Lufthansa CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber told ATWOnline that his company is keeping a close watch on the sales and consolidation rumors circulating through Europe, especially those involving Iberia and Alitalia, but that it will err on the side of caution regarding its own involvement. "Both carriers would theoretically fit us," he said aboard a flight from Munich to Busan last week. "But conditions have to be proper, otherwise one can get into financial difficulties."
Garuda Indonesia 737-400 that crashed last month, killing 21 people ( ATWOnline, March 12), was traveling at 410 kph when it hit the runway at Yogyakarta Airport, nearly twice normal speed, according to a report by Indonesia's Transport Committee obtained by Australian media.
Mesa Air Group named Freedom Airlines President and Senior VP-West Coast Operations Mike Ferverda as COO of its JV with Shenzhen Airlines, Bombardier Flexjet VP-Marketing Tom Bacon as VP-planning, VP-East Coast Operations Jorn Bates as Freedom COO, Director-MRO Services Gary Appling as VP-technical services and purchasing, Director-Corporate Development Jeff Bethune as VP-financial planning and analysis and Adam Wilensky as director-planning.
FedEx Express, the delivery giant's airline unit, signed an agreement Friday to acquire its Hungarian service provider, Flying-Cargo Hungary, a move that fits with its strategy to expand in Eastern Europe and gain greater control of service providers in emerging markets. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. F-C has been aligned with FedEx in Hungary since 2003, helping to move and deliver international express shipments.
BAE Systems Regional Aircraft selected Romania's Aerostar as the prime contractor for the relaunched BAe 146QT freighter conversion program. Aerostar will be responsible for maintenance, large freight door assembly and E-Class cargo interior kit manufacture and installation and will subcontract the manufacture of the large upward-opening freight door and delivery to Avione Craiova. The first conversion is scheduled to be available early to mid-2008. It will be available in Series 200 and Series 300 types and will have a maximum bulk payload of 11,670 kg. for the 200 or 13,265 kg.
US Bureau of Transportation Statistics said the 20 reporting US carriers posted and ontime arrival rate of 75.4% in 2006, down from 77.4% in 2005. Reports of mishandled baggage per 1,000 passengers rose to 6.73 from 6.64 while complaints about service fell 4.8%.
Turkish Airlines on Friday released select English-language financial results for 2006, reporting a $132 million net profit that represented a 31.4% increase over the prior year's net earnings of TRY138.2 million ($100.5 million). The comparison is based on capital market bond standards and does not account for currency fluctuations. It is higher than airline officials predicted in December ( ATWOnline, Dec. 11, 2006), when THY announced its intention to join Star Alliance.
UTair Airlines' 2006 profit more than doubled to RUB263.9 million ($10.2 million) from RUB128 million in 2005, Russia's AK&M reported. The company anticipates a RUB645 million profit in 2007.
IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said the US and Europe have "lost the vision" that made them the world's top air transport markets and it is now "Asia's turn" to lead the industry. Speaking this week to the Asia Pacific Aviation Media Assn. in Singapore, he noted that intra-Asia traffic will be "the largest market in the world, accounting for one-third of the world's traffic" by 2010 and pushed Asian nations to meet international safety standards and liberalize traffic rights. "Not all governments in Asia are at the same level in safety oversight," he said.
Delta Air Lines flew 10.42 billion system RPMs in March, a 3.5% increase from the year-ago month, as domestic traffic fell 3.2% and international RPMs climbed 23.1%. Capacity rose 0.4% to 12.55 billion ASMs on a 6% domestic decline and an 18.7% international increase. Load factor improved 2.5 points to 83%. Domestic load factor was up 2.5 points to 83.6% and international load factor rose 2.9 points to 81.6%. Southwest Airlines flew 6.08 billion RPMs in March, up 4.3% from the year-ago month.
AirTran Holdings repeated its request for a list of Midwest Air Group shareholders, citing Wisconsin state law. It was rebuffed in its February attempt to access the list through a New York subsidiary ( ATWOnline, Feb. 22). Midwest once again denied its unwanted suitor the list, saying it would not supply it until notices and proxy statements for its May 23 annual meeting are mailed out.
China Southern Airlines plans to partner with Chongqing Investment Corp. to create Chongqing Airlines, which is expected to launch operations in June with three A320s. The new carrier is expected to be approved by CAAC next week. CS holds 60% with an investment of CNY720 million ($93 million) while Chongqing Investment has put in CNY480 million for the remaining stake. Chongqing Airlines aims to challenge Air China and China Eastern Airlines, the two dominant players in western China, for both passenger and cargo traffic.
Northwest Airlines' new regional subsidiary, Compass Airlines, yesterday announced the receipt of US FAA certification to launch CRJ200 operations. It expects to start flying next month between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Washington Dulles. It will be based in nearby Chantilly, Va., and will operate out of NWA's hubs at MSP, Detroit and Memphis as Northwest Airlink. During the third quarter, it expects to put the first of 36 76-seat, two-class E-175s into service ( ATWOnline, Oct. 6, 2006).
US National Transportation Safety Board released documents in which Comair conceded that the pilots of the CRJ200 that crashed last August after attempting to take off from the wrong runway at Lexington Blue Grass Airport ( ATWOnline, Oct. 16, 2006) violated sterile cockpit guidelines. The airline added that "it would be simple but inaccurate to conclude that the only cause of this tragic accident was a mistake by Comair's well-trained and experienced flight crew," the Associated Press reported.
Ural Airlines reported 2006 net income of RUB27.1 million ($1 million), up from a RUB4.5 million profit in 2005, Russia's AK&M reported. Passenger traffic rose 11% to 1 million. The company flies mainly Russian-built aircraft but leased its first A320s last year.
Swissport International said Air New Zealand has reversed course and opted not to outsource ground handling in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch to a Swissport-Transfield Services New Zealand joint venture. The proposed contract, reached last October, was for 10 years.
The subject of significant speculation following last month's execution of the new EU-US open skies agreement, bmi moved to strengthen its transatlantic operation through a tie-up with Star Alliance partner United Airlines. The pair filed a joint motion with the US Dept. of Transportation this week requesting approval for antitrust immunity, which the government put on hold five years ago absent an open skies accord.
Gulf Air CEO Andre Dose, who took charge this week ( ATWOnline, April 4), announced a reduction of his senior staff in order to "drive the necessary efficiencies and to allow our management to focus on our customers." VP-Finance Ahmed Al Hammadi, VP-Services Tariq Sultan and VP-Business Units Ali Murtada will be leaving the airline.
Lufthansa will install a new first class cabin on one of its long-haul aircraft for a test run this year. "Even though the A380 is delayed for Lufthansa, we will introduce our new first class on time on our A340 fleet, starting the reconfiguration process with the 2008 winter schedule," Executive VP-Marketing and Sales Thierry Antinori told ATWOnline. LH will complete the retrofit of its 83 long-haul aircraft with its new business class next month. Economy passengers should benefit from the installation of individual video screens starting this fall.
British Airways flew 9.67 billion RPKs in March, up 3.3% on the year-ago month. Capacity rose 2.3% to 12.67 billion ASKs and load factor lifted 0.7 point to 76.3%. Ryanair transported 3.8 million passengers in March, up 26% on the year-ago month. Load factor fell 1 point to 79%. WestJet flew 1.02 billion RPMs in March, a 23% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 18% to 1.2 billion ASMs and load factor was up 3.3 points to 85.2%.
As the three global alliances angle for a foothold in the Chinese market, China Eastern Airlines is leaving its options open, preferring to identify a new strategic investor before committing to one of the groupings.
Garuda Indonesia said it posted a IDR131 billion ($14.4 million) profit in the first two months of 2007, a period in which it has lost money each of the past three years. It suffered a IDR173.9 billion loss in the first two months of 2006. It cited a 9-point increase in load factor to 76% and an 8% lift in yield to $0.074 as key factors in the result. Passenger numbers rose 9% to 1.4 million. "Enhanced efficiency and consolidations" pushed the number of profitable domestic routes to 24 from three in the first two months of last year, it said.
