Aer Lingus signed a contract yesterday for the purchase of one A330-200 and one A330-300, confirming an announcement made last month ( ATWOnline, Feb. 10). The aircraft will be delivered in mid-2007 and will be based at Dublin Airport. The dash 200 will seat 24 passengers in Premier and 245 in economy while the dash 300 will carry 24 in Premier and 303 in economy. Both will be powered by GE CF6-80E1s.
US FAA named Michael O'Malley chief of staff. He had served as Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta's deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy. Lufthansa Cargo announced that Executive Board Chairman Jean-Peter Jansen resigned effective March 31 for health reasons. Deutsche Lufthansa Chief Officer-Aviation Services and Human Resources Stefan Lauer was appointed interim chairman. Lauer will step down as chairman of the Lufthansa Cargo Supervisory Board and be replaced temporarily by Wolfgang Mayrhuber.
Lufthansa CFO Karl-Ludwig Kley is leaving the company for a position at Merck, the German pharmaceutical giant. He informed Supervisory Board Chairman Juergen Weber by telephone on Sunday, Lufthansa said. The board will discuss Kley's successor at its March 22 meeting.
NAV Canada announced a tentative agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers/Air Traffic Specialists. The four-year deal covers 850 flight service specialists. No details of the agreement were released pending ratification.
Precision Conversions said it entered into a "long-term cargo conversion program" with Cargo Aircraft Management, a subsidiary of Orlando-based Cargo Holdings International. Agreement covers completion of two 757-200 passenger-to-freighter conversions in 2006 "with plans to support multiple aircraft conversions over the next five years."
LAN Airlines reported a 5.8% year-over-year rise in system traffic in February compared to a 7.1% increase in capacity, which dropped load factor 1 point to 75.5%.
Lufthansa plans to expand its lower-fare strategy for European flights, Executive VP-Marketing and Sales Thierry Antinori said during the ITB tourism fair in Berlin last week. The carrier recently introduced short-haul return flights starting at €99 ($118) at Hamburg and Dusseldorf with slightly better than expected results. Additionally, it has taken share away from Air Berlin, according to Antinori. "We will definitely roll out this concept. I assume that we will also move into other catchments in the coming months," he said.
Following a fourth quarter in which it lost €2.9 million ($3.5 million) owing to surging costs ( ATWOnline, Feb. 17), Finnair's new president and CEO, Jukka Hienonen, told this website in Helsinki that the carrier will keep working toward securing a cost base that will ensure profitability even as it continues to demonstrate operational improvements.
Cathay Pacific Airways is looking at a variety of options for its growing freighter fleet, according to COO Tony Tyler, who told ATWOnline that the airline likes the 747-400BCF and may convert six options to firm orders. "If and when we do, we are likely to convert some of our own 747-400s but not all, because we will still need the passenger lift," he said.
OzJet, Australia's first premium-only airline, suspended scheduled operations after only three months, citing its failure to break the stranglehold of Qantas and Virgin Blue on the business travel market. It cancelled its Sydney-Melbourne service and will not proceed with plans to establish flights to Perth next month. About 70 employees lost their jobs. The airline is expected to continue a limited charter operation, scaling down its 737-200 fleet from four to two and keeping approximately 30% of its staff.
Alaska Airlines will transition to an all-737 fleet by the end of 2008 by accelerating the retirement of the 26 MD-80s it planned to phase out over the next 11 years, replacing them with 39 737-800s in 2006-08 from an order placed last summer ( ATWOnline, June 16, 2005).
Northwest Airlines confirmed that it "executed an agreement to purchase FLYi's operating certificate and related assets" subject to certain conditions. According to the Associated Press, which cited a FLYi bankruptcy filing, NWA paid $2 million for the certificate, which should enable it to expedite the startup of a new subsidiary that will operate 76-seat regional jets using furloughed mainline pilots ( ATWOnline, March 7). FLYi, which operated as Independence Air, shut down in January.
European Commission launched a public consultation on RFID "as their power to report their location, identity and history raises serious concerns about personal privacy and security, as well as technical interoperability and international compatibility." It added that addressing some of the concerns "may well require legislative responses." The Commission said it also is stepping up exchanges with the US and Asia on RFID technologies in order to define globally accepted interoperability standards and practices with regard to data privacy and ethical principles when applying the technolo
TAM raised nearly BRL1.5 billion ($689.8 million) Friday through stock issues on both the Bovespa exchange in Brazil and the New York Stock Exchange, according to press reports.
A380 program reached the 1,000-flight-hr. milestone last week. Four A380s have been tested with Trent 900s. A fifth will join the program this year with Engine Alliance GP7200s.
Air Berlin announced last week that it is "ready for the stock market" and intends to go public. The timing of the flotation on the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange was not announced, and the airline said it was "impossible" to forecast the proceeds from the move. German media reported earlier this year that the IPO is designed to raise €700 million ($834.8 million) ( ATWOnline, Jan. 13). Commerzbank and Morgan Stanley were appointed as joint global coordinator and joint bookrunner.
Gol's year of explosive expansion ended with record annual and quarterly profits as the Brazilian LCC posted net earnings of BRL513.2 million ($236 million) for 2005, an increase of 33.4% over the previous year's BRL384.7 million.
JetBlue Airways announced a new leadership structure in its human resources department, naming Vinny Stabile senior VP-people, Santo Barravecchio VP-people services and compliance and Dean Melonas VP-recruitment.
Tarom Romanian Airlines selected Rockwell Collins to provide a comprehensive avionics package, inflight entertainment and moving map systems for four new A318s scheduled for delivery beginning in November.
AirTran Holdings said last week that it was forced to adjust its fourth-quarter loss to approximately $1.4 million from the $0.4 million it announced in January ( ATWOnline, Jan. 25) "due to changes in estimates as a result of information which became available to management subsequent to the date of the press release." Its 2005 profit falls from $2.7 million to approximately $1.7 million due to the change.
Malaysian government ended the wrangling over domestic routes between Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia last week, announcing that MAS will operate flights to more popular destinations like Penang, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu and others tied to its international network while AirAsia will fly the remaining routes, according to local press reports. Further details will be announced in the future. MAS has been losing money on its domestic operations on behalf of parent company PMB.
Emirates President Tim Clark said the carrier is considering delaying next year's scheduled delivery of a dozen A340-600s and is close to choosing between the 787 and A350-900 for a 50-aircraft order.
Cargolux emerged as the unidentified customer that placed an order for two new 747-400Fs this month. The Luxembourg-based all-cargo airline simultaneously confirmed it canceled the introduction of a used dash 400F scheduled to join its fleet this year, as that aircraft has been sold in the meantime. The new aircraft, valued at $450 million at list prices, will be delivered in summer 2007 and summer 2008 and will fill the gap until delivery of the carrier's 747-8F fleet starting in September 2009.
Sterling launched a new website March 2 allowing passengers to reserve flights, hotels, rental cars and concert tickets as part of the same transaction.
