Singapore Airlines' A380s will be configured with a main deck first class cabin consisting of 12 "Singapore Airlines Suites," 60 business class seats on the upper deck and 399 economy seats spread across both decks, the carrier announced yesterday.
Japan Airlines will introduce first class for the first time on domestic flights from Dec. 1. The new offering will be rolled out on seven daily flights between Tokyo Haneda and Osaka Itami and eventually will be available on all flights. From April 1, the first class product will be available on flights from HND to Fukuoka and Sapporo. The move follows the rollout of a dedicated business class (J Class) on domestic routes in June 2004. JAL offers 8 million J Class seats per year with an 85% load factor.
Finnair Group ground handling subsidiary Northport Oy agreed to sell its Finnhandling AB and Northport Norway AS units, as well as Arlanda Airport lounge and ticket sales services, to Menzies Aviation. Transaction is scheduled to close on Sept. 30. Financial details were not disclosed. Menzies will provide ground-handling services to Finnair in Stockholm and Oslo. Separately, Finnair flew 1.77 billion RPKs in August, up 19.8% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose at the same rate to 2.3 billion ASKs, leaving load factor at 77.1%.
Brussels Airlines Group and Hewa Bora Airways reached agreement jointly to create a new Congolese airline to be based at Kinshasa N'Djili Airport. It will operate both domestic and international services aboard 737s and BAe 146s. BAG's participation in the new company is through its Pan African Airlines Leasing Co. affiliate, which is based in Mauritius and specializes in developing African aviation projects and partnerships.
European Commission released the fifth update of its list of airlines banned in the European Union. Two new carriers appeared: Ukrainian Mediterranean Airlines and Mahan Air of Iran. "This latest update illustrates once more that the black list is a dynamic instrument which the Commission can use whenever necessary, without having to wait for the quarterly reviews," VP-Transport Jacques Barrot said.
EasyJet announced it will operate its Bucharest service from Otopeni rather than Baneasa through at least Sept. 23 owing to the latter airport's inability to meet "operational requirements at this time." It also announced the launch of daily services from Madrid to Lanzerote and Lisbon on Nov. 1, thrice-weekly MAD-Fuerteventura on Nov. 3 and twice-weekly Geneva-Gran Canaria from Oct. 31. The LCC transported 3.7 million passengers in August, up 17.8% from the year-ago month. Load factor fell 1.9 points to 87.4%.
Mesa Air Group yesterday said it is restructuring the CRJ fleet it operates under contract for United Airlines. Mesa will replace eight 50-seat CRJ200s with two 66-seat CRJ700s, which will be added to its existing contract and will enter service next spring. It then will fly 22 CRJ700s on behalf of UA.
Kuwaiti government accepted the resignation of Kuwait Airways' board, which made the move following the government's cancellation of a 19-aircraft order with ALAFCO ( ATWOnline, Sept. 11), according to press reports.
Air China announced an expansion of its international network comprising 12 new routes to Europe and the US in 2008 and 2009, as well as more frequencies on nine additional routes to the West. According to the long-haul routes distribution program released yesterday by CAAC, Air China will begin serving Berlin, Istanbul and Warsaw from Beijing in 2008. The following year it will begin flying daily from the capital to Toronto, Washington Dulles, Manchester, Zurich, Dusseldorf, Vienna and Milan and from Shanghai to San Francisco and Rome.
Air France KLM flew 19.35 billion RPKs in August, up 6.9% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 5.7% to 22.7 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 1 point to 85.3%. Lufthansa Group carriers flew 13.12 billion RPKs in August, a 30.2% increase from the year-ago month, against a 24.6% rise in ASKs to 16.43 billion. Load factor rose 3.5 points to 79.9%.
Southwest Airlines said just 609 employees accepted the company's buyout offer ( ATWOnline, July 18), which included a $25,000 payment as well as benefits such as SWA travel privileges. The airline said the program's intention was to lower costs by encouraging senior high-paid employees to take voluntarily leave. It said staff totals will stay relatively static as it plans to replace nearly all of the bought-out workers with younger employees earning lower wages.
Kuwait Airways board offered its resignation in the wake of the government's cancellation of its 19-aircraft deal with ALAFCO ( ATWOnline, Aug. 29), according to widespread press reports. The airline had planned to purchase 12 787s and seven A320s from the lessor rather than OEMs in order to ensure earlier delivery, Reuters said.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines Q400 was involved Sunday in an accident at Aalborg when the right main landing gear collapsed upon landing, breaking the propeller and sending it slicing into the cabin, according to reports. A fire in the right engine was extinguished and all 69 passengers and four crew were evacuated safely, the airline said, adding that five passengers were "lightly injured" during the procedure. SAS canceled flights to/from Aalborg and several to/from Copenhagen as a result.
News from Travel Technology Update: Lufthansa Systems said it is dropping all further development of its Future Airline Core Environment passenger management platform. The company cited "commercial reasons" for the decision. FACE was intended to support the core processes of passenger airlines, such as schedule distribution, reservations, inventory, ticketing and departure control. The next-generation system was touted as more flexible and more cost-efficient than traditional reservations systems.
Air France will pilot a program by year end that will use biometric information encrypted on a small card to enable a passenger to obtain a boarding pass from a kiosk in the terminal and will provide access to a boarding portal. The so-called "smartboarding personal card" is one of a number of new technologies AF is developing to improve the entire passenger processing system. "All people are aiming for more autonomy," Deputy VP-Marketing Michel Teychene told ATWOnline. "If Air France can provide this autonomy, it creates a loyalty to the brand."
WestJet President and CEO Sean Durfy said that based on the LCC's current growth strategy, it could control as much as half of the domestic Canadian market by 2013. The carrier currently holds about a 35% share compared to Air Canada's 65%. Durfy told a Raymond James investors conference in London yesterday that with 50 737NGs set to be added that will bring its total fleet to 118 by 2013, in addition to market share gains of 2-3 percentage points annually, WestJet expects a share in the range of 40%-50% within five years.
Ryanair yesterday said it submitted its appeal against the EU's "unlawful and politically motivated" decision to bar the LCC's acquisition of Aer Lingus to the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg. "We are confident that the CFI will overturn this decision in the interests of consumers and the competitiveness of the industry.
Alenia Aeronautica and Sukhoi Co. yesterday unveiled their new Superjet International joint venture, which will concentrate on after-sales support and marketing and sales of the Superjet 100 regional aircraft family in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Japan. Alenia holds a 51% share of the new company, with 49% held by Sukhoi. Amedeo Caporaletti was named chairman and Alessandro Franzoni is CEO. The venture will be headquartered in Venice.
VGS Aircraft Holding (Ireland), through its wholly owned subsidiary VGS Investments One, acquired two MD-82s from GECAS. Aircraft are leased to American Airlines until February 2013 and February 2014 respectively and are financed by Nord LB in Germany.
ARINC announced the introduction of SkyBuy, an inflight payment and inventory control system designed to automate and monitor inflight sales data wirelessly. ARINC said the solution combines Abanco's MDT In-Flight sales application with ARINC's wireless technology.
Aviation Capital Group signed a firm contract with Airbus for six A319s, 15 A320s and four A321s collectively valued at $1.8 billion. The lessor already had 96 A320 family aircraft in its portfolio or on firm order. MD and CEO Stephen Hannahs said the decision to order more was based on "high customer demand." No delivery dates or engine choices for the new orders were announced.
Fidelity Investment parent FMR Corp. increased its stake in US Airways to 13.8 million shares, or 15%, from the previous 8.6%, the airline said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
