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%.
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.
