Aircraft Purchase Fleet of Ireland selected GE's CF6-80E1 engines to power its 12 firm orders and eight options for A330s. The firm engine order is valued at more than $400 million. Deliveries to the lessor are slated to begin in 2010 ( ATWOnline, April 6).
AirAsia yesterday launched RedBox, a Malaysian courier service that delivers packages in 2-3 days at prices the airline describes as "up to 50%" lower than other domestic delivery options. RedBox says on its website that it "leverages AirAsia's extensive route network" to ferry packages between the country's central region (Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and selected parts of Negeri Sembilan) and the eastern cities of Kuching, Miri, Sibu, Kota Kinabalu, Labuan and Sandakan.
Iberia Chairman and CEO Fernando Conte has resigned and will be replaced by former IB board member and former CEO of Spanish tobacco company Altadis Antonio Vazquez.
This week's G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, reaffirmed support for ICAO's role, in cooperation with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, in addressing emissions reduction targets and policy for the international airline industry post-2012. The G8 comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US, together with the EU. The UNFCC climate summit will take place in Copenhagen in December.
Naverus said Air China successfully completed its RNP validation flight into Lhasa from Chengdu on June 26 using an A330-200. "The flight clears the way for Air China's entire fleet of Airbus A330s to fly the Naverus-designed procedures at the Lhasa Gonggar Airport," Naverus said.
Jazeera Airways appointed Stefan Pichler as its new CEO, replacing Andrew Cowen, who left the company after only five months. It also commenced thrice-weekly service from Kuwait City to Isfahan, its fourth destination in Iran, aboard an A320.
Alaska Airlines began testing continuous descent approaches into Seattle/Tacoma with a 737-700 using RNP technology on June 16 during a noncommercial flight. The carrier pioneered RNP in the 1990s for challenging approaches in Alaska. The current effort, dubbed Greener Skies, is being done in cooperation with the Port of Seattle, Boeing and FAA and also will involve regional affiliate Horizon Air. Horizon's Q400 fleet is being equipped for RNP as well. Alaska Air estimates the procedures will cut fuel consumption by 2.1 million gal.
Continental Airlines announced this week that simulator engineer employees represented by the Transport Workers Union ratified a new four-year labor agreement.
US Airways Chairman and CEO Doug Parker told Reuters yesterday that the carrier has "no plans to reduce capacity any further" in 2009, adding, "If anything, we will have a modest expansion internationally." US this month launched daily Philadelphia-Tel Aviv flights using A330s.
Comair President John Bendoraitis informed employees this week that "additional furloughs among our crews will be unavoidable" and that the Delta Air Lines subsidiary will "continue to assess administrative staffing levels to ensure they remain appropriate with what is needed to support the operations," according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. Comair employs approximately 5,600.
Airline ticket sales through the Arlington, Va.-based Airlines Reporting Corp. fell for a sixth straight month in June compared to the year-ago period, but the rate of annual decline slowed compared to May. Total sales including airfares, taxes and fees were $5.73 billion, down 20.3% compared to June 2008, following a 29.1% year-over-year decline in May. Total fares fell 21.3% to $4.86 billion after dropping 30.9% in May. Domestic fares fell 19.4% to $2.62 billion and international fares declined 23.5% to $2.24 billion.
China Eastern Airlines will benefit the most from the agreement reached in April to expand significantly the number of flights permitted across the Taiwan Strait, according to a cross-strait distribution plan released this week by CAAC. The Taipei-based Strait Exchange Foundation and the Beijing-based Assn. for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait signed the accord that increases from 108 to 270 the number of direct flights allowed beginning this month ( ATWOnline, April 20).
Transaero Airlines reported a RUB109.4 million ($3.5 million) profit in 2008, a 7% increase over the prior year, on an 82.4% surge in revenue to RUB37.4 billion. Passenger numbers rose 50% to 4.9 million, boosting its market share by 3.6 points to 14.3%. Traffic was up 49% to 17.5 billion RPKs. It said it is "following through with its ambitious domestic route network expansion plans."
Current members of Star Alliance and aspiring member Continental Airlines pushed back strongly against the US Dept. of Justice's opposition to the extension of antitrust immunity to CO when it joins in October, arguing in a filing with the Dept. of Transportation that DOJ favors a "myopic policy" that would "abandon almost two decades of highly successful international aviation policy."
EU and Azerbaijan signed an aviation agreement yesterday granting all EU carriers the right to fly between any member state and Azerbaijan. More than 210,000 passengers flew between the markets in 2007, the EU said.
United Airlines flew 10.57 billion consolidated RPMs in June, down 7.5% from the year-ago month, while capacity fell 8% to 12.31 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 0.5 point to 85.9%. Southwest Airlines said June passenger RASM decreased an estimated 9%-10% year-over-year. It flew 6.73 billion RPMs in June, down 2.1%, against a 3.8% fall in capacity to 8.46 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 1.3 points to 79.5%.
European Court of Justice imposed a €2 million ($2.8 million) fine on the Greek government for failing to recover state aid illegally granted to Olympic Airways, the predecessor of Olympic Airlines, which was privatized in March ( ATWOnline, March 11). The penalty will be increased by €16,000 each day if Greece fails to recover the money within one month. The ruling relates to a longstanding dispute between the European Commission and Greece over state aid to its loss-making flag carrier.
British Airways plans to cut summer and winter capacity by an additional 1%, ground six additional aircraft next year and defer its A380 deliveries, while some 2,000 employees represented by Unite have "overwhelmingly rejected" the airline's proposed job cuts ahead of Wednesday's talks mediated by the UK Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.
American Airlines flew 10.89 billion system RPMs in June, an 8.1% decrease from the year-ago month. Capacity dropped 7.8% to 12.79 billion ASMs and load factor slipped 0.3 point to 85.1%. Continental Airlines said June consolidated and mainline RASM fell an estimated 19.5%-20.5%. It flew 8.07 billion consolidated RPMs last month, down 6.5% year-over-year. Capacity dropped 7.8% to 9.51 billion ASMs and load factor rose 1.1 points to 84.8%.
Mesa Air Group announced that the US Court of Appeals upheld an injunction against Delta Air Lines preventing it from canceling Mesa subsidiary Freedom Airlines' contract to fly 22 ERJ-145s for Delta Connection ( ATWOnline, Oct. 22, 2008). Delta cited operational problems, but the court ruled, "The evidence showed that Delta induced Mesa to agree to Delta's coordinated cancellations by promising not to count such cancellations against it," Reuters reported.
