Austrian Airlines Group CEO Vagn Soerensen told ATWOnline that Austrian is evaluating adding a third destination to its long-haul network next year. Possibilities include Nagoya, Hong Kong, or even a city like Chengdu, Soerensen said. Currently, the carrier serves Beijing and Shanghai. He also said Austrian is talking with United Airlines about a possible codeshare on the Chicago-Vienna route. Separately, the airline flew 1.83 billion RPKs in May, up 8.6% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 7.9% to 2.62 billion ASKs and load factor grew 0.4 point to 69.8%.
Lufthansa Technik signed two MOUs with Qatar Airways valued at more than $100 million. Under the first, LHT will take over maintenance and overhaul of the V2500 engines powering Qatar's fleet of 17 A320s over the next 10 years under a Total Engine Support contract. The second agreement calls for LHT to install Rockwell Collins' Tailwind 560 for onboard live satellite television on the carrier's 15 A330s. LHT said its engineers and technicians will equip the aircraft with antennas and corresponding systems and integrate the TV function into the existing IFE system.
AirTran Airways flew 971.2 million RPMs in May, up 38.8% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 34.4% to 1.3 billion ASMs and load factor rose 2.3 points to 74.6%. For the five months ended May 31, RPMs increased 29% to 4.33 billion, ASMs jumped 27.4% to 6.02 billion and load factor gained 0.8 point to 71.8%.
Alaska Airlines yesterday placed an order with Boeing for 35 737-800s, with an option to acquire an additional 15 and purchase rights for a further 50. According to the carrier, the value of the order at list prices is roughly $2.3 billion. "While we still have work to do on our operational performance, we are beginning to have visibility into a cost structure that will allow us to be profitable in this changed environment," Alaska CEO Bill Ayer said. "This order positions us for growth opportunities ahead."
Delta Air Lines raised passenger surcharges on tickets purchased for travel on its transatlantic flights on or after June 15, primarily because of soaring fuel prices. The surcharge increase is $10 each way except for travel originating in the UK, which is £4.50 ($8.19) each way. The increase applies to all transatlantic travel except that to and from Canada and Mexico, and travel from France and Italy.
Etihad Airways selected Connexion by Boeing to provide high-speed inflight Internet and live global TV service. The agreement calls for both in-line and retrofit installation on the airline's fleet of 25 777-300ERs, A330s, A340s and A380s. The carrier expects initially to offer the service on routes between the Gulf region and Europe and North America. Financial terms of the deal were not released.
Despite its extensive lobbying efforts, Singapore Airlines yesterday was denied entry to the US-Australia corridor by the Australian government, the Associated Press reported. "The issue of transpacific access has been considered at the highest levels by the Australian government, which has decided the time is not right for Singapore Airlines to be granted access to the route," AP quoted a government spokesperson as saying.
Lufthansa is looking to China to generate a fifth of its Asia/Pacific revenue within five years, Executive VP-Marketing Thierry Antinori told Reuters. According to the report, Lufthansa booked €2.1 billion ($2.54 billion) in passenger revenue from the Asia/Pacific last year, accounting for about 20% of its total revenue. The airline operates 41 weekly flights from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong to Frankfurt and Munich and currently China contributes roughly one-sixth of its Asia/Pacific revenue.
Republic Airways Holdings flew 382.1 million RPMs in May, up 49.9% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 41.2% to 528.7 million ASMs and load factor gained 4.2 points to 72.3%. For the five months ended May 31, RPMs increased 47% to 743.8 million, ASMs jumped 38.8% to 1.03 billion and load factor rose 4 points to 72.2%.
United Airlines yesterday introduced an ontime arrival guarantee for business travelers on all flights between Chicago O'Hare and seven US airports: Boston, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Newark, New York LaGuardia, Philadelphia and Reagan Washington National. Under the guarantee, any eligible business passenger on the flights who does not arrive at the destination within 30 min. of the scheduled arrival time for any reason, including weather and air traffic control delays, will receive a bonus of 500 frequent-flier miles.
Pinnacle Airlines flew 362.5 million RPMs in May, up 53.3% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 51.6% to 500.5 million ASMs and load factor rose 0.8 point to 72.4%. For the five months ended May 31, RPMs increased 56% to 1.51 billion, ASMs jumped 55% to 2.27 billion and load factor gained 0.4 point to 66.7%.
Air New Zealand MD and CEO Ralph Norris yesterday announced that he has decided to resign from the carrier to become MD and CEO of Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Norris was appointed to take over ANZ in February 2002. At the time, the carrier was on the verge of collapse after the demise of its Ansett subsidiary in 2001. However, the government stepped in to save the airline with an NZ$885 million ($626.8 million) recapitalization.
Mesaba Aviation flew 176.2 million RPMs in May, up 14.6% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 11.9% to 263.6 million ASMs and load factor rose 1.6 points to 66.8%. For the five months ended May 31, RPMs increased 21% to 812.9 million, ASMs rose 14.3% to 1.27 billion and load factor gained 3.5 points to 63.8%.
As a result of "high demand for the carrier's acclaimed first class service," Continental Airlines announced that it will double the number of first-class seats offered on its 757-300s. "We are seeing a significant increase in demand for our first class product, a result of our competitive fares as well as our complimentary upgrade program for OnePass members," Chairman and CEO Larry Kellner said. "We are expanding our 757-300 fleet from nine to 17 aircraft, and we're going to offer a larger first class cabin to accommodate this demand."
Mesa Air Group flew 570.8 million RPMs in May, up 22.6% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 25.1% to 814.7 million ASMs and load factor dropped 1.4 points to 70.1%. For the five months ended May 31, RPMs increased 28.1% to 2.51 billion, ASMs grew 24% to 3.55 billion and load factor gained 2.3 points to 70.7%.
Alaska Airlines named Kris Kutchera MD-applications development. In this role, she will lead the overall vision for the use of technology to support e-commerce, maintenance and engineering, ground and flight operations and the airline's mileage plan.
America West Airlines flew 2.16 billion RPMs in May, up 12.8% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 5.1% to 2.64 billion ASMs and load factor rose 5.5 points to 81.7%. For the five months ended May 31, RPMs increased 8.2% to 9.89 billion, ASMs grew 1.2% to 12.47 billion and load factor gained 5.1 points to 79.3%.
Bulgaria's Supreme Court will not allow the government to award Copenhagen Airports an airport concession deal until it rules on appeals made by competitors, Reuters reported. Earlier this week, the Bulgarian government awarded the company a 35-year, €526 million ($638 million) contract to run and modernize its two Black Sea airports in Varna and Bourgas. However, the court said the deal only could be signed a month after it rules on appeals by two other companies.
SkyWest Airlines flew 625.9 million RPMs in May, up 49.9% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 46.7% to 852.7 million ASMs and load factor grew 1.6 points to 73.4%. For the five months ended May 31, RPMs increased 44.4% to 2.86 billion, ASMs rose 38.6% to 3.9 billion and load factor gained 2.9 points to 73.3%.
Ryanair carried 2.9 million passengers in May, up 34% on the year-ago period. Load factor improved 1 point to 82%. For the rolling 12 months ended May 31, the number of earned seats totaled 28.8 million.
Japan Airlines said it received registration in the IATA Operational Safety Audit program, an internationally recognized and accepted evaluation system designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline.
UAL Corp., parent of United Airlines, made changes to the responsibilities of two senior executives. Senior VP-Strategic Sourcing and Chief Procurement Officer Richard Poulton will take on additional responsibilities for information technology and business development and now will hold the title of senior VP-business development. In addition, Executive VP-Strategy Doug Hacker will lead efforts to assess United's ancillary businesses as part of completing its Chapter 11 restructuring. The company said Hacker initially will focus on San Francisco-based MyPoints.com.
In order to improve its ontime performance and schedule reliability, Alaska Airlines late last week announced that it will eliminate or suspend several flights this summer. "This is a temporary measure to get our operation back on track after record load factors and increased summer flying, coupled with ongoing company transitions, caused delays and cancellations to rise," Alaska CEO Bill Ayer said.
US airlines' ontime performance improved in April compared to the previous month and April 2004. According to Dept. of Transportation statistics, the 19 reporting carriers posted an ontime arrival rate of 83.4%, slightly better than April 2004's 83% and well above March 2005's 76.9%. Hawaiian Airlines at 95.6% had the highest ontime arrival rate. Of mainline carriers, ATA Airlines posted the best mark at 89% with SkyWest Airlines at 87.6% ranking second. Alaska Airlines had the lowest rate at 77%.
Independence Air flew 311.7 million RPMs in May on capacity of 427.5 million ASMs, which produced a load factor of 72.9%. For the five months ended May 31, RPMs totaled 1.14 billion, ASMs were 1.78 billion and load factor reached 64.9%.
