Spanish government will lend domestic airlines up to €600 million ($895.8 million) in 2010-12 in order to "avoid possible restructuring or bankruptcies," it said in a statement cited by Dow Jones.
Assn. of European Airlines expressed disappointment that the EU Council of Transport Ministers did not discuss the prolongation of the slot waiver for the . . .winter season and summer 2010 at its recent meeting.
SITA confirmed that 12 Arab Air Carriers Org. member airlines will be the first to deploy its Aircraft Emissions Manager ( ATWOnline, July 2). Next month's deployment follows the submission, in consultation with SITA, of the airlines' plan to monitor carbon dioxide emissions and capacity to EU authorities in an effort to comply with the new Emission Trading Scheme.
Singapore Airlines flew 6.98 billion RPKs in September, down 7.9% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 12.5% to 8.63 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 4 points to 80.9%.
The US House of Representatives this week overwhelmingly passed legislation to revamp regulations for hiring and training pilots, the result of Congressional concern sparked by the February crash of a Colgan Air Q400 that killed 50 people near Buffalo.
Qatar Airways A340-600 powered by Trent 556 engines flew from London Gatwick to Doha using a 50-50 blend of synthetic GTL kerosene and conventional oil-based kerosene Monday, which the carrier said was the world's first commercial passenger flight powered by fuel made from natural gas. The flight was the "latest step" for the consortium comprising QR, Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Qatar Petroleum, Qatar Science & Technology Park, Shell and Qatar Fuel ( ATWOnline, Nov. 15, 2007).
Bmibaby and Germanwings will link their websites and list certain flights of both carriers, sending customers to the corresponding booking page after they select a flight. Bmibaby customers will have access to 37 Germanwings flights from Manchester, London Stansted and Edinburgh while Germanwings customers will be able to book 33 bmibaby services from Cardiff, Nottingham East Midlands, Birmingham and Manchester.
Lufthansa Technik yesterday officially inaugurated Lufthansa Technik Milan at Malpensa. LTMIL will offer component and maintenance services up to A checks, aircraft-on-ground support and troubleshooting. Initially, aircraft from the A320, A330/A340 and 737 families will be maintained, but "in case of an adequate market demand LTMIL will also extend its services to other aircraft types," LHT said. The new facility is an extension of Lufthansa Technik Component Services Milan, which opened in spring 2008.
Goodrich Corp. said it signed a research agreement with Rolls-Royce "to develop the next generation of fuel nozzles for 'lean burn' combustion technology systems." According to Goodrich, which also has been selected to supply the combustion system fuel nozzles for the A350's Trent XWB, lean burn technology allows for a more complete combustion cycle, "which reduces emissions and increases efficiency."
Boeing, Shanghai Airport Authority and Shanghai Airlines yesterday opened a new two-bay hangar at Shanghai Pudong to be used by their Boeing Shanghai Aviation Services MRO joint venture.
Caribbean Airlines promoted Executive VP and COO Ian Brunton to CEO, effective yesterday. He succeeds Philip Saunders, who tendered his resignation six months ago. Brunton formerly was chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Civil Aviation Authority and the Trinidad and Tobago Airline Pilots' Assn. and was a member of the BWIA board. Global Aviation Holdings, parent of North American Airlines and World Airways, named Polar Air Cargo VP-Sales and Marketing for Europe, Middle East, Africa and India Hendrik Falk as VP-cargo sales.
Chinese airlines posted collective net income of CNY6.13 billion ($896.7 million) for the first nine months of this year, a big turnaround from a CNY5.55 billion deficit in the year-ago period. CAAC credited "economic recovery" and "lower fuel prices" for the positive result. Total operating revenue dipped 2.2% to CNY153 billion while operating expenses fell 3.8% to CNY153.9 billion.
Ireland's three main carriers again called on the government to remove the €10 ($14.80) tourist tax added to airline tickets on April 1. In a joint statement, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary, Aer Lingus CEO Christoph Mueller and CityJet CEO Geoffrey O'Byrne-White said the tax has had a "devastating impact on traffic and visitor numbers at Ireland's airports" since it was introduced, including a 15% decline in monthly throughput at Dublin. They predict passenger numbers at DUB may fall from 24 million to approximately 21 million this year owing to the tax.
Transaero announced that it has become the first full-service Russian airline to adopt fully the use of e-ticketing for all flights. In 2009, 95% of all its tickets have been electronic.
Airline ticket sales through Arlington, Va.-based Airlines Reporting Corp. fell 14.2% in September compared to the year-ago month to $5.61 billion. ARC Director-Strategic Communications Allan Muten described as "marginally positive" the sequential upswing compared to August, when total sales were down 16.8% year-to-year. "That's encouraging if it continues," he told ATWOnline. The volume of total transactions processed by ARC decreased 2.3% versus a 1.7% drop the prior month, but the volume of credit transactions was virtually flat compared to September 2008.
US FAA yesterday proposed $9.2 million in civil penalties against US Airways and United Airlines for violations related to federal airworthiness directives and/or the airlines' own federally approved maintenance programs.
Qantas deferred plans for additional flights between Australia and South Africa and decided against summer services to South Korea owing to "current market conditions," according to a regulatory filing citied by the Sydney Morning Herald. Iceland Express will operate seasonal four-times-weekly service from Reykjavik Keflavik to Newark aboard a 757 starting in June. Eastern Airways launched service to Bergen from Newcastle (five-times-weekly) and Aberdeen (six-times-weekly).
Japan Airlines is not commenting on reports in the Japanese media that it will seek ¥250 billion ($2.78 billion) in debt forgiveness from its creditors and increase its planned job cuts to 9,000.
ITA Software said yesterday that Air Canada will deploy its "pricing, shopping and Web front end modules across multiple online channels, including the airline's consumer website and travel agency website," with implementation scheduled for next summer.
The US airline industry generally welcomed the results of last week's ICAO High Level Meeting on Climate Change but appeared to be taking a guarded approach to the organization's call for a 2% annual improvement in fuel efficiency through 2020, in line with previous comments from IATA and the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization.
Datalex reached agreement with Midwest Airlines to provide its Travel Distribution Platform, which will allow customers to shop and reserve both Frontier Airlines and Midwest flights in support of codeshare agreements. Frontier and Midwest were acquired by Republic Airways Holdings this year.
AirBaltic named Vigo Legzdins its new chairman. Legzdins is also chairman of Latvian Roadworks and was previously state secretary of the Ministry of Transportation and head of its Investment and Transit Policy Dept. Nordic Aviation Capital, the turboprop lessor, named Jim Murphy chief commercial officer.
IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani met yesterday with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at UN headquarters in New York, briefing him on aviation industry emissions goals that were presented at last week's ICAO High Level Meeting on Climate Change ( ATWOnline, Oct. 12). "I assured the Secretary General that the aviation industry is serious about its climate change responsibility," Bissignani said in a statement.
