Jade Cargo International will begin operations at the beginning of August, immediately after taking delivery of its first 747-400ERF. It initially will serve Amsterdam and Seoul Incheon three times a week from its hub in Shenzhen. Its second 747-400ERF is due to arrive in November. It has ordered a total of six with deliveries through January 2008. "We will rapidly expand our route network and serve intra-Asian, European and American destinations. From the start, Jade Cargo will assume a leading role in China's fast-growing air cargo market," MD Rudolf Tewes said in a statement.
JetBlue Airways broke ground yesterday on its $24.5 million crew facility at Orlando International. Scheduled for completion in 14-18 months, the JetBlue Crew Lodge will include 292 guest rooms, a 4,000-sq.-ft. assembly hall, fitness facilities and other features. The LCC already operates a training center at MCO that opened in June 2005 and a three-bay hangar facility used by LiveTV, its wholly owned subsidiary. Separately, JetBlue will launch thrice-daily New York JFK-Nashville flights aboard Embraer 190s from Aug. 31.
Cathay Pacific's acquisition of Dragonair and its routes into mainland China appeared imminent yesterday as trading in the Hong Kong-listed shares of Cathay, Air China, China National Aviation Co., CITIC Pacific and Swire Pacific was suspended for a third consecutive day, according to press reports. CITIC MD Henry Fan told reporters he expected an official announcement to come by today. Cathay already holds 17.8% of Dragonair and reportedly will pay approximately HK$8 billion ($1 billion) in cash and stock for the rest.
British Airways intends to resolve its pension issue before it moves forward with significant long-haul aircraft orders and does not want to take delivery of any new types ahead of its 2008 move into London Heathrow's Terminal 5, CEO Willie Walsh confirmed earlier this week at a meeting of oneworld executives ahead of the IATA AGM.
Air One is set to become a regional member of Star Alliance in the future, but the Italian carrier is aiming higher, Head of Network & Marketing Giorgio De Roni told this website at the IATA AGM. "First, I think, it makes sense that we become a regional member, then we will apply for full membership," he said. As a first step, Air One is planning to introduce more codeshare agreements with Star carriers.
Lufthansa Cargo in a significant operational change is closing its station in Fairbanks, which was used for 16 years for technical stops on flights to Japan, in favor of routing all services through Astana in Kazakhstan for refueling and crew changes. The move should reduce flying time and complexity. The station at Almaty also will be closed. From July, 40 weekly LHC flights will take off and land in Astana, making it the cargo giant's second-biggest airport.
CSA Czech Airlines posted a CZK496 million ($22.6 million) loss in 2005, a significant reversal from the CZK324 million profit earned in 2004, and expects to finish 2006 in the red, the carrier told the CTK Czech News Agency. Operating revenues rose 12% to CZK22.4 billion against a 21.4% increase in costs to CZK23.4 billion. CSA transported 5.2 million passengers last year, a 20% increase that "was achieved at the cost of inadequately high expenditures," President Radomir Lasak told CTK. "This problem has roots in 2003, when CSA decided to increase its fleet by 45% in a leap.
British Airways flew 9.66 billion RPKs in May, a 6.9% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 5.1% to 12.97 billion ASKs and load factor went up 1.3 points to 74.5%. Separately, BA and Malev Hungarian Airlines signed a codeshare agreement effective Nov. 1, placing BA's code on Malev's twice-daily London Gatwick-Budapest flights and seven Eastern European routes from BUD. Malev will place its code on BA's thrice-daily London Heathrow-BUD service and on flights to five British markets from LGW.
Boeing and FedEx jointly have initiated a 120-day in-service evaluation of active radio frequency identification tags on some major airplane parts for a FedEx MD-10F. Active tags provide considerably greater read range than passive tags, 300 ft. compared to 10 ft., giving the ability to inventory an aircraft without opening access doors, according to Boeing. Active tags also operate more quickly and provide more storage memory. The tags were created by Identec Solutions, are battery powered and contain a microchip and transmitter that operate at 915MHz.
Northwest Airlines flight attendants overwhelmingly rejected a tentative agreement reached in March that would have provided the bankrupt carrier with $195 million in annual work rule, benefit and salary concessions ( ATWOnline, March 2). According to the Professional Flight Attendants Assn., 85% of the 7,625 eligible workers cast votes and of those, 80% voted to reject the agreement. "The Flight Attendants understood how harsh and unfair the bankruptcy process can be to loyal employees.
Ryanair called its growth "inexorable" as it reported a record €302 million ($390.9 million) after-tax profit for the financial year ended March 31, a figure approximately €7 million above forecast and 12% higher than the €268 million earned in the previous fiscal year. It did issue a "cautious" outlook for the coming term, predicting that traffic will climb 20%, yields will remain flat and profit will grow by a more "modest" 5%-10%.
Mettis Aerospace was selected by Teleflex Aerospace Manufacturing Group to be an exclusive supplier of aluminum outlet guide vanes in a deal with GE Aircraft Engines. The five-year deal includes a newly designed vane for the GEnx.
In a rare commitment by a US Major for widebody aircraft, Continental Airlines yesterday announced an order for 10 additional 787s, doubling the order it placed in December 2004 ( ATWOnline, Jan. 4, 2005) and making it the largest US customer for the Dreamliner. CO also said it will acquire 24 more 737NGs, bringing the number of firm orders for the type to 66. The 20 787s begin delivery in 2009, with the first additional 737 arriving in 2008.
Rolls-Royce signed a 15-year Total Care engine services agreement with UPS covering 40 RB211-535s powering 757 freighters. The pact "covers work which would not be performed by UPS's own maintenance program," according to Rolls.
Malev Hungarian Airlines, scheduled to become a oneworld member early next year, expects to report breakeven results for 2006. "We are expecting a drastic growth in terms of passengers thanks to the oneworld membership, which should double passenger figures from the 3 million of today," CCO Andras Zboray, told ATWOnline at the IATA AGM in Paris. Malev is planning to extend its network to more destinations in Eastern Europe starting with the Balkans, cities in the southeastern Mediterranean and other markets within 3 hr. of Budapest.
Varig announced that the auction of its aircraft and routes in Rio de Janeiro has been postponed until Thursday by a bankruptcy court judge. It had been scheduled for yesterday ( ATWOnline, June 5) but was moved at investors' request, the airline said. So far Gol, TAM, TAP Portugal, OceanAir and Brookefield, a US investment firm, have paid to have access to Varig's books, Reuters reported.
Israel Aircraft Industries said its Bedek Aviation division received an FAA STC for conversion of a 747-400 Combi into a pure freighter. The aircraft used for the certification process is owned by Guggenheim Aviation and will be operated by Air China. IAI said certification also was received from the Israeli CAA and certification from EASA and CAAC are expected shortly.
Iberia is only "cutting nonprofitable routes" at Barcelona International, Chairman and CEO Fernando Conte stressed to ATWOnline at the IATA AGM in Paris ( ATWOnline, June 2). "There is a lot of misunderstanding on this matter. We are not leaving BCN.
Texas Pacific Group Founding Partner David Bonderman warned of the "deeply cyclical" nature of the airline business during the CEO Forum on Shaping the Air Transport Industry at the IATA AGM in Paris yesterday. "Although disguised by high fuel prices, this is about as good as it gets," he said, predicting that in two years time "we will see everybody cancel orders for over 1,000 new aircraft." Ironically, Bonderman also is chairman of Ryanair, which has outstanding firm orders for 143 737-800s and 193 options.
US Federal Communications Commission said AirCell of Colorado and LiveTV, a JetBlue Airways subsidiary, won the 144-round auction concluded June 2 for two air-ground spectrum licenses in the 800MHz band ( ATWOnline, Jan. 16). Verizon Airfone's license to use the spectrum expires in May 2010 and it must relinquish three of the four MHz bands on which it operates within the next two years. AirCell bid $31.3 million for a 3-MHz block and LiveTV will pay $7 million for a 1-MHz block.
Southwest Airlines will launch a daily Denver-Houston Hobby flight on July 17 (increasing to twice-daily on Aug. 4), a four-times-daily DEN-Kansas City service and daily flights from DEN to Orlando International and Nashville, all on Aug. 4, and a daily Baltimore/Washington International-Oakland service from Aug. 17. It also will add one more daily flight from DEN to BWI, Chicago Midway and Phoenix on July 17 and to Las Vegas on Aug. 4. Frequencies will be added between HOU and Tampa on July 17 and between Boise and Oakland on Aug. 17.
Continental Airlines estimated an 8.5%-9.5% year-over-year rise in consolidated May RASM and a 7%-8% increase in mainline RASM as May system traffic increased 14.6% to 7.65 billion RPMs. Capacity rose 11.9% to 9.44 billion ASMs and load factor climbed 1.9 points to a May-record 81%. Domestic RPMs increased 7.9% to 3.63 billion as capacity grew 4.6% to 4.33 billion ASMs and load factor went up 2.7 points to 83.9%. International traffic jumped 20.9% to 3.12 billion RPMs on a 20.9% climb in capacity to 3.99 billion ASMs, leaving load factor steady at 78%.
