Aviacsa, a Monterrey-based LCC operating 25 aircraft, was grounded temporarily by Mexican authorities after maintenance irregularities were discovered, according to press reports. Las Vegas is its only international destination. Aviacsa protested the decision, claiming on its website, "It should be noted that the observations that were detected in these inspections do not threaten the airworthiness and the safety of aircraft."
JetBlue Airways said it is raising its stock offering announced earlier this week to 23 million shares from 20 million and pricing them at $4.25 each. Lufthansa is expected to purchase 3.6 million of those shares. The offering of convertible debentures due 2039 also will be raised to $175 million from $150 million.
UPS and its pilots represented by the Independent Pilots Assn. have identified savings targets of $40 million for this year, $38 million for 2010 and $53 million for 2011, a company spokesperson told ATWOnline.
ICAO's Group on International Aviation and Climate Change yesterday recommended "a global aspirational goal of 2% annual improvement in fuel efficiency of the international civil aviation in-service fleet," but noticeably did not make any proposals on emissions trading.
GECAS delivered one new A320-200 to Wizz Air through a sale/leaseback transaction with the airline. Cabot Aviation was appointed by KLM to remarket six F50s and announced the sale of a 737-300 (ex-United Airlines) on behalf of an unnamed energy services company.
Bombardier Aerospace reported a first-quarter operating profit of $110 million, a 46% plunge from $206 million in the year-ago period, on an 8% drop in revenue to $2.2 billion. The Canadian manufacturer reported consolidated EBIT of $235 million, down 27.5% year-over-year. It delivered 31 regional jets and turboprops during the first quarter, a small improvement from the 28 delivered in the first three months of 2008. It delivered 43 business jets compared to 58 last year. Lufthansa and Lease Corp.
US Airways said consolidated May passenger RASM declined 18%-20% year-over-year while total RASM was down 14%-16%. It estimated a $20 million loss in revenue owing to the swine flu scare. Group airlines flew 5.29 billion consolidated RPMs, down 5.2%, while capacity fell 5.8% to 6.43 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 0.4 point to 82.2%. Southwest Airlines said May passenger RASM fell an estimated 9% year-over-year. It flew 6.43 billion RPMs last month, down 3.6%, against a 3.2% decline in capacity to 8.62 billion ASMs. Load factor slipped 0.3 point to 74.6%.
IER was awarded a contract by Swedish airports operator LFV Group to supply 45 self-service kiosks at Stockholm Arlanda over the next three years. First rollout of 10 CUSS IER 918 kiosks is planned by mid-August.
Southwest Airlines pilots represented by the Southwest Airlines Pilots Assn. narrowly rejected the five-year tentative labor deal reached in late March ( ATWOnline, April 10), with "nearly" 51% of those voting casting their ballots against ratification. "The group has stated there is more work to be done," SWAPA President Carl Kuwitzky said. "This contract, despite some financial gains, contained too many other negative aspects to ratify it."
SITA, the airline IT specialist,has today announced it has signed a seven-year contract to implement and maintain a global hybrid network solution for Syrian Arab Airlines in a major upgrade.
Royal Air Maroc and the Senegalese government signed an MOU last week to establish a new state-controlled airline, ending the dispute related to the April closure of Air Senegal International ( ATWOnline, April 28). Senegal's APS news agency reported that the parties will work together to set up the carrier, which will have access to RAM's technical, commercial and operational services. Aircraft details were not revealed.
Hainan Airlines subsidiary Lucky Air received a CNY290 million ($42.4 million) capital injection from the Yunnan provincial government. Lucky now has registered capital of CNY906 million, with HNA subsidiary Grand China Airlines the controlling stakeholder at 68%. Yunnan will hold the remainder. The parties reached an agreement last June to launch a new carrier (Yunnan Airlines) based on Lucky's assets ( ATWOnline, June 10, 2008).
Virgin Blue CEO Brett Godfrey revealed that the airline will make further cuts to its domestic flying schedule in the fiscal year starting July 1. He said it plans to cut capacity 2.4% but warned that further cuts of up to 5.5% may be needed later. Blue cut 8% of its capacity and up to 400 jobs in March by grounding five 737s ( ATWOnline, March 27).
Shannon Aerospace Ltd. signed a contract with British Airways for the supply of line maintenance services at Shannon for BA's planned transatlantic business class-only A318 service from London City to New York scheduled to begin this fall. Westbound flights will make a fuel stop at SNN. SAL will provide ETOPS checks on 11 A318 services per week ( ATWOnline, Nov. 17, 2008).
AirTran Airways flew 1.54 billion RPMs in May, down 11.1% year-over-year. Capacity fell 9.6% to 1.98 billion ASMs and load factor dropped 1.3 points to 78%.
JetBlue Airways will offer 20 million shares of common stock and $150 million of convertible debentures maturing in 2039. Underwriters will be granted an overallotment option to purchase up to 3 million additional shares and $22.5 million of the debentures. JetBlue said that in order to maintain Lufthansa's ownership position, up to 15.6% of the shares will be offered to LH. Proceeds will be used "for general corporate purposes," it said.
News from Travel Technology Update: An International Chamber of Commerce arbitration tribunal ordered IATA to cease using any ticketing information transmitted by Amadeus in its PaxIS product. The tribunal found that IATA's use of the data breached its contractual agreements with Amadeus and infringed on Amadeus' rights under the European Union Database Directive. The directive states that the holder of database rights may prohibit the extraction and/or re-utilization of the whole or of a substantial part of the database contents.
SR Technics signed a technical training agreement with Etihad Airways running until February 2010 covering 1,000 instructor days of theoretical and practical training on A320s and A330s/A340s as well as difference training, run-up in simulators, health and safety and aviation/technical English.
Amadeus said total travel bookings fell 2.1% last year to 526.6 million but its revenue was up 2.2% from 2007 to €2.86 billion ($4.05 billion). It said its market share rose 1.7 points to 35.6%. In the first quarter of 2009, its travel agency bookings slid 9.1% year-over-year and the entire GDS market dropped an estimated 13.2%, it said.
SkyTeam said the first level of its first co-branded alliance lounge, located in London Heathrow's Terminal 4, will open Thursday. Facility eventually will consist of two floors covering more than 1,600 sq. m. Second level is scheduled to open in November. Eligible passengers on Delta Air Lines, KLM, Continental Airlines and Kenya Airways will have access immediately, with more coming as additional SkyTeam carriers shift operations to T4.
Assn. of European Airlines members said last week that there remains no indication about when an economic recovery might begin and that the current downturn could have a "profound impact on the market" well past this year. IATA said last week, "The worst may be over.
