A Spanair MD-82 scheduled to carry vacationers to Las Palmas yesterday crashed on takeoff from Madrid Barajas' longest runway, 36L, and caught fire. Reports from the Spanish capital indicated that at least 153 occupants were killed in the accident. Spanish Development Minister Magdalena Alvarez said late yesterday that 19 of the 172 people (162 passengers, six working crew, four nonworking crew) onboard survived, according to the BBC and CNN.
European Commission extended the deadline for its inquiry into Air France KLM's proposed acquisition of Martinair by 10 working days due to "first phase commitments" offered to alleviate competition concerns. Original deadline was Aug. 25. KLM currently owns 50% of Martinair shares and intends to acquire the other 50% from Maersk ( ATWOnline, June 12, 2007).
American Airlines yesterday launched its Gogo inflight Internet service provided by Aircell on 767-200s operating from New York to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami. The service is available in all cabins and costs $12.95 per person on flights of more than 3 hr. ( ATWOnline, June 26).
Embraer and Aeromexico Connect signed a long-term service agreement supporting the carrier's growing fleet of ERJ-145s and E-190s. Contract covers more than 500 part numbers and includes landing gear overhauls on the -145s.
JAL Group yesterday filed an application with the Japanese Ministry of Land Infrastructure, Transport & Tourism requesting that international normal interline fare rates be raised by 10% on flights to the Americas and by 5% on flights to other Asian destinations and to the Middle East and Africa.
SR Technics signed an agreement with Avtrade Ltd. to provide MRO and loan services for a range of Honeywell APUs including the 131-9A, 131-9B, 85 Series, 331-200ER, 331-250, 331-350C and 660-4.
Mercator said that WestJet signed up for its RAPID Bureau Interline Solution hosted in Dubai, becoming the third North American customer for the interline revenue accounting solution.
SilkAir CEO Chin Yau Seng told reporters that demand for its services remains robust with the exception of "a few blips," and that capacity growth for the fiscal year beginning April 1 now is expected to be 5%-7%, down slightly from the 8%-10% previously forecast. "So far we have seen continued strong support to a lot of our regional points," Chin said, noting that demand is strong from both leisure and business travelers despite high fuel prices.
News from Travel Technology Update: Ryanair said it will cancel all bookings made through screen-scraping Web sites. "We believe this is a quicker and more effective way of discouraging this unlawful activity and we hope that by getting rid of screen-scrapers we will speed up passenger processing times on Ryanair.com, as well as ensuring that Ryanair passengers are not paying unnecessary handling charges or higher fares to screen-scrapers," the carrier said.
Lufthansa CFO Stephan Gemkow was elected to the board of JetBlue Airways, the New York-based carrier announced. He joins Swiss International Air Lines President and CEO Cristoph Franz on the 11-member board ( ATWOnline, Feb. 11).
ALAFCO announced the lease of eight A320-200s to Saudi Arabian Airlines for eight years each. Delivery is scheduled in 2009 and 2010. The Kuwaiti lessor struck a deal with Saudi Arabian for 17 long-haul aircraft in June ( ATWOnline, June 26). The combined deals are worth $3.3 billion, ALAFCO said.
British Airways' planned all-business-class flights between London City and either New York JFK or Newark will launch in autumn 2009 and have just 32 seats that can be converted into lie-flat beds, the carrier announced yesterday. The twice-daily service will be aboard an A318, the largest aircraft that can operate at LCY, and will refuel at Shannon on the westbound journey. Passengers will complete US arrival checks in Ireland. Eastbound flights will be nonstop. BA vowed customers will be able to arrive at LCY up to 15 min.
US FAA told Southwest Airlines that it is upholding a proposed $10.2 million fine for operating 46 737 Classics for nine days in March 2007 after it had disclosed to the agency that the aircraft were in noncompliance with an airworthiness directive and is seeking payment by Aug. 29.
Sensis Corp. announced that its Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X is now operational at Detroit Metro. ASDE-X combines surface movement radar, transponder multilateration and ADS-B "to provide air traffic controllers with real-time, highly accurate position and location information of all aircraft and vehicles on the airport surface," the company said.
Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Assn. contributed to the war of words erupting over the daily reporting of several recent safety incidents at Qantas, accusing the airline of allowing standards to slip. It blamed staffing shortages and cost-cutting for the spate of highly publicized incidents, while Federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese called for calm and urged Australians not to disparage the carrier.
Sterling Airlines reappointed Almar Orn Hilmarsson president and CEO replacing Reza Taleghani. The former JP Morgan executive took over from Hilmarsson in March after the latter had been at the post for nearly three years ( ATWOnline, March 5). The move coincides with a change in the shareholding of Northern Travel Holding, which bought Sterling in December 2006 from FL Group.
Chinese carriers continued to suffer falling passenger demand in July. Air China's RPKs decreased by 8.4% from the year-ago month, while passenger boardings fell 6.8% to 3 million and load factor plunged 8.1 points to 73.3%. China Southern Airlines' RPKs slid 4.2% year-over-year and load factor dipped 1.4 points to 75.1%. It is noteworthy that CA's and CZ's international RPKs dropped 13.7% and 13.3% respectively, mainly owing to heightened security measures related to the Beijing Olympics and slowing global demand. CZ cut its international capacity 14.2% last month.
US Air Transport Assn. forecast a 5.7% year-over-year fall in the number of passengers traveling globally on US airlines during the Labor Day holiday period from Aug. 27 through Sept. 3 to 16 million. Decline comprises a 6.5% domestic drop and a 1% international increase. Air France KLM flew 20.1 billion RPKs in July, up 1.8% year-over-year, against a 3.9% increase in capacity to 23.82 billion ASKs. Load factor fell 1.8 points to 84.4%.
Lufthansa Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber said the company is "hitting the brakes" on personnel growth and will not be adding new employees, especially on the front line, in the foreseeable future. "We added 2,800 new staff this year. But based on the current environment in the aviation industry, we cannot guarantee adding any new jobs," he told the daily Neuen Osnabrucker Zeitung.
Swissport baggage handlers and check-in staff working at London Gatwick "overwhelmingly" voted to wage 24-hr. strikes on Aug. 25 and 29, the Unite union announced, adding that the dispute over pay "is likely to spread to other UK airports in the coming days and weeks." The union said 318 employees will strike and that 72% voted to strike.
Malaysia Airlines Engineering and Maintenance released a statement Friday attempting to distance itself from reports that it is linked to some of the highly publicized safety and maintenance incidents suffered recently by Qantas ( ATWOnline, Aug. 13). MAS MD and CEO Idris Jala said allegations linking the company's E&M subsidiary to the ruptured 747-400 hull that forced a diversion to Manila last month are "totally baseless" and that the aircraft was maintained in Australia. E&M said it has worked only on QF 737-400s.
ACTS and GE signed an MOU recognizing ACTS Engine Maintenance Center as a GE fulfillment center for engine MRO and on-wing and diagnostic services for CFM56-2/-3/-5A and -5C operators in the Americas.
US Airways said Merrill Lynch, the underwriter of its public offering of 19 million shares of common stock at $8.50 per share, exercised the entire overallotment option of 2.85 million shares. The resulting net proceeds from the offering are expected to be around $179 million, US said ( ATWOnline, Aug. 15).
Alaska Airlines flew 1.79 billion RPMs in July, a 2.2% year-over-year decrease. Capacity rose 2.4% to 2.24 billion ASMs and load factor fell 3.7 points to 79.7%. SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines flew a combined 1.6 billion RPMs in July, down 4.7% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 3.3% to 2 billion ASMs, dropping load factor 1.2 points to 80.1%.
