United Airlines received US Bankruptcy Court approval Friday of an amendment to its debtor-in-possession financing that includes upsizing its loan by $310 million to $1.3 billion and a reduction of the interest rate it pays under the loan. "We believe the amendment is beneficial to United and reflects our lenders' ongoing confidence in our ability to execute on our business plan," the carrier said in a recorded message to employees.
DBA will start triple-daily service from Nurnberg to Berlin and two daily flights to Hamburg on Sept. 12 using F100s. Separately, DBA said it transported 1.1 million passengers from April to June, up 70% compared to the same period a year ago. Capacity rose 60% following the takeover of Germania Express aircraft and routes. The company said it expects to carry 4.3-5 million passengers this year.
Royal Jordanian Airlines said it posted a profit of 4.3 million dinars ($6.1 million) for the first quarter of 2005, beating company projections of a loss of JOD1.4 million. Revenues reached JOD91.3 million, up 21.6% compared to JOD75.1 million in the prior-year period. Passenger boardings for the January-May period rose 3.5% to 643,700.
LAN Airlines appointed Luis Eduardo Riquelme VP-North/Central America and Asia for the passenger division. In this role, he will be responsible for LAN's passenger operations in the US, Canada, Central America and Asia including overseeing sales and marketing, accounting and cost control, operations, reservations and ticket offices, government affairs, human resources and the carrier's general sales agents throughout these countries.
Spring Airlines, a low-fare carrier based in Shanghai, began operations yesterday. It is owned by Shanghai Spring International Travel Service, which claims to be the largest travel agency in China. Spring is flying three A320s leased from GE Commercial Aviation Services, two of which formerly were leased to other carriers. The third is managed on behalf of another party, GECAS said. The carrier plans to operate up to 15 A320s ( ATWOnline, July 1).
Air Canada unveiled plans to launch a number of new daily nonstop flights in Canada and the US this winter and boost service on several key domestic routes as well as others inside Canada and to the US.
US National Transportation Safety Board member Richard Healing announced his retirement effective Aug. 1. Before joining NTSB in 2003, Healing spent a year as director-transportation safety and security for Battelle Memorial Institute. Prior to that, he served for 17 years as director-safety and survivability for the Dept. of the Navy and also spent 29 years in the Coast Guard and Coast Guard Reserve.
Swiss International Air Lines and Air Canada plan to codeshare on flights between Zurich and Toronto. AC also is studying launching a new Toronto-Delhi route via Zurich to take advantage of Swiss's membership in the Star Alliance and the introduction of Zurich into the Lufthansa hub network after LH completes its acquisition of Swiss.
TAAG Angola Airlines reached a definitive agreement with Boeing for the purchase of two 777-200ERs and four 737-700 Quick Change aircraft. The agreement also includes options for an additional 777-200ER and two more 737-700QCs. According to Boeing, the firm order is valued at roughly $649.6 million at list prices and approximately $990 million with options included. The aircraft will be delivered next year, with the first 777-200ER and 737-700 scheduled to arrive in July. They will replace the current fleet of two 747-300s and five 737-200s.
Kitty Hawk appointed James Kupferschmid VP and CFO. He comes to Kitty Hawk with a 20-plus-year financial career including cargo, airline and M&A assignments with Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines.
Aerosim said AeroMexico will take a 737-700/777-200ER Virtual Procedure Trainer as part of a complete training solution being provided by Alteon Training.
Shares of Delta Air Lines climbed nearly 18% last Thursday after the carrier announced it would raise its fare caps for domestic one-way walkup fares from $499 to $599 ( ATWOnline, July 15), but JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker threw cold water on the higher expectations, stating that the fare increase is a positive step but does not improve Delta's chances of avoiding Chapter 11.
Gulf Air will launch a thrice-weekly service from Bahrain to Dublin beginning Dec. 2 using A330s in three-class configuration. The flight will be Dublin's first-ever scheduled service into the Middle East. "There is a huge amount of traffic from Dublin to the Gulf and beyond that now has to travel over London or Amsterdam. There is a huge leisure market, a large VFR market as well as a strong high-yield business market," Gulf Air President and CEO James Hogan told ATWOnline in Dublin.
Austrian Airlines Group, which holds 62% of tiny Slovak Airlines, is interested in acquiring the remaining shares if the state permits it, a spokesperson told this website. Meanwhile, AAG, which comprises Austrian, Austrian arrows, Lauda Air and Slovak, flew 2.1 billion RPKs in June, up 8.8% over the year-ago period. ASKs rose 8.7% to 2.8 billion and load factor grew a fraction to 73.1%. The group transported 994,000 passengers, up 12.1%. For the first half, AAG flew 10 billion RPKs, up 1.8%, on a 4.2% gain in ASKs to 14.2 billion. Load factor dropped 1.7 points to 70.2%.
Qantas, following in the footsteps of Air New Zealand, Friday announced a "new streamlined fare structure" for transpacific travel starting Aug. 1. The new structure consists of three fare families and permits passengers to combine different fare categories for outbound and return legs. However, the carrier has not adopted true one-way pricing as some fares may be purchased only on a roundtrip basis and there are some restrictions and surcharges for one-way fares.
American Airlines and Philippine Airlines launched interline e-ticketing, bringing the number of domestic and international carriers providing IET in cooperation with American to 28.
Volga-Dnepr Group announced that Commercial Manager Dennis Gliznoutsa was promoted to group commercial director succeeding Tony Bauckham, who took over as MD of Volga-Dnepr UK earlier in the year. Gliznoutsa will be based at London Stansted and is responsible for all sales and marketing of Volga-Dnepr's An-124-100s and IL-76s.
With the merger of US Airways and America West seemingly on track for completion this autumn, US Airways Executive VP-Marketing and Planning Bruce Ashby announced he will leave the airline later this month to become CEO of proposed Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo. The startup is partly backed by one of Ashby's former colleagues, Rakesh Gangwal, who served as president and CEO of US Airways from 1998 until his surprise resignation in November 2001.
Iberia flew 4.7 billion RPKs in June, up 6.5% on the prior-year period, while capacity increased 6% to 5.24 billion ASKs. Consequently, load factor improved 0.4 point to 77.7%. The number of passengers carried grew 3.3%--up 5.2% on domestic flights and 0.8% on international flights. During the first half ended June 30, Iberia grew RPKs by 7% and ASKs climbed 6.1%, lifting load factor 0.6 point to 75.1%.
Air Jamaica canceled its full flight schedule for July 16 as a result of Hurricane Emily, which is working its way slowly through the Caribbean. This is the second time this month that the airline has been forced to cancel flights owing to a hurricane ( ATWOnline, July 8).
FedEx Express announced that Senior VP-Air Operations Donald Barber will retire at the end of July. He will be succeeded by FedEx Express VP James Parker.
As a result of skyrocketing fuel prices, Delta Air Lines yesterday raised its top-level one-way caps in its SimpliFares program by $100 to $599 for economy class and $699 for first class, effective immediately. According to media reports, United Airlines and Continental Airlines quickly matched the move, while Northwest Airlines and American Airlines were studying it.
International Finance Corp., the private-sector arm of the World Bank, said the government of Samoa signed an agreement with Virgin Blue to set up a new joint venture airline, Polynesian Blue. Virgin Blue was chosen as the preferred partner in the project in January ( ATWOnline, Jan. 4). According to IFC, which acted as the lead adviser to the Samoan government on the transaction, the new airline will operate the long-haul services of Polynesian Airlines beginning in late October.
Despite the impact of high fuel prices and more competition, Southwest Airlines reported that earnings rose 40.7% to $159 million for the second quarter ended June 30 compared to earnings of $113 million in the prior-year quarter.
