Vancouver Airport Authority yesterday said it entered into a "partnership" with Citi Infrastructure Investors, a unit of Citigroup, "to jointly pursue the sourcing, funding and maximization of potential airport opportunities through YVR Airport Services." Under the terms of the agreement, CII will acquire 50% of YVRAS, which "will become CII's exclusive platform for investing in airport assets."
Ahead of second-stage EU-US open skies negotiations, which will begin with a round in Ljubljana Thursday and Friday, US State Dept. Deputy Asst. Secretary-Transportation Affairs John Byerly said the US is seeking to broaden the scope of talks to achieve an "ancillary multilateral agreement" to replace the current bilateral structure that governs international air transport.
Royal Jordanian said it selected CHAMP Cargosystems' Cargospot to replace its in-house cargo system. IT investment is part of a larger initiative to upgrade sales, reservations, pricing, management information and cargo handling. RJ, which serves more than two dozen clients at Queen Alia International's cargo terminal, will implement the system in October.
Lufthansa Cargo, AiRUnion and Krasnoyarsk's Yemelyanova Airport signed an MOU establishing a strategic cooperation that will result in LHC's shift from Astana, where it currently stops on flights to/from Asia ( ATWOnline, March 24). The airport and service companies operating at Yemelyanova promised to make necessary investments, including an upgrade of the CAT II instrument landing system scheduled be completed and certified by year end.
News from Travel Technology Update: An investigation by the European Union found that buying airline tickets online is still fraught with risk, and a third of consumers are "ripped off or misled and confused." It warned that if the offending airlines and other ticket sellers don't improve their sales and marketing practices by May 1, 2009, the European Commission "will have no choice but to intervene."
FedEx lowered its earnings forecast for its fiscal fourth quarter ending May 31, projecting a per-share profit of $1.45-$1.50, down from $1.60-$1.80 it projected in March. Earnings of $1.50 per share would mark a more than 23% decrease from $1.96 in the year-ago quarter. The delivery giant said that the revised forecast "assumes no additional increases to the current fuel price environment."
Aviapartner Handling reached agreement with Air One to provide ramp handling and passenger services at Milan Malpensa. Contract covers some 7,000 flights per year.
US FAA is investigating why a fuselage panel fell off an American Airlines 767 following takeoff from Dallas-Fort Worth last month en route to Paris Charles de Gaulle, the Associated Press reported. The agency also is examining why the aircraft carried on to CDG rather than returning to DFW. An internal AA memo obtained by AP stated that while pictures of the fuselage with a missing panel "are very dramatic," the flight did not pose a safety risk.
Unisys won a two-year contract with the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority to supply, implement and oversee an identification management system using fingerprint and iris biometric technology for employee verification at 29 airports. COTS-based technology will replace applications in the RAIC system and allow CATSA to update the security status of 100,000 airport workers. Contract includes two additional two-year option periods.
EuroManx, based on the Isle of Man, ceased operations and cancelled all services Friday. "Over the last six months a number of factors, including rising fuel prices and reduced passenger numbers, have proved to be insurmountable obstacles to the airline being able to continue to operate," it said on its website. Established in 2002, EuroManx flew turboprops to Liverpool, Manchester, Belfast City and London City. Manx2 and Flybe stepped in to rescue stranded passengers.
Former Qantas VP Freight-Americas Bruce McCaffrey agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges in the US related to fixing air cargo shipment rates and will serve eight months in jail, the US Dept. of Justice announced last week. DOJ and antitrust authorities throughout the world have been conducting a wide-ranging probe into air cargo price fixing since February 2006 ( ATWOnline, Jan. 22), but McCaffrey becomes the first individual to face actual jail time as a result.
Qantas is holding fast in an upcoming pay dispute with engineers who are threatening a series of work actions beginning this week. CEO Geoff Dixon said the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Assn. advised the carrier that overtime bans would commence May 15, with 4-hr. "stop work meetings" scheduled for May 16 and 23.
Asiana Airlines signed a contract for two 777-200ERs worth $438 million at list prices, Boeing announced. OZ has an option to upgrade to the -300ER and currently operates nine 777s. Delivery date was not announced.
US Dept. of Transportation announced extension of the Air Carrier Access Act, which bars discrimination against passengers with disabilities, to foreign carriers operating a flight originating or ending in the US. Rule becomes effective in one year and includes greater accommodation for hearing-impaired passengers and a supplemental NPRM on whether airlines should be required to provide medical oxygen to passengers upon request and enhance accessibility to websites, kiosks and IFE.
Air France-KLM flew 17.44 billion RPKs in April, up 2.6% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 5.4% to 21.79 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 2.3 points to 80%. Northwest Airlines flew 6.59 consolidated RPMs in April, up 1% from the year-ago month, against a 2.1% increase in capacity to 7.96 billion ASMs. Load factor dipped 0.9 point to 82.8%. US Airways Group flew 5.33 billion consolidated RPMs in April, a 2.4% decrease from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 2.8% to 6.45 billion ASMs and load factor rose 0.4 point to 82.6%.
Gate Gourmet will purchase catering units in five cities from Air Berlin and SCK Sky Catering Kitchen under a deal announced this week. Serving some 18,000 flights per year, the sites are located at Dusseldorf, Cologne/Bonn, Munster/Osnabruck, Leipzig/Halle and Paderborn.
European Commission's interim report on its investigation into misleading advertising and unfair practices on websites selling airline tickets revealed "serious and persistent consumer problems" throughout the industry. The EC's first sweep of 386 websites in 16 countries last September showed that 35% had confirmed irregularities and many breached consumer protection law on several fronts.
United Airlines will launch daily service from Washington Dulles to Moscow Domodedovo (aboard a 767) and Dubai (777) on Oct. 26, pending government approval. UA flew 9.27 billion system RPMs last month, down 6.3% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 2.1% to 11.51 billion ASMs and load factor slipped 3.6 points to 80.5%.
United Airlines announced the appointment of COO Pete McDonald to the new role of chief administrative officer and the promotion of Chief Revenue Officer John Tague to COO, effective immediately. McDonald's role "combines a number of corporate functions to enable successful execution of. . .[UA's] five-year plan," including customer experience, human resources, labor relations, safety and security, information systems and "industry, environmental, corporate and governmental affairs," UA said.
TAP Portugal yesterday announced the launch of new fare and product offerings that it claimed will be better tailored to customer needs while strengthening "transparency in communicating with the traveling public." From June, TAP will offer five new products, each of which will come with a specific level of service both in flight and on the ground: Tap/executive and tap/plus are designed for business travelers or customers "looking for a higher quality service," while tap/classic ("convenience and flexibility"), tap/basic ("very good value") and tap/discount ("very low price") round out
Swedish union Pilotforbundet threatened late Wednesday to take its 100 SAS pilots out on strike beginning May 18 unless a collective wage agreement is reached. SAS said the action probably will not affect its operation, as just 100 of its 1,700 pilots are members of Pilotforbundet. Swedish Airline Pilots Assn., the country's largest pilot union, said it did not support Pilotforbundet's initiative. It already has a wage agreement covering its SAS members.
Tiger Airways enjoyed an 81.6% increase in revenue for the fiscal year ended March 31 on a 50% rise in passengers to 2.3 million. Full-year capacity climbed 39.6% and load factor rose 8 points. The Singapore-based LCC did not provide further details and said full results will be released following a formal audit.
Bombardier Services signed contracts with SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines for provision of heavy maintenance. Ten-year deal with SkyWest includes C checks and other heavy MRO and modifications on the carrier's 222 CRJ200s, CRJ700s and CRJ900s. Agreement with ASA includes heavy MRO on 110 CRJ200s. Financial terms were not disclosed.
