Qatar Airways will add 11 weekly frequencies to India following the recent successful round of bilateral discussions between the countries. Qatar currently operates 19 scheduled flights a week between Doha and Cochin, Trivandrum, Hyderabad and Mumbai. From July 14 it will add New Delhi with seven services a week, flown initially with A320s in a 144-seat, two-class configuration and later with A330s offering three classes of service. From July 15, the Mumbai route will increase from six services a week to daily with the introduction of a new Friday night flight from Doha.
Volga-Dnepr Group signed a 15-year financial agreement with Ilyushin Finance Corp. to become launch customer for the IL-96-400T with an order for two of the freighters. The first is due to be delivered in late 2006. The IL-96-400T will have a cargo capacity of 92 tonnes and a range of 5,000 km. It will be powered by four PC-90A1 engines. It will be used by AirBridge Cargo, Volga-Dnepr's scheduled cargo airline, to enhance its expanding network. The contract was signed by Volga-Dnepr Group President Alexey Isaikin and IFC General Director Alexander Rubtsov.
US House of Representatives voted Friday to prevent any federal appropriations from being used by the US Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. to assume United Airlines' pension obligations. Since PBGC is funded by premiums paid by US companies, it is not clear that the bill can have any impact on the situation at the carrier, which has defaulted on all of its defined benefit pension plans. Furthermore, a similar bill would need to pass in the Senate and then the two bills reconciled and signed by the President in order to become law.
Iberia will increase capacity between Madrid and Beirut by almost 59% in July and August by using 200-seat 757s instead of the 126-seat A319s it now flies on the route. The change is in response to the success of the new thrice-weekly service that launched March 28, the carrier said in a statement.
Alteon Training signed a long term agreement to provide Aerosim Technologies' PC-based training tools in conjunction with its own training services. The trainers will be used with existing training solutions. Aerosim products covered under the agreement include Flight Management System Trainer, Virtual Flight Deck, Virtual Procedure Trainer and Flight Training Devices.
Alitalia shareholders yesterday approved the group's accounts for 2004; net loss for the year was revised slightly, falling to €810.4 million ($980.6 million) from €812 million, and shareholders approved using €235.3 million from reserves to partly cover the loss.
Allegiant Air took delivery of an MD-83 on operating lease from SAS in a transaction arranged by Sigma Aircraft Management. It is the last of five MD-82s/83s contracted for by Allegiant in September. The aircraft was operated by SAS as an MD-82 and was upgraded to MD-83 status as part of the transactions with Allegiant. Separately, Aerovias de Mexico agreed to extend the lease on an MD-87 from International Aircraft Holdings Corp. The lease extension was arranged by Sigma Aircraft Management.
Cargolux is raising its fuel surcharge on all cargo shipments to €0.45 ($0.55) per kilo or the equivalent in local currency from July 8. Last week, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic also announced fuel surcharge increases. Separately, Cargolux said it will launch a new weekly service to Doha on July 4 offering main deck capacity primarily to the oil and gas industry. From Doha the flight will continue to Hong Kong before returning via Baku to Luxembourg.
Air Bosnia, which went bankrupt nearly two years ago, resumed services last week. The airline, which is majority controlled by the government, is expected to be renamed BH Airlines and plans to operate to Turkey, Switzerland and Germany. It operates two 66-seat ATR 72s. It agreed last month with Hypo Alpe Adria bank on a settlement for most of its 20 million marka ($12.4 million) debt.
Air Mauritius placed an order for three CFM56-5C4/P-powered A340-300Es, with deliveries to begin in the last quarter of 2006. The airline also took two options. The aircraft will be configured with 36 premium-class seats and 264 seats in economy. At present, the carrier's fleet includes five A340-300s and two A319s for its long- and medium-haul routes respectively.
Republic Airways Holdings, parent of Chautauqua Airlines, will purchase 10 Embraer 170s and assume leases on 18 others belonging to US Airways, along with other assets, for around $100 million, the carriers announced last week. The aircraft will be flown in the US Airways Express codeshare network. They currently are operated by MidAtlantic Airways, a US Airways subsidiary, which will be shut down, ATWOnline has learned. Half of the pilot positions for the new aircraft will be allocated to furloughed US Airways crews under the existing Jets for Jobs protocol.
Air New Zealand launched a broad reform of its long-haul fare structure that offers significantly lower prices while eliminating many restrictions such as minimum and maximum stays and weekend stay requirements. At the same time, the fares are priced to encourage customers to purchase in advance, said Gus Gilmore, ANZ VP-The Americas. Under the new Advance Deal policy, "Our lowest fares will be available further out," he told ATWOnline.
British Airways will increase its fuel surcharge today owing to high fuel prices. The long-haul surcharge on tickets sold and issued in the UK will rise from £16 ($29.16) to £24 per sector, while the short-haul surcharge goes from £6 per sector to £8. "The continuing rise in global oil prices to almost $60 a barrel means a further surcharge increase is regrettably unavoidable. We now expect our fuel bill for this financial year to be around £1.6 billion," Commercial Director Martin George said.
Lufthansa Systems CEO Wolfgang Gohde announced Friday the global launch of a comprehensive solution called Future Airline Core Environment as LHS positions itself as a full-service IT provider of future-oriented applications in a rapidly evolving business environment. The new product, which Gohde claimed will deliver "significant cost savings" for airlines, supersedes the widely used Lufthansa Systems MultiHost passenger system.
Rush by Indian Airlines to buy aircraft is continuing with Air Sahara announcing that it intends to order 40 airplanes for delivery over the next five years to bring its fleet to 65. They likely will be 777s and 737s. Last week, Air Sahara announced plans to begin daily services between Delhi and London from September/October with two 777-200ERs leased from ILFC for five years.
KLM reached a collective labor agreement with the unions representing its ground and cabin staff for the period spanning Jan. 1, 2005, to April 1, 2007. The accord includes a phased and structural wage boost of 2.75%, with a one-off increase of 4% for July 2005. The parties also agreed to an adjustment of the rules regarding other social provisions such as pensions and health insurance. Additionally, they agreed to fill in further specifications on the different rosterings before Jan. 1, 2006.
SITA INC won a five-year, $7 million contract for IT support to baggage management at London Gatwick following a competitive tender. BagManager allows the three ground handlers--Aviance UK, Groundstar Gatwick and Servisair/Globeground---and any of the 80-plus airlines using LGW to run an automated reconciliation system of baggage through the North and South Terminals using some 250 wireless handheld scanners. The system is expected to handle 10 million bags in 2005 and will be scaled up to match expected growth over the next five years.
Air Transport Assn. member airlines flew 58.82 billion RPMs in May, up 7.2% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 3.3% to 74.65 billion ASMs and load factor rose 2.9 points to 78.8%. For the five months ended May 31, RPMs increased 6.5% to 274.26 billion, ASMs grew 2.7% to 357.79 billion and load factor gained 2.7 points to 76.7%.
Declining growth rates will take a mounting toll on European low-cost carriers, according to an analysis by McKinsey & Co. presented Thursday in Frankfurt. Lucio Pompeo, author of the study, stated that the booming industry is at a crossroads; "Few will survive," he warned. The study cited three reasons for falling LCC profitability: Increasingly saturated markets, aircraft orders exceeding likely demand and the growing competition among scheduled airlines, charter companies and LCCs.
Condor credited its continuing restructuring program and introduction of scheduled services for a 39% reduction in its "customary winter loss" for the fiscal first half ended April 30. The number of passengers carried rose 7.4% and fleet productivity jumped 18.2%. Actual results were not released. "The restructuring program is running according to plan, two-thirds of the cost-cutting measures have already been implemented, the seat-only business. .
CSA Czech Airlines confirmed an audited net profit of CZK324.2 million ($22.9 million) for 2004 ( ATWOnline May 12). During the first five months of 2005, CSA recorded a 16% passenger increase to 1.8 million. In May it transported 444,000 passengers, up more than 20% compared to 2004.
Austrian Airlines retired its last MD-83 on June 22, marking an end to this aircraft type that had been in service with the company for 25 years. Austrian operated a total of 20 MD-81s/82s/83s/87s, which flew 900,000 hr., made 575,000 flights and transported 35 million passengers. The last two are going to operators in South and North America. Austrian will suspend its Vienna-Osaka route temporarily in the coming winter season owing to low yields and high airport costs at Osaka Kansai, ATWOnline has learned.
FedEx Corp. reported net income of $448 million for the fiscal fourth quarter ended May 31, up 9% over net income of $412 million in the prior-year period. Revenue rose 10% to $7.72 billion, while operating expenses climbed 10% to $6.98 billion. This produced an operating income of $740 million, an 8% increase over operating income of $685 million in the year-ago period.
