Continental Airlines and Kingfisher Airlines announced a partnership under which they will offer loyalty program and lounge reciprocity effective Oct. 1. Codesharing is scheduled to begin by year end. CO operates a daily Newark-Delhi service and plans to launch daily EWR-Mumbai flights on Oct. 1.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines yesterday officially introduced its new flexible fare structure allowing business, Economy Extra and economy passengers to purchase Fully Flexible, Flexible and Fixed fares for any class on any segment. All fares are available to book immediately save Fixed Economy Extra, which will be ready by year end. "The new fixed fares allow customers to purchase business or Economy Extra class at a competitive price, if they book well in advance," SAS International CCO Lars Sandahl Sorensen said. "They can also mix classes to suit their budgets and schedules.
Continental Airlines and representatives of the Air Line Pilots Assn. this week signed a Protocol Agreement that "sets the stage for the parties to begin talks about changes to the pilots' contract," CO said. The current contract becomes amendable on Dec. 31, 2008, and ALPA requested that discussions begin earlier than the originally scheduled April 2008 date. Separately, CO estimated that June consolidated unit revenue climbed 1.5%-2.5% year-over-year and mainline RASM rose 3.5%-4.5%.
Mesa Air Group placed a firm order for 10 CRJ700 NextGen aircraft valued at approximately $334 million at list prices, Bombardier announced yesterday. Two are conversions from previously placed CRJ900 orders. They will be operated for United Airlines. Mesa also placed a conditional order for an 11th CRJ700 NG, which was unveiled last month, along with the CRJ900 and 1000 variants, by the Canadian manufacturer ( ATWOnline, June 4). Mesa currently operates 58 CRJ100s/200s, 20 CRJ700s and 38 CRJ900s.
Six weeks after trading in its stock was suspended, China Eastern Airlines appears to be moving forward with its 25% stake sale to Singapore Airlines with the submission of plans to relevant government entities.
South African Airways' restructuring program, which is aiming for revenue improvement/cost reduction of ZAR2.7 billion ($378 million) by the end of 2008, is moving ahead rapidly, CEO Khaya Ngqula told Business in Africa. He said losses in the second half of its fiscal year ended March 31 were about ZAR200 million, not as steep as some had projected and reduced from a loss of ZAR652 million in the first fiscal semester.
Southwest Airlines flew 6.83 billion RPMs in June, up 11% on the year-ago month. Capacity rose 8.7% to 8.32 billion ASMs and load factor was up 1.7 points to 82.1%. Gol flew 1.61 billion RPKs in June, up 30.6% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 47.3% to 2.35 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 8.7 points to 68.6%.
Spring Airlines plans a stock listing to finance the acquisition of six A320s in 2009 ( ATWOnline, June 29), President Wang Zenghua announced. The LCC also plans to reach a deal with an international investment bank as a strategic investor next year, preferring an institution over another airline as it holds fast to its "go it alone" strategy. Wang said Citibank is Spring's first choice and the parties already are in discussions. He said the carrier's biggest headache at present is a shortage of pilots.
S7 Airlines said it recorded net profit of RUB61 million ($2.4 million) for 2006, down 44.5% from a net profit of RUB1.1 billion in the prior year, on a 27% increase in revenue to RUB24.97 billion. Passengers carried rose 16.4% to 4.9 million.
Boeing delivered a second 737-800 to Babcock & Brown for lease to transavia.com's new Paris Orly-based sister carrier, bringing the number of -800s in its fleet to four. The French low-fare carrier ( ATWOnline, June 1), owned jointly by Transavia (40%) and Air France (60%), launched operations in May and plans to add three more -800s next year and two in 2009. The aircraft are configured in a 186-seat all-economy layout.
Skyways Aviation announced the arrangement of an ATR 72 lease to Jat Airways. Aircraft will be leased for four years from ATR Leasing. It is Jat's fifth ATR 72.
Finnair announced that it has entered into a "final and binding sale and purchase agreement" covering the sale of FlyNordic to Norwegian Air Shuttle. The parties announced an MOU in April ( ATWOnline, April 25). The Norwegian Competition Authority still must approve the transaction, Finnair said.
Lufthansa said it will shift its daily 44-seat all-business-class flights to Frankfurt-Newark from the current Munich-EWR route beginning Oct. 28. It will operate a three-class A330-300 on MUC-EWR "to accommodate increased demand in all categories on the route." The FRA-EWR flights will be aboard a wet-leased PrivatAir BBJ. The 44 lie-flat seats "provide a near-horizontal sleeping surface measuring 6-ft. 6-in. long," LH said.
GE Aviation last week signed a 10-year OnPoint Solutions services agreement with easyJet covering the CFM56-5B and CFM56-7B engines powering its fleet of 192 A319s and 32 737-700s respectively. The accord, which could cover as many as 340 shop visits, potentially is valued at $1 billion.
Air Deccan took delivery of its 20th new A320 last week, bringing its total fleet to 44 aircraft. The A320 will seat 180 in a single class and be the eighth based in Kolkata. Deccan will introduce a new flight to Vishakapatnam starting July 10.
Gulf Air, which is in the midst of an extensive restructuring ( ATWOnline, April 18), revealed a "new network" based on a "wave model" designed to schedule flights to maximize connection possibilities for Middle East business travelers. "Our restructuring plan seeks to put in place an efficient network that improves punctuality, reduces the transit time between connecting flights and provides a range of travel options," President and CEO Andre Dose said. The Bahrain-based carrier will operate 588 weekly flights.
Hawaiian Airlines promoted VP-E-commerce Rick Peterson to VP-marketing and sales. Rolls-Royce Canada named Michel Toutant president and COO, replacing retired Pierre Racine. Toutant has served as VP-strategic operations for R-R Energy Solutions since 2006 and previously held a number of positions with R-R Canada, including VP and GM-gas turbines.
CAAC officially approved the launch of the Tianjin-based joint venture cargo airline to be owned and operated by Chinese logistics firm Sinotrans and Korean Air. The new entity has a registered capital of $65 million, in which Sinotrans Air Transportation Development Co. holds a 51% stake with an investment of $33.15 million. KE invested $16.25 million for a 25% stake. Minority shareholders are Hana Capital Co. (13%) and Shinhan Capital (11%).
Air India last week launched its first freighter dedicated to European service. The converted A310 will be one of two operating four-times-weekly flights from Mumbai to Frankfurt and Paris Charles de Gaulle via Bangalore and Chennai. The A310s were converted by EADS at a cost of $7.95 million each, AI said. Chairman and MD V. Thulasidas said, "Post the merger, cargo is going to be one of the most important strategic business units for Air India.
A little more than one week after doubling its firm 777 order to eight aircraft, TAM announced the signing of an MOU to acquire 22 A350-800/-900 XWBs plus 10 options for delivery in the 2013-18 timeframe. The Brazilian carrier also will exercise four A330 options for delivery in 2010 and 2011. Total catalog value of the 22 A350s and four A330s is approximately $5.4 billion.
Northwest Airlines is taking further steps to reduce its ongoing spate of cancellations, including dropping its second Detroit-Frankfurt 757 frequency to free up pilots, retraining furloughed pilots to return them to active duty and planning a 3% domestic mainline capacity reduction beginning next month.
