CAE was awarded a contract to provide a Dash 8-400 full-flight simulator to ANA. The simulator will be used for training at the ANA Flight Training Center at Haneda with delivery slated for fall 2006.
Lithuanian Airlines carried 48,081 passengers in May, up 18.7% over the year-ago period. Of the total, 42,792 were carried on the carrier's 478 scheduled flights and 5,289 on its 28 charter flights. For the first five months of the year, Lithuanian carried 186,622 passengers, a 43.9% increase over the prior-year period.
China Eastern Airlines placed an order with Aviation Partners Boeing for six 737-700 blended winglet shipsets that will be installed between February and August 2006. Currently, China Eastern subsidiary Wuhan Airlines and China Eastern's Shanxi brand operate five blended winglet-equipped 737-800s.
Air Canada pilots over the weekend rejected a new tentative agreement, and as a result the carrier informed Boeing that it has canceled the massive $6 billion 777/787 order it placed in April. "We are naturally disappointed at having to cancel the widebody aircraft order, but these aircraft can only be brought into our fleet on a predetermined economic basis. Despite best efforts on the part of [the pilots union], the agreement has been rejected," AC President and CEO Montie Brewer said.
Midwest Airlines flew 254 million RPMs in May, up 38.2% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 26.7% to 358.2 million ASMs and load factor gained 5.9 points to 70.9%. For the five months ended May 31, RPMs rose 22.8% to 1.21 billion, ASMs increased 12.4% to 1.69 billion and load factor jumped 6.1 points to 71.3%.
Independence Air celebrated its one-year anniversary last week. In addition, the carrier greeted its 5 millionth passenger at a ceremony at Washington Dulles.
Northwest Airlines named William Lentsch as its new VP-station operations. He replaces Suzanne Boda, who became VP-inflight services earlier this month. Lentsch joins Northwest from Champion Air, where he served as COO.
Finnair's board of directors appointed Jukka Hienonen as the company's next president and CEO effective Jan. 1. He will replace Keijo Suila, who is retiring on Dec. 31. Hienonen has worked for Stockmann Oy since 1995 and has been executive VP of that company since 2003. "Suila has very successfully piloted Finnair through difficult years for the airline industry and he saw early on the growth opportunities in Asian traffic.
Germanwings placed an order for 18 156-seat A319s and took options for 12 more, the carrier announced Friday, adding that the new aircraft are scheduled to arrive between 2006 and 2008.
LAN Airlines implemented interline e-ticketing with the alliance's member airlines--American Airlines, British Airways, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, Finnair and Aer Lingus--and their 17 affiliates.
Alaska Air Group's board of directors elected Marne McCluskey to the newly created position of VP-employee resources for Horizon Air. In this role, she will be responsible for the employee resource teams in Seattle and Portland and oversee recruiting and staffing, learning and development, performance management, employee compensation, employee relations and employee records and systems.
Iberia flew 3.99 billion RPKs in May, up 9.4% on the year-ago period, while capacity increased 7.3% to 5.35 billion ASKs. Consequently, load factor improved 1.4 points to 74.7%, the highest level ever reached by the airline in the month of May. The number of passengers carried grew 6.8% to 2.5 million. For the first five months of the year, passengers increased 2.8% on the year-ago period to 11 million, RPKs grew 7.1% on a 6.2% rise in ASKs, and load factor gained 0.6 point to 74.5%.
United Airlines and its International Assn. of Machinists-represented employees finalized a five-year agreement reached in principle last month, the union said Friday.
Pinnacle Airlines Corp. placed a new $17 million revolving credit facility with First Tennessee Bank. The facility replaces the existing revolving credit agreement with Northwest Airlines, which was set to expire June 30.
Frontier Airlines will launch three weekly flights between Denver and Cozumel Dec. 17. In addition, the carrier will resume seasonal service to Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo on Nov. 19, adding a weekly flight versus November 2004 for a total of three per week. It also will increase service from Denver to Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta from Dec. 17 with an additional Saturday frequency during peak periods to complement daily service to both destinations, and will offer three daily flights to Cancun from Denver during the peak winter periods.
CSA Czech Airlines completed reconstruction of its catering building in Prague, which will allow it to increase production of meals from 15,000 to 18,000 a day. CSA invested CZK136 million ($5.5 million) in the facility. The additional capacity could raise planned revenues from services for third parties by up to 25%.
Alaska Airlines and its 700 aircraft technicians, represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn., reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract. Terms of the deal were not released, but AMFA Region 1 Director Louis Key said it provides "job security language and wage increases that are unique to the current industry environment." The airline said the ratification process is expected to begin within the next two weeks.
Air Canada announced three executive appointments yesterday. The airline named Sean Menke executive VP and CCO effective July 11. He formerly was senior VP and COO at Frontier Airlines. In addition, AC appointed Joshua Koshy executive VP and CFO, effective Aug. 1. Previously, Koshy was senior VP-information technology at Emirates Group. He replaces Rob Peterson, who will continue in his role as executive VP and CFO of AC's parent company, ACE Aviation Holdings.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and JetBlue Airways signed an educational collaboration agreement that "encourages cooperation between the two organizations," including training programs for JetBlue crewmembers.
Air Berlin plans to take on the future Swiss subsidiary of larger rival Lufthansa at its home base in Zurich. "Switzerland with Zurich, where we already have a plane, will become a further area of growth for us," Reuters quoted Air Berlin head Joachim Hunold as saying.
CAE was awarded a contract to provide Air Canada with two full-flight simulators for Embraer 170s and 190s, along with a suite of CAE Simfinity training devices. Based on list prices excluding BFE, the contract is valued at approximately C$27 million ($27.8 million).
Northwest Airlines reorganized its marketing and sales function in order to "better reflect the airline's commitment to developing travel products that best serve the needs of its business and leisure customers." Under the restructuring, VP-Market Planning and Airlink Thomas Bach has been named to the new position of VP-network planning and revenue management. He will be responsible for worldwide route planning and scheduling for Northwest and Northwest Airlink.
Virgin Atlantic and its Australian sister airline Virgin Blue signed a codeshare agreement under which Virgin Atlantic, which currently flies daily from London Heathrow to Sydney via Hong Kong, will add its code to Virgin Blue flights from Sydney to Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Cairns, Gold Coast and Coolangatta. The agreement will go into effect July 17.
Air France selected Thales' TopSeries i5000 inflight entertainment systems for its future fleet of A380s. The French carrier has a firm order for 10 A380s and an option for a further four. "We will be equipping the A380s on our Montreal and New York routes first, followed by Beijing and Tokyo, with 538 passengers onboard," said AF Chairman and CEO Jean Cyril Spinetta during the signing of the contract.
