Air Berlin carried 2.75 million passengers in the first quarter, up 8.5% over the year-ago period. Highest growth was recorded at Nuremberg (up 24.4%), Paderborn (24.5%) and Hannover (12.7%). Top airports outside Germany were London Stansted (up 60 %) and Milan Bergamo (42 %).
Precision Conversions will provide a 757PCF conversion to Ethiopian Cargo. The aircraft currently is being operated in passenger configuration by Ethiopian. Modification will take place at Goodrich ATS in Everett, Wash.
Willow CSN was selected by proposed low-cost startup Virgin America to manage all of its customer service calls including reservations and flight information through a "virtual call center" staffed by home-based CyberAgents.
Rockwell Collins named Jeff Moore senior VP-operations. He replaces Kent Statler, now VP and GM of Rockwell Collins Services. Goodrich named Bill Ashworth to the post of division president, Aviation Technical Services. He has 10 years of experience at ATS, most recently serving as VP-operations. He replaces Eric Schulz, who has been appointed division president, Actuation Systems.
Ethiopian Airlines will lease two 747-400s from Malaysia Airlines for five years to meet capacity demands ahead of the delivery of its 787s. The 747s will be delivered in July.
SkyEurope Airlines will launch twice-weekly summer services to Krakow from Split and Dubrovnik aboard 737-700s. Flights operate June 17-Sept. 16. It also will begin twice-weekly Bratislava-Naples flights operating June 18-Sept. 17. Separately, SkyEurope flew 178,163 earned seats in March, a 62.3% rise over the year-ago month. Load factor improved 1.2 points to 74.4%.
Ryanair offered Aer Lingus passengers who have not received a response to a complaint letter after six weeks or who had their luggage lost in the past year a free ticket on a Ryanair flight. The LCC set up an e-mail address for Aer Lingus passengers to register their complaints before midnight tonight.
Air Malta, which posted an operating loss of MTL2.3 million ($6.6 million) in the first nine months of its fiscal year, announced Wednesday that COO Joe Cappello has replaced Ernst Funk as CEO. Cappello joined the airline in 1976 working in market research and rose to become COO in 2002. "Cappello's experience is vast in every area of our business, not least in the critical commercial revenue generation aspect," Air Malta Chairman Lawrence Zammit said.
Aviation Fleet Solutions said its QuietEagle noise reduction system, developed and marketed with Pratt & Whitney and designed to reduce cumulative noise from JT8D-200-powered MD-80s by up to 6 dB, received FAA certification.
American Airlines sent letters to approximately 600 maintenance workers, cleaners, stock clerks and crew chiefs at 24 US airports warning them of possible layoffs. "We cannot say right now whether these job reductions will be temporary or permanent," said a letter to Los Angeles employees obtained by Bloomberg News. New AMR Corp. Executive VP and CFO Thomas Horton has been on record saying he believes AA must cut labor costs to stay competitive. Separately, AMR announced that its 4.25% Senior Convertible Notes due 2023 now are convertible into shares of common stock.
Alaska Airlines expects its unit costs excluding fuel and special charges to drop 5% in the quarter ended March 31 to 8.1 cents, primarily owing to a shift in the timing of maintenance effects, it said in an SEC filing. It also expects to incur a pre-tax impairment charge of $130-$140 million related to plans to retire 15 owned MD-80s ahead of previous plans in favor of 737NGs ( ATWOnline, March 14). Nonadjusted CASM is expected to rise 23% to 13.6 cents.
Qantas will convert four 737-300s to freighters for domestic cargo carrier Australian air Express at QF's facility in Avalon using conversion kits developed by Israel Aircraft Industries. These will be the first jet freighter conversions in Australia, according to Qantas. The aircraft currently are based in New Zealand and will be replaced with dash 400s. Work begins this month and is scheduled to be completed in January. EADS EFW in Dresden signed a contract with Air India covering conversion of two A310-300s into freighters.
Air Europa of Spain converted purchase rights for 16 737-800s into firm orders in a deal worth approximately $1 billion at list prices. Deliveries are scheduled between 2010 and 2014. The carrier will use the new aircraft on domestic routes, including to the Balearic and Canary islands, as well as on European and North African routes.
Avion Aircraft Trading ordered four 747-400BCFs for Avion Group's Air Atlanta Icelandic subsidiary. The first is scheduled for delivery in August 2007. They will replace older dash 200Fs operated by the ACMI provider. Last month it signed an eight-month wet-lease agreement with Saudi Arabian Airlines for two 747-300s to be delivered June 1.
Lufthansa Flight Training ordered a 737NG FFS X Non Zero Flight Time simulator from Mechtronix. It will be based in the LFT center at Berlin Schoenefeld and ready for use in summer 2007. Main customer will be Hapagfly. GE Commercial Aviation Training and Siberia Airlines agreed to cooperate in the development of a new training center in Moscow to be built near Domodedovo. It is expected to open in the second quarter of 2007, according to GECAT.
EasyJet is on the warpath again over Public Service Obligation routes, this time in Italy. The London Luton-based LCC confirmed yesterday that it lodged a formal appeal with the regional administrative court in Rome against the Italian Transport Ministry and Civil Aviation Authority over the right to operate service on the Milan Malpensa-Olbia, Sardinia, route.
Air France and KLM launched a combined Internet check-in facility allowing passengers to check in for AF flights on KLM's website. Effective next month, KLM will accept all e-tickets issued by SkyTeam members.
Norwegian has decided to invade an already-crowded Polish low-cost market and intends to hire Polish flight crew for the operation. The LCC announced yesterday that it will open a base in Warsaw and operate flights to three Spanish cities, France and its Oslo hub. It will base two aircraft at Warsaw, where it will compete with LOT Polish Airlines subsidiary Centralwings, SkyEurope Airlines and Wizz Air, among others.
Continental Airlines and Alitalia launched a codeshare agreement, effective immediately, that will see Continental put its code on select Alitalia flights from Rome Fiumicino and Milan and Alitalia place its code on CO flights from Newark to 11 US cities.
Aeroflot's summer schedule will include frequency increases of 30% to CIS countries, 28% to Southeast Asia, 20% to the Americas and 15% to Africa and the Middle East, the airline announced. Flights in Russia and Europe will go up by 14% and 9% respectively. New services will be introduced to Karlovy, Vary and Bratislava. In total it will operate flights to 87 cities in 47 countries. Aeroflot said that it soon will sign a deal with Boeing for the delivery of six MD-11 freighters through 2008.
FL Group announced yesterday the sale of its 16.9% stake in easyJet for approximately €325 million ($395.9 million), earning Icelandair's parent company some €140 million in profit from its initial investment and representing an annual return of 70%, "far surpassing" the 20% target. JPMorgan was the sole bookrunner and JPMorganCazenove was joint lead manager. FL Group said the proceeds will be "channeled into new investments during 2006." It now has liquid assets of about €600 million.
The Irish government on Tuesday decided to sell off of most of Aer Lingus through an IPO nearly a decade after it first announced its intention to privatize the carrier, but said it will retain a stake of "at least 25.1%." "The transaction is taking place in order to give Aer Lingus both the commercial flexibility and the financial muscle to compete and succeed in the global marketplace," Transport Minister Martin Cullen said in a statement.
Southwest Airlines flew 5.83 billion RPMs in March, an 11.4% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 8.7% to 7.72 billion ASMs and load factor rose 1.8 points to 75.5%. Continental Airlines' consolidated RPMs grew 11.2% in March to 7.69 billion as capacity rose 10.1% over March 2005 to 9.47 billion ASMs. Load factor inched up 0.7 point to 81.2%. Domestic traffic increased 4.9% to 3.75 billion RPMs against a 3.3% hike in ASMs to 4.49 billion, lifting load factor 1.2 points to 83.4%.
