IATA reported 7% growth in worldwide airline passenger traffic in May compared to the year-ago month. May cargo traffic increased 5.1%. IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said "strong economies" are driving demand and "helping the global airline industry to offset some of the sharp increases in jet fuel prices." ICAO is forecasting worldwide airline scheduled passenger traffic growth of 6.1% for 2006, 5.8% for 2007 and 5.6% for 2008.
Number of passengers willing to pay premium fares has dropped by half over the past five years, giving business aviation a major boost, according to a study by The Velocity Group. The number of higher-yield trips fell from 18% of overall travel pre-9/11 to 9% in 2005. "The decline in higher-yield airline travel since our last survey has been dramatic," said Gerald Bernstein, a partner with Velocity. "Despite a rise in total airline passenger trips, the number of higher-yield trips declined from almost 81 million to 41 million since 2000.
Air New Zealand named Cam Wallace GM-New Zealand & Pacific Island sales replacing Roger Poulton, who becomes GM-Americas. Air Pacific elected Nalin Patel chairman. American Airlines selected Arthur Pappas as VP-Chicago. Aviation Partners Boeing welcomed Jerome C. David as CFO. Aviareto appointed Niall Greene MD. Boeing tapped Judge J. Michael Luttig as senior VP & general counsel succeeding Douglas G. Bain, who retired.
Haruka Nishimatsu was confirmed yesterday as JAL Group's new president and CEO, with former group CEO Toshiyuki Shinmachi confirmed as group chairman. Shinmachi was pressured to relinquish the CEO title four months ago ( ATWOnline, March 2). Nishimatsu, 58, formerly was senior VP-finance and purchasing and has spent most of his working life at JAL. "I adored aircraft. I had watched planes fly over Hamamatsu between Tokyo and Osaka since I was a small boy and was fascinated by them," he said.
Copa Airlines said yesterday that it has priced Continental Airlines' offering of 6.56 million Class A nonvoting Copa shares at $21.75 per share. It added that underwriters will have a 30-day option to purchase an additional 984,375 Copa shares from Continental to cover overallotments, if any. CO will continue to hold a 12.3% interest in Copa once the share sale is completed, or a 10% interest if the overallotment option is exercised in full.
Next Generation Air Transportation System, as the program to modernize the US air traffic control system is now known, will revolutionize the airways in the same way that construction of the US interstate highway system changed how people and goods move on the ground, outgoing Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta said Wednesday at a forum on NGATS in Washington.
India and Kuwait agreed to increase airline seats per week from Kuwait by 1,300. Kuwait Airways will maintain its current 5,200 weekly seats while Jazeera Airways will operate the added 1,300. The expansion is part of a broader agreement expected to be finalized during bilateral talks scheduled for next month.
AeroMexico will lease three 787-8s from International Lease Finance Corp., with deliveries beginning in 2010. The aircraft will replace 767s on leases set to expire and will be used on flights to Europe and Asia. ILFC has 20 787s on firm order. AeroMexico recently took delivery of two 777-200ERs. "With similar speeds, mission capabilities and cockpit commonality, the combination of the 787 with the 777 will provide AeroMexico with optimum fleet flexibility on long-range missions," said Boeing Commercial Airplanes VP-Sales, Latin America and the Caribbean John Wojick.
Berlin Airports, which manages the city's three airports, finalized a €350 million ($439.7 million) bridge loan with an international consortium of banks headed by Commerzbank in another step toward transforming Berlin Schoenefeld into the larger and more modern Berlin Brandenburg International Airport. The consortium also includes Helaba, KfW/IPEX and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. as co-arrangers. Other members are the investment banks in the states of Berlin and Brandenburg.
Hawaiian Airlines filed a motion seeking a court order to stop Mesa Air Group from issuing inter-island tickets for its new startup carrier go!, which began service June 9. According to the Associated Press, Hawaiian claims to have proof that Mesa's CFO used "highly confidential documents and trade secrets obtained from Hawaiian in April 2004." At that time, Mesa was among a group of potential bidders for the bankrupt island carrier. In February, Hawaiian filed suit against the Regional and Mesa responded a month later with a countersuit charging Hawaiian with violating antitrust laws.
Bmi Chairman Michael Bishop celebrated bmi's role in European aviation liberalization and 20 years of scheduled services to Europe yesterday with a call for continued deregulation, particularly between the US and London Heathrow. On June 29, 1986, bmi Flight BD101 left LHR for Amsterdam, marking "the first scheduled flight between Heathrow and a major European city by any independent airline. Until that date, only the respective national airlines, or so-called flag carriers, were able to operate cross-border scheduled services on major routes," Bishop noted.
SkyTeam took another step toward adding China Southern Airlines yesterday, signing a Global Airline Alliance Adherence Agreement in Guangzhou that outlines the carrier's "commitment to meet the stringent set of standards to be officially recognized as a member of SkyTeam." It is expected to join in 2007.
JetBlue Airways is joining Northwest Airlines in opposing the deal struck by Southwest Airlines, American Airlines and the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth that repeals the Wright Amendment by 2014 and effectively reduces the number of gates at Love Field from 32 to 20 ( ATWOnline, June 16). The 20 gates would be used by Southwest (16), American (2) and Continental Airlines (2).
Northwest Airlines said it will accelerate the retirement of its 12 remaining DC-10s, all GE CF6-50-powered dash 30s, over the next seven months. It is the last Major US passenger airline to operate the type. The DC-10s will be replaced with newly arriving A330s on transatlantic services and three parked 747-400s that are being returned to service on transpacific routes, NWA said. Currently, DC-10s operate on seven routes. After Oct. 31, the only remaining DC-10 service will be the carrier's daily Minneapolis/St. Paul-Honolulu trip. The final flight will take place Jan.
Air France appointed Florence Parly director-strategy and investments. Parly was formerly president of the Paris-Ile-de-France regional development agency and was budget secretary in the Jospin government from 2000 to 2002. EasyJet selected Tim Newing as IT director effective Aug. 21.
TAM signed an MOU yesterday with Airbus to acquire 37 aircraft, boosting both the manufacturer's flagging fortunes and the airline's hopes for domestic dominance as Varig lingers on the verge of shutdown.
UPS won a three-year contract from the US Postal Service to provide domestic air transport of mail to and from 98 cities, greatly expanding an arrangement under which it furnishes airmail services for 16 cities. The agreement, which covers mostly first-class and priority mail, takes effect July 1 and includes a two-year option.
SriLankan Airlines Group is recovering gradually from the December 2004 tsunami, reporting a net profit of LKR2.04 billion ($19.6 million) for the fiscal year ended March 31 that marks a 48.3% improvement from the prior year's profit of LKR1.38 billion but still falls far short of the LKR5.64 billion it earned in FY04.
New details emerged regarding the failed merger of Jet Airways and Air Sahara ( ATWOnline, June 23) as the legal fight between the carriers escalated and may be headed for India's Supreme Court. In an extensive interview with India's Financial Express, Air Sahara President Alok Sharma claimed Jet wanted to cut its $500 million acquisition price by 10%-20%, which Air Sahara "summarily rejected," effectively killing the deal.
Dragonair flew 450,509 passengers in May, a 7.7% increase over the year-ago month. It said passenger numbers were bolstered by higher traffic from secondary Chinese cities such as Changsha, Chengdu, Nanjing and Xian.
Teledyne Controls announced that Jade Cargo International, a joint venture among Shenzhen Airlines, Lufthansa Cargo and DEG, ordered its integrated Data Management Unit for aircraft condition monitoring and data recording on its new 747-400ERF fleet.
VarigLog, the former freight and logistics arm of Varig, has until Wednesday to finalize its offer for the beleaguered airline, a Rio de Janeiro bankruptcy court said yesterday, according to press reports.
Iberia Maintenance won a five-year contract from British Airways for maintenance of 29 RB211-535E4s used on the carrier's 757 fleet. The agreement calls for Iberia to perform all repairs, modifications, maintenance and inspection of engines, subassemblies, components and spare parts. Iberia Maintenance also signed a contract with Swiftair under which it will act as sole provider of maintenance services for components on the carrier's fleet of MD-80s/-83s. The contract remains in force until the end of 2009.
Comair asked the US Bankruptcy Court again to void its labor contract with 1,100 flight attendants following a breakdown in negotiations over a new agreement. The Cincinnati-based Regional, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, is seeking $8.9 million in annual concessions from the flight attendants and sought court permission in April to cancel the contract.
