Embraer Aircraft Maintenance Services opened a 78,000-sq.-ft. hangar last week in Nashville. The facility will provide full-service MRO and create 165 new jobs. It consists of production shops, support offices and a three-bay hangar large enough to accommodate three Embraer 195s. Operations will begin next month.
Air Canada flew 3.75 billion RPMs in March, a 3.8% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 1.7% to 4.61 billion ASMs and load factor went up 1.6 points to 81.4%. Air Canada Jazz traffic grew 88.8% to 304 million RPMs against a 84.5% hike in ASMs to 417 million, raising load factor 1.7 points to 72.9%. Gol flew 1.04 billion RPKs in March, a 49.6% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 57.3% to 1.51 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 3.6 points to 68.8%.
Continental Airlines yesterday said it selected Chautauqua Airlines to operate up to 69 ERJ-145s it is withdrawing from its capacity purchase agreement with ExpressJet. After failing to reach a financial agreement in January, Continental notified its Regional partner that 69 of 274 ERJs would be removed from its fleet ( ATWOnline, Jan. 5). At that time, ExpressJet CEO Jim Ream told this website he was hopeful he would find a suitable partner on behalf of whom the regional jets, which ExpressJet subleases from CO, could be deployed.
Surging operating revenue and a spike in fuel costs offset one another at Air China in 2005, resulting in a "satisfactory" 0.85% rise in annual profit attributable to shareholders to CNY2.41 billion ($299.7 million). "As with other carriers, the rising cost of jet fuel was a major challenge for us," CA Chairman Li Jiaxiang said. "Despite this, we remained the most profitable airline among the major carriers in China as we successfully used a number of strategies to improve operations and contain costs."
The Delta Master Executive Council of the Air Line Pilots Assn. will meet today to receive a "comprehensive briefing" on the tentative agreement reached by airline and union negotiators last Friday. The MEC must approve the deal before it is submitted to members for a ratification vote. To date, the union has declined to provide terms of the accord even to members, but it did say yesterday that the $280-$290 million concession figure reported by The Wall Street Journal ( ATWOnline, April 18) is "not accurate."
Thai Airways board elevated Executive VP Apinan Sumanaseni to president effective May 1, according to a statement from Chairman Wanchai Sarathulthat cited by press reports. Apinan succeeds Kanok Abhiradee, who was suspended by the Thai prime minister and stripped of most of his major responsibilities last summer following heavy financial losses ( ATWOnline, Aug. 12, 2005). Apinan started with Thai as a pilot before moving into the front office.
World Air Holdings, parent of World Airways and North American Airlines, announced the appointment of Michael Towe as CFO. Towe formerly was CFO of Roper Industries of Georgia.
Santos Dumont Aircraft Management of Dublin purchased 10 Aviation Partners Boeing 737-300 Blended Winglet shipsets. SD currently is remarketing five dash 300s on behalf of Oak Hill Capital and will install the winglets between November 2006 and May 2007.
JetBlue Airways may "modestly retard its growth" through retirement of its oldest aircraft or deferrals of new deliveries and could make an announcement to that effect as early as next week, JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker speculated in a report released Monday. A JetBlue spokesperson told ATWOnline the carrier is in a quiet period ahead of its quarterly results release on April 25 and could not comment. Yesterday, it announced it hired a new VP-revenue management, filling a position that had been vacant since last fall (see item below).
JetBlue Airways yesterday named former US Airways MD-Pricing and Revenue Management Development Richard Zeni its new VP-revenue management. The appointment was effective from March 29. Zeni had worked in revenue management at US since 1996. "The area of revenue management is vital to JetBlue as we face industry challenges and opportunities ahead.
Bombardier Regional Aircraft President Steven Ridolfi announced a new management lineup that he said is designed to "better serve the needs or our expanding customer base." James Dailly was appointed senior VP-sales. Reporting to Dailly will be Ric Allison, VP-Americas sales; Steve Crowley, VP-Asia/Pacific sales, and Kevin Smith, VP-international sales. Rod Williams was appointed VP-commercial operations.
US Airways yesterday announced completion of the redemption of approximately $112 million in principal amount of America West Holdings' 7.5% convertible senior notes due 2009 ( ATWOnline, April 4). The airline said the transaction did not result in a cash outlay "other than a modest payment for accrued interest in unconverted notes," as more than 99% of the holders chose to convert their notes into US Airways common stock at a rate of 34.376 shares per $1,000 principal amount.
Cathay Pacific flew 5.78 billion RPKs in March, an 8.6% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 10.5% to 7.5 billion ASKs and load factor fell 1.4 points to 77.1%. US Airways Group flew 5.6 billion consolidated RPMs in March, down 10.7% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 11.3% to 6.92 billion ASMs and load factor rose 0.6 point to 81%. Domestic traffic dropped 11.3% to 4.68 billion RPMs against a 12.8% decrease in capacity to 5.76 billion ASMs. International RPMs declined 7.4% to 923.2 million and capacity slipped 2.7% to 1.15 billion ASMs.
Crane Aerospace & Electronics was selected to supply the onboard tire and brake monitoring system for the 777. First deliveries of aircraft with the new system are scheduled for next year.
US FAA named Wilson Felder as the new director of the William J. Hughes Technical Center. He succeeds the retired Ronald Esposito. Felder most recently served as the transition executive and director for technology development in FAA's Air Traffic Organization.
VarigLog, the former cargo and logistics subsidiary of Varig, raised its offer to buy the struggling Brazilian airline to $400 million Friday, according to a VarigLog statement cited in press reports. It had offered $350 million two weeks ago ( ATWOnline, April 5). Reports from Brazil indicated the carrier is canceling flights, running out of cash and at risk of shutting down. Varig said in a statement that the buyout proposal requires approval of its board.
Iberia flew 4.28 billion RPKs in March, up 3.4% compared to the year-ago month. Capacity increased 4.5% to 5.5 billion ASKs. Load factor slipped 0.9 point 77.7%. EasyJet transported 2.8 million passengers in March, a 7.1% increase over the year-ago month. Load factor dropped 4.8 points to 86.3%. WestJet reported a 15% increase in March RPMs to 831.3 million and a 9% rise in capacity to 1.01 billion. Load factor rose 4.1 points to a March-record 81.9%.
Aeroflot became the 10th member of SkyTeam Friday during a ceremony in Moscow at which Air France Chairman and CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta called the alliance's expansion strategy "simple," saying it is "committed to serving the destinations our customers want to travel to most." SkyTeam carriers now will operate nearly 15,000 daily flights to 728 destinations in 149 countries. Aeroflot and SkyTeam signed an MOU in May 2004 and the airline passed its IATA Operational Safety Audit last October.
Delta Air Lines and its pilots avoided having the fate of their protracted labor negotiations, and possibly the carrier itself, decided by a panel of arbitrators by reaching a tentative agreement, the parties announced Friday. A three-man arbitration panel was prepared to rule Saturday on whether or not Delta could void its deal with approximately 6,000 pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn. The pilots voted this month to strike if the panel ruled in the airline's favor ( ATWOnline, April 4).
Ukraine International Airlines took delivery of two 737-500s on lease from Boeing Capital Corp. UIA now operates 12 737s. It expects 2006 traffic to be up 26% compared to 2005 and is considering whether to add another 737 before year end.
The Australian airline landscape is set for some dramatic changes after the country's dominant port operator, Patrick Corp., which has a 62.4% stake in Virgin Blue, accepted Friday a A$6.20 billion ($4.52 billion) takeover bid from Australia's Toll Holdings ( ATWOnline, August 24, 2005).
JetBlue Airways will launch four-times-daily New York JFK-Charlotte service on July 12 and four-times-daily flights to Raleigh-Durham on July 20 aboard Embraer 190s. Separately, JetBlue flew 2.06 billion RPMs in March, an increase of 24.2% over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 29.1% to 2.38 billion ASMs and load factor fell 3.5 points to 86.5%.
Etihad Airways finalized a lease financing agreement with Oasis International Leasing of Abu Dhabi and Barclays Capital for six A330-200s. Terms of the deal were not announced. Aircraft are worth $948 million at list prices. The agreement follows a 2004 MOU signed by Etihad to acquire 24 Airbus aircraft including 12 dash 200s. The six aircraft, featuring a two-zone configuration with 262 seats, are scheduled for delivery starting later this month.
