Austrian Airlines will add a third daily Vienna-Moscow Sheremeteyvo service, operating Monday-Thursday, from June 5. It launched thrice-weekly flights to Ekaterinburg in April, bringing its weekly Russian service to 52 flights. Separately, Austrian said its Internet bookings for the January-April period rose 62% over the year-ago period thanks to a more user-friendly website featuring more languages.
US Dept. of Transportation said US airlines employed 5.4% fewer workers in March than in the year-ago month, the 15th consecutive year-over-year decline in the number of full-time equivalent employees. The carriers employed approximately 405,000 in March. Network airlines reported a 7.4% drop, low-cost carriers fell 3% and Regionals decreased 1.9%.
Significant capacity reductions at Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines, the disappearance of Independence Air and recent fuel-driven fare hikes gave US carriers their third consecutive month of double-digit year-over-year domestic yield growth in April.
Lufthansa Flight Training subsidiary Aviation Quality Services is inspecting Dragonair for conformity with the IATA Operational Safety Audit. It is the 50th safety audit conducted by AQS out of a total of 150 IOSA audits, according to AQS. Lufthansa Systems also announced it will operate the global wide area network of LSG Sky Chefs and provide all WAN services for the catering company, connecting more than 140 LSG Sky Chefs sites worldwide.
Chinese airlines posted a consolidated first-quarter loss of CNY1.34 billion ($166.9 million), according to a CAAC report cited yesterday by Xinhua. Revenues increased 21.5% over the year-ago quarter to CNY47.43 billion and expenses climbed 26.4% to CNY48.47 billion. China's airlines transported 35.13 million passengers, a rise of 20%, and 749,000 tons of cargo, an increase of 12.5%.
Flyglobespan will add seven Boeing aircraft, nearly doubling its current fleet of one 767 and nine 737s, with an eye toward expanding its long-haul services, according to press reports. The Edinburgh-based LCC will lease two more 767s, two 757s and three 737s. "We would like to be recognized as Scotland's national airline.
Less than two weeks after establishing a foothold in China with the addition of Shanghai Airlines, Star Alliance yesterday solidified its presence with the addition of Air China, the country's most profitable carrier. Once the two airlines become full members, Star will have bases in both Shanghai and Beijing, giving it a leg up on rivals SkyTeam, which signed an MOU with Guangzhou-based China Southern Airlines in 2004, and oneworld, which still is without a member based in mainland China and eventually may look to Shanghai's China Eastern Airlines.
SkyWest Airlines flew 1.27 billion RPMs in April, a 112.8% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 101.7% to 1.64 billion ASMs and load factor increased 4.1 points to 77.6%. Separately, SkyWest renewed its multiyear deal with ARINC for data link services, including GlobaLink/VHF service enhanced with high-capacity VDL Mode2 protocol.
Indian startup Kingfisher Airlines has been a marketing success since launching in May 2005, but the growing pains are evident in the carrier's bottom line, which was INR1.9 billion ($41.8 million) in the red after one year of operations, it told The Hindu's Business Line.
China Southern Airlines launched twice-weekly 737 service between Haikou and Singapore and weekly Urumqi-Baku flights aboard a 757. Separately, UATP added China Southern as its newest UATP Merchant. It will accept all UATP corporate cards.
Malaysia Airlines named CB Richard Ellis Group of Los Angeles and its Malaysian partner CH Williams to assist with the sale of its portfolio of noncore assets as outlined in the Business Turnaround Plan released earlier this year ( ATWOnline, March 6). MAS's portfolio consists of space in 26 mixed residential and office buildings throughout the Asia/Pacific region, the UK and the Netherlands.
Northwest Airlines and the International Assn. of Machinists, representing approximately 5,600 equipment service and stock clerks, announced a tentative labor agreement Friday. The ESSC employees were one of two IAM groups to reject a previous agreement ( ATWOnline, March 8) that was accepted by customer service and reservation staff. "We were able to get the company to change some of their demands. Even with this movement, the committee is still disappointed.
World Air Holdings, parent of World Airways and North American Airlines, will be delisted from the Nasdaq market today for failing to file necessary financial reports on time. World, which has been delisted in the past, plans an immediate appeal. It has yet to file its full-year 2005 or first-quarter 2006 earnings, saying that it is resolving issues related to its April 2005 acquisition of NAA.
Malev and German Regional OLT launched flights between Debrecen and Budapest this month using OLT's Saab 340s operating with Malev flight numbers. In addition, OLT announced it is creating a subsidiary called Civis Air to make it possible for its aircraft to operate with Hungarian crew and be maintained under a Hungarian registration number in Debrecen. Civis to expects carry more than 50,000 passengers to/from Debrecen by 2010. OLT's fleet consists of 16 Saab 2000s, Saab 340s, Metroliners, Cessna 404s and Cessna 208Bs.
Varig has received bids from 17 companies interested in buying its flight operations, including rivals TAM, Gol, OceanAir and WebJet, according to Merrill Lynch.
Sabre Airline Solutions and Penauille Servisair signed an agreement under which the ground handling company will implement the Sabre Streamline Resource Management Suite. It initially will cover passenger and ramp handling services throughout Penauille Servisair's network.
Strengthened by huge fourth-quarter profit gains, a short-haul operation that is making money for the first time in a decade and rising load factors and yields, British Airways Friday reported a £467 million ($880.7 million) profit for the financial year ended March 31, a 19.1% increase over year-ago net earnings of £392 million. BA's fourth-quarter profit of £83 million was nearly 14 times greater than the £6 million earned in the year-ago period.
Qantas warned staff it will lay off 20%, or approximately 1,000, of its management and administrative personnel in order to slash costs as fuel prices continue to rise. The carrier's fuel bill has increased by A$2 billion ($1.53 billion) to A$3.8 billion in the past two years and is expected to grow by a further A$1 billion during the 2006-07 financial year. It warned at its half-year results announcement in February that job losses were on the agenda ( ATWOnline, Feb.
Air China officially will be invited to join Star Alliance Monday, Lufthansa confirmed to German newspaper Handelsblatt, which reported that Chancellor Angela Merkel will attend the signing ceremony in Beijing. The world's largest airline alliance extended a formal invitation to Shanghai Airlines last week ( ATWOnline, May 11). Air China is 10% owned by oneworld's Cathay Pacific and there had been speculation earlier this year that it might join Star's rival.
Japan Airlines and Florida West International Airways, an all-cargo carrier, will launch a partnership June 3 that will enable JAL to add freight service to Dallas/Ft. Worth and Miami. Under the agreement, JAL will transfer cargo from Tokyo Narita and Nagoya to Florida West aircraft in Atlanta for carriage onward to DFW or Miami. JAL operates 747F service from Narita and Nagoya to Atlanta and plans to block 80 tons of space per week for the new service, which it is calling Southern Flash.
Air France-KLM Group reported net income of €913 million ($1.17 billion) for the financial year ended March 31, a 29.3% increase over the €706 million earned in 2004-05. Last year's results were restated to account for pension fund surpluses at KLM. "The year 2005-06 was marked by two features: Strong world economic growth leading to extremely dynamic levels of activity in our sector, and a significant rise in oil prices. In this environment, we have confirmed the success of the Air France-KLM merger," Chairman and CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta noted.
Triumph Group announced the acquisition of the assets of Air Excellence International, which will operate as Triumph Interiors as part of the Triumph Aftermarket Services Group and is expected to add approximately $13 million in revenue in FY07. Air Excellence employs about 95 people, provides aircraft interior repair and refurbishment services and manufactures approved plastic and metal components.
