SkyEurope placed an order for 16 737-700 blended winglet shipsets with 16 options. The winglets will be purchased by GECAS and installed by Boeing in February 2006. Meanwhile, the carrier will launch a thrice-weekly Dublin-Krakow service Sept. 20.
Emirates said its first Islamic Sukuk issue received subscriptions of $824 million against an initial target of $550 million. However, the carrier closed the order book at $550 million. The proceeds of the Islamic Sukuk Bonds issue will be used to finance Emirates' $354 million engineering center, which is scheduled to be completed early next year, and the new $191 million Emirates Group headquarters, which is expected to be inaugurated by the end of 2006.
Volga-Dnepr Group reported revenue of more than $300 million for 2004, the second-highest result in its 15-year history. The company said its An-124 fleet contributed $225 million in revenue during the year and it controlled roughly 54% of the world's outsize and heavyweight air cargo transportation market. Transportation volume reached 431,973 ton-kilometers.
Air Pacific, Fiji's national airline, reported a profit after tax of $24.5 million for the fiscal year ended March 31, basically equal to the profit achieved in the prior financial year. Revenue increased 4.5% to $440.6 million while expenditure climbed 5.6% to $405.7 million. Profit before tax was $36 million, an increase of 3.7% over the previous year.
Alaska Airlines named Shannon Alberts MD-investor relations. In this position, she will oversee analyst and shareholder communications for Alaska Air Group, parent of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air. Alberts started her career at the carrier in 1985 as an administrative assistant and has held several different positions in the company.
LAN Argentina, a LAN alliance member, began operations last week with its inaugural flight from Buenos Aires to Mendoza. The carrier will operate two daily flights on the route. "Today is an important day for our company, and we would like to thank the passengers who choose to fly with us," GM Paul Petrelli said. The LAN alliance also includes LAN Airlines, LAN Peru and LAN Ecuador.
Air France Industries and Lufthansa Technik signed a contract Friday to launch Spairliners GmbH, a 50/50 joint venture that not only will work on the 25 A380s ordered by Air France and Lufthansa but will offer "a full spectrum of support services for components to all A380 operators worldwide." "Most A380 carriers will operate relatively small fleets. To have spare parts and components for the maintenance makes it a very cost-intensive subject," Lufthansa Technik Executive Board Chairman August Wilhelm Henningsen said during a press conference.
Iberia teamed up with OnAir to provide e-mail and Web chat services for its business class passengers on long-haul routes following "very successful" inflight tests. Senior VP-Customer Relationships Felix Garcia Viejobueno said, "We know from our customer research that our business passengers are very keen to have the option of using their flight time more productively."
Kitty Hawk Inc. appointed Robert Barron as VP and COO for its airline subsidiary, Kitty Hawk Aircargo. Since joining Kitty Hawk in May 2004, Barron has served as the company's VP-maintenance and engineering. Earlier he was chief inspector for US Airways.
Engine Lease Finance Corp. and its parent BTM Capital Corp., which is itself owned by Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd., announced they completed the acquisition of the 49% interest in Aviation Lease Finance formerly owned by Volvo Aero North America Inc. and Volvo Aero Services LP. ALF is now a wholly owned subsidiary of ELF. It was founded in March 1998 as a joint venture among BTM, ELF and the Volvo companies.
Hawaiian Airlines announced the appointment of David Osborne to the newly created position of senior VP-CIO. Osborne joined Hawaiian last month after a long career in the banking and financial services industries.
The SkyTeam Alliance yesterday unveiled its new Associate Program and named the first carriers selected to begin the joining process: Air Europa, Copa Airlines, Kenya Airways and Tarom. According to KLM President and CEO Leo van Wijk, the Associate Program is "a new tool of SkyTeam's growth strategy and will broaden the alliance's presence to several strategic regions while providing more travelers with access to our expanding network."
Penauille Group announced the appointment of Jacques Guerin as CEO of Servisair/GlobeGround, replacing Jean de Courcel. Guerin began his career with Aeroports de Paris and spent 10 years with Air France Group within which he held a number of different positions.
Singapore Airlines stepped up its lobbying to gain fifth freedom rights between Australia and the US with the release of a report claiming that the lack of competition on the corridor has led to higher fares, limited capacity and deprived the tourism industry of a potential A$126 million ($96.7 million) windfall.
KLM announced that Cees van Woudenberg will resign as MD and chief human resources officer and move up to the Air France-KLM holding organization, where he will join Air France's executive committee from July 1.
Aloha Airlines named Jeffrey Kessler interim senior VP-finance, CFO and treasurer. Kessler, who is a partner in Tatum CFO Partners, will fill the position until the company names a permanent CFO.
Gol flew 715.9 million domestic RPKs in May, up 44.1% over the year-ago period. Domestic capacity climbed 38.5% to 984.6 million ASKs and load factor gained 2.8 points to 72.7%. Internationally, the carrier flew 35.2 million RPKs on capacity of 59 million ASKs for a load factor of 59.7%.
Alaska Airlines flew 1.39 billion RPMs in May, up 6% over the year-ago period. Capacity declined 3.3% to 1.81 billion ASMs and load factor gained 6.7 points to 76.8%. For the five months ended May 31, RPMs rose 8.2% to 6.67 billion, ASMs increased 1.8% to 8.99 billion and load factor jumped 4.4 points to 74.2%.
Lufthansa carried 2.8% more traffic in May compared to the same month a year earlier, driven by an increase in long-haul routes. But load factor dipped 0.3 point to 73.2% mostly owing to tough competition in Europe, where passenger numbers fell 0.9%.
Air Canada was expected to finalize its recent widebody fleet replacement order with Boeing after it reached a tentative agreement with its pilots yesterday covering operation of the aircraft. AC said the accord covers "costs and other related issues relating to the introduction of the new Boeing widebody aircraft" into its fleet, but it did not elaborate. The deal is now subject to ratification by union members.
American Eagle launched several new services from Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport, including three daily flights to Savannah, two daily flights to both Madison and Mobile and once-daily service to Evansville, Green Bay, Moline, Rochester (Minn.) and Toledo. It also began seasonal daily service between DFW and Traverse City, which will operate through Oct. 29; a second flight will be added on the route July 2-Aug. 22. All flights will use 44- or 50-seat Embraer regional jets.
Scandinavian Airlines appointed Hakan Ericson executive VP responsible for Airline Support and Airline Related Businesses. Ericson comes from DHL Freight Europe, where he was MD as well as head of European Networks, and assumes his position on Oct. 1. SAS said this appointment completes the group management team.
Finnair flew 1.24 billion RPKs in May, up 10.5% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 7.5% to 1.83 billion ASKs and load factor gained 1.8 points to 68.1%. For the five months ended May 31, ASKs increased 6.1% to 9.61 billion, RPKs rose 7.3% to 6.85 billion and load factor inched up 0.8 point to 71.2%.
United Airlines this week introduced 70-seat CRJ700s and Embraer 170s, which are configured with United First and Economy Plus cabins, to eight of its United Express markets. The new fleet, which replaces 50-seat United Express aircraft, is a "direct response to customer demand," United said. From June 7, United Express began to operate the new RJs between Chicago O'Hare and White Plains, Columbia, Portland, Montreal and Ottawa. They also were introduced on flights between Washington Dulles and Portland, Rochester (N.Y.) and Montreal.
