Cypress Airways' ground staff plans to strike Dec. 12 and Dec. 17-18 to protest the carrier's plan to outsource ground handling at Larnaca and Paphos to the Swissport & GAP Vassilopoulos joint venture. The strike potentially will affect 107 flights, the airline and two of its unions said Friday. "If need be, our aircraft will fly empty to specific destinations to ferry inbound passengers," CY said in a statement, insisting it will continue operating through the job action.
EasyJet announced six new routes: From Bristol to Biarritz (four-times-weekly from April 23), Olbia (thrice-weekly from April 26) and Split (twice-weekly from April 26); daily London Luton-Pisa from March 30; thrice-weekly Edinburgh-Nice from April 24, and thrice-weekly Glasgow International-Faro from April 22. The LCC transported 2.9 million passengers last month, up 13.2% from the year-ago month. Load factor rose 0.3 point to 80.8%.
Austrian Airlines Group will announce today that former Lufthansa Marketing Director Andreas Bierwirth will become CCO and AAG General Secretary Peter Malanik will be promoted to COO. Jeffrey Shane confirmed last week that he will resign as US Dept. of Transportation undersecretary for policy effective Jan. 31. He did not announce his future plans.
Cebu Air, which operates LCC Cebu Pacific, was approved to launch an IPO by the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission, XFN reported. Cebu Air plans to sell as many as 72 million primary shares and 63.4 million secondary shares at a maximum price of PHP95 ($2.26) each, which it said could raise PHP12.5 billion.
Midwest Air Group said it has complied with requests for additional information from the US Dept. of Justice pertaining to its acquisition by TPG Capital and Northwest Airlines ( ATWOnline, Oct. 31). It added that the parties have agreed not to complete the sale before Jan. 31 without DOJ approval. It said closing will "occur as soon as practicable."
Ryanair called on the European Commission to block Air France KLM from buying Alitalia "until both airlines have paid back a combined €2.7 billion ($3.9 billion) in illegal state aid received from the French and Italian governments" ( ATWOnline, Dec. 7).
Passengers on JetBlue Airways Flight 641 from New York JFK to San Francisco Tuesday morning will be the first to have access to the carrier's new inflight Internet service, which will allow customers with Wi-Fi enabled laptops or one of two BlackBerry models to log on to Yahoo! Mail and Messenger or their personal e-mail accounts (via PDA).
SAS Group airlines flew 3.16 billion RPKs in November, up 3.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 4.5% to 4.83 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 0.9 point to 65.4%. SAS Scandinavian Airlines flew 2.17 billion RPKs, up 0.4%, against a 2.8% increase in ASKs to 3.15 billion that lowered load factor 1.7 points to 68.8%. Aer Lingus flew 1.21 billion RPKs in November, up 17.4% over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 23.3% to 1.65 billion ASKs and load factor fell 3.7 points to 73.4%.
MAXjet Airways, the all-business-class transatlantic carrier, said Friday that it requested "with immediate effect" the suspension of trading of its stock, citing a need to gain "clarification of its financial position."
Lufthansa will end its cooperation with NetJets in February and purchase its own aircraft to expand its Lufthansa Private Jet service, which it said then will be better equipped to handle "strong" demand. "Based on the excellent market response, Lufthansa anticipates steady growth in this segment," it said. It did not say what type of aircraft it will buy or how many, but it expects the jets to start entering service next spring.
Olympic Airlines will be prepared for liquidation. Greek Minister of Transport Kostis Hadzidakis is planning the closure of the loss-making carrier next year and wants to replace it with a new airline under a new name and with a much smaller fleet. The Greek government also is looking for private investors, according to press reports. "We do not want a blueprint of Olympic, where the state has full control," Hadzidakis was quoted as saying. According to preliminary plans, the new carrier would operate with a fleet of 20 aircraft instead of the current 42.
Volga-Dnepr Group, parent of outsize airfreight specialist Volga-Dnepr Airlines and scheduled cargo carrier AirBridge Cargo, reported a 49.6% increase in revenue to $720 million for the first nine months of the year. The company did not reveal its costs or income. "Our growth is based on our successful 'cargo supermarket' concept of offering a wide range of air transportation services to our customers and providing efficient information and customer service," President Alexey Isaikin said.
Alitalia yesterday accepted nonbinding bids from Air France KLM and Air One parent AP Holding and a consortium led by Italian attorney Antonio Baldassarre, taking a critical step in a protracted effort to sell off a majority stake of the beleaguered airline.
Vietnam Airlines placed an order for five ATR 72-500s with deliveries starting at the end of 2009. The aircraft, configured with 70 seats, will be used both to expand its current fleet and to replace its ATR 72-200s. VN currently operates seven -200s and three -500s. It added the ATR 72-500s in 2001. "The growth of Vietnam Airlines is tied to its successful partnership with ATR," Chairman Nguyen Sy Hung said. "This partnership has led to the development of a strong regional network connecting remote and small regions to main hubs."
Cathay Pacific Airways placed an order for eight A330-300s to be delivered in 2010-12, Airbus and Rolls-Royce announced yesterday. The Trent 700-powered aircraft will join a fleet of 48 -300s operated by CX and Dragonair, including three leased aircraft scheduled for delivery next year. Both carriers will receive new planes. Rolls said the engine order was worth approximately $280 million at list prices.
EU and Ukraine last week officially opened negotiations on a Common Aviation Area agreement. If successful, Ukraine will harmonize its legislation with European standards and implement a large part of the European aviation acquis communautaire. The EU has signed similar agreements with western Balkan countries and Morocco. According to EC data, some 2.1 million passengers traveled between the EU and Ukraine by air in 2006, an increase of 21% over 2005.
British Airways flew 8.84 billion RPKs in November, up 2.4% from the year-ago month, against a 1.6% rise in ASKs to 12.09 billion. Load factor rose 0.6 point to 73.1%. US Airways Group flew 4.75 billion RPMs in November, a 4.6% decrease from the year-ago month. Capacity fell at the same rate to 6.1 billion ASMs and load factor slipped 0.1 point to 77.8%. US said consolidated passenger RASM increased 2%-4% year-over-year.
Frontier Airlines is cutting its workforce by 10%, or an estimated 100 positions, and will determine if its fleet needs to be "right-sized" in light of escalating operating costs and fuel prices. In addition, the company today was set to begin operating its new regional subsidiary Lynx after receiving final approval from the US Dept. of Transportation yesterday. "They can start flying anytime," a DOT spokesperson told ATWOnline.
US aerospace industry civil aircraft sales jumped 16% this year to $53 billion, nearly matching the value of military aircraft sales, Aerospace Industries Assn. President and CEO Marion Blakey said yesterday in Washington. US aerospace industry sales will total $198.8 billion in 2007, up 8.5% over 2006. Addressing the AIA Year End Review and Forecast Luncheon for the first time since stepping down as FAA Administrator this fall, Blakey said revenues from civil aircraft sales should climb 13% to $60.4 billion in 2008, exceeding military aircraft sales for the first time since 2002.
Egyptian government reportedly has cancelled a plan to sell a 20% stake in EgyptAir. The daily Al-Ahram, citing Civil Aviation Minister Ahmed Shafiq, said the government changed course after the airline confirmed a profit of $91.3 million for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2006, a 17% improvement over the prior year.
Copa Airlines secured financing from Private Export Funding Corp. for the purchase of two 737-800s, for which preliminary commitments for comprehensive long-term US Export-Import Bank guarantees have been obtained, the carrier said. Lead arranger was J.P. Morgan Securities. Aircraft are worth $146 million at list prices and are scheduled for delivery in May and November 2008.
Goodrich agreed to make its Aerostructures facility in Foley, Ala., part of Boeing's Network Service Center program. Contract calls for shop repair and overhaul of thrust reversers on 737s and 777s.
Lufthansa Flight Training will extend its Vienna simulator center with the addition of a Q400 simulator from CAE. Austrian Airlines subsidiary Tyrolean Airways will be one of the principal users of the new simulator, which should go into operation by next summer. Tyrolean operates 10 Q400s.
Tiger Airways has flown into the black while claiming to have the second-lowest unit costs in the world. Speaking exclusively to ATWOnline, Tiger CEO Tony Davis, who has been tight-lipped on the airline's profit performance, said: "We have been cash flow positive for two years and profitable for the last two quarters." He also declared yesterday that Tiger now "has the world's second-lowest ASK costs" behind AirAsia and issued a warning to Australia's Jetstar Airways: "We are reducing our costs all the time."
El Al will purchase four new 737-800s, one of which will be delivered next year with the remainder arriving in 2009, according to a statement from the carrier cited by Reuters. El Al yesterday confirmed to ATWOnline that it will acquire the four aircraft, but it was unclear whether it is a new order or a confirmation of previously placed options or purchase rights. Separately, El Al and American Airlines applied to US and Israeli authorities to begin codesharing. El Al and AA passengers will have access to Israel from 28 North American destinations, up from the current five.
