El Al named former Israeli Air Force Maj. Gen. Eliezer Shakedi as its new CEO, succeeding the resigning Haim Romano. Globes reported that the transition is expected to take two months. The airline did not release a statement.
Delta Air Lines flew 15.13 billion system RPMs in September, a 5.2% drop from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 6.7% to 18.32 billion ASMs and load factor was up 1.4 points to 82.6%. United Airlines flew 9.25 billion consolidated RPMs in September, a 1.1% decline year-over-year. Capacity fell 3.7% to 11.39 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 2.1 points to 81.2%. Lufthansa Passenger Airlines flew 10.99 billion RPKs in September, a 2.8 % year-over-year decline, against a 3.6% cut in capacity to 13.69 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 0.7 point to 80.3%.
EU's Environment Council agreed Wednesday to set a target of reducing aviation greenhouse gas emissions by 10% below 2005 levels by 2020. The EU will use this target as a negotiating position for December's UN climate change conference in Copenhagen.
Boeing's ongoing problems with the 787 and 747-8 hit home yesterday as previously announced charges totaling $3.5 billion resulted in a $1.56 billion third-quarter loss despite a 9% year-over-year lift in revenue to $16.69 billion.
Southwest Airlines yesterday placed into revenue service a "green plane"--a retrofitted 737-700 with a new interior featuring lighter, "eco-friendly" seat and carpet materials--for a six-month trial and projected that the aircraft could yield 10,000 gal. in fuel savings per year. Speaking in Dallas during the airline's annual media day, Chairman, President and CEO Gary Kelly said the four-year-old aircraft now is 519 lb. lighter than a standard SWA -700 and offers 5 lb. of savings per seat.
Sudan Airways 707-300 freighter on lease from Azza Transport crashed yesterday after taking off from Sharjah, killing all six aboard. The flight was scheduled to land in Khartoum.
Royal Jordanian announced that it will adopt the full suite of Amadeus Altea Customer Management and e-commerce solutions including reservations, inventory and departure control as part of a 10-year partnership with Amadeus. Braathens IT Solutions will provide its Ticketless Travel Platform to SAS Group. The product will be integrated with the Amadeus Altea suite and become part of SAS's new distribution platform scheduled for implementation in 2012.
Arik Air appointed Jason Holt as its new MD. Holt had been working in London for Arik International, which provides logistical business support and management consultancy services to the carrier, and formerly was director-flight operations for Virgin Nigeria and BMED.
SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines parent SkyWest Inc. announced an agreement with United Airlines to provide a long-term loan of $80 million and extend its current codeshare relationship. The loan is secured by "certain ground equipment and airport slots held by United," the regional said. The agreement also includes a new partnership between UA and ASA, which will begin operating as a United Express carrier in the 2010 first quarter. ASA currently flies exclusively for Delta Air Lines.
News from Travel Technology Update: Amadeus told its German subscribers it will begin partially compensating them for payments they make to Lufthansa under the carrier's Preferred Fares program on Jan. 1. Lufthansa's PFP, which went into effect in July 2008, imposes a €4.90 per-segment surcharge for Germany-originating flights booked through Amadeus. Lufthansa reached agreements for lower distribution costs with Sabre and Travelport that exempt their subscribers from the surcharge, but Amadeus, the largest GDS player in the German market, did not.
Los Angeles International is in line for a $1.26 billion expansion and renovation of its aging Tom Bradley International Terminal. The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners voted Monday to award two contracts to Walsh Austin Joint Venture for the project, which will include nine new boarding gates, concourses with larger lounges, new concession and retail space and aircraft support equipment to accommodate the A380 and 787. The terminal currently serves 35 airlines.
US Air Transport Assn. said September passenger revenue plunged 19% year-over-year despite a drop of only 2% in passengers. Ticket prices have fallen for 10 consecutive months, the organization stated. In September, the average price to fly 1 mi. was down 18%, greater than the 17% year-over-year decline in August. "The demand for air travel remains weak, as evidenced by the untenable pricing environment.
British Airways CEO Willie Walsh and the Unite union failed to reach an agreement over cabin crew job cuts and changes to work practices at a Monday meeting. "The discussion about cabin crew pay and productivity issues was open and frank. After the meeting, Mr. Walsh wrote to [Unite Joint General Secretary] Simpson. A response is awaited," BA said. Unite hopes the airline will shelve its unilateral decision to impose changes to work rules effective Nov. 16.
IATA said it won "a major court victory" in its ongoing dispute with Travelport over its PaxIS airline intelligence product that IATA collects through its billing and settlement plans, some of which is stored in GDS databases. On Oct. 1, the Amsterdam District Court denied an injunction sought by Travelport to block IATA's use of data stored in Travelport databases for PaxIS. "IATA has won an important legal battle to preserve competition for airline data transaction products.
ILFC received a $2 billion loan from parent American International Group to pay off debt due last week, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission cited in numerous press reports, further tying the lessor to the now majority government-owned insurance conglomerate ( ATWOnline, Sept. 4). AIG already had pumped $1.7 billion of government money into ILFC in the spring. ILFC reportedly put up aircraft as collateral for the loans.
Jazz Air dropped its C$10 million ($9.7 million) damages claim against Porter Airlines, the latter announced yesterday, although the Toronto City Centre-based carrier said it still plans to move forward on its C$850 million counterclaim against Jazz and Air Canada and a declaration that the capacity purchase agreement between the pair is unlawful. "The litigation by Jazz was entirely without merit and a heavy-handed attempt to overwhelm Porter when it was starting up," Porter President and CEO Robert Deluce said.
Ryanair called on the Scottish government to reintroduce the Route Development Fund, which operated in 2002-07, in order to reverse the 6.3% fall in passenger traffic at Scottish airports in the first eight months of this year. It blamed the UK's £10 ($16.33) air passenger duty for the decline. The LCC said it could increase passenger numbers by 1.5 million per year and create 1,500 new jobs in Scotland if a development support scheme for new routes was restored. It repeated its plea for the UK government to abolish the duty, which is set to rise on Nov. 1.
Jetex Flight Support today announced that it is seeing strong new growth in the business jet sector and is pressing ahead with new projects - and new people - to continue its global expansion into 2010.
Rolls-Royce yesterday began construction of a $500 million facility in Prince George County, Va., that is slated to open in 2011 and will manufacture engine discs for Trent 900s, Trent 1000s and Trent XWBs. The site, dubbed Crosspointe, also will be used to "manufacture, assemble and test a range of aerospace components and products," Rolls said.
BAA's appeal against the March Competition Commission ruling ordering it to sell three of its seven UK airports (London Gatwick, Stansted and either Edinburgh or Glasgow International) within two years was launched yesterday at the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
US FAA is investigating American Airlines' maintenance of MD-80s, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing preliminary agency findings that "have identified as many as 16 [AA MD-80s] that were operated for months despite allegedly substandard bulkhead repairs."
CSA Czech Airlines named Miroslav Dvorak, head of Prague Ruzyne operator Prague Airport, as its new chairman and CEO. He succeeds Radomir Lasak and will run both organizations, Reuters reported. Miroslav Zamecnik was named chairman of CSA's supervisory board, succeeding Vaclav Novak, who resigned. The Czech finance ministry said it is continuing to evaluate a CZK1 billion ($57.5 million) offer for the airline from Unimex and Travel Service.
ST Aerospace said the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore approved its commercial pilot training subsidiary, ST Aviation Training Academy, as a Flight Training Organization. "Aspiring pilots who train with STATA will be CAAS-certified. This eliminates the previous practice of having to convert licenses obtained from foreign FTOs to a CAAS license," the company said.
Air New Zealand simplified its fare structure to comprise two options rather than three and cut average fares by 10%, with cheapest domestic tariffs falling by up to 23%, effective yesterday. The largest cuts are in regional markets where ANZ faces no competition rather than in cities where Qantas subsidiary Jetstar Airways operates domestic flights. ANZ's fare structure now consists of Smart Saver and Flexi Plus fares. It flew 2.49 billion RPKs in September, down 6.8% year-over-year, against an 11.9% cut in capacity to 3.03 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 4.5 points to 82.3%.
Air France KLM flew 17.35 billion RPMs in September, a 3.7% fall from the year-ago month. Capacity was down 4.9% to 21.19 billion ASMs and load factor lifted 1 point to 81.9%. Southwest Airlines flew 5.77 billion RPMs in September, up 8.8% year-over-year. Capacity fell 7.8% to 7.72 billion ASMs and load factor surged 11.3 points to 74.7% JetBlue Airways flew 1.92 billion RPMs in September, up 9.8% from the year-ago month, against an 8.6% increase in capacity to 2.47 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 0.9 point to 77.6%.
