United Airlines expanded the role of CIO Garry Kelly to include oversight for enterprise-wide strategic sourcing and continuous improvement. He is replacing Rick Poulton, who is leaving the company. Tampa Cargo President and CEO Fred Jacobsen is resigning for "professional reasons" after eight years, the company said earlier this month. His departure becomes effective March 30. The search for a successor is underway.
US airlines flew 572.89 billion domestic RPMs in 2005, an increase of 4.5% over 2004, according to statistics released yesterday by the US Dept. of Transportation. The number of passengers increased 4.1% to 634.5 million. Capacity rose just 0.9% to 742.27 billion ASMs and load factor grew 2.7 points to 77.2%. Southwest Airlines continued to set the pace with 88 million passengers, compared with 81 million in 2004. Delta Air Lines was second and American Airlines third.
Correction: ATWOnline incorrectly stated that ANA was suspending the operations of Air Hokkaido International Airlines. The airline being shuttered is Air Hokkaido. ANA maintains a small stake in Air Hokkaido International Airlines and codeshares with the new entrant, but it is not part of the ANA group of carriers. It operates to Tokyo Haneda from four cities on Hokkaido. The item subsequently was corrected on the website. ATWOnline thanks our sharp-eyed readers who caught the error.
TAM released more details about last week's global IPO in New York and Sao Paulo that netted the Brazilian carrier close to R$1.5 billion ($706.3 million), which will be used "entirely to finance its activities," the company said. Fleet renewal and expansion, through purchase and lease, will consume 80% of the proceeds. TAM currently operates 59 A319s/A320s, eight A330s and 18 Fokker RJs. It has 29 additional A320s under firm order and expects to take delivery of 11 through 2009. The remaining 20% of equity funding will be used for working capital.
Northwest Airlines yesterday urged Congress to enact pension reform legislation that will permit it to maintain its existing pension commitments rather than terminating the plans during its bankruptcy reorganization, the path chosen by United Airlines and US Airways. Delta Air Lines has all but confirmed that it likely will terminate its plans during its reorganization as well.
Swiss International Air Lines and Lufthansa, continuing the integration of their schedules, will create minihubs in Sao Paulo and Bangkok from the start of the summer season on March 26, permitting passengers to transfer between the airlines for onward travel. For example, Swiss will extend its five weekly Zurich-Sao Paolo services to Santiago while Lufthansa will have a daily flight from Sao Paulo to Buenos Aires.
World Airways Holdings, parent of World Airways and North American Airlines, notified the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it will delay the filing of its year-end financial results. The report was due yesterday. It did not file its second- and third-quarter results until Feb. 21 owing to delays caused by the acquisition of NAA in April 2005. World said preliminary unaudited results indicate it will post a 2005 operating profit of $59-$63 million, an increase of approximately 50% over the $40.3 million earned in 2004.
Boeing and Japan Airlines signed an Integrated Material Management agreement giving the airframer responsibility for purchasing, inventory and logistics for JAL's expendable aircraft parts. Boeing and other suppliers own the parts, which are stored at a location convenient to the customer. JAL will pay for parts on an as-needed basis.
British Airways announced the proposed closure of its Travel Shops business and its Belfast call center, moves that would shave approximately 400 jobs from the cost-cutting carrier's payroll. BA's 17 UK Travel Shops, which are "forecast to make ever-increasing losses in the years ahead," will be shuttered by the end of August. The airline also will cut jobs at the London Heathrow-based Worldlink travel agency and its back office support area.
Emirates upgraded its onboard healthcare capabilities with the Tempus monitoring system, which records data such as blood pressure, pulse rate and temperature before sending it through the inflight communication system to specialists at the MedLink Response Center in Arizona. Manufactured by Remote Diagnostic Technologies of the UK, Tempus is installed on Emirates A340-500s operating services to New York, Osaka, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and Christchurch. It will be added to the A380s and 777s on order.
US FAA, which has been in mediated contract talks with the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. for the past two weeks following eight months of contentious negotiations, said the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service agreed to its request to extend mediated negotiations. FMCS will oversee talks into next week.
South African Airways unveiled an A340-600 repainted in Star Alliance livery yesterday. SAA is scheduled to join the alliance on April 10. All members are required to paint 3% of their fleet in the group's livery. The carrier also will paint a 737-800.
Air France unveiled its new €120 million ($143.7 million), 33,310-sq.-m. Flight Crew Center at Paris Charles de Gaulle yesterday. Approximately 18,000 members of AF's flightdeck and cabin crew will be based at the facility. Construction began in December 2003.
AeroRepublica, the Colombian subsidiary of Copa Holdings, announced a firm order for five GE CF34-powered Embraer 190s worth a combined $175 million at list prices. The order includes 20 options. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in November. The aircraft will seat 108 in a single-class configuration.
ANA said yesterday that it will dissolve Air Hokkaido, a wholly-owned Regional subsidiary of Air Nippon, in July following a cessation of operations scheduled for March 31. It operated two daily roundtrip flights between Hakodate and Okushiri on Hokkaido island with a 19-seat Twin Otter. Separately, ANA said it concluded a cargo codeshare agreement with Star Alliance partner Asiana to take effect April 1. It covers 18 weekly flights--10 operated by ANA, eight by Asiana--between Japan and Korea and is the first such accord between the two countries.
Thomas Cook Airlines of Belgium reported a pre-tax profit of €3.2 million ($3.8 million) on revenues of €132.36 million in the financial year ended Oct. 31, 2005. The carrier will add a sixth A320 in the coming months to accommodate its forecast growth. Launched in 2002, it transported 997,100 passengers aboard 3,339 flights to 45 leisure destinations during the fiscal year.
SriLankan Airlines is preparing for possible changes to its ownership structure, with CEO Peter Hill telling ATWOnline, "In three to six months' time, the government, which holds 51% in SriLankan, will decide how it will go on with the carrier."
Southwest Airlines has "increased the near-entirety of its fare structure," according to JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker, giving the green light to US carriers to raise their own domestic fares. Facing rising fuel costs and the erosion of its hedges, Southwest boosted one-way fares $2-$10 across two-thirds of its network over the weekend, Baker said. Its $299 fare cap, in place since 2002, has been raised $10 in "the largest single fare increase they have ever taken." A "significant" number of its one-way long-haul fares have increased by $10 as well.
United Airlines announced a $165 million commitment to upgrade its international first and business class seats through a deal with B/E Aerospace. The arrangement is part of UA's revamp of its entire international widebody fleet expected to take "roughly two to three years." It will begin introducing the new seats in 2007. "This program supports United's strategic business emphasis on international and premium services," B/E Chairman and CEO Amin Khoury said.
US Airways Group, comprising US Airways, US Airways Express and America West, flew a combined 4.43 billion RPMs in February, a decline of 8.7% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 14.5% to 5.86 billion ASMs and load factor rose 4.9 points to 75.7%. Domestic traffic was down 9% to 3.75 billion RPMs against a 16.7% decrease in ASMs to 4.84 billion. International traffic fell 6.8% to 686.1 million RPMs as capacity dropped 2.3% to 1.02 billion ASMs.
British Airways denied it is at an advanced stage of negotiations with Boeing to acquire up to 20 777-300ERs that would replace some early delivery 747s from 2008, as reported on this website last week ( ATWOnline, March 10).
South African Airways said it will terminate its loyalty program agreement with Qantas from April 9, at which time SAA Voyager members no longer will be eligible to earn or redeem points aboard Qantas flights.
