Moroccan government plans to privatize Royal Air Maroc and its Atlas Blue subsidiary, according to a document cited by Reuters. Some or all of the carriers will be sold directly to investors or through the Casablanca Stock Exchange, the government said. No timetable was announced.
Boeing may avoid a second costly labor strike with the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace following negotiations last week. The Everett Herald reported that leaders on both sides emerged upbeat following talks, with SPEEA Executive Director Ray Goforth telling the paper, "There was more substantive talk about issues during this two-hour meeting than we've had with Boeing since committees started meeting eight months ago." The tone represents a reversal from last month, when SPEEA offered public support for the International Assn.
Aer Arann will lay off up to 100 employees (about 25% of its workforce) as part of a restructuring it said will "better position the airline in the current difficult operating environment." The Dublin-based carrier also plans to operate nine aircraft rather than the current 13 on its own network and will focus on increasing its wet-lease business, according to press reports.
US Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) released a letter he wrote to US airline CEOs urging them to "roll back. . .fuel surcharges and extra fees" in line with lower oil prices. "It seems to me that the extra costs of flying imposed over the summer are less relevant as fuel prices have declined," he wrote.
Extech Data Systems said it added capability to its Andes 3 portable printer featuring a 32-bit microcontroller from ST Microelectronics, a 4MB Flash, 1MB SRAM memory and an in-field programmable CPU. Technology utilizes Form Fiesta, a Windows-based utility enabling users to create boarding passes, parking tickets and other forms.
UPS will raise air express shipping rates by an average of 4.9% from Jan. 5. It said the increase reflects a 6.9% rise in the base rate and a 2% reduction in fuel surcharges. The move indicates that the delivery giant is less concerned about oil prices, which have dropped sharply recently, but remains wary of the weak global economy and its potentially negative effect on express package shipping next year.
US Dept. of State's discussion draft for a "Multilateral Convention on Foreign Investment in Airlines" that was presented to reporters last week in Kuala Lumpur ( ATWOnline, March 17) now is available on both the ATWOnline home page under White Papers & Speeches and here.
Hansung Airlines, a low-cost carrier based at Cheongju, suspended operations Saturday, according to The Korea Times, which reported that the three-year-old airline had failed to pay KRW990 million ($741,000) in airport fees and wages over the past two months and was KRW27.2 billion in debt.
Turkish Airlines flew 25.53 billion RPKs through the first nine months of 2008, up 12.6% from the year-ago period. Capacity rose 10% to 34.17 billion ASKs and load factor was up 1.7 points to 74.7%. Northwest Airlines flew 6.2 billion consolidated RPMs in September, down 0.5% year-over-year. Capacity fell 0.1% to 7.45 billion ASMs and load factor dropped 0.4 point to 83.3%. Hawaiian Airlines flew 599.2 million RPMs in September, down 10.3% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 1.4% to 749.2 million ASMs, dropping load factor 7.9 points to 80%.
Enerjet is the new name of NewAir & Tours, a Calgary-based charter and tourism startup whose president and CEO Tim Morgan was among WestJet's founders. Enerjet will launch 737-700 charter flights in the 2009 first quarter and its tourism arm in the third quarter.
S7 Airlines plans to phase out the last of its 35 Russian-built aircraft next week owing to lower passenger demand. "The summer season was an alarm bell for us," CEO Vladislav Filev told ATWOnline in Moscow, calling the decision to ground S7's 27 Tu-154s and eight Il-86s "dramatic" and necessary to remain profitable.
Russian government last week presented a series of proposals to help beleaguered airlines, including a suggestion from Transportation Minister Igor Levitin that tariffs on foreign aircraft leased by Russian carriers be abolished if additional domestic aircraft are leased as well, Prime-Tass reported. The ministry did decide to cancel import tariffs on certain components and equipment for a nine-month period beginning in December.
Berlin Tegel-based Germania will stop operating scheduled services during the winter schedule and maintain only its charter and wet-lease operations. It also will phase out its remaining eight F100s; it already had removed 11 from the fleet. Its network currently comprises 12 destinations. It transported 4 million passengers last year and also operates four 737-300s and eight 737-700s. An additional two -700s and four -300s are on dry lease to other airlines.
Sun Country Airlines, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this month ( ATWOnline, Oct. 7), said it will pay employees 70% of their pay for the rest of 2008 instead of 50% as originally announced. Chairman, President and CEO Stan Gadek, in a message to employees, cited "continued customer support for our business in the form of new bookings" and explained that SCA had more cash on hand than expected. But he warned that the carrier is "still at risk."
IATA last week issued a strong criticism of proposed air travel taxation plans in Belgium and Ireland and calculated that, combined with the proposed UK Aviation Duty and the recently implemented Dutch departure tax, passengers could face an annual tax burden of up to €3.8 billion ($5.11 billion) in those four countries by 2010. "Collective madness is the only way to describe the €150 million Irish and €132 million Belgian departure tax proposals.
United Airlines said that 332 International Assn. of Machinists members have taken advantage of early out and voluntary furlough programs as part of UA's effort to reduce employment rolls by 7,000 positions, reducing the need for involuntary furloughs among IAM employees by 40%. UA sad more than 1,500 cabin staff represented by the Assn. of Flight Attendants around 200 pilots and 100 mechanics have taken leave so far.
Spanish Judge Javier Perez, who is overseeing a judicial inquiry into August's Spanair MD-82 crash, summoned three Spanair mechanics for questioning this week, including the pair who inspected the aircraft before its failed second takeoff attempt. The third reportedly is the airline's head of maintenance. A court spokesperson told reporters that the mechanics could be charged with manslaughter.
Airbus and Air India parent National Aviation Co. of India signed a joint venture agreement to establish an MRO center at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International. Work on AI Airbus aircraft will start early next year with ATR and third-party work expected eventually. AI currently operates 43 A320s, 11 A319s, 10 A321s, eight A310s and two A330s. Total project cost is estimated at $40 million over five years and facility will handle more than 100 single-aisle and 10 widebody aircraft per year by 2013.
Republic Airways Holdings confirmed that it will operate four E-170s on behalf of Hawaii's Mokulele Airlines under a 10-year capacity purchase agreement ( ATWOnline, Oct. 10). Mokulele will be responsible for scheduling, pricing, distribution and promotion. First two aircraft, to be operated by Republic subsidiary Shuttle America, will be placed into service by Nov. 19. The remaining pair will be in revenue service by spring.
SkyEurope Airlines said that York Global Finance, which holds 29.9% of the LCC, has offered to buy the remaining shares and inject more capital into the carrier. It said it will negotiate with York but "will continue to look for alternative investors who might ascribe a higher value to the company's airline business," according to Reuters ( ATWOnline, Sept. 1).
Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair flew 6.87 billion RPKs in September, a 4.5% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 14.2% to 9.5 billion ASKs and load factor fell 6.7 points to 72.3%. Air Canada and Jazz flew a combined 4.26 billion RPMs in September, down 5% year-over-year. Capacity fell 6.4% to 5.33 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 1.2 points to 79.9%. AirTran Airways flew 1.23 billion RPMs in September, down 2% year-over-year, against a 9.7% fall in capacity to 1.66 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 5.9 points to 74.4%.
Primaris Airlines, a Las Vegas-based charter carrier, sold 75% of its preferred and outstanding stock to CorpoPetrol Global Energy Development and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in order to allow CorpoPetrol to finalize the financing. Primaris operates 757-200s.
Chinese airlines showed a slight recovery last month as the "golden week" travel period starting Sept. 29 helped boost passenger traffic that had been declining since May. According to CAAC, passenger boardings rose 0.7% year-over-year to 16.4 million while cargo traffic plummeted 8.8% to 360,000 tonnes. In contrast with the overall growth, China Southern Airlines continued to suffer from declining market demand last month as passenger boardings fell 1.1% to 5 million with a 2.4-point decrease in load factor to 67.1%.
