Iberia flew 4.7 billion RPKs in June, up 6.5% on the prior-year period, while capacity increased 6% to 5.24 billion ASKs. Consequently, load factor improved 0.4 point to 77.7%. The number of passengers carried grew 3.3%--up 5.2% on domestic flights and 0.8% on international flights. During the first half ended June 30, Iberia grew RPKs by 7% and ASKs climbed 6.1%, lifting load factor 0.6 point to 75.1%.
Air Jamaica canceled its full flight schedule for July 16 as a result of Hurricane Emily, which is working its way slowly through the Caribbean. This is the second time this month that the airline has been forced to cancel flights owing to a hurricane ( ATWOnline, July 8).
FedEx Express announced that Senior VP-Air Operations Donald Barber will retire at the end of July. He will be succeeded by FedEx Express VP James Parker.
Discover the World Marketing finalized an agreement with Alitalia to expand its sales and marketing coverage to South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia. It already represents Alitalia in 13 other countries.
TAP Portugal and Air One signed a marketing agreement covering codeshare operations on TAP-operated routes from Lisbon to Rome, Milan Linate and Venice. The agreement will go into effect July 20. In addition, both companies are to market jointly a wide range of domestic destinations operated in codeshare in Italy and Portugal. TAP will apply its code to Air One routes between Rome Fiumicino and Turin, Palermo, Catania, Genoa, Lamezia Terme, Trieste, Alghero and Venice and the Air One code will be applied to TAP flights between Lisbon and Oporto, Funchal and Faro.
InteliSys Aviation Systems released two new interfaces to its successful airline reservation system. The interfaces, marketed under the trade names WebAgent and WebEdit, are modular components of the company's proprietary amelia RES.
Lufthansa Systems CEO Wolfgang Gohde believes that his company's new FACE (Future Airline Core Environment) modular passenger solution will enable it to steal a march on what he clearly sees as LHS's primary competitors: Sabre Group, parent of the GDS, Travelocity, and Sabre Airline Solutions, and Amadeus, which is moving aggressively into traditional airline IT from its core GDS activity and has had some key wins with its new Altea suite, including Qantas, British Airways and KLM.
US Dept. of Homeland Security announced yesterday that it is ending the so-called "30 minute rule" for flights operating into and out of Reagan Washington National Airport. Under the rule, which was imposed when DCA reopened after 9/11, all passengers and cabin staff were required to remain seated for the first 30 min. of any flight out of DCA and the last 30 min. of any flight into the airport.
Swiss International Air Lines was forced to cancel another nine flights from Basel Wednesday, affecting around 100 passengers. On Tuesday, Swiss cancelled six flights following the suspensions of 52 of its 72 Saab 2000 pilots ( ATWOnline, July 13). The incident began when the former Crossair pilots wrote a letter to management and the board of directors stating that uncertainty over their future with the company could cause cockpit safety to be compromised. Swiss responded by instituting training checks for the group, a process that takes half a day per pilot.
Gol and Amadeus signed an agreement for the distribution of Gol's flight and fare information to tourism professionals through the Amadeus system. The deal goes into effect in August.
Lufthansa and Swiss will harmonize their frequent-flier programs starting July 20. Swiss Travel Club members can earn miles on Lufthansa flights and vice versa. Members also have access to each other's lounges. Swiss Travel Club has 2.1 million members, Lufthansa Miles & More has more than 10 million.
US FAA begins negotiations with the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. on a new contract next week. Yesterday, in a conference call with reporters, Administrator Marion Blakey said the agency "cannot afford an agreement like 1998 that saddled the FAA with excessive costs, archaic work rules and restrictions on our ability to modernize the system." She claimed that as a result of the current contract, negotiated during the Clinton Administration in 1998, controller compensation ballooned from $1.4 billion to nearly $2.4 billion ( ATWOnline, May 13).
Air New Zealand implemented a contingency plan to minimize the impact of expected industrial action on its long-haul services next week after mediated negotiations with its long-haul cabin crew, represented by FARSA, ended without an agreement. According to ANZ GM-International Airline Ed Sims, an average of 15 to 20 international flights a day will be cancelled owing to the strike.
Polar Air Cargo crewmembers, represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn., overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike if contract talks do not result in an agreement and the National Mediation Board releases the parties. The two sides have been negotiating since February 2003.
Vueling said it carried more than 1.2 million passengers during its first full year of operations. Punctuality of its flights was above 85% with a ratio of 3.2 per 1,000 passengers for baggage loss, the airline noted, adding that it has "eliminated the overbooking concept." It said 94% of its sales were made through its website, 3% by its call center and the remaining 3% by agencies.
FedEx Express yesterday said it will build a $150 million Asia/Pacific hub at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport to replace its existing hub in Subic Bay, Philippines.
Lord King of Wartnaby, who served as chairman of British Airways between 1981 and 1993 and led its successful restructuring, died Tuesday at his home in Leicestershire. He was 87. Born John King, he was knighted in 1979, two years before Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher appointed him chairman of BA to prepare the often troubled and unprofitable national airline for privatization, a process that was completed in 1987. He was made a life peer in 1983. One of King's key steps was the 1983 appointment of Colin Marshall as CEO.
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.
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.
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.
The International Air Carrier Assn. reiterated its calls to EU finance ministers to abort the idea of levying a development tax on airline tickets, an item once again on the agenda of the forthcoming ministerial meeting. The member airlines of IACA believe discussions on a development tax cannot be isolated from other burdens facing the aviation sector and argue that the cumulative effect of soaring kerosene costs, environmental pressures and a development tax would be unbearable for many carriers.
SAS introduced the United Airlines Corporate Solutions system in North America. It provides a single integrated system for collecting and analyzing data, generating contract terms, tracking usage and monitoring performance goals. InteliSys Aviation Systems signed a multiyear contract with Calgary-based Regional 1 Airlines Ltd. to provide its amelia reservation system. The carrier will use the system to manage its reservation sales and distribution.
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).
