STS Holdings acquired the assets and business of Tradewinds Aircraft Services, a component supplier and OEM distributor, under a deal announced last week. Acquisition is expected to complement STS by offering airlines, MROs and OEMs integrated and turnkey solutions for staffing, parts, maintenance, engineering and supply chain management requirements. The new company, STS Component Solutions, will be based in Palm City and assume previous contracts, distribution programs and preferred supplier agreements.
Flybe reported pre-tax profit of £12.2 million ($21.5 million) for the fiscal first quarter ended June 30, a 14% rise from the £10.7 million earned in the year-ago period, as revenue increased 13.7% from £136 million to £155 million on an 18% growth in passengers to 2 million. For the financial year ended March 31, the UK's largest regional carrier, which acquired BA Connect from British Airways in March 2007, reported a net profit of £39.6 million, reversing a loss of £19.9 million in the prior year.
Sabre Holdings is announcing today the launch of the SabreSonic Customer Sales and Services solution, which the company described as the airline industry's "first real intersection of customer-focused solutions and revenue generation in every distribution channel."
ENAC granted Alitalia a six-month provisional operating license ending March 1, 2009, following a meeting last week with AZ's Extraordinary Administrator Augusto Fantozzi ( ATWOnline, Sept. 5).
Continental Airlines followed other US majors and announced Friday that it will begin charging $15 for the first checked bag for economy passengers paying less than full fare flying within North America. Fees will be applied beginning Oct. 7. CO also said that from Jan. 1 it no longer will credit frequent fliers 500 mi. for flights shorter than 500 mi., instead crediting them with the actual mileage flown.
ExpressJet Holdings filed a definitive proxy statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission requesting shareholder approval for a 1:10 reverse stock split for its common shares. The regional operator said the split is part of its "continuing efforts toward improving liquidity for its stockholders." It will ballot shareholders at an Oct. 1 meeting. If approved, the split will leave ExpressJet with 21.7 million shares outstanding and approximately $68.5 million in debt outstanding.
Finnair said last week that it has given its employee groups two weeks to examine three possible cost-saving alternatives. A spokesperson told Reuters that one option is a salary cut of 5% across the company, the second a 15-month salary freeze and the third 400 layoffs. Employees would get some money back if the airline meets certain financial targets, although it said it may report an operating loss in the second half.
United Airlines flew 10.29 billion system RPMs in August, down 5.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 3.1% to 12.18 billion ASMs and load factor declined 1.8 points to 84.5%. Southwest Airlines flew 6.63 billion RPMs in August, down 5.2% year-over-year, against a 1.5% lift in capacity to 8.88 billion ASMs. Load factor fell 5.4 points to 74.6%. AirTran Airways flew 1.97 billion RPMs in August, up 12.7% year-over-year. Capacity rose 8.8% to 2.25 billion ASMs and load factor was up 3 points to 87.3%.
US Air Transport Assn. filed a formal challenge to the US Dept. of Transportation's July rule that permits US airports to base airline rates and charges on "market incentives" as well as the traditional aircraft weight metric currently used ( ATWOnline, July 11)."Like DOT's other misguided attempts to foist unproven economic theory on the traveling public, these measures would do nothing to address the underlying causes of congestion and delay and would only make flying more expensive for passengers," ATA said.
Ameco Beijing said its landing gear business in the first half of 2008 increased 84% year-over-year. It provides MRO for such customers as Air China, Lufthansa Technik, Cathay Pacific Airways, Germania and GECAS.
US FAA said its safety audit of US airlines' adherence to airworthiness directives ( ATWOnline, March 19) found an overall compliance rate of 98%. Acting Administrator Bobby Sturgell said that in the 2% of cases in which problems were discovered, airlines "resolved the issues of noncompliance before the airplanes flew again." He added, "This audit gives us confidence that, overall, the system is safe and in almost every instance the airlines are complying with our safety directives."
Recovered flight data recorder from the Spanair MD-82 that crashed last month on takeoff from Madrid Barajas revealed that the flaps were not extended, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited sources close the accident investigation. Investigators are examining why an automatic audible warning in the cockpit did not sound and are considering whether an electrical problem caused the alert to malfunction, according to the WSJ, which said preliminary FDR data indicated that both engines were operating normally and that there was no engine fire.
CIT Aerospace exercised options for eight A320s and two A319s, lifting its firm Airbus commitment to 199 aircraft (162 A320 family, 30 A330s, seven A350s), of which 100 already have been delivered. Delivery of the newly ordered aircraft, worth approximately $756 million at list prices, is scheduled to begin in 2012.
Boeing workers delivered an overwhelming rebuke late Wednesday with 87% of the 28,600 members of the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers voting to strike over a new three-year contract. Armed with that resounding endorsement of its recommendation to reject the company's final offer, IAM agreed to hold off the walkout for 48 hr., giving management time to respond. That decision reportedly was met with significant protest by attendees, forcing IAM leaders Mark Blondin and Tom Wroblewski to leave the meeting.
Lufthansa Flight Training will open a multimillion-dollar center at Munich in October housing three cockpit simulators and training devices for service and emergency training. An E-190 simulator owned by Swiss Aviation Training will go into operation in March 2009 and A320 and A330/A340 simulators owned by LFT will follow. E-190 simulator training will be conducted by SAT.
Bombardier Aerospace enjoyed a 79% year-over-year surge in fiscal second-quarter operating profit to $238 million thanks to an increase in aircraft deliveries. Revenue for the three months ended July 31 was up 13.6% to $2.5 billion and the order backlog was worth $26.1 billion, up 15% from Jan. 31. The manufacturer received orders during the quarter for 175 aircraft comprising 162 business aircraft, 11 commercial jets and two amphibians, down from 187 in the year-ago quarter. Deliveries rose 14% to 89.
Argentine Senate authorized the renationalization of Aerolineas Argentinas by a 46-21 vote. The legislature now will negotiate the purchase price for AR and its Austral Lineas Aereas subsidiary ( ATWOnline, Aug. 26).
Alitalia Extraordinary Administrator Augusto Fantozzi gave the carrier's unions one week to agree on the government-led rescue plan ( ATWOnline, Sept. 4). Italian Labor Minister Maurizio Sacconi told reporters that the plan calls for 3,250 layoffs. There are approximately 17,500 employed by AZ and likely partner Air One, the Associated Press reported.
Airbus and Syrian Arab Airlines have had "exploratory discussions" about a potential order for more than 50 aircraft valued at as much as $35 billion, a French official told the Financial Times. There had been recent speculation that French President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit this week to Damascus for talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would include announcement of a blockbuster aircraft order.
US Dept. of Transportation said the 19 reporting airlines posted a combined July ontime arrival rate of 75.7%, up from the 69.8% achieved in the year-ago month. Carriers cancelled 1.7% of scheduled domestic flights, an improvement from the 2.1% reported in July 2007. Mishandled bag rate of 4.86 reports per 1,000 passengers was down from 7.96.
The airline industry will lose $5.2 billion this year based on an average annual crude oil price of $113 per barrel ($140 for jet fuel), IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said yesterday from Montreal.
Singapore Technologies Aerospace yesterday said it redelivered the 38th MD-11BCF to UPS Airlines following conversion at its SASCO facility. SASCO began conversions for UPS in April 2001.
