There was a guarded sigh of relief in Toulouse yesterday as Airbus handed over the first of 19 A380s to launch customer Singapore Airlines, and a clearly delighted SIA CEO Chew Choon Seng said, "better late than never."
AerCap announced that subsidiary AeroTurbine promoted Senior VP-Materials Michael King to the newly created position of president reporting to AeroTurbine CEO Nicolas Finazzo.
CAAC is aiming to boost China's long-neglected domestic regional market further with the distribution of new subsidies even as the recent trend of companies investing in regional startups appears to be accelerating.
Gol said it concluded a committed aircraft pre-delivery payment loan facility worth $310 million covering the 21 737-800s scheduled for delivery from July 2008 through 2009. It said the financing comprises eight banks and was led by Calyon and Citigroup.
UPS Chairman and CEO Mike Eskew will retire at the end of the year and be succeeded by Vice Chairman and CFO Scott Davis, the parcel delivery giant said yesterday. Davis, 55, joined UPS in 1986 when it acquired technology company II Morrow, of which he was CEO. He served in positions of increasing responsibility in finance and accounting before assuming the role of CFO in 2001. He was named vice chairman and elected to the UPS board in 2006.
Finnair flew 1.73 billion RPKs in September, a 16.8% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity grew 18.6% to 2.31 billion ASKs and load factor fell 1.1 points to 75%. WestJet flew 963.4 million RPMs in September, up 18% on the year-ago month. Capacity rose 13% to 1.22 billion ASMs and load factor increased 3.5 points to 78.7%. Austrian Airlines Group flew 1.82 billion RPKs in September, down 17.8% from the year-ago period, against a 17.9% fall in capacity to 2.3 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 0.1 point to 79%.
Nacional de Aviacion Let 410 that had been missing since departing Villavicencio on Oct. 8 was discovered last week in mountains near Cubarral, with all 15 passengers and three crew onboard killed, Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network reported. The aircraft belonging to the Bogota-based airline was on its way to Uribe and first flew in 1990.
Japan Airlines said it will offer early retirement plans to 900 cabin staff who will have completed 15 years of service and will be at least 54 years old if managerial or 50 if nonmanagerial on March 31. JAL said it is working to cut yearly employment costs by ¥50 billion ($425 million) from FY06 by increasing productivity 10%, a hiring freeze and early retirement incentives. It said 630 ground staff employees holding middle management positions have accepted an early retirement package offered in August and will leave the carrier Nov. 30.
AMC Airlines MD-82 was destroyed following an emergency landing in Istanbul last week, according to press reports. All 156 passengers and seven crew aboard the aircraft, which reportedly requested the landing owing to problems with the landing gear, escaped before fire consumed it. AMC is an Egyptian charter and ACMI carrier.
Delta Air Lines announced the sale of $1.4 billion in Pass Through Certificates, which were sold in a private placement to qualified institutional buyers. The funds generated will be used to refinance nearly $1 billion in existing debt currently secured by aircraft.
Mexico's Federal Competition Commission last week rejected Mexicana's bid to acquire AeroMexico, ruling that a merger of the country's two largest airlines would be unfair to competitors and "unfavorable to consumers."
Singapore Airlines today will take delivery of the first A380 at the Airbus Delivery Centre in Toulouse, where the carrier also will unveil the cabin interior. The Trent 900-powered aircraft is scheduled to depart for Singapore Tuesday and will begin operating on SIA's Sydney service with a special charity flight on Oct. 25-26.
Megadata Corp. said US Airways will use PASSUR FlightPerform live airspace analysis tools at US's Pittsburgh operations control center "for improved airspace utilization, fuel management and diversion management."
SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines parent SkyWest Inc. announced plans to acquire 22 larger regional jets, replacing 23 30-seat Brasilia turboprops and four 50-seat CRJs that will be transitioned out of the fleet. Operating as a regional partner of United Airlines and Delta Air Lines, SkyWest said it has not selected a manufacturer for the new aircraft but will begin discussions with Bombardier and Embraer. It expects deliveries to begin in late 2008 and continue through 2009.
Russian airlines have been ordered by the Transport Ministry to follow a list of customer service regulations beginning Oct. 20 or risk fines and the eventual loss of their operating licenses, The Moscow Times reported. Under the new directives, airlines are forbidden from denying travel in the case of lost or stolen tickets and must provide hot meals every 4 hr. and hotel rooms in the case of extended delays, among other things, the paper said.
Air Canada named Michael Rousseau as its new CFO, effective Oct. 22. Rousseau was president of Canadian retailer Hudson's Bay Co. and replaces Joshua Koshy, who is leaving the airline. Separately, AC announced the launch of a daily Toronto-Madrid service on June 15, 2008, aboard a 767-300. AC and its Jazz subsidiary flew a combined 4.48 billion RPMs in September, up 3.3% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 3.7% to 5.7 billion ASMs and load factor slipped 0.2 point to 78.7%.
VGS Aircraft Holding (Ireland) through its wholly owned subsidiary VGS Investments One Ltd. acquired an A320 from JetBlue Airways that is leased to TAM until February 2014.
Air France KLM flew 17.91 billion RPKs in September, up 5.3% from the year-ago month, against a 5.9% rise in ASKs to 21.76 billion. Load factor fell 0.5 point to 82.3%.
IATA yesterday announced a standard it said "paves the way for global mobile phone check-in using two-dimensional barcodes." DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said the standard, which will use both the Aztec and Datamatrix codes popular in Europe and North America and the QR code used in Japan, "is an important step in getting rid of paper that bogs down processes and drives up costs." IATA has set a 2010 deadline for implementation of barcoded boarding passes.
Southwest Airlines unveiled a new gate design to complement the adjusted, numbered boarding procedure announced last month ( ATWOnline, Sept. 20) that it hopes will "alleviate the need for customers to 'camp out' in line at the gate." Stainless steel columns and television monitors will be installed to support the boarding procedure at each of SWA's 64 airports, with a family area, power stations, a business/leisure section with padded seats and tables and flat screen TVs to follow.
VRG Linhas Aereas, the new Varig, reached interline agreements effective this month with Hahn Air, Malev Hungarian Airlines, El Al, Air One, Mexicana and Qatar Airways in addition to its deal with partner carrier Gol.
China Eastern Airlines has an optimistic outlook about its cooperation with Singapore Airlines as the carriers share common business interests, CEA President Li Fenghua said yesterday.
Air India expects revenue of $4 billion in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008, as it moves forward with the merger between the old AI and Indian Airlines, Dow Jones reported from New Delhi. The two carriers reported pro forma revenue of $3.5 billion in the 12 months ending last March, AI Executive Director-Finance S. Venkat told the newswire. Separately, AI parent National Aviation Co. of India signed a $1.23 billion financing package with the Export-Import Bank of the US to support the acquisition of 17 Boeing aircraft and four spare engines, the bank announced.
