Sabre and Lufthansa signed a four-year global agreement effective July 1 providing Sabre Travel Network-affiliated agencies and corporations continued access to LH's full content.
China Airlines reported TWD23.08 billion ($698.1 million) in first-quarter sales revenue, down 25.6% from the year-ago quarter. March revenue fell 30% year-over-year to TWD7.62 billion.
China Eastern Airlines signed a five-year, CNY590 million ($86.3 million) sale and leaseback contract with Bank of Communications Finance Lease Co. for two A340s. The aircraft, delivered in 1996, will be leased back for CNY17 million per quarter. "We can not only improve our cash flow and reduce debt ratio by a sale and leaseback of these two A340s but we also can optimize our fleet makeup," CEA Board Secretary Luo Zhuping explained. He said CEA's high debt ratio remains its biggest problem.
Emirates Chairman and CEO Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum told reporters in Dubai that the carrier will report a profit for the fiscal year ended March 31 and that it has no plans to defer any aircraft deliveries scheduled through 2011.
Air Canada is seeking to lessen the burden of its C$3.2 billion ($2.7 billion) pension solvency deficit in order to gain "financial certainty" and is asking unions "for a moratorium" on funding its defined benefit plans.
Southwest Airlines announced a tentative four-year agreement with customer support and services and airport customer service employees represented by the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Contract is subject to union ratification.
Allegiant Air parent Allegiant Travel Co. announced that PAR Investment Partners, its second-largest shareholder, is offering 2.25 million shares for sale, leaving it with more than 1.9 million following the transaction. Chairman, President and CEO Maurice Gallagher is the largest shareholder.
UK Secretary of State for Transport Geoff Hoon yesterday urged President Barack Obama's administration to commit to completing a Stage 2 open skies agreement by June 2010 "with the headline objective of liberalizing all foreign ownership in airlines to give European and American carriers a bigger home market and the ability to operate like any other competitive international company."
Air France reached a sale and leaseback deal with BOC Aviation for two 777-300ERs and two 777-200LR freighters. The latter closed last week and the former is expected to close next month. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Singapore Airlines reached an agreement with Air Line Pilots Assn.-Singapore for a one-day furlough this month. Deal was reached with mediation by the Ministry of Manpower and constitutes "an interim measure to provide both parties more time for discussions on the number of compulsory no-pay leave days required to match head count to operational requirements," SIA said. Unions representing ground staff, cabin crew and administrative personnel already have agreed to short-time work ( ATWOnline, April 3).
Air Fiji shut down last week, according to widespread press reports from the island nation. The carrier no longer is accepting bookings on its website. The Fiji Times reported that the airline's fourth-quarter revenue plunged 75% to FJD450,000 ($204,844). It launched operations in 1967 and served 13 destinations with eight 15-seat aircraft and one six-seat aircraft.
Air India parent National Aviation Co. of India named Karnataka state government Infrastructure Development Dept. Principal Secretary Arvind Jadhav as its chairman and MD replacing Raghu Menon. Ministry of Civil Aviation Joint Secretary and Financial Adviser Bharat Bhushan had held the post on an interim basis ( ATWOnline, April 28).
Aer Arann said it will reduce employee salaries by an overall average 7%, with executive and management pay cut by an average 17%. "More jobs have been saved" as a result, the Irish carrier said, as the initially planned 100 redundancies have been reduced to about 60.
GE Aviation signed a 10-year OnPoint solution agreement with Gulf Air covering the CFM56-5Bs the airline ordered to power 15 A320s scheduled for delivery between 2009 and 2013 ( ATWOnline, April 28). Contract is valued at more than $100 million.
Ryanair confirmed it will not scale back operations at Dusseldorf Weeze following the issuance of a new operating licence for NRN that allows the airline to operate its full flight schedule. Last month it threatened to close the base after the OVG Court in Munster decided to reduce operating hours at the airport ( ATWOnline, April 23). Ryanair currently operates six aircraft at NRN.
News from Travel Technology Update: Continental chief Larry Kellner hinted that the carrier may migrate to the Star Alliance Common IT Platform at some point after it joins the alliance in October. In a conference call to discuss first-quarter earnings, Kellner said, "I and other members of the Continental management team meet regularly with Glenn Tilton [United chairman, president and chief executive officer] and his team at United as we develop plans to co-locate at airports, deliver mutual cost savings, share airport lounges, bring benefits to each other's elite customers and ult
Continental Airlines said April consolidated RASM dropped 12.5%-13.5% and mainline unit revenue fell 10.5%-11.5%. It flew 7.57 billion consolidated RPMs, down 3.4% from the year-ago month, against a 6.8% fall in capacity to 9.19 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 2.9 points to 82.3%.
Pegasus Airlines parent ESAS Holding confirmed that its stake in Air Berlin is 15.3%, making it the German carrier's largest shareholder ( ATWOnline, April 29). Pegasus Chairman Ali Sabanci will join the AB board.
Chinese airlines adopted a new pricing standard that effectively will raise fares by approximately 10%. On April 20, carriers began offering discounts on the base price of the ticket only versus the previous practice of discounting on the full rate comprising the base and floating prices. The new standard has upset many travelers in China, although many discounted fares remain available on airlines' websites.
Aeroflot Cargo said it successfully migrated to a new reservation and accounting system, CargoSpot, that will give it full control over sales and revenue management by integrating all internal business processes into one system.
National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. President Patrick Forrey said he welcomed former FAA Administrator Jane Garvey's role in helping to oversee mediation of the union's contract talks with the regulator ( ATWOnline, May 1), calling it a "bold step. . .that will guide a positive way forward in which aviation safety professionals will be included as valued stakeholders."
EasyJet announced that Group Finance Director Jeff Carr will leave the company and Mandala Airlines CEO Warwick Brady will join the LCC as procurement director Wednesday.
