Turkish Airlines A320 on the way from Antalya to St. Petersburg landed safely after a passenger who handed a note to a flight attendant claiming he had a bomb was subdued by fellow passengers. The passenger, an Uzbek or Russian national, according to varying press reports, demanded access to the cockpit but was "pacified," said Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim.
Boeing Shanghai Aviation Services, a joint venture among Boeing, Shanghai Airport Authorities and Shanghai Airlines, won US FAA repair station certification to provide MRO to Chinese airlines as well as regional and international carriers.
Air Transport Assn. and IATA followed through on their promise to fight the US Dept. of Transportation's final rule on slot auctions and flight caps at New York JFK, LaGuardia and Newark announced last week ( ATWOnline, Oct. 10). ATA sued FAA in US federal court to invalidate the rules and is seeking a stay on the auctions scheduled to begin in January.
S7 Airlines, Air Berlin and Niki are expected to announce a strategic cooperation today in Moscow, a source close to the deal told ATWOnline in the Russian capital.
SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines flew a combined 1.29 billion RPMs in September, down 10.5% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 11.1% to 1.69 billion ASMs, raising load factor 0.5 point to 76.5%.
Re-launched negotiations aimed at settling the five-week-old International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers strike at Boeing broke down without any indications of progress.
SITA reached a five-year, $10 million agreement with Kenya Airways to provide its VSAT technology for deploying satellite networks. System will streamline 46 remote sites into a single satellite hop to head offices in Nairobi and the reservations host in Europe.
Bmi announced the promotion of Interim Commercial Director Martyn Bridger to commercial and service director and Interim Marketing Director Katherine Gershon to sales and marketing director.
Goodrich yesterday signed a data license agreement with Boeing for the use of detail engineering design to obtain parts manufacturing authority for replacement landing gear parts. License allows Goodrich to manufacture certified PMA parts under its FAA-approved system and distribute directly to operators.
SkyWorks Leasing entered a comprehensive aircraft management and remarketing agreement with Philip Morris Capital Corp. covering the latter's entire portfolio of 119 aircraft currently on lease to US carriers. Deal includes asset management services such as technical management and supervision, future dispositions, sales and re-leases. Terms were not disclosed.
News from Travel Technology Update: Amadeus plans to introduce Crazy Shopping, an application that will free searches from the tyranny of origin, destination and time frame, in the second quarter of next year. The new search functionality enable users to query airlines in new ways: "I live between Frankfurt and Munich and can fly from either airport. I would like to go to either Thailand or Indonesia. Show me my options." Or, "I have €600. Where can I go?"
China Eastern Airlines expects to report a significant loss for the first nine months of 2008 owing to the sharp decline in domestic market conditions and a CNY720-per-ton increase in third-quarter jet fuel prices. CEA posted a CNY212.5 million ($31 million) net loss in the 2008 first half and said it will deepen due to a "decline in domestic demand starting from the third quarter" that it said will continue for the time being as a result of the global economic slowdown.
Thales Training and Simulation and A J Walter Aviation added the A330 to a flight simulator support program under an agreement announced last week. Program also covers the A320 and 777 and includes maintenance and spare parts for instruments and avionics.
Airstream International Group announced the lease of four ERJ-145s to regional startup Athens Airways. Aircraft currently are operated by Flybe and will be delivered to Athens starting next month. Airline is scheduled to begin flying next April to "most of the basic regional Greek destinations," Airstream said.
Iberia flew 4.43 billion RPKs in September, down 6.3% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 1.4% to 5.5 billion ASKs and load factor dropped 4.2 points to 80.6%. TAM flew 1.91 billion domestic RPKs in September, up 15% year-over-year, against a 17.5% increase in ASKs to 2.95 billion. Load factor fell 1.4 points to 64.6%. International RPKs jumped 41.5% to 1.33 billion, capacity rose 25.4% to 1.66 billion ASKs and load factor was up 9.2 points to 80.4%.
Australian investigators said there is no evidence linking the use of mobile telephones or laptops with last week's Qantas A330-300 inflight incident that injured more than 70 people ( ATWOnline, Oct. 9) as has been speculated. The aircraft remains grounded at Learmonth while Australian and French investigators, Airbus and QF staff examine its computers.
Alitalia investor group CAI will delay its formal offer to the airline's administrator by two weeks to Oct. 28, when it will hold a shareholder meeting to approve a charter and capital increase, Agence France Presse reported ( ATWOnline, Oct. 3).
Amadeus said Qantas completed migration to its Altea Customer Management System streamlining sales, reservations, inventory and departure control management capabilities. Migration "is an unprecedented milestone in the industry and makes Qantas the first to become fully operational on the entire Altea platform," the company said.
The European Regions Airline Assn. said that last week's vote by the European Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety to auction 100% of emissions certificates by 2020 will cost the "typical" regional airline €6 million ($8.2 million) per year ( ATWOnline, Oct. 10).
US Dept. of Transportation announced expanded aviation agreements with Vietnam and Armenia. Vietnam deal affects all-cargo carriers, removing route restrictions and allowing US airlines to carry freight between Vietnam and third countries without stopping in the US. Further liberalization, including on passenger flights, will be discussed at meetings to be held by October 2010. Deal with Armenia is a full open skies accord.
TAM, which formally was invited to join Star Alliance last week, also hopes to play a major role in Latin American maintenance, repair and overhaul. The carrier's Technology Center is located in Sao Carlos, some 230 km. northwest of Sao Paulo. It has invested $185 million in the 4.6-million-sq.-m., six-hangar facility since it opened in 2001 at the site of a former truck factory.
Turkish Airlines released a statement Friday saying it has not received "any notice" regarding its bid for B&H Airlines. A Bosnian government official told media last week that THY had won the tender ( ATWOnline, Oct. 9). "If such notice is received we will inform the public accordingly," THY said.
Icelandair last week announced a series of enhancements including a premium economy cabin, new IFE-equipped seats, a flexible fare structure featuring six different categories, new aircraft interiors, new cabin crew uniforms and an upgraded website scheduled to go live on Nov. 1.
