Finnair said it has negotiated a compensation package with Airbus to cover the delays in the introduction of the A350, a revamped version of which was unveiled yesterday at the Farnborough Airshow (see today's show report above). Terms of the compensation deal were not disclosed. Finnair originally planned to take the first of nine firm A350s in the spring of 2012. That has been pushed back to 2013.
US Airways signed a five-year, full-content distribution agreement with Worldspan. The airline also unveiled an expanded codeshare agreement with Star Alliance partner TAP Portugal to include additional destinations on both sides of the Atlantic. Separately, it will launch thrice-weekly Las Vegas-Nashville service on Oct. 5 with an A319.
ANA said it has become the first Japanese carrier to implement a Line Operations Safety Audit program. From the end of August, approximately 250 flights will be monitored by trained TLC observers based in Texas. The review process will take six months and be repeated every 3-5 years.
Varig creditors meeting, scheduled for yesterday to evaluate VarigLog's bid for the bankrupt airline ( ATWOnline, July 12), was postponed after the freight and logistics company altered its offer, Bloomberg News reported.
American Airlines yesterday announced a redesigned business-class section on its 767-300s and 777s that includes lie-flat seats, personal inflight entertainment systems and other features that many of its competitors already have implemented on long-haul service. AA has installed the changes on one 767-300 and plans to complete the revamp on its remaining 57 dash 300s and begin retrofits of its 777 business cabins early next year.
Northwest Airlines reached a new tentative agreement on wage and benefit reductions with its flight attendants yesterday, striking an accord on $195 million in annual cuts that averts a potential work action and seemingly paves the way for the carrier's eventual emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
United Airlines said it will move its headquarters and 350 management employees to downtown Chicago from its current facility near O'Hare. It also will consolidate several suburban facilities into an Operations Center at its Elk Grove campus. UA is receiving $5.25 million in tax increment financing from the city and $1.35 million from the state of Illinois. Both city and state will introduce legislation to cap the jet fuel tax for the next five years.
Germanwings said it will expand its Cologne Bonn hub and base another six aircraft there by 2009. The carrier, which took delivery of the first of 18 new A319s Friday, plans to increase passenger numbers at CGN in the next three years by more than 1 million per year to 4.6 million. It will use the new capacity to boost frequencies and add new destinations; it is evaluating cites in France, Israel and North Africa.
Spirit Airlines announced last week that Indigo Partners, the Arizona-based investment firm run by former America West Airlines head William Franke and Oaktree Capital Management of California, which already was a Spirit investor, "will provide significant resources for the Company to consolidate its position as the leading low-cost carrier to the Caribbean and pursue its long-term growth strategy."
FedEx revealed Friday that it received a grand jury subpoena in June relating to a wide-ranging multigovernment probe into possible anticompetitive practices by air cargo carriers. "We have no reason to believe that we are a target of the investigation, and we are cooperating with the [US Dept. of Justice]," FedEx said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Iberia said it was back to its full flight schedule Friday "with very few exceptions" following conclusion of a three-day pilots strike ( ATWOnline, July 13). "Iberia is glad the strike has ended, and thanks its customers for their confidence and their understanding in these difficult circumstances.
Jet Airways began operating its first A330-200 between Delhi and London Heathrow. The aircraft seats 226 and is powered by Trent 772Bs. Jet also operates A340-300Es on the daily service. It shifted a dash 300E to its LHR-Mumbai route on which it began offering a second daily frequency effective July 10. Separately, Jet linked its frequent-flier program with those of Austrian Airlines and Thai Airways. Jet Privilege members can earn and use miles on flights operated by Austrian and Thai, whose loyalty program members can do the same on Jet flights.
Meggitt and AeroMechanical Services reached agreement involving joint marketing of Meggitt's condition monitoring system with AMS's Automated Flight Information Reporting System that will permit real-time transmission of aircraft flight and engine data to "airline and helicopter companies' financial, operational and maintenance decision-makers and aircraft and engine owners with inclusive lease contracts."
SAS Cargo signed a cargo capacity agreement with Spanair effective Sept. 1. SAS said the agreement will be useful particularly to Scandinavians sending or receiving freight from Africa and South America, since Spain is a major gateway from those continents. Cargo Counts, a unit of Lufthansa Cargo, no longer will be in charge of selling capacity on Spanair's 51 aircraft. SAS said it will sell capacity through GSAs and its own staff.
Delta Air Lines told the US Bankruptcy Court in New York last week that it has signed a letter of intent with ILFC to lease 10 757-200ERs. The aircraft, powered by Pratt & Whitney PW2037s, will be delivered from July 15 through Nov. 15, 2007, after undergoing C checks and painting, and will be leased for seven years and three months each, according to the filing. The rent figures were not disclosed.
OnAir selected mobile network provider Monaco Telecom as its ground infrastructure partner. Starting in 2007, OnAir will be launching GSM and GPRS mobile services on selected European flights, allowing passengers to make and receive phone calls and exchange text messages and e-mails using their own mobile phones and PEDs. Air France, bmi and TAP Portugal have signed up for commercial trials of the OnAir service.
Southwest Airlines unveiled details of its new Washington Dulles operation yesterday, having announced its intention three months ago to start service at the airport ( ATWOnline, April 5). It will occupy two gates on Concourse B, hire about 40 local employees and start flying Oct. 5 with services to Chicago Midway (seven-times-daily), Orlando International (twice-daily), Tampa (twice-daily) and Las Vegas (daily). "Dulles will be a fantastic complement to our Baltimore/Washington operation," CEO Gary Kelly said.
Austrian Airlines Group said its ontime performance has suffered as a result of poor ATC at its Vienna hub and it expects several million euros of extra costs. Labor issues and union squabbles at Austro Control have reduced slots at the airport from 40-45 per hr. to just 25. Austrian expected 83% ontime performance, but in the past several days it has dropped to 60%. Separately, the carrier will implement several organizational changes on Sept. 1 that it said should boost quality and productivity.
Lufthansa Cargo is evaluating replacement of its 19 MD-11 freighters, which have an average age of eight years, as it looks to brace itself for tough competition in the years ahead. "Maybe during this year, but at the latest in 2007, we have to make a decision," Executive Board Member-Operations Karl-Heinz Koepfle told ATWOnline in Frankfurt. He didn't specify a possible replacement type but admitted, "there is not much choice anyway." The 747-400ERF, 747-8 or 777F are LHC's most realistic options.
China and Japan reached an air services agreement yesterday that provides for a 20% increase in the number of passenger flights between the countries and a doubling of cargo services, Reuters reported. Thirteen carriers from each country will have access, up from the current six. The number of permitted flights will rise to 547 per week, with Chinese carriers operating 300.
One-off costs related to air traffic control, "irregularities" at Oslo Gardermoen and ground and engine mishaps took a chunk out of Norwegian's second-quarter profit, which came in at NOK17.8 million ($2.8 million) after taxes, a figure that represented a 20.3% improvement over earnings of NOK14.8 million in the year-ago period but was "below our expectations" for the current term.
Frontier Airlines flew 813.1 million RPMs in June, a 21.8% rise over the year-ago month. Capacity grew 17.7% to 954.9 million ASMs and load factor climbed 2.9 points to a record 85.2%. Passenger RASM rose 8.1% to 9.89 cents and yield increased 4.4% to 11.51 cents. Gol flew 1.24 billion RPKs in June, a 60.3% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 47.4% to 1.6 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 6.2 points to 77.3%.
Siemens Energy & Automation's Airport Logistics Division was awarded a $28 million contract to design and build the baggage handling and inline screening system at JetBlue's new Terminal 5 at JFK. The terminal is scheduled to be completed in early 2009.
