Norwegian carried 321,365 passengers in August, up 71% over the year-ago period. Traffic rose 103% to 304 million RPKs, while capacity climbed 48% to 348 million ASKs. As a result, load factor jumped 15 points to 75%. Yield, however, fell 15% owing to an increased share of international traffic with lower average yields. The Oslo-based LCC noted that 75% of bookings came via the Internet during August, up from 60% a year ago.
United Airlines and South African Airways will begin codesharing this fall. Starting Nov. 1, SAA will place its code on UA domestic flights from Washington Dulles to San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Subject to regulatory approval, the UA code will appear on SAA's Washington Dulles-Johannesburg service and its service within Africa and between South Africa and Europe. SAA will become a fully integrated Star Alliance member in early 2006.
Contract talks between Northwest Airlines and the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn. aimed at ending a 23-day walkout broke down Sunday and the company said it will begin hiring "permanent replacements" for striking mechanics today ( ATWOnline, Sept. 12). Negotiations apparently collapsed over the issue of severance pay for workers whose jobs were to be eliminated or outsourced.
Star Alliance said it became the first alliance to offer frequent-flier program upgrade redemption options across the group rather than on an individual carrier basis. The enhancement is available to the FFP members of ANA, Austrian Airlines, LOT, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines. Other Star carriers including Scandinavian Airlines will begin to participate during 2006.
Northwest Airlines raised the level of concessions it is seeking from striking mechanics and aircraft cleaners while cutting the number of workers it will bring back. According to wire service reports that NWA declined to confirm, which cited officials of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn., the company is seeking $203 million in labor cost savings from AMFA, up from the $176 million it sought prior to the strike. Additionally, whereas it previously wanted to eliminate roughly half of the 4,400 positions filled by AMFA members, it now seeks to bring back just 1,000 of the workers.
CAE will provide A320 pilots to Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling in what is known as a pilot provisioning program. CAE committed to find A320 type-rated pilots for Vueling as well as to train those who do not have type ratings. Initially the program targets recruitment of 80 candidates over a period of 18 months.
With jet fuel costs expected to rise by more than $9 billion this year, the Air Transport Assn. is pushing for tax relief from Congress and the Bush Administration. "There simply is no rational business plan we can continue to operate under with fuel at the price it is today," ATA CEO James May said during an interview with CNBC Friday. The trade group has raised its industry loss forecast for 2005 to $9-$10 billion.
Aeroflot Russian International Airlines reported that earnings for the first half to June 30 fell 14.3% to $69.3 million from $83.6 million in the year-ago period, largely owing to higher fuel prices. Revenue rose 18.7% to $1.04 billion but operating costs climbed 23.3% to $957 million, reducing operating income 16.8% to $86.5 million from $103.3 million.
Mechtronix said its Ascent FFS X 737-800 simulator received Level D certification by CAAC. The unit is installed at the Flight Simulator Training Center of Civil Aviation Flight University in Guanghan, Sichuan Province.
CSA Czech Airlines will end its Prague-Newark route by the end of October but continue to operate A310 services to New York JFK. Separately, the airline said it expanded its e-ticket facilities for travel agents in the UK with Amadeus and Galileo. Sabre will come online Sept. 15 and Worldspan Oct. 1.
Members of SkyTeam, facing opposition to their application for antitrust immunity from the US Dept. of Justice ( ATWOnline, Aug. 23), quietly offered to amend the application to address DOJ concerns that the requested immunity would reduce competition in nontransatlantic international markets and on US domestic routes.
Low-cost carrier AirAsia and loss-making Malaysia Airlines are close to a wide-ranging agreement, according to AirAsia founder and CEO Tony Fernandes. Speaking to reporters in Kuala Lumpur, Fernandes said, "we will have an announcement shortly as our relationship with Malaysia Airlines is improving rapidly, which gives us ways of potentially maximizing our revenue."
KLM appointed Peter T.M. Elbers senior VP-corporate communications effective Nov.1. He replaces Jan Christiaan Hellendoorn, who took up a new position as head of communications at Albert Heijn.
Continental Airlines repeated earlier warnings that it expects to post "a significant loss for 2005 due to record high fuel prices" in spite of improving unit revenue trends and savings from pay and benefit reductions estimated at $300 million this year. The information was contained in a letter to shareholders included in a government filing last week. The company earlier estimated that mainline passenger RASM rose 4%-5% in August compared to the year-ago period following a 4.6% year-over-year increase in July. It has no fuel hedges in place.
United Airlines flew 10.4 billion RPMs in August, down 4.4% compared to the year-ago period, as a 12% decline in domestic traffic offset double-digit gains in Latin America and the Pacific. Capacity dropped 5.6% to 12.3 billion ASMs owing to a 14% decrease in domestic ASMs. The domestic market represented 60% of UA capacity in the month, down from 66% in August 2004. System load factor was a record 84.8%, up 1 point. EasyJet carried 2.9 million passengers in August, up 18% on the year-ago period. Load factor slipped 0.2 point to 88.4%.
Skyways Aviation arranged the sale of three Saab 340As to Nordic Solutions AB of Sweden, which will operate them on a newly established Nordic Solutions Air Services AOC in Lithuania. All three will be converted to freighters.
SkyWest Inc., parent of SkyWest Airlines, completed the purchase of Delta Air Lines' wholly owned Regional subsidiary Atlantic Southeast Airlines ( ATWOnline, Aug. 16).
Italian Civil Aviation Authority ENAC suspended Tuninter's authority to operate to Italy after the continuing investigation into the Aug. 6 crash of one of the airline's ATR 72s revealed that the turboprop had been fitted with a fuel gauge for the smaller ATR 42. "If it is proved that the fuel gauge was not the one prescribed for this plane, that means to say that the company has not respected quality norms," ENAC Chairman Vito Riggio said. The Tunisian aircraft went down in the Mediterranean after both engines quit, killing 16 people ( ATWOnline, Aug. 9).
UK and India officially signed a bilateral air services treaty replacing the one dating to 1951. The bilateral formalizes new traffic rights that will allow UK airlines to operate 56 services per week between London Heathrow and Delhi or Mumbai, 14 weekly services from the UK to Bangalore and to Chennai and seven weekly services to each or any other destination in India by the end of next year. Indian airlines can operate a similar number of services on routes between Heathrow and Delhi or Mumbai and may provide unlimited service to other UK destinations.
Lufthansa Cargo plans to raise prices on some routes out of Germany. The increases start Oct. 1 and mostly will be 3%-5%, though the hike on some routes may be higher. The carrier raised fuel surcharges 11% to 50 euro cents per kilo Monday.
British Airways is increasing the fuel surcharge on its long-haul flights from £24 to £30 per sector (£60 per roundtrip) from Sept. 12. Fuel surcharges on short-haul flights will remain unchanged at £8 per sector (£16 return). Earlier this week, Virgin Atlantic Airways announced it is raising its fuel surcharge on tickets sold in the UK to £30 per flight.
Northwest Airlines and the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn. were set to resume federally mediated negotiations yesterday, but earlier in the week the carrier warned the union that it may begin hiring permanent replacement workers as early as Sept. 13 if employees do not return or it does not reach a new agreement with the union. Northwest has been operating with a mix of supervisory staff, temporary replacements and third-party providers carrying on the work done by 4,000 striking AMFA mechanics and aircraft cleaners. In a letter to AMFA head O. V.
Bombardier opened a new spare parts distribution center adjacent to Chicago O'Hare that will consolidate facilities in Detroit and Wichita and streamline the delivery of spares to customers in North America. The 238,000-sq.-ft. center is being operated in partnership with Caterpillar Logistics Services. "They have the infrastructure, knowledge and systems we need to run our business," said Bombardier VP-Parts and Logistics Desmond Bell at an opening ceremony this week in Chicago. A similar Caterpillar-run facility is scheduled to open later this year in Frankfurt.
United Airlines yesterday filed its Plan of Reorganization and Disclosure Statement, beginning the final leg of a journey through the bankruptcy process that began in December 2002. The company set Feb. 1, 2006, as its target for exiting Chapter 11. "United has made tremendous progress in our restructuring to improve performance across the board, in costs, revenue, operations and service to our customers. Today, we are more flexible, more efficient and more resilient," Chairman, President and CEO Glenn Tilton said in a statement.
