Australia's domestic airline passenger figures are soaring. Figures for April show RPKS were up 10.5% to 3.81 billion while ASKs increased 9.9% to 4.87 billion, resulting in a 0.5-point gain in load factor to 78.3%. Interestingly, the "golden triangle" of Melbourne-Sydney-Brisbane accounted for 30.1% of total domestic traffic.
Continental Airlines reacted swiftly to JetBlue's plans to launch operations from Newark Liberty International Airport to five destinations in Florida and San Juan this fall ( ATWOnline, July 14).
Ryanair plans to launch eight new European routes from the UK during its next winter schedule, bringing its total network to 246 routes. The LCC also announced that it will begin a major tourism drive to encourage visitors to come to the UK by releasing 3 million seats at a price of just £1 ($1.76) or €1 ($1.21) plus taxes. The seats have gone on sale through its website for travel during August, September and October and the sale will be backed by a £5 million pan-European advertising campaign over the next three months that will feature the major cities of the UK.
Wizz Air yesterday said it signed a letter of intent with Airbus to purchase up to 24 V2500-A5-powered A320 family aircraft valued at $1.4 billion at catalog prices. IAE valued the engine portion at $400 million. Wizz Air also signed up for a long-term Fleet Hour Agreement covering the engines. The carrier said the aircraft will be configured with 180 seats in a single class. A delivery schedule was not announced.
World Air Holdings, parent of World Airways and North American Airlines, said it is delaying the filing of its 8-K report with the Securities and Exchange Commission owing to its recent acquisition of North American, which will require additional work to complete the re-audit of its financial statements.
Emirates, in what may be its fastest buildup of a new route, said yesterday it will add a second daily service between Dubai and New York JFK on Nov. 7. The carrier inaugurated the route in June 2004 using an A340-500 configured for 258 seats with 12 in first, 42 in business and 204 in economy. Senior VP-Commercial Operations-the Americas Nigel Page characterized load factors on the 14-hr. flight as "extremely high since December." The route has been profitable for "a long time now," he told ATWOnline. The new flight also will be operated with an A340-500.
Analysts in Singapore and Australia are still upbeat that Jetstar Asia, Qantas's Singapore-based LCC, and rival Valuair will tie the knot despite the reported collapse of talks earlier this week ( ATWOnline, July 13). The discussions started two weeks ago, and Jetstar Asia CEO Ken Ryan said his airline, owned 49% by Qantas and 19% by Singapore government investment arm Temasek, withdrew its offer to Valuair. Jetstar Asia has applied to Cambodian authorities to fly to Phnom Penh and Siam Reap and to Indian authorities to commence services to Kolkata.
LAN Airlines flew 1.27 billion RPKs in June, up 18.7% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 14.5% to 1.82 billion ASKs and load factor was up 2.5 points to 69.5%. For the six months ended June 30, RPKs rose 18.4% to 8.42 billion, ASKs increased 15.1% to 11.6 billion and load factor gained 2.1 points to 72.5%.
Air Berlin announced a passenger increase of 16% to 6.1 million for the first six months of 2005. The highest gains were seen in Vienna (33.6%), Dusseldorf (28%), Zurich (25%) and Palma de Mallorca (24.6%). "Because of our success in the first six months of this year, we are confident of reaching our target of flying 13.7 million passengers by the end of 2005," CEO Joachim Hunold said in a statement. The carrier also said turnover for the period climbed 23% to €564 million ($688 million).
Air New Zealand rolled out its first refitted 747-400 that features lie-flat beds, digital inflight entertainment at every seat and a new class of travel for the NZ market called Pacific Premium Economy. The refit is part of a NZ$160 million ($109.5 million) fleet upgrade for its eight 747s. The first routes to feature the product will be Los Angeles-Auckland and San Francisco-Auckland. ANZ's lie-flat beds, which are 6 ft. 7.5 in. long, are the longest available in business class today, ANZ said.
Qantas low-cost joint venture Jetstar Asia pulled out of alliance talks with another operator, Valuair, raising further questions about its future in the intra-Asia market.
Alaska Airlines pilots overwhelmingly rejected a five-year tentative agreement reached in May ( ATWOnline, May 30) that would have superseded the current two-year deal now in effect. According to the Air Line Pilots Assn., more than 95% of eligible pilots participated, with 88.9% voting against the agreement. At the beginning of May, a two-year accord that resulted from an arbitrator's ruling took effect that reduced the pilots' pay by 21%-34%.
SkyEurope is planning an IPO listing on the Vienna Stock Exchange. According to Austrian media, the low-cost airline wants to offer 30%-49% of its shares by late August or early September.
AirAsia will introduce a fuel surcharge on its domestic and regional flights. From July 15, an RM5 ($1.32) surcharge per sector will be implemented on all flights in peninsular Malaysia, an RM10 surcharge per sector on flights to East Malaysia and an RM25 surcharge per sector on flights to Macau, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia.
ANA announced that it will sell its 27.6% share in Nippon Cargo Airlines to fellow major shareholder global logistics company Nippon Yusen Kaisha, which also holds 27.6% of the carrier. ANA said it is selling its stake because it wishes to pursue a different strategy in the cargo market in the future than does NYK. NCA will become a consolidated subsidiary of NYK. A date for the sale has not been set, but the companies expect it to take place by the end of August.
Cathay Pacific Airways flew 5.25 billion RPKs in June, up 11.5% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 11% to 6.56 billion ASKs and load factor was up 0.4 point to 80.1%. For the six months ended June 30, RPKs rose 16.1% to 26.83 billion, ASKs increased 12.2% to 39.53 billion and load factor jumped 2 points to 78.1%.
Finnair will launch direct flights between Edinburgh and Helsinki in April using an A319. Also, on Aug. 1 the name of the Marketing Division, which is part of the Finnair Scheduled Passenger Traffic business area, will be changed to the Commercial Division.
Several European airlines are raising their surcharges in light of still climbing fuel prices. Virgin Express will increase its fuel surcharge by €2 ($2.24) per passenger from July 15, bringing it to a total of €10, while SN Brussels Airlines will adjust its surcharge from €10 to €12 for European flights and from €23 to €30 on flights to Africa and the Middle East as of Sept. 1.
Lufthansa flew 9.79 billion RPKs in June, up 5.2% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 2.9% to 12.68 billion ASKs and load factor climbed 1.7 points to 77.2%. For the six months ended June 30, RPKs rose 4% to 52.14 billion, ASKs grew 2.9% to 70.17 billion and load factor was up 0.8 point to 74.3%.
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 the Flight Management Systems Trainer, Virtual Flight Deck, Virtual Procedure Trainer and Flight Training Device.
United Airlines is bringing back more than 1,400 flight attendants from voluntary furlough in two phases this year owing to higher-than-expected attrition in the group. The carrier informed the Assn. of Flight Attendants that it intends to recall a further 600 flight attendants from Aug. 9 and will recall the remaining 851 on voluntary furlough by Nov. 30. Earlier this year, the carrier brought back 650 flight attendants.
News from Travel Technology Update: JetBlue Airways is planning a soft launch of its cruise-flight dynamic packaging engine "in the next month or so," according to Tim Claydon, senior vice president of sales and business development. The move is a natural progression for JetBlue, which serves 11 U.S. cruise ports. The carrier is working with EzRez, the Honolulu-based software company that specializes in dynamic packaging. The booking engine will have a "completely new interface" and will use XML connections to pull in pertinent cruise data.
