OpenSkies completed its merger with L'Avion, the French all-business-class airline it acquired last summer ( ATWOnline, July 3, 2008). The merged carrier's operating certificate now will be located in France, resulting in a headquarters relocation to Paris Orly. EC's Dale Moss will remain MD and former L'Avion CEO Marc Rochet will be executive VP.
Alaska Airlines flew 1.56 billion RPMs in March, down 8.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 9% to 1.91 billion ASMs and load factor was up 0.8 point to 81.6%. Allegiant Air flew 468.5 million RPMs in March, up 19.1% year-over-year. Capacity rose 17.3% to 507.9 million ASMs and load factor lifted 1.5 points to 92.3%.
GKN Aerospace broke ground yesterday on a manufacturing facility at Bristol. The new site, known as Filton-West, will be under the management of the recently acquired GKN Aerospace (the former Airbus Filton facility) and will house an automated composites manufacturing operation that will incorporate production techniques "that represent the future of composites manufacture in aviation," GKN said. Starting in January the plant will manufacture wing spars and trailing edge assemblies for the A350.
Rockwell Collins reached agreements to install its dPAVES inflight entertainment system with CanJet Airlines (two 737-800s), Air Europa (12 737s plus 13 options) and Air Arabia (49 A320s).
Qantas Executive GM John Borghetti announced his resignation effective May 4, completing the management shakeup that included the elimination of 90 senior positions last month ( ATWOnline, March 26). Borghetti had been a contender for the Qantas Group CEO position along with former CFO Peter Gregg. The job eventually went to former Jetstar Airways CEO Alan Joyce and Gregg resigned last summer ( ATWOnline, Aug. 20, 2008).
Aviation Global Deal Group, a partnership of Air France KLM, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways and UK airports operator BAA that supports the inclusion of aviation emissions under a single global policy, presented a draft policy framework to UN climate change negotiators in Bonn. The framework is "ambitious, equitable and effective," AGD said. It maintained its position that regulation should be global rather than regional and suggested that a worldwide target be established for the sector in order to ensure aviation plays its due part.
Finmeccanica subsidiary Alenia Aeronautica completed the acquisition of a 25%-plus-one-share stake in Sukhoi Civil Aircraft. Price was not disclosed. Alenia is a partner in the development of the Superjet 100. It said the aircraft has received 98 orders and is due to be certified and delivered to launch customer Aeroflot by year end.
An American Airlines MD-82 inflight engine fire in September 2007 was "probably due to an unapproved and improper procedure used by mechanics to manually start one of the engines," the US National Transportation Safety Board said in a report issued yesterday, adding that "the fire was prolonged and the safety of the aircraft further jeopardized by how the flight crew handled the emergency."
The US Dept. of Transportation yesterday approved Continental Airlines' entry into Star Alliance, granting tentative antitrust immunity to the carrier and certain Star partners and to CO's proposed transatlantic joint venture with Air Canada, Lufthansa and United Airlines.
Mesa Air Group agreed to sell its stake in Kunpeng Airlines, its regional joint venture with Shenzhen Airlines. Mesa said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it will sell its share to Shenzhen or its nominee and terminate the lease of five CRJ200s to Kunpeng for $4.5 million, minus $900,000 in returned security deposits. Mesa announced its intention to end its 44% participation in the JV last summer and said it expects the aircraft to be returned this month ( ATWOnline, Aug. 20, 2008).
American Airlines Senior VP-Human Resources Jeff Brundage told the carrier's nonunion employees yesterday that the company has decided to institute a hiring and pay freeze for the remainder of 2009. In a letter to workers, Brundage said AA is experiencing "a decline in revenue, a decrease in bookings, lower demand for cargo services and increasing costs for such items as pension expense and medical insurance." He added that it is "having a tough time borrowing money right now." AA has about 19,000 nonunion employees.
BOC Aviation announced a sale/leaseback transaction with Southwest Airlines covering six 737-700s that will be leased back to the carrier for 14 years each. The first tranche of three aircraft closed April 2 and the second is scheduled to close in the current quarter. The lessor closed a similar deal with SWA in January covering 10 aircraft ( ATWOnline, Jan. 15).
Delta Air Lines, including its Northwest Airlines subsidiary, flew 15.6 billion system RPMs in March, a 12.6% decrease from the year-ago month. Capacity was down 7.9% to 19.39 billion ASMs and load factor fell 4.4 points to 80.5%. JetBlue Airways said preliminary passenger RASM fell 12% in March. It flew 2.25 billion RPMs during the month, down 8.5% year-over-year, against a 5.6% fall in capacity to 2.83 billion ASMs. Load factor dropped 2.5 points to 79.3%.
EasyJet Chairman Colin Chandler will resign effective July 1 and be replaced on an interim basis by Senior Independent Director David Michels, the LCC announced. Chandler has held the post since 2002. British Telecom Chairman Michael Rake was named deputy chairman and will join the easyJet board prior to Chandler's departure.
Delta TechOps finalized new five-year contracts worth more than $200 million with Global Aviation Holdings subsidiaries World Airways and North American Airlines. Under the contracts, which are extensions to previous deals, it will perform component repair, inventory exchange programs and drop-in A and C check support. It also will provide time and material engine maintenance for World's PW4000s and CF6-80C2s and be the exclusive provider of 331-200 APU repairs for NAA.
US Export-Import Bank announced approval of some $1.08 billion in financing to support the delivery of up to 30 737-900ERs to Indonesia's Lion Air. The financing comprises $238 million in a first stage and a nonbinding preliminary commitment of $841 million. Ex-Im Bank said the transactions were its first in support of the -900ER.
Indonesian court jailed Garuda Indonesia Capt. Marwoto Komar, 45, the pilot who was in command of a 737-400 that crashed in Yogyakarta two years ago, killing 21.
Star Alliance said it plans to move current London Heathrow Terminal 2 tenants Austrian Airlines, Croatia Airlines, Lufthansa, Swiss International Air Lines and TAP Portugal to T1 this summer. At that point, the 21 Star members serving LHR will remain split between T1 and T3.
United Airlines flight attendants represented by the Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA announced yesterday that the union is "exercising the opportunity to negotiate for improvement for the first time since 1996" and is "seeking contract improvements after enduring huge cuts in pay, quality of work life, healthcare and retirement for nearly seven years." The current labor contract becomes amendable on Jan. 7, 2010. If negotiations have not concluded by Aug. 7, the parties will petition the National Mediation Board to begin mediation.
News from Travel Technology Update: Farelogix unveiled FLX Commando, a patent-pending agency reservations tool that simulates cryptic GDS command-line functions, and E-FLX, described as the travel industry's first "hub" for issuing, storing, managing and reporting Electronic Miscellaneous Documents. Farelogix has been busy: The new product announcements came on the heels of the debut of Project Hawkeye, Farelogix' open-source, Web-based travel management point-of-sale application whose source code is now available for free public download from the company's Web site.
US airlines' customer service improved for the first time in five years in 2008, researchers from St. Louis University and Wichita State University said yesterday in releasing their annual Airline Quality Rating report. Improvement was across the board, with carriers scoring better on baggage handling, ontime performance, denied boarding and customer complaints, researchers said. The airline with the best overall AQR among the 17 graded was Hawaiian Airlines, followed by AirTran Airways, JetBlue Airways, Northwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
US Airways named former Eos Airlines Senior VP-Guest Experience Hector Adler VP- inflight services. Ryanair promoted Head of Scheduled Revenue Ken O'Toole to director-new route development. AirTran Airways named Transportation Security Administration Office of Strategic Communications and Public Affairs Deputy Assistant Administrator Christopher White director of public relations.
American Airlines flew 10.32 billion system RPMs in March, down 10.9% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 5.6% to 13.04 billion ASMs and load factor slipped 4.8 points to 79.2%. American Eagle flew 643.1 million RPMs, down 6.1%, against a 4.2% decline in ASMs to 894.2 million, lowering load factor 1.5 points to 71.9%. US Airways Group said March consolidated passenger RASM fell an estimated 17%-19% year-over-year, although total RASM dropped 13%-15% including ancillary revenue.
