Boeing yesterday confirmed that Ryanair exercised options for nine 737-800s valued at upward of $500 million with deliveries beginning in September 2007. Five airplanes will be for replacement of 737-800s delivered in 1989 and four are for growth ( ATWOnline, Oct. 5). Separately, Boeing said it will supply its Enterprise One software to China Airlines, which will use selected modules to standardize management of airplane configurations and maintenance requirements across its entire fleet.
JetBlue Airways launched new service from Newark to Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando yesterday, offering five daily roundtrips in each market in a direct challenge to Continental Airlines, which maintains its most important hub at the New York-area airport. The low-fare carrier will continue its growth at Newark on Oct. 19 when it begins double-daily nonstop service to Ft. Myers, Tampa and West Palm Beach with single daily roundtrips. JetBlue adds San Juan Nov. 17 with daily service.
Wizz Air carried its 2 millionth passenger Tuesday. Martyna Lelinska was traveling from Katowice to Milan Bergamo and will receive unlimited tickets for a year on the Wizz Air network. The airline carried its millionth passenger in April, 11 months after it began operations.
AeroData's ACARS Performance and Weight & Balance System was selected by AirTran Airways, which operates more than 500 daily flights across North America, for use by its pilots.
JAL Group announced yesterday that Japan Airlines Domestic will be merged into Japan Airlines International effective Oct. 1, 2006. JAL Sales, which handles group travel sales, will transfer its activities to JAL International six months earlier, on April 1.
British Airways flew 9.85 billion RPKs in September, an increase of 7.8% on the year-ago period, on a 5.5% capacity hike to 12.37 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 1.7 points to 79.6%. The increase in traffic comprised an 11.6% gain in premium and a 7.2% rise in nonpremium traffic. Passenger boardings grew 2.8% to 3.21 million and compared with 3.03 passengers million on Ryanair's network. Cargo measured in CTKs rose 0.5% and overall load factor dipped 0.2 point to 72.2%.
American Airlines reported that system RPMs rose 9.1% in September compared to the same month last year to 10.74 billion. Strongest growth was registered on Pacific routes, where traffic jumped 21%, although this is AA's smallest division with RPMs of just 457 million out of total international RPMs of 3.74 billion. Latin America traffic was up 17.4% while transatlantic traffic climbed 6.7% and domestic traffic rose 7.3%. Total capacity (ASMs) increased 5% to 14.1 billion, with the strongest growth in the Pacific, up 32%.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines claims it is the first carrier to offer customers Internet check-in using their mobile phones. SAS MobilePortal, launched in Sweden Oct. 3- 4, also permits customers to check flight times and their EuroBonus points from their phones. They can book rental cars, read the latest news and even order flowers. SAS expects to roll the service out to the rest of Scandinavia later this fall. It developed the mobile portal in cooperation with Digital Act Stockholm AB. The solution is based on the adimo mobile platform and works with both GSM and 3G subscriptions.
Ryanair exercised options to buy nine further 737-800s for delivery in 2007 and confirmed the planned sale later that year of five of its older 737-800s, which it purchased in 1999. "This is a continuation of Ryanair's strategy of operating the youngest fleet in Europe, with the lowest unit operating costs and best technical reliability, thereby ensuring that Ryanair remains the number one ontime major airline in Europe," CEO Michael O'Leary said at an Investor Day in London.
The 27-day strike by assembly workers at Boeing that ended last Friday ( ATWOnline, Oct. 3) cut into third-quarter aircraft production as the company reported that it delivered 62 commercial aircraft in the period, down from 67 in the year-ago quarter despite rising production rates. Current-period deliveries comprised three 717s, 47 737NGs, two 747s, two 767s and eight 777s. This compares with three 717s, 49 737NGs, two 747s, three 757s, two 767s and eight 777s delivered in the third quarter of 2004.
Emirates SkyCargo and Korean Air Cargo agreed to share cargo capacity on KAL flights to Delhi and Mumbai. Emirates SkyCargo now has an additional 22 tons on offer to Dubai on Korean's 747-400F weekly services from Delhi (Fridays) and Mumbai (Wednesdays).
British Airways CEO Willie Walsh reiterated earlier statements from the board that BA will remain true to its full-service concept, again rebuffing rumors that he intends to copy the low-fare strategy he implemented at Aer Lingus to turn to Irish carrier around. BA has "a renowned reputation for premium travel, and my aim is to make sure that we deliver a world-class experience for all," Walsh said in an interview with the Financial Times.
Eos Airlines moved forward its planned startup of services between New York JFK and London Stansted to Oct. 18 from Nov. 1 owing to earlier-than-expected route approvals from the US Dept. of Transportation and UK Dept. of Transport. The carrier intends to operate 757s configured for 48 passengers in an all-business-class cabin featuring lie-flat seatbeds. The base unrestricted roundtrip fare is $6,500 but Eos is offering an introductory fare of $5,000.
SAS reached an agreement with Sabre under which the GDS will continue to distribute its "comprehensive and complete content" while achieving lower distribution costs. "We endeavor to give the market full access to SAS's products through the global distribution systems, but while doing so, we need to seek new means to reduce our distribution costs to a competitive level. The agreement with Sabre is a step in the right direction," said SAS Senior VP-Commercial Robin Kamark. Details of the agreement were not released.
US Airways pilots, with an eye on JetBlue, reached a tentative agreement with the airline to operate the Embraer 190 as part of mainline service at a rate that will make the jets competitive with the low-cost carrier that launched the 100-seater. "We agreed on a pay rate as well as a restriction to fly only as mainline," Jack Stephan, a spokesperson for the US Airways pilots, told ATWOnline. "That one issue was sent out for member ratification with a strong endorsement to ratify the agreement."
Boeing said it will introduce passive radio frequency identification "smart labels" on significant 787 maintenance parts. Typical parts to include RFID tags will be "serialized end items such as LRUs and life-limited parts, as well as onboard emergency equipment."
New British Airways CEO Willie Walsh, who formally took over from Rod Eddington last Friday, said he is determined to realize his predecessor's goal of a 10% operating margin. "We have made tremendous progress in the last five years but I've been very impressed by the fact that everyone I've met at British Airways believes there is room for further improvement," Walsh said. "We must redouble our efforts to make this airline more efficient, more focused and better able to serve our customers."
US Airways, which merged with America West Airlines last week, said it reached agreement with the Air Transportation Stabilization Board to repurchase approximately 7.7 million warrants that have an exercise price of $7.27 per share. The warrants originally were created in conjunction with America West's $439 million ATSB-guaranteed loan in 2002 and reissued to ATSB in connection with the merger of America West and US Airways. The total purchase price will be around $115.8 million.
US FAA on Friday gave the green light to the City of Chicago's massive O'Hare Modernization Program and Airport Layout Plan that calls for realignment of the airport's runways to eliminate most intersecting runways. Currently, six of ORD's seven runways cross paths. In its Record of Decision, FAA said the plan "is the best alternative to improve safety, increase capacity and reduce delays with the least environmental impact."
Lufthansa Group Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber is no fan of the European Commission's proposal to bring air transport into the EU's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme.
Japan Airlines Group appointed Katsuhiko Nawano to serve on the boards of JAL International and JAL Domestic with responsibility for China business activities for JAL International. He also will handle special assignments at the direction of President Toshiyuki Shinmachi in both JAL International and JAL Domestic. Nawano, 58, is a former senior official at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
Continental Airlines selected General Electric's GEnx engine to power its recently ordered fleet of 10 787s, becoming the first North American customer for the powerplant on the 787. GE valued the order at more than $250 million. Deliveries are set to begin in 2009. The other customer for the GEnx on the Dreamliner is First Choice of the UK with six aircraft on order. The GEnx still is the exclusive engine being offered on the proposed A350 and GE and Airbus have signed agreements to transition to firm orders for 122 aircraft with seven customers.
American Airlines said Friday that "the skyrocketing price of jet fuel" had "forced" it to suspend 15 daily roundtrips at its Dallas/Ft. Worth and Chicago O'Hare hubs and end service between Chicago and Nagoya at the end of October. The temporary cuts take effect beginning Oct. 5 and last at least through Oct. 29, when AA will make the decision whether to resume service.
Aegean Airlines is a possible candidate to be the next Star Alliance regional member. The Greek carrier begins codeshare services with Lufthansa this autumn. Lufthansa, which was the sponsoring airline for Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines to join Star regional, could offer the same option to Aegean. "Normally the carrier decides which sponsoring partner they want. But we would be interested to help," Lufthansa Group Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber told ATWOnline.
