Air Berlin CEO Joachim Hunold said during last week's ITB Berlin convention that the airline will operate 15 fewer aircraft during the upcoming summer schedule than it did last year. It currently has 125 in the fleet. He also confirmed AB's intention to investigate the possible sale of its LTU subsidiary ( ATWOnline, March 11) and said a dispute with LTU's pilots is a key factor.
Airline ticket sales through the Arlington, Va.-based Airlines Reporting Corp. plunged for a second month in February as total sales (fares plus taxes, fees and charges) dropped 26.1% year-over-year to $5.32 billion while total fares fell 28.3% to $4.44 billion. The decline followed slumps of 24.7% and 26.6% in sales and total fares respectively in January ( ATWOnline, Feb. 12). International fares were down 29.9% to $2.09 billion while domestic fares decreased 26.5% to $2.36 billion.
Finnair said it will furlough about 700 pilots for at least one week each beginning in the middle of next month as part of a €30 million ($38.4 million) cost-savings program in the company's flight operations division. Length of leave will depend on aircraft type. Finnair Catering also will place employees on unpaid leave of two weeks to three months as part of a €3.9 million cost-cutting initiative ( ATWOnline, Feb. 6).
MNG Technic won a tender issued by the Turkish airports authority for construction of a new MRO hangar at Istanbul Ataturk. The 64,000-sq.-m. facility will be built in four phases. Construction of the 16,000-sq.-m. first phase will begin "as soon as possible," MNG said. The company provides line and heavy maintenance at its IST base and line maintenance services at airports in Istanbul and Antalya.
UK CAA announced its final decision on price caps at London Stansted for the next five years and confirmed that it will toughen performance targets, noting that under the new incentive scheme BAA could be forced to return up to £10 million ($13.8 million) per year if delivers "poor" service to passengers and airlines.
Lufthansa Group airlines flew 9.83 billion RPKs in February, a 9.8% drop from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 5.7% to 13.63 billion ASKs and load factor slipped 3.3 points to 72.1%.
US Airways said it will test the Lumexis Fiber-To-The-Screen IFE system on certain flights. The FTTS fiberoptic technology reduces system weight by up to 50% and can offer high-definition content, the companies said. Inflight Canada designed and monitored the installation of an FTTS system on a US A320 that will serve Phoenix, Atlanta and Orange County.
ALTA member airlines carried 10.6 million passengers in January, up 5.8% from the year-ago month, fueled by strong domestic and Latin American traffic that offset weaker demand to the US and Europe. RPKs rose 3.2% to 15.79 billion against a 4% increase in capacity to 21.58 billion, lowering load factor 0.5 point to 73.1%. US Airways said February consolidated passenger RASM fell 9%-11% year-over-year, although total RASM dropped just 5%-7% thanks to a la carte revenue initiatives. It flew 4.19 billion consolidated RPMs, down 9.3%, against a 9% drop in ASMs to 5.48 billion.
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary told a Dublin tourism conference this week that charging for lavatory use "is not likely to happen, but it makes for interesting and very cheap PR." He made worldwide headlines two weeks ago with his proposal to charge passengers £1 ($1.38) per use and continued last week, saying he was "serious" about the move and had discussed implementation with Boeing ( ATWOnline, March 9).
Malaysian government finally agreed to fund the construction of a new low-cost terminal at Kuala Lumpur International costing MYR2 billion ($541 million). The promise to build the facility, scheduled to be completed in the second half of 2011, ends an impasse between the government and AirAsia, which had threatened to build its own exclusive airport just east of the capital in order to ease congestion at the current terminal that can handle only 15 million passengers per year ( ATWOnline, Feb. 3).
Alaska Airlines and the Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA announced the ratification of a two-year contract extension (to April 2012) covering 2,830 employees. The amended deal offers a 1.5% pay increase in 2010 and 2011 and participation in a performance-based incentive plan already offered to AS's dispatch and management employees.
AirAsia X yesterday commenced its five-times-weekly Kuala Lumpur-London Stansted service aboard a 286-seat A340-300 ( ATWOnline, Oct. 14, 2008). AirAsia appointed IAM, Network Cargo Services, FlyUs, Global Cargo Management and ACT as cargo sales agents in Western Europe. Aviance handles at STN.
US FAA asked the US Court of Appeals to suspend legal proceedings contesting its intention to conduct slot auctions at Newark, New York JFK and LaGuardia ( ATWOnline, Jan. 23), saying "it is inappropriate to put the court and the parties to the burden of briefing the complex issues in the case until a decision on whether to withdraw the rules is made." The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Air Transport Assn. were scheduled to file briefs by April 15.
Austrian Airlines Group reached an agreement with unions representing 2,600 ground workers (with a few exemptions) to implement reduced schedules and pay over the six months starting April 1. Hours and pay will be cut 20%/10% or 10%/5%. AAG said it holds an option to extend the six-month period. In addition, pension fund contributions will be cut 75% for one year. AAG said the move "is a very important step towards overcoming the crisis" and it is proceeding with negotiations with Austrian Airlines and Tyrolean Airways cabin staff.
European Commission yesterday cleared Greece's plan to privatize Olympic Airlines, saying it "does not give rise to state aid concerns." Last week the government selected Marfin Investment Group to buy OA's flight operations for €45.7 million ($57.8 million) and the assets of Olympic Airways Services for €16.7 million ( ATWOnline, March 9).
Airbus reported EBIT of €1.79 billion ($2.26 billion) in 2008, reversed from an €881 million operating deficit in 2007, and is expected to garner 300-400 gross aircraft orders this year, parent EADS said yesterday in its full-year financial report.
Hawaiian Airlines announced a tentative two-year labor agreement with the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers-Clerical division representing 1,220 airport customer service, ramp, reservations, schedule planning, purchasing, records and crew scheduling employees. Members are expected to vote on the deal in the coming weeks.
Southwest Airlines suffered a 7% year-over-year decline in unit revenue during the first week of March, which followed a 2% fall through the first two months of this year ( ATWOnline, March 4), Chairman, President and CEO Gary Kelly said yesterday at the JP Morgan Aviation and Transportation Conference in New York. "I don't know that we've reached the bottom," he warned. SWA "had a quite satisfactory January revenue production. We saw things weaken sequentially in February," he said.
US Airways named Indigo Partners' Stephen Johnson as executive VP-corporate and general counsel. Austrian Airlines Group promoted GM-Americas Paul Paflik to VP-ground operations effective July 1.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Scott Carson said that despite an "uncertain and unstable" credit market, sufficient financing is available to back all aircraft deliveries through early 2010. "We believe that every aircraft scheduled to be delivered this year will be delivered," Carson said yesterday at the JP Morgan Aviation and Transportation Conference in New York, available via webcast. Boeing has made $1 billion available for financing, but only a "minimal" portion will be needed this year, he said.
European Commission yesterday adopted a proposal for an amendment to its slots regulation that would see a temporary freeze of the "80-20 rule" during the March 29-Oct. 24 summer schedule. The rule requires airlines to use their slots at an 80% rate or return them to the pool. The new measure will apply for only one season.
American Airlines on Sunday operated the first revenue flight with an Aviation Partners Boeing blended winglet-equipped 767-300ER. AA Flight 78 left Dallas/Fort Worth Sunday evening and arrived at London Heathrow yesterday morning. AA plans to install winglets on each of its 58 -300ERs by 2011 and expects to save up to 500,000 gal. of fuel per aircraft each year, depending in mileage. Winglets were installed at AA's Kansas City maintenance base. The airline's 124 757s and 77 737s already fly with winglets.
Aerolift Il-76 freighter en route from Entebbe to Mogadishu crashed in Lake Victoria shortly after takeoff yesterday and none of the four crew or seven passengers are believed to have survived. The aircraft was chartered by Dynacorp to ferry equipment and peacekeepers for the African Union mission in Somalia. It marked the second fatal Aerolift accident in fewer than three weeks as it followed the Feb. 20 crash of an An-12 freighter on takeoff after a refueling stop in Luxor ( ATWOnline, Feb. 23).
News from Travel Technology Update: After wrangling with the U.S. Department of Transportation, Spirit Airlines last week reinstated a "Passenger Usage Fee" of $4.90 each way. Spirit began charging the fee last summer, along with a $2.50 "natural occurrence interruption fee" and an $8.50 "international service recovery fee." A natural occurrence is more commonly known as "weather." The recovery fee aimed to offset the costs of doing business with international destinations.
