TRAX USA said Azul Brazilian Airlines will implement its MRO solution EVO featuring advanced production, materials and technical records functionalities.
Frontier Airlines said a group of three unsecured creditors comprising Republic Airways Holdings, Credit Suisse Securities and AQR Capital has offered to invest up to $75 million in an effort to shore up the bankrupt carrier's finances. Frontier President and CEO Sean Menke described the debtor-in-possession financing offer as a "tremendous vote of confidence in our company and our business plan.
Asiana Airlines suffered a KRW19.2 billion ($18.9 million) loss in the second quarter, reversed from a KRW38 billion profit in the year-ago period as rising fuel costs proved decisive. Gross revenue rose 20.8% year-over-year to KRW1.04 trillion but operating expenses climbed 30.2% to KRW919.8 billion. Operating income fell to a KRW17.9 billion loss from a KRW20.6 billion profit in the second quarter of 2007.
In an unprecedented move, Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority launched a two-week special audit of Qantas, which said it welcomed the move, hoping to put an end to the publicity that has resulted from incidents it labeled as largely normal, everyday airline events.
Royal Jordanian reported a net loss of "around" JOD3.1 million ($4.4 million) in the first half of 2008, widened from a deficit of JOD1.9 million in the year-ago semester. It said the result was "much better than the losses estimated in the budget. . .despite the soaring jet fuel prices that the company had to pay for this year." Operating revenue rose 33% year-on-year to JOD315 million on a 21% increase in passengers to 1.2 million. RJ credited its "efforts to market sales, improve product and offer distinguished onboard services" for the increase.
Kunpeng Airlines last week signed an agreement with the Henan provincial government to transfer its operating base and headquarters to the capital of Zhengzhou from Xi'an in order to better capitalize on the central Chinese market. Kunpeng parent Shenzhen Airlines Chairman Li Kun explained at the signing ceremony that the move is "a strategic adjustment" that will allow it to grab more market share in a region whose growth appears to be accelerating.
ASIG renewed its contract with United Airlines to provide interior cabin grooming services at London Heathrow. ASIG serves about 70 aircraft per week for UA.
Star Alliance carriers serving Incheon have completed their collocation to the western part of the main terminal. Airlines involved are Asiana Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, ANA, Lufthansa, Shanghai Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, United Airlines and Turkish Airlines. They combine to operate 1,500 weekly flights from the airport. ICN is the third Asian hub, after Beijing and Shanghai, at which Star has implemented its Move Under One Roof strategy this year.
British Airways reported net profit of £27 million ($53.5 million) in the fiscal first quarter ended June 30, down 90.1% from the £274 million earned in the year-ago quarter, with the drop largely due to a 49.3% year-on-year rise in fuel costs to £706 million after hedging. Revenue grew 2.8% to £2.26 billion and total operating costs rose 15.2% to £2.22 billion. Operating profit fell 86.8% to £35 million from £263 million a year ago. Operating margin for the quarter was a meager 1.5%.
Continental Airlines said both mainline and consolidated unit revenue in July climbed 4.5%-5.5% year-over-year. It flew 9.2 billion consolidated RPMs, up 1.6%, against a 4.3% rise in ASMs to 10.93 billion. Load factor fell 2.2 points to 84.2%.
Unite, which represents approximately 25,000 workers at British Airways and Iberia combined, said it has scheduled an "urgent" meeting with Spanish counterpart CC.OO. in order "to ensure workers' interests are protected as these companies inevitably seek greater efficiencies and cost savings, as well as the opening up of markets in the wake a successful merger." BA and IB announced their entrance into merger negotiations last week ( ATWOnline, July 30). Overall, Unite said it was "cautious" about the potential combination.
Lufthansa and the ver.di union, which conducted strike actions throughout Germany last week, reached a deal on a pay raise for some 34,000 ground employees.
The most aggressive expansion program in airline history was launched when the first of Emirates' 58 A380s flew from Dubai to New York JFK as EK3801, the first of a series of commercial flight trials. Pushback came about two years and 2 min. late at 11:02 a.m., but passengers still appeared plenty excited by the images on their seatback video screens that showed the giant jet lifting effortlessly into the sky from the vantage point of a camera mounted atop the tail.
Gategroup, parent company of Gate Gourmet and 10 other subsidiaries, promoted President Guy Dubois to CEO effective Sept. 1. He succeeds David Siegel, who will remain chairman.
Aeroservice Aviation Center of Miami said Sim Industries sold it a 737-800 FAA and JAA Level D FFS. Slated for operation in the fourth quarter, the simulator will be the first from SI installed in the US.
Aer Lingus welcomed Sean Coyle as CFO. Aerospace Industries Assn. tapped Dan Elwell as VP-civil aviation. Airbus appointed Mario Heinen executive VP & head-Centre of Excellence Fuselage & Cabin, Alain Flourens head-A380 program and Daniel Baubil executive VP & head-A320 family program. Alaska Airlines elected Jay Schaefer VP-finance & treasurer and Ben Minicucci VP-Seattle operations and named Lane Kemper MD-customer service-call centers.
Kayak.com stopped displaying American Airlines' fares in search results after the two companies clashed over how Kayak and its subsidiary, SideStep.com, refer consumers to sites for booking American flights. American wanted Kayak to direct consumers only to its own site for booking its flights. Kayak, however, shows results from Priceline, Expedia, Travelocity and other third-party sites, and it refused to suppress those options for American flights.
THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE when you board a Virgin America A320 is the subdued mood lighting. There are 12 different shades that can be changed according to, well, the mood. There are plush leather seats in the two-class cabin and, following in the tradition of an earlier trendsetting transcontinental startup, free live television at every seat. VX also offers more than a dozen pay-per-view movies and streaming audio and claims to have more than 3,000 MP3s onboard, plus AC power for laptops.
Ryanair said it will cancel all bookings made through screen-scraping Web sites. "We believe this is a quicker and more effective way of discouraging this unlawful activity and we hope that by getting rid of screen-scrapers we will speed up passenger processing times on Ryanair.com, as well as ensuring that Ryanair passengers are not paying unnecessary handling charges or higher fares to screen-scrapers," the carrier said.
ANA Group yesterday reported a ¥6.6 billion ($61.1 million) net profit in the fiscal first quarter ended June 30, down a steep 92.4% from the ¥87.3 billion earned in the year-ago quarter, with the drop due largely to the gain realized from the sale of its hotel assets in June 2007.
Ryanair's announced fiscal first quarter profit of €21 million ($32.7 million) did not include a €93.6 million writedown in the value of its stake in Aer Lingus nor €17.9 million in accelerated depreciation on 15 aircraft scheduled for disposal during the 2009-10 fiscal year. As a result, the actual result for the three months ended June 30 attributable to equity holders was a steep €90.5 million loss. The company's operating profit was €7.9 million, down from €157.5 million in the year-ago period.
Vueling Airlines reported a pre-tax loss of €12.5 million ($19.5 million) in the second quarter, an 8.9% improvement from the €13.7 million loss reported in the year--ago period, citing implementation of an "improvement plan" based on cost reduction and increased flight revenue for the "substantial" gain.
Hawaiian Airlines parent Hawaiian Holdings, benefiting from a legal settlement with Mesa Air Group and the abrupt collapse of two competitors, posted second-quarter net income of $54.3 million, reversed from a net loss of $3.9 million in the year-ago period.
Martinair appointed Frank de Jong as VP-planning and Harm Winkeler as VP-Asia Pacific. Former Jet Airways CEO Nikos Kardassis, who ran the carrier from 1993 to 1999, will return to Jet as head of its North American operation as senior VP-the Americas and senior adviser to the chairman for corporate strategy and finance. Jet has launched four daily North American services in the past year.
FedEx Express yesterday launched revenue service with the first of 12 757-200 converted freighters it is scheduled to add over the next year, starting eight-times-weekly flights between Memphis and Washington National, its first service to DCA. The 757F is the first of the type to enter the delivery giant's fleet. It is investing $2.6 billion to replace its 90 727-200Fs with 90 757Fs and last year inked a deal with Singapore Technologies Aerospace covering 87 757-200 passenger-to-freighter conversions over seven years ( ATWOnline, Jan.
