Spanair's recently announced "feasibility plan," which calls for the grounding of 15 aircraft this fall, a reduction in bases from seven to two and a 24% capacity reduction ( ATWOnline, July 17), will require redundancies equal to up to 954 fulltime positions, the carrier announced last week. The plan is aimed at improving the 2009 financial result by €90 million ($135 million).
Ural Airlines reported a RUB90.9 million ($3.7 million) loss in the first half of 2008, narrowed from the RUB246.4 million loss suffered in the year-ago semester, Russia's AK&M reported.
Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Bureau has found nothing amiss at Qantas, insiders say, although it is defending itself from charges that it is too close to the national airline. CASA has six inspectors performing a special audit on QF ( ATWOnline, Aug. 5) and ATWOnline understands there is "no smoking gun" at the airline. The report will be completed this week.
Air Canada named Claude Morin, currently president and CEO of Air Canada Cargo, VP-global sales effective Sept. 1, replacing the retiring Marc Rosenberg. Senior Director Cargo Services-Americas/South Pacific Lise-Marie Turpin will be promoted on Sept. 1 to GM-Air Canada Cargo, a position that will include responsibility for all aspects of the airline's cargo activities.
The US Air Transport Assn. followed through on its threat and yesterday filed a lawsuit against FAA over its announced Sept. 3 auction of two slots, or one roundtrip, at Newark. Although the agency is auctioning only two EWR slots for a five-year lease, the move is viewed widely as a precursor to a much broader auction system it is considering implementing at both EWR and New York JFK ( ATWOnline, Aug. 7).
Virgin Atlantic Airways is increasing its lobbying against the anticipated antitrust immunity application by British Airways and American Airlines for transatlantic operations and confirmed that founder Richard Branson wrote a letter to US presidential candidates John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) warning that the proposed alliance would "severely damage competition. .
SITA signed a five-year, $3 million agreement with Middle East Airlines to implement and maintain its IP VPN. SITA will provide secure Internet access to MEA network users at their sites around the world and connect the Beirut headquarters to 19 global outstations through one gateway. Implementation is underway and will take up to nine months to complete.
Air Line Pilots Assn.'s United Airlines chapter, citing frustration with UA's ontime performance, low customer service ratings and declining financial results, called for the resignation of Chairman, President and CEO Glenn Tilton and launched a website that it claimed chronicles "his failure in virtually every category that can be measured."
Gol reduced its fleet plan by two leased 737-800s in 2008 and five leased -800s in 2009. Full-year 2008 capacity growth will be around 20% instead of the 25% previously forecast. The Brazilian airline's board voted to suspend quarterly dividends for the remainder of 2008, freeing "cash to fund investments and improve credit ratios."
Delta Air Lines flew 12.44 billion system RPMs in July, up 0.7% from the year-ago month, against a 0.9% rise in capacity to 14.34 billion ASMs. Load factor fell 0.1 point to 86.7%. United Airlines flew 10.49 billion system RPMs in July, down 4% year-over-year. Capacity dipped 1.4% to 12.33 billion ASMs and load factor fell 2.3 points to 85%.
US Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the Republican presidential candidate, last week called the proposed UPS takeover of DHL's North American air lift a "train wreck" and vowed to "do everything in my power to avert it," while two prominent senators raised antitrust concerns with the US Dept. of Justice.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said last week that his government is in talks with a "large foreign company" about forming an alliance with Alitalia. "We are in talks with a big foreign company for an alliance on an international level, exactly the opposite of the hypothesis of the fire sale to Air France KLM, which the previous government wanted, which among other things, included 7,000 job cuts," Berlusconi said in a television interview. "We already have the industrial plan. We have the investors.
Boeing won US FAA certification for carbon brakes from Messier-Bugatti for 737NGs. Brakes recently entered service on a 737-700 delivered to Delta Air Lines.
Silver Air of Djibouti selected Jordan Aircraft Maintenance to conduct C checks on 737-200s and prepare aircraft for registration in the UAE. Work will take place at Queen Alia International and is slated for completion in September.
Lufthansa continued to cancel flights throughout the weekend and planned to cancel 22 today and 20 on Tuesday resulting from a strike by CityLine pilots represented by Vereinigung Cockpit. The strike ended Friday.
Air Transat of Canada joined IATA last week, becoming the organizations 230th member. It operates a fleet of 17 A310s and A330s and carries nearly 3 million passengers per year to some 60 destinations.
The UK Office of Fair Trading yesterday charged one present and three former British Airways executives with illegally fixing prices on fuel surcharges on long-haul flights between July 2004 and April 2006.
Air New Zealand, bucking the trend of charging for a first checked bag, announced yesterday that it is increasing its baggage allowance on domestic flights from 20 kg. to 25 kg.
Alaska Air Group Chairman, President and CEO William Ayer urged US Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters in a recent letter to force Virgin America to begin submitting its traffic and financial data publicly, as all other US airlines are required to do, rather than confidentially, as VX has been doing. He complained that VX repeatedly has appealed Dept.
United Airlines confirmed to Reuters and Bloomberg that it is "highly unlikely" to take delivery of 42 A319s/A320s it has on order. UA said it recorded a $91 million charge in the second quarter to cover a deposit to Airbus that it will have to forfeit if and when it officially cancels the order.
Mxi Technologies said it launched its Maintenix system on KLM's fleet of A330s. Software offers engineering, maintenance planning and heavy maintenance support.
