Deccan Aviation, parent of LCC Air Deccan, struggled to attract investors for its IPO as India's stock market sputtered last week and has extended its deadline to Friday. Deccan issued the IPO on May 18, the same day India's stock market plunged in what many in the country are calling an unprecedented crash. The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index, known as Sensex, ended last week down more than 1,300 points, an 11% drop from the previous Friday's closing, sending shockwaves through the Indian economy.
Northwest Airlines' 5,600 ramp service employees and stock clerks will see their hourly base wage rates reduced by 11.5% if they ratify a tentative five-year agreement reached between the airline and negotiators for the International Assn. of Machinists last week ( ATWOnline, May 22).
Aviation Refinancing Transaction awarded GA Telesis a five-year servicing contract to manage and remarket more than 50 Boeing aircraft and approximately 70 spare engines.
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary will stand naked "in Warsaw's busiest street" if LOT Polish Airlines abolishes its fuel surcharge this month, the Irish carrier announced yesterday. A LOT spokesperson told Polish television last week that Ryanair would be willing to "walk naked down the street in front of TV cameras" in order to draw attention to the Polish airline's surcharges, Ryanair said. "We have no problem placing this wager with LOT because everyone knows that there is no chance whatsoever of LOT ever removing its fuel surcharges," Head of Communications Peter Sherrard said.
Indian Airlines signed an MOU with India's ICICI Bank for funding of the pre-delivery payments required for aircraft acquisition. Indian finalized a $2 billion deal for 43 A320 family aircraft in February ( ATWOnline, Feb. 22). Funding will come from a syndicated external commercial borrowing of $152 million spread from June 2006 to January 2010.
Air Transport Assn. warned of big crowds at US airports as the country observes Memorial Day Monday. ATA said US airlines will transport 21 million passengers from May 22 through May 31, or 2.1 million per day. It added that the passenger numbers are up 1.9% from the same week last year and advised travelers to arrive at airports 90 min. prior to departure for domestic flights and 120 min. prior to international departures and to be prepared for heavy traffic at security checkpoints.
Austrian Airlines will add a third daily Vienna-Moscow Sheremeteyvo service, operating Monday-Thursday, from June 5. It launched thrice-weekly flights to Ekaterinburg in April, bringing its weekly Russian service to 52 flights. Separately, Austrian said its Internet bookings for the January-April period rose 62% over the year-ago period thanks to a more user-friendly website featuring more languages.
US Dept. of Transportation said US airlines employed 5.4% fewer workers in March than in the year-ago month, the 15th consecutive year-over-year decline in the number of full-time equivalent employees. The carriers employed approximately 405,000 in March. Network airlines reported a 7.4% drop, low-cost carriers fell 3% and Regionals decreased 1.9%.
Significant capacity reductions at Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines, the disappearance of Independence Air and recent fuel-driven fare hikes gave US carriers their third consecutive month of double-digit year-over-year domestic yield growth in April.
Lufthansa Flight Training subsidiary Aviation Quality Services is inspecting Dragonair for conformity with the IATA Operational Safety Audit. It is the 50th safety audit conducted by AQS out of a total of 150 IOSA audits, according to AQS. Lufthansa Systems also announced it will operate the global wide area network of LSG Sky Chefs and provide all WAN services for the catering company, connecting more than 140 LSG Sky Chefs sites worldwide.
Chinese airlines posted a consolidated first-quarter loss of CNY1.34 billion ($166.9 million), according to a CAAC report cited yesterday by Xinhua. Revenues increased 21.5% over the year-ago quarter to CNY47.43 billion and expenses climbed 26.4% to CNY48.47 billion. China's airlines transported 35.13 million passengers, a rise of 20%, and 749,000 tons of cargo, an increase of 12.5%.
Flyglobespan will add seven Boeing aircraft, nearly doubling its current fleet of one 767 and nine 737s, with an eye toward expanding its long-haul services, according to press reports. The Edinburgh-based LCC will lease two more 767s, two 757s and three 737s. "We would like to be recognized as Scotland's national airline.
Less than two weeks after establishing a foothold in China with the addition of Shanghai Airlines, Star Alliance yesterday solidified its presence with the addition of Air China, the country's most profitable carrier. Once the two airlines become full members, Star will have bases in both Shanghai and Beijing, giving it a leg up on rivals SkyTeam, which signed an MOU with Guangzhou-based China Southern Airlines in 2004, and oneworld, which still is without a member based in mainland China and eventually may look to Shanghai's China Eastern Airlines.
SkyWest Airlines flew 1.27 billion RPMs in April, a 112.8% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 101.7% to 1.64 billion ASMs and load factor increased 4.1 points to 77.6%. Separately, SkyWest renewed its multiyear deal with ARINC for data link services, including GlobaLink/VHF service enhanced with high-capacity VDL Mode2 protocol.
Indian startup Kingfisher Airlines has been a marketing success since launching in May 2005, but the growing pains are evident in the carrier's bottom line, which was INR1.9 billion ($41.8 million) in the red after one year of operations, it told The Hindu's Business Line.
China Southern Airlines launched twice-weekly 737 service between Haikou and Singapore and weekly Urumqi-Baku flights aboard a 757. Separately, UATP added China Southern as its newest UATP Merchant. It will accept all UATP corporate cards.
Malaysia Airlines named CB Richard Ellis Group of Los Angeles and its Malaysian partner CH Williams to assist with the sale of its portfolio of noncore assets as outlined in the Business Turnaround Plan released earlier this year ( ATWOnline, March 6). MAS's portfolio consists of space in 26 mixed residential and office buildings throughout the Asia/Pacific region, the UK and the Netherlands.
Northwest Airlines and the International Assn. of Machinists, representing approximately 5,600 equipment service and stock clerks, announced a tentative labor agreement Friday. The ESSC employees were one of two IAM groups to reject a previous agreement ( ATWOnline, March 8) that was accepted by customer service and reservation staff. "We were able to get the company to change some of their demands. Even with this movement, the committee is still disappointed.
World Air Holdings, parent of World Airways and North American Airlines, will be delisted from the Nasdaq market today for failing to file necessary financial reports on time. World, which has been delisted in the past, plans an immediate appeal. It has yet to file its full-year 2005 or first-quarter 2006 earnings, saying that it is resolving issues related to its April 2005 acquisition of NAA.
Malev and German Regional OLT launched flights between Debrecen and Budapest this month using OLT's Saab 340s operating with Malev flight numbers. In addition, OLT announced it is creating a subsidiary called Civis Air to make it possible for its aircraft to operate with Hungarian crew and be maintained under a Hungarian registration number in Debrecen. Civis to expects carry more than 50,000 passengers to/from Debrecen by 2010. OLT's fleet consists of 16 Saab 2000s, Saab 340s, Metroliners, Cessna 404s and Cessna 208Bs.
Varig has received bids from 17 companies interested in buying its flight operations, including rivals TAM, Gol, OceanAir and WebJet, according to Merrill Lynch.
