes ( ATWOnline, March 31).
British Airways CEO Willie Walsh told reporters that "BA and Iberia know each other very well, so I don't feel under any calendar pressure" to conclude a merger agreement, according to widespread press reports. BA said one month ago that further details about the potential combination were to be released in late March ( ATWOnline, March 6). Walsh also reiterated that BA shareholders "will not settle for less than 53% of the new group," which is in line with what IB shareholder Caja Madrid predicted in February.
United Airlines said it will complete its transition to a cashless cabin on its North American flights, except for United Express operations, on April 20. It began accepting credit cards for onboard purchases on March 23.
An Aviastar BAe 146-300 en route to Wamena from Jayapura crashed into a mountainside on approach yesterday morning, killing all six aboard. The aircraft reportedly was ferrying food and supplies and was not transporting passengers. According to Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network, those onboard comprised a captain, copilot, engineer, loadmaster and two flight attendants.
Owing to a strong rebound in the domestic market and the continuing decrease in domestic fuel prices, Chinese carriers are expected to report a collective first-quarter profit, according to CAAC Minister Li Jiaxiang. Li noted that "favorable policies" implemented in December were effective in combating declining domestic demand and stimulating growth. Among those initiatives were the decision to withhold approval for new entrants until 2010 and the call for airlines to cancel or delay aircraft orders, as well as fee reductions and infrastructure improvements.
Turkish Airlines yesterday said it achieved a net profit of $874 million in 2008, which would represent a nearly fourfold increase from the $224 million reported in 2007, on increasing revenue and traffic.
Former LTU owner Hans Rudolf Woehrl said he is entertaining the idea of reacquiring the Air Berlin subsidiary, which AB CEO Joachim Hunold said last month is being considered for divestment ( ATWOnline, March 16). Speaking to Handelsblatt, Woerhl said airline acquisition "is part of our business, and we were always very successful there," Reuters reported.
Atlantic Airways reported a 2008 net profit of DKK15.3 million ($2.7 million), down 35.7% from DKK23.8 million in 2007, as passenger numbers jumped 65% to 593,113. The Faroe Islands-based carrier, which marked its 20th year in 2008, saw revenue rise 1.5% to DKK546.8 million. It projected a "reduction in activity" in 2009 owing to the economic downturn.
ILFC, which last month admitted that it needed "additional support" owing to its lack of access to financing as a unit of American International Group, reportedly is close to reaching agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to obtain a $5 billion line of credit that will help facilitate its sale.
China Southern Airlines yesterday became the first Chinese carrier to offer mobile check-in, another innovative step for the airline that sold the country's first e-ticket in 2000 and introduced the first common-use self-service kiosk in 2005 and the country's first online check-in option in 2006.
Air France KLM said it suffered a "significant deterioration" in March unit revenue. The group flew 16.02 billion RPKs during the month, down 9.4% year-over-year, against a 2.9% fall in capacity to 21.21 billion ASKs. Load factor dropped 5.5 points to 75.5%. United Airlines flew 9.58 consolidated RPMs in March, a 13.6% drop year-over-year. Capacity fell 9.9% to 12.18 billion ASMs and load factor was down 3.3 points to 78.7%.
Brussels Airlines reported a €12.2 million ($16.3 million) net loss for last year, a reversal from the €23.1 million profit earned in 2007, owing largely to mark-to-market fuel hedging losses.
TNT said its Express unit's international air volumes were down 23% year-over-year in the first quarter but overall international volumes "stabilized" as the quarter went on. Despite steep declines in the early part of the quarter, later leveling-out led the express giant to predict yesterday that it will report "positive" operating income when it releases its results on May 4.
SAS Group said its rights issue authorized last month ended up oversubscribed by 23.3%, ensuring that the company will receive some SEK6 billion ($734.8 million) in proceeds before transaction costs ( ATWOnline, March 17). "We are pleased that our shareholders, as well as new investors, have shown their confidence in and support for SAS and our new strategy, Core SAS," President and CEO Mats Jansson said ( ATWOnline, March 27).
Alaska Airlines flew 1.56 billion RPMs in March, down 8.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 9% to 1.91 billion ASMs and load factor was up 0.8 point to 81.6%. Allegiant Air flew 468.5 million RPMs in March, up 19.1% year-over-year. Capacity rose 17.3% to 507.9 million ASMs and load factor lifted 1.5 points to 92.3%.
GKN Aerospace broke ground yesterday on a manufacturing facility at Bristol. The new site, known as Filton-West, will be under the management of the recently acquired GKN Aerospace (the former Airbus Filton facility) and will house an automated composites manufacturing operation that will incorporate production techniques "that represent the future of composites manufacture in aviation," GKN said. Starting in January the plant will manufacture wing spars and trailing edge assemblies for the A350.
Southwest Airlines will launch its New York LaGuardia service on June 28 with five daily flights to Chicago Midway and thrice-daily service to Baltimore, the LCC announced yesterday ( ATWOnline, Dec. 3, 2008).
Qantas Executive GM John Borghetti announced his resignation effective May 4, completing the management shakeup that included the elimination of 90 senior positions last month ( ATWOnline, March 26). Borghetti had been a contender for the Qantas Group CEO position along with former CFO Peter Gregg. The job eventually went to former Jetstar Airways CEO Alan Joyce and Gregg resigned last summer ( ATWOnline, Aug. 20, 2008).
Finmeccanica subsidiary Alenia Aeronautica completed the acquisition of a 25%-plus-one-share stake in Sukhoi Civil Aircraft. Price was not disclosed. Alenia is a partner in the development of the Superjet 100. It said the aircraft has received 98 orders and is due to be certified and delivered to launch customer Aeroflot by year end.
