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.
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pilots overwhelmingly rejected a five-year tentative agreement reached in May ( ATWOnline, May 30) that would have superseded the current two-year deal now in effect.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.
Embraer opened a 32,300-sq.-ft. service center for maintenance, repair and overhaul of its aircraft at its Gaviao Peixoto site 230 mi. from its headquarters in Sao Jose dos Campos.
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%.
ExpressJet Holdings reached a tentative agreement with its flight attendants, represented by the International Assn. of Machinists. The deal now is subject to ratification by the 1,200 IAM members at the carrier. The two sides have been negotiating since November 2004.
International Air Carrier Assn., the trade group for Europe's leisure airline industry, announced that Niki and Arkefly became members Monday. Niki is the low-fare airline founded by Niki Lauda, while Arkefly is the new airline of TUI Netherlands.
Machine-readable passports in the format specified by ICAO became the worldwide standard effective yesterday, the organization announced from Montreal. The 188 member nations of ICAO have agreed that all must begin issuing ICAO-standard MRPs no later than April 1, 2010. Some 110 nations already do so.
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.
Cerebit's innerLog was selected by US Airways to "build visibility into the carrier's online promotions." ARINC received a contract extension from Spirit Airlines for enhanced digital data link communications services. Under the deal, ARINC will continue providing the carrier's current fleet with GLOBALink VHF ACARS data link while also delivering advanced VHF Digital Link Mode 2 service to Spirit's new VDL-equipped Airbus aircraft.
OnAir finalized an agreement with Siemens to provide a lightweight GSM pico cell and an onboard channel selector that will ensure passengers are able to use their mobile phones during flight without generating interference to aircraft systems or ground mobile networks, thereby complying with certification and regulatory requirements.
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.
Japan Airlines will expand telephone, Internet and ticket delivery systems in Japan. From October, the carrier will introduce International Ticket Assist Service through which customers can make a telephone call when changing itineraries and arrange to receive new tickets by mail or courier. The service also will include an international ticket refund desk through which refunds can be requested by telephone and credited directly to customers' bank accounts. JAL introduced a similar service for domestic ticket support in March.
Emirates began construction on a new 6,000-sq.-m. jet engine test facility at a site near Dubai. The facility, which was designed in cooperation with General Electric International, is due for completion in January 2007. Once finished, it will house a 13-m. cross-section jet engine test cell and an APU test cell and will be capable of testing engines of up to 150,000 lb. thrust, including Rolls-Royce Trent 500s/700s/800s, GP700s and GE90-115Bs. TAT Industries finalized its acquisition of Sabena Technics following a share transfer agreement signed last week.
Air Berlin will start its own mobile-phone service called Air Berlin Mobile by December. Users can earn bonus miles. The service will be offered via travel agencies.
Fischer Advanced Composite Components, which as a supplier to Aviation Partners Boeing has a 95% market share of 737 winglet production, is studying the possibility of developing winglets for the MD-80.
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.
