DirectFly, a new Polish Regional, launched service this week. The carrier operates five Saab 340s and offers flights to and from Gdansk, Lodz, Bydgoszcz, Warsaw, Krakow and Wroclaw. It hopes to attract passengers by offering point-to-point flights bypassing Warsaw. Initial international destinations are Berlin Schoenefeld, Copenhagen, Kiev and Lvov. DirectFly uses the AOC of Sky Express.
Boeing announced a number of changes to its senior management. Upon the retirement of Washington Office Senior VP Rudy deLeon effective June 30, Tod Hullin will assume his responsibilities as senior VP for public policy and communications. Also, Thomas Downey, who leads Boeing Commercial Airplanes Communications, will move to Chicago to become VP-corporate communications for the entire company. Connexion by Boeing President Laurette Koellner, 51, will become president-Boeing International Relations, replacing Thomas Pickering, 74, who is retiring.
Delta Air Lines will increase fuel surcharges effective today by $10 each way on transatlantic routes (except France and Italy), by $15 on flights to or from India and by $19 on services to or from Israel. Separately, DL will boost its presence in New York this summer with the following new routes: LaGuardia-Las Vegas Saturdays from June 10 aboard 757s, LGA-Los Angeles Saturdays from June 10 aboard 757s, JFK-Burlington twice-daily from July 5 aboard CRJ200s and JFK-Richmond twice-daily from July 5 (originally scheduled to begin Sept. 9) aboard CRJ200s.
Northwest Airlines pilots will receive an $888 million stock claim when the carrier emerges from bankruptcy, according to press reports citing a video on the Air Line Pilots Assn. website. Voting on the new labor deal, which was reached last month ( ATWOnline, March 6) and is worth $358 million in savings to the airline, is being conducted through May 3. The stock claim will represent 13% of all unsecured claims on NWA and will be paid in shares of the reorganized company.
United Airlines signed a five-year, full-content distribution agreement with Worldspan designating the GDS as a "preferred distribution channel." The agreement is expected to be implemented in the next six months. UA signed a similar agreement with Galileo earlier this week. Separately, Worldspan said Mexicana Airlines chose to adopt its Rapid Reprice solution for repricing airline tickets when itineraries change.
British Airways reported a 1.8% increase in March RPKs to 9.5 billion and a 2.5% rise in capacity to 12.63 billion ASKs. Load factor fell 0.5 point to 75.2%. Northwest Airlines flew 6.43 billion RPMs in March, a 6.1% decrease from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 8.8% to 7.38 billion ASMs and load factor rose 2.5 points to 87.1%. Domestic traffic dropped 9.5% to 3.77 billion RPMs against a 12.9% fall in capacity to 4.46 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 3.2 points to 84.5%.
World Air Holdings, parent of World Airways and North American Airlines, authorized the repurchase of up to 2 million shares of its common stock once it files its annual report, which has been delayed.
Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo parent Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, in its first full fiscal year since exiting bankruptcy protection, reported a 2005 profit of $73.9 million on revenue of $1.62 billion, a performance that left the company confident as it pursues a listing of its common stock on a national exchange. "We believe that reaching these milestones will greatly broaden our potential investor base and therefore interest in AAWW, ensuring a more liquid market for our shares," Senior VP and CFO Michael Barna said.
Alaska Airlines will spend $3.5 million to upgrade its terminal at Nome. Work on renovating and expanding the passenger lobby by nearly 1,500 sq. ft. and upgrading the secured passenger area, cargo facility, ground service equipment area, parking lot and water and sewer line connections will begin in June and conclude in March 2007. The carrier operates three daily flights at the airport. Separately, Alaska flew 1.53 billion RPMs in March, a 4.2% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 3.7% to 1.95 billion ASMs and load factor improved 0.3 point to 78.2%.
Etihad Crystal Cargo, the cargo division of Etihad Airways, said it had more than $15 million in sales last month and handled more than 10,000 shipments.
Ryanair will launch nine new routes from its Frankfurt-Hahn base on Oct. 25 and 26, bringing the destinations it serves from HHN to 36. New routes include Ryanair's first services outside the EU, to Fez (thrice-weekly) and Marrakech (four-times-weekly). EasyJet will become the first European no-frills carrier to fly beyond the EU when it launches service to Istanbul and Marrakech this summer. Other new Ryanair routes are to Granada (thrice-weekly), Kaunus (four-times-weekly), Krakow (daily), Murcia (daily), Trieste (thrice-weekly), Verona (daily) and Wroclaw (daily).
Embraer delivered 27 aircraft in the first quarter comprising four ERJ-145s, eight 170s, one 175, eight 190s and six business or defense aircraft. It expects to deliver 145 aircraft this year and 150 in 2007. During the quarter, Midwest Express confirmed the cancellation of a May 2001 order for 20 ERJ-140s and Embraer said the cancellation will not have an impact on the company's delivery forecast for the coming year. Some 60% of those deliveries are expected to occur in the second half. Firm order backlog of commercial and business aircraft is valued at $10.4 billion.
Wizz Air and Pegasus Aviation Finance announced the closing of a sale and leaseback transaction for four new IAE V2500-powered A320s scheduled for delivery in 2007. Lease term is 11 years.
World Airways signed leases for two MD-11s it had been subleasing from Delta Air Lines until the leases were rejected by DL in bankruptcy court in September. A third lease will be signed later this month. World had been operating the aircraft on an interim agreement. Leases with the new owner are on staggered terms through March 2008.
Air Greenland plans to open the first route between Greenland and the US in May 2007. No decision on a US destination has been made, but the leading candidate is a weekly route between Kangerlussuaq and Baltimore/Washington International Airport. The company's financial report for 2005 shows a profit after tax of DKK40.8 million ($6.6 million) on turnover of DKK869.7 million. Air Greenland operates one A330-200, one 757-200, six Dash 7s and several smaller aircraft and helicopters on its domestic network.
US Airways announced the completion of a $1.25 billion debt refinancing transaction yesterday, allowing the carrier to pay off loans from America West ($250 million), the Air Transportation Stabilization Board ($551 million), General Electric Capital Corp. ($111 million) and "an affiliate of Airbus" ($161 million). A second Airbus loan of $89 million was forgiven as part of an agreement with the airframer. The new five-year loan, underwritten by GE Commercial Finance and Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, will bear interest at LIBOR plus 3.5%.
The on-again-off-again relationship between Air New Zealand and Qantas is back on, with the carriers announcing yesterday a comprehensive codeshare agreement for their routes across the Tasman Sea. Both airlines will file shortly seeking authorization from the New Zealand Minister of Transport and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Regulatory approval is expected to take approximately six months. The agreement replaces the more ambitious equity tie-up that ran foul of competition regulators in both countries in 2003.
TAM closed its preferred shares public offering ( ATWOnline, March 17) yesterday after distributing 37.1 million shares and raising BRL1.56 billion ($724.7 million). TAM said 54.7% of its capital now is held by TAM Empreendimentos e Participacoes SA and Aerosystem SA, with the remainder held by minority shareholders.
Air Canada parent ACE Aviation Holdings is selling 35% of its holding in US Airways Group to PAR Investment Partners LP. ACE invested $75 million to acquire 5 million shares representing 7% in the reorganized US Airways when it emerged from bankruptcy last September. ACE said net proceeds from the sale of 1.75 million shares will amount to $67 million, or 90% of its original investment, and it still holds 3.25 million shares worth nearly $123 million at Tuesday's midday price of $37.83 per share.
As expected, Australia's Qantas Group moved to rationalize its various airline brands, with leisure operator Australian Airlines being absorbed into the mainline from July and Jetstar International, the overseas arm of Qantas domestic LCC Jetstar, launching operations in November.
China Airlines reported an after-tax profit of TW$645 million ($19.9 million) in 2005 on record revenues of TW$108.6 billion, according to Taiwan's Government Information Office. Fuel accounted for 45% of the carrier's expenses compared to 27%-28% in recent years. It posted a fourth-quarter loss of TW$362 million but plans to continue expanding its network with the purchase of six aircraft in 2006, comprising four A330s and two freighters.
Continued rising fuel prices are undermining the "remarkable overall progress being made by the US airline industry to return to profitability," the US Air Transport Assn. said yesterday as it called for airspace modernization to mitigate the impact. "Record crude oil prices, which are expected to average nearly $70 per barrel this summer, will hamper the industry's widespread efforts to reverse the losses that have plagued the airlines in recent years," ATA VP and Chief Economist John Heimlich said in a statement yesterday.
SITA said it won a five-year, $5.6 million contract from the Moroccan National Office of Airports to install and maintain AirportConnect CUTE, "a state-of-the-art IT system for managing busy airport environments," at the country's main airports in Casablanca, Agadir and Marrakech.
