Kronos said its Altitude Preferred Bidding System was purchased by Pinnacle Airlines. The system will manage the schedules of Pinnacle's 1,000 pilots and 600 flight attendants and is expected to increase productivity.
Teledyne Controls will supply its Integrated Data Management Unit for retrofit installation on 16 Japan Airlines 767-200s/300s. Teledynes iDMU will replace the legacy DMU currently in service, providing enhanced aircraft condition monitoring and recording capabilities.
Air France-KLM Group most likely will migrate its departure control system to Amadeus's Altea Fly, a well-placed source told ATWOnline, adding that AF will be the first to switch with KLM following in a second stage. AF and KLM at present use two different systems--KLM uses its in-house KLM Systems solution--but the new group realizes a common platform will create further synergies and facilitate cooperation. "We are studying the possibility [of migrating to Altea Fly], but no decision has been taken," an AF spokesperson said.
APV, the state privatization agency of Hungary, announced that five investors are competing to buy a 99.95% stake in flag carrier Malev. According to Reuters, three of the applications submitted can be regarded as bids while the other two are letters of intent. APV said it will not release the names of the investors before it announces the winner, which should occur within 30 days.
Emirates-CAE Flight Training received Type Rating Training Organization certification by the JAA, which means that European aircraft operators can have their crews trained at ECFT without needing to revalidate the type ratings with their national licensing authorities.
Emirates SkyCargo purchased three used A310-300Fs that will join its fleet between June 2005 and January 2006. The carrier also will add two A380-800Fs in 2008. Separately, the airline appointed Hiran Perera to the newly created position of VP cargo-freighters. In his new role, Perera will be responsible for the carrier's expanding freighter fleet.
UK's National Air Traffic Services said proposals by the Civil Aeronautics Authority to lower its cap on ATC charges risks "damaging service levels and future increases in capacity." Last year CAA proposed reductions in en route revenues of RPI minus 7.5% for 2006 and 2% in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. The agency argued the reductions could be achieved by more cuts in operating costs than previously planned and a 20% cut in capital expenditures.
Qantas is using Required Navigation Performance on its flights to Queenstown after receiving approval from New Zealand's CAA and Australia's CASA to use the procedures, according to Naverus, a Seattle-based company that developed the system Qantas is employing.
SITA INC said it was selected by the Civil Aviation Bureau of Japan to be the sole provider of airline service via Multifunctional Transport Satellite. SITA said the selection will further strengthen its Satellite Aircom service, which uses Inmarsat satellites.
But for the grace of US taxpayers, patient bankruptcy judges and the deep pockets of GE Capital Corp., the long-awaited consolidation of the US airline industry might have begun in earnest last year as companies such as United Airlines, US Airways Group and Delta Air Lines simply ran out of financial options. Together, the three accounted for $7.5 billion of the $9.2 billion in aggregate losses suffered by US Major passenger airlines in 2004. Delta by itself accounted for nearly 60% of the industry's annual loss and a bit more than half of the fourth-quarter loss.
ACI-NA announced that David Plavin will leave his post as president at year end. Airbus North America welcomed Bill Bozin as VP-safety & technical affairs succeeding John Lauber, who becomes Airbus chief safety officer in Toulouse. Air France appointed Catherine Guillouard VP-finance. Alaska Airlines tapped Megan Lawrence as dir.-government affairs. American Airlines promoted Oliver Martins to VP-engineering, quality assurance & planning.
Ready or not, the A380 is coming in 2006. "Airports will be ready," Dick Marchi, senior VP at ACI-NA, tells AE&T. "Most will be fine." The double-decker A380, which was rolled out in January, will carry up to 555 passengers more than 9,000 nm, while the freighter version will be able to haul up to 150 tonnes for more than 5,600 nm.
SkyEurope intends to add four 737-500s this summer, bringing its fleet of the twinjets to 11. It also operates six Brasilia turboprops. The additional aircraft will support an increase in frequencies as well as the launch of 10 new routes: Athens from/to Bratislava and Budapest, Barcelona from/to Budapest and Krakow, Copenhagen from/to Bratislava and Budapest, Manchester from/to Bratislava and Krakow, and Nice from/to Bratislava and Budapest.
Iberia, which late last week placed an order for up to 79 Airbus aircraft ( ATWOnline, Feb. 28), posted a consolidated profit after tax and minority interests of eur218.4 million ($289.4 million) for 2004, a 53% increase over net income of eur34.9 million in the previous year and the second-best profit ever recorded by the company. For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, consolidated net profit rose 53.1% on the year-ago period from eur34.9 million to eur53.4 million.
UPS announced late Friday that it plans to add an $82.5 million, 700,000-sq.-ft. heavy freight facility to its existing Louisville Cargo operations. The move came just one day after the company announced it was closing its freight-sorting hub at Dayton ( ATWOnline, Feb. 25). UPS said several states were considered as bases for the facility but the decision of the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority to extend it tax incentives helped seal the deal. The new complex is expected to bring 720 jobs to Louisville.
Aloha Airlines has decided to eliminate service to the Central and South Pacific and will suspend operations to Burbank and Vancouver following a route analysis. It also has decided to return two 737-300s, but through improved utilization and optimized scheduling it still intends to expand its operations to California.
It is back to the future for Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines, who signed codeshare agreements to compete with the new LCCs operating out of Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Under the deal, SIA and its regional subsidiary SilkAir will codeshare on a variety of Malaysia Airlines routes starting March 27. SIA and MAS split in 1972 and relations have been cool for decades, but the impending Asean Free Skies starts in 2008. Both airlines have taken the strategic decision to build market presence and cut out wasteful duplication to combat LCCs.
US Airways yesterday said its $125 million financing agreement with Eastshore Aviation ( ATWOnline, Feb. 23), an investment entity owned by Air Wisconsin Airlines Corp. and its shareholders, was approved by the US Bankruptcy Court. The facility is structured as debtor-in-possession financing and $75 million will be available immediately. The remaining funds will be drawn in $25 million increments later. Upon emergence from Chapter 11, the loan will be converted to equity in the reorganized US Airways.
Continental Airlines yesterday announced that it reached tentative agreements on new contracts with its last unsigned work groups, its pilots, flight attendants, and mechanics and dispatchers. Terms of the deals were not released but the carrier has said it needs $500 million in savings, more than $300 million of which has to come from those groups. The agreements are subject to union leadership approvals and ratification by union membership, with votes expected by the end of March.
Virgin Blue's independent directors flatly rejected as "neither fair nor reasonable" a A$1.1 billion ($871.6 million) buyout bid by major shareholder Patrick Corp., intensifying pressure on the multimodal transport group to raise its offer price.
Valuair, a Singapore-based low-cost carrier, is planning to launch flights to Australia's east coast cities by December. The airline already operates A320s from Singapore to Perth and the success of that operation is prompting expansion plans. Insiders suggest Valuair will lease A330s or A340s to launch the flights. It operates to Hong Kong, Bangkok and Jakarta and plans to start flights to Chengdu and Xiamen in China, Japan and Korea.
Indonesia's Lion Air is in the market for 40 737-900s or A320s/A321s, according to insiders. ATWOnline understands that an MOU has been signed with Boeing, although Airbus is making a counteroffer.
Independence Air parent FLYi reported an $86 million net loss for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, which included costs related to the sale of four CRJs, the writeoff of goodwill remaining from the original formation of the company and costs related to a recently completed financial restructuring ( ATWOnline, Feb. 23).
US Federal Court judge gave the go-ahead for United Airlines employees to move forward with a class-action lawsuit against the carrier's employee stock ownership plan and its trustees. The suit alleges that those charged with protecting the interests of the employee-owners failed in their duties, costing them "billions of dollars." It claims that the UAL ESOP committee and the plan trustee, State Street Bank, were aware that UAL's stock was unstable and State Street Bank even had placed it on a watch list owing to its volatility.
ATA Airlines will increase its operations to Hawaii significantly in April and June. From Lihue, the carrier will launch three new weekly flights to Los Angeles June 12 and one weekly flight to San Francisco June 11, and from Kona it will commence two weekly flights to Los Angeles on June 12. It also will increase nonstop flights from both Honolulu and Maui to Phoenix from two to six weekly on April 3 and to daily on June 7. In addition, it will begin daily nonstop service from Las Vegas to Honolulu April 3.
