Aviapartner Cargo signed a contract with Turkish Airlines to provide cargo handling services covering 14 airports, including online and offline stations across France, as well as trucking distribution. Effective July 21, contract includes warehousing, ULD buildup and breakdown, inventory management, documentation, customs clearance, tracing and dangerous goods control.
Trans States Airlines, which provides regional lift as AmericanConnection, US Airways Express and United Express, will furlough 58 additional pilots by the end of next month and reduce its fleet to 43 aircraft from 50, a spokesperson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It let 45 pilots go in June and will employ 422 this fall. Trans States serves 46 destinations and is based it St. Louis.
Babcock & Brown leased and delivered two former ATA Airlines 757-200s to Ethiopian Airlines. Lease agreements are five years each. B&B said it is "in discussions with several parties" regarding two additional former ATA aircraft.
Argentine government and Grupo Marsans reached agreement to nationalize Aerolineas Argentinas, Transport Secretary Ricardo Jaime told reporters in Buenos Aires yesterday, according to press reports ( ATWOnline, July 14). The price for Marsans' stake has yet to be determined.
Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair flew 7.76 billion RPKs in June, up 16.4% year-over-year, against a 16% increase in capacity to 9.54 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 0.3 point to 81.3%. Air Canada and Jazz Air flew 4.58 billion RPMs in June, a 1.9% increase year-over-year, while ASMs climbed 2.7% to 5.57 billion. Load factor dipped 0.6 point to 82.2%.
iSeatz launched its standalone booking engine developed for Delta Air Lines and featured on DL's website. Technology offers advanced travel purchasing options and ancillary service connections.
US Dept. of Transportation announced yesterday that within two years, all new aircraft must include technology that neutralizes flammable gasses from center fuel tanks on passenger aircraft. Those built after 1991 must be retrofitted. DOT said installation would cost $92,000-$311,000 per aircraft and that 2,730 aircraft currently in service in the US must be retrofitted. "I recognize that this is a challenging time for commercial aviation," Secretary Mary Peters said. "But there is no doubt that another crash like TWA 800 would pose a far greater challenge."
TAP Portugal will reduce capacity by approximately 40 flights per week during the coming winter season, CEO Fernando Pinto confirmed to ATWOnline last week. Reductions will be a mix of intercontinental and European frequencies and no destinations or aircraft are expected to be cut.
Amadeus introduced the first module of Amadeus Airline Service Fees, a solution that automatically prices and collects ticketing, credit card and miscellaneous fees in direct sales channels such as airport and city ticket offices, call centers and proprietary websites. The solution complies with ATPCO and IATA regulations for OB fees (the two-letter service code assigned by IATA to the ticketing fees record) and allows airlines to introduce new fee policies across all sales outlets in real time. It is available to all carriers that have adopted the Amadeus Altea Reservation platform.
Finnair is investigating importing jet fuel to Finland as prices are increasing and competition among fuel providers is limited. It expects this year's fuel bill to top €600 million ($956.3 million).
ILFC announced the following lease agreements: One used 737-800 to Miami Air International for four years; four new A321-200s and two used A330-200s to Vietnam Airlines for 10 and eight years each respectively; three used A330-200s to Gulf Air for eight years each; one new A321-200 to Air France for six years; one used 737-800 to Caribbean Airlines for three years; two new A321-200s to Aegean Airlines for six years each; one new 737-800 to Oman Air for 10 years; two used 737-800s to Orenburg Airlines for five years each; two used A320-200s and three used 767-300ERs to Rossiya for five a
Sama, the year-old Dammam-based carrier, said shareholders have agreed to contribute an additional SAR200 million ($53.3 million) in financing. SAR300 million was invested at startup and the company said its revenue rose more than 250% in the first half of 2008. It serves 12 Saudi and 10 Middle Eastern destinations.
Dublin-based Aergo Capital reached agreement to acquire the aviation assets of South African Imperial Holdings, comprising Safair and Safair Lease Finance. Aergo currently has 65 commercial aircraft on its portfolio on lease to 20 carriers and will add 31 with the Safair acquisition.
Russia's VSMPO-AVISMA, Airbus and EADS reached a long-term agreement for the supply of titanium including round and flat mill products and die forging parts for current Airbus aircraft as well as new programs such as the A350-XWB. Contract extends to 2020 and has value potential estimated at $4 billion. Lufthansa Technik signed a 10-year deal with Aer Lingus to provide component support for 34 A320s and nine A330s. Contract volume likely will exceed €90 million ($143 million). Services will be coordinated by an LHT representative in Dublin and launch Nov. 1.
Air Canada will lay off 632 flight attendants, or 9% of its cabin staff, and close its flight attendant bases in Halifax and Winnipeg by Nov. 1, a spokesperson told Reuters. Remaining layoffs will be from Vancouver. The cuts are part of the wide-ranging reductions at AC announced last month ( ATWOnline, June 18). Separately, AC named Jazz Air Senior VP and COO Bill Bredt as executive VP and COO.
US Air Transport Assn. said airlines' composite cost index in the first quarter rose 31.3% year-over-year to 228.7, the fastest growth since the second quarter of 1980 and greater than the US Consumer Price Index increase of 4.2%. Fuel climbed 28.7% and accounted for 29.4% of first-quarter operating costs. Overall unit cost rose 12.4% to a record 13.72 cents while yield climbed 2.6%.
SAS Group likely will announce a new cost savings program featuring further "dramatic" cuts as it grapples with high fuel prices and weakening demand, CEO Mats Jansson told Sweden's Dagens Industri. SAS announced in April the removal of 11 aircraft from the fleet and a workforce reduction of 1,000 employees ( ATWOnline, April 30).
GMT Global Republic Aviation announced the acquisition of four A320-200s worth $68 million from Aercap Holdings. Aircraft are on lease to TAM until 2012. Dublin-based GMT now owns 16 aircraft.
The six largest US network carriers yesterday announced a partnership with Sojern Inc., an Omaha company funded by Norwest Venture Partners and Trident Capital, that will offer advertising on boarding passes.
Chinese carriers experienced declining market demand in June owing to slowing domestic economic growth and the continuing effect of natural disasters, according to CAAC. Passenger numbers fell 3.8% year-over-year to 14.2 million and load factor was down 2.1 points to 72.3%. Daily utilization dropped sharply, falling 10.5% to 8.5 hr. due to route cancellations caused by rising fuel prices. Half-year passenger numbers grew 5.4% to 91.8 million and load factor remained level at 74.1%. Utilization rate fell 6.3% to 9 hr.
Continental Airlines said it will report a $22 million special gain when it announces its second-quarter results Thursday. The gain is the result of a variety of special items. CO took a $58 million charge representing impairment charges recorded for owned aircraft and related spare parts, including a $51 million writedown in the value of its 737-300/-500 aircraft and related assets ( ATWOnline, June 6).
Republic Airways Holdings will cut 10% of its employees, or 500, "in response to changing market conditions and expected reductions in its small jet contract flying," it said Friday. It said cuts will take place over the next several months and that "a portion will occur through normal attrition." Chairman, President and CEO Bryan Bedford said the reductions "reflect our response to the actions our network partners are taking to reduce the size of their domestic hub operations in light of sustained, high fuel prices.
Lufthansa Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber told ATWOnline at last week's Star Alliance meeting in Cairo that "we face heavy headwinds and will have a very close look at capacity for the coming winter schedule," with several options for reductions already available should demand weaken. "Thanks to our writeoff policy [after 12 years aircraft are written off the balance sheet], we can ground in a worst-case scenario up to 80 aircraft without suffering cash losses in terms of leasing contracts," Mayrhuber said. LH owns 80% of its fleet.
CAAC reported that Chinese carriers transported 14.2 million passengers in June, down 3.8% from the year-ago month, while cargo traffic declined 0.8% to 321,000 tonnes.
