Hawaiian Airlines said it has hired more than 100 maintenance, service, contract, ramp and cleaning personnel "in recent months" and plans to add 170 more employees (including 25 pilots and 30 flight attendants) by early next year as it prepares for the April delivery of its first A330-200. It currently has 3,756 employees. It signed an order for six A330-200s and six A350-800s, plus purchase rights for six of each type, 18 months ago.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission accused Emirates of conspiring to fix cargo rates and fuel surcharges on international flights from 2002 to 2006 and initiated legal action aimed at imposing financial penalties on the Dubai-based carrier. EK told this website that it emphatically denied the charges and would defend itself in Australian court proceedings, which are expected to take place in Sydney next month. It becomes the ninth carrier to face ACCC charges related to cargo price-fixing; six including Qantas have been ordered to pay penalties.
IATA said that while June passenger traffic figures indicated "some stabilization in air travel demand," noting that even the fall in premium demand "moderated," premium revenue "was still declining at a rate close to 40% in June." In a "Premium Travel Monitor" issued yesterday, the organization explained that "the issue now is that this stabilization of passenger numbers is partly being achieved at the expense of much lower yields as airlines seek to boost cash flow by making more cheaper seats available. Revenue from premium travel fell an estimated 33% in Q1 and 41% in Q2."
An estimated 100 Midwest Airlines employees will lose their jobs following its acquisition by Republic Airways Holdings, a Republic spokesperson confirmed yesterday to ATWOnline.
Libyan Airlines signed an MOU with OnAir to install mobile and inflight Internet service on its seven new A320s, which it expects to start taking next year.
Gulfstream International Airlines parent Gulfstream International Group announced a $2.2 million second-quarter profit, reversed from a $3.5 million loss in the year-ago quarter. Result largely was due to a $2 million noncash tax benefit, although the Florida-based regional was profitable on the operating level as well with a $984,000 surplus comparing to a $5.5 million deficit in the second quarter of 2008.
Kenya Airways workers represented by the Aviation & Allied Workers Union called off a two-day strike Sunday after reaching an agreement with management on a pay increase, KQ said in a statement. Flights from Nairobi were delayed Friday and Saturday as some 3,000 workers went on strike over pay. The new plan includes an interim wage award of 10% for the first year and another 10% for the second, the airline said.
Southwest Airlines Pilots Assn. confirmed in a statement issued Friday that the union's refusal to integrate its seniority list with that of Frontier Airlines led to the impasse that scuttled SWA's bid for the Denver-based carrier ( ATWOnline, Aug. 17).
Turkish Airlines flew 21.3 billion RPKs during the first seven months of 2009, up 12.4% over the year-ago period. Capacity rose 19.7% to 30.6 billion ASKs and load factor fell 4.5 points to 69.5%.
US Air Transport Assn. predicted a 3.5% year-over-year drop in the number of passengers traveling globally on US carriers over the Sept. 2-Sept. 9 Labor Day holiday period. It expects that an estimated 16 million travelers, down from 17 million last year, will take to the skies. "Passengers should expect airports to be less crowded, but planes will be at or near capacity during this Labor Day holiday period," ATA President and CEO James May said.
Strategic Airlines, an Australian scheduled, charter and ACMI operator, said it received an AOC from the French DGAC last week. It plans to operate two A320s in Europe. One already is flying on wet-lease with Solomon Airlines and the second is expected to be available this month for ACMI and charter flights. Strategic acquired OzJet Airlines in June ( ATWOnline, June 30).
UK government will provide Airbus with up to £340 million ($562.2 million) of repayable launch aid for development of the A350, Business Secretary Peter Mandelson confirmed during a visit to Airbus's Filton facility Friday. At the Paris Air Show in June, European governments said they reached agreement to give Airbus €3.5 billion ($4.97 billion) in soft loans for A350 development. The French and German governments already have pledged a combined €2.5 billion for the project, while Spain is expected to loan around €400 million. A statement from the UK Dept.
British Airways said it held "positive" talks with Iberia last week in London about their planned merger. "We have now met twice with the new management team at Iberia and will meet again in due course," CEO Willie Walsh told BA News, the carrier's in-house weekly.
Spain's Civil Aviation Accident Investigation Commission released another report yesterday on the August 2008 crash of a Spanair MD-82 that killed 154 people, confirming that the pilots did not know the aircraft's flaps and slats were not extended as it attempted to take off from Madrid ( ATWOnline, Oct. 13, 2008). "The aircraft had the standard procedures and checklists in force. . .which included the selection and confirmation of the correct configuration for takeoff," the report said, according to Reuters.
LOT Polish Airlines suffered a PLN178 million ($60.9 million) loss in the first six months of 2009, which included the closure of its low-cost subsidiary Centralwings ( ATWOnline, April 2), and will bring in a financial adviser to help sell new shares, Reuters reported. "Options include selling a stake to another carrier, a financial investor or even floating the airline on a stock exchange," CEO Sebastian Mikosz was quoted as saying.
Aircraft Leasing and Management arranged the sale of and delivered an additional BAe 146-300 to Lima-based Star Peru on behalf of Flybe, which has replaced its BAe 146 fleet with E-195s. ALM is remarketing the remaining Flybe 146s.
Lufthansa Systems will run the most significant components of Swiss International Air Lines' IT infrastructure beginning in 2010, Swiss said. "By outsourcing central data center services to Lufthansa Systems, we can cut costs without compromising our high standards of quality, reliability and flexibility," the Lufthansa Group subsidiary said in a statement. The outsourcing agreement covers migration and operation of more than 100 business-critical applications on a variety of operating systems.
Belavia Belarusian Airlines acquired a 737-500 from ILFC, bringing its fleet to five 737-500s, three 737-300s, three CRJ100/200s, four Tu 154-Ms, and one Tu-134.
Delta TechOps won a $7 million, four-year contract from Canadian charter airline CanJet to provide component and inventory logistics support for its 737-800 fleet, including avionics, pneumatics and hydraulics. SR Technics said Edelweiss Air, a Swiss International Air Lines subsidiary, extended its existing full-support contract covering the carrier's fleet of A320s for an additional 39 months.
Boeing Friday confirmed to ATWOnline that it "determined that there were microscopic wrinkles in the skin plies of [787] fuselage sections produced by Alenia [Aeronautica]. . .We determined that a simple patch at two locations is required to restore full structural margins.
JetBlue Airways announced last week that it will sell "all-you-can-jet" passes through Aug. 21 for "unlimited" travel aboard the LCC between Sept. 8 and Oct. 8. The passes cost $599 each and "will allow [holders] to visit any of the airline's 56 international and domestic destinations as often as they like" if seats are available during the month-long period, the airline said in a statement.
Bahrain's flag carrier, Gulf Air, said it has improved its safety systems by upgrading to an integrated FDM (Flight Data Monitoring) system from US-based Austin Digital.
Air France KLM reported a 3.3% drop in July traffic on a 4.1% capacity cut. Load factor increased 0.7 point to 85.1%. Lufthansa Group posted a 6.2% increase in July traffic to 15.48 billion RPKs on a 5.7% lift in capacity to 18.63 billion ASKs, producing a load factor of 83.1%, up 0.4 point.
US FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. announced that an independent team of arbitrators released its decision on controller compensation yesterday, concluding "a challenging mediation process that has produced a landmark labor agreement." NATCA's 14,000 controller members will have 45 days to ratify the "many agreed upon issues." The five issues decided by arbitrators, including pay and benefits, are not subject to ratification.
