Sterling Airlines appointed Fredrik Kinnunen as director-direct sales. SR Technics elevated Marco Imboden to senior VP- corporate & marketing. Lufthansa CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber told shareholders this week that he will not seek reappointment when his contract expires on Dec. 31, 2010. He joined LH in 1970 and has been CEO since 2003.
Brussels Airlines yesterday acknowledged that it is negotiating an alliance membership, although it declined to comment on rumors that it was discussing possible acquisition by Lufthansa.
Lufthansa Group airlines flew 12.37 billion RPKs in March, up 25.1% from the year-ago month, which did not include Swiss International Air Lines. Capacity rose 25.5% to 15.56 billion ASKs and load factor fell 0.2 point to 79.5%. Air Canada and Jazz flew a combined 4.46 billion RPMs in March, up 3.7% from the year-ago month, against a 3.9% increase in capacity to 5.38 billion ASMs. Load factor slipped 0.1 point to 82.9%. Vueling Airlines carried 539,042 passengers in March, up 33% from the year-ago month. Load factor rose 1.6 points to 72.4%.
Emirates is ramping up its cabin crew recruiting as it prepares to take delivery of its first A380 in August. Its Aviation College will begin accepting A380 personnel to its crew training program in early June. EK plans to have 24 cabin staff onboard a normal 489-seat A380, and it will need about six complete crews for every aircraft.
Ryanair will increase its baggage check-in fee to €10 ($15.62) from €9 and its airport check-in fee to €5 from €4 effective May 5. It said that 40% currently use the free Internet check-in service. Separately, Ryanair named Sinead Finn as director-commercial revenue.
Iberia flew 4.54 billion RPKs in March, up 1% on the year-ago month, against a 0.5% fall in capacity to 5.55 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 1.2 points to 81.8%. LAN Airlines flew 2.3 billion system RPKs in March, a 14.2% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 9.2% to 2.89 billion ASKs and load factor rose 3.5 points to 79.5%. Estonian Air carried 63,946 passengers in March, up 16.3% year-over-year, helping boost first-quarter boardings to 163,230, up 17%.
Frontier Airlines Holdings named Jim Young VP-distribution, sales and marketing and Tom Bacon VP-planning and revenue management. Both are new to the company.
AirTran Airways parent AirTran Holdings is offering more than 22.3 million shares of common stock at $3.20 per share, it said Friday. It additionally will offer $65 million of 5.5% convertible senior notes due in 2015. Notes can be converted into common stock at the rate of 260.417 shares per $1,000 principal amount of notes, or $3.84 per share. Offerings are expected to close April 30 and proceeds will be used for the purchase of government securities and for general corporate purposes including retirement of debt.
American Airlines announced it will join competitors in charging domestic economy passengers $25 to check a second piece of luggage effective May 12. Policy also applies to flights on its American Eagle Airlines subsidiary. Premium loyalty program members, those purchasing full fares and those with international itineraries will not be subject to the fee, leaving it applicable to approximately 4% of domestic customers checking a second bag, AA said.
Air Berlin said it reached a 10-year salary agreement with AB, LTU and dba pilots represented by Cockpit. It also covers promotions and training programs and is effective retroactively from April 1. Separately, AB implemented mobile phone boarding passes and seat selection on flights departing from "many" German airports.
Regional Express Holdings (Rex) will take full control and ownership of its joint venture pilot training academy at Mangalore, the Australian regional announced. It will be renamed Australian Airline Pilot Academy. First batch of cadets is scheduled to graduate this year and commence conversion training to Rex's Saab 340s.
News from Travel Technology Update: A number of travel agency groups, including the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies, are engaged in an 11th-hour attempt to postpone the demise of paper tickets. IATA has said that after May 31, paper tickets no longer will be processed through its billing and settlement plans. The deadline does not affect travel agencies in the U.S., whose ticket sales are processed through the Airlines Reporting Corp.
The European Commission last week indicated it had concerns about whether the €300 million ($473.6 million) emergency bridge loan offered by the Italian government to Alitalia constitutes illegal state aid ( ATWOnline, April 24). "We have doubts about the nature of the measures and we want to have a better understanding of the details," DG Transport spokesperson Michele Cercone said. "We want to understand if this is a commercial operation as the Italian authorities claim."
Air Line Pilots Assn. filed suit against ATA Airlines for failing to give notice prior to shutting down operations "abruptly in the early morning hours of April 3" ( ATWOnline, April 4).
Air Canada said it will begin charging coach passengers C$25 ($25.60) to check a second bag on transborder flights to/from the US for tickets purchased from May 15 for travel on or after July 15, citing "record high and unrelenting fuel costs" as necessitating the policy change.
Atlas Air, without admitting or denying any violation, agreed to pay $95,000 to settle an FAA complaint that it failed to perform maintenance properly on a 747-200 freighter in May 2006.
Travelport reached agreement with Rossiya to provide its Discover GUI-based schedule modeling solution. Technology employs data points such as SSIM files, global traffic demand estimates and equipment capacities.
Northwest Airlines announced the addition of a carbon emissions calculator to its website that enables travelers to view the estimated carbon emissions associated with the air travel portion of their trip. They may make donations to the Nature Conservancy to help to offset the impact. Finnair also added an emissions calculator to its website.
American Airlines flew 11.6 billion system RPMs in March, down 2.8% from the year-ago month, against a 4.6% decline in capacity to 13.82 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 1.5 points to 83.9%. American Eagle Airlines flew 685.1 million RPMs, down 9.5%, and 933.6 million ASMs, down 8.6%. Load factor fell 0.7 point to 73.4%. Alaska Airlines flew 1.7 billion RPMs in March, up 10.7% from the year-ago month, against a 5.2% increase in capacity to 2.1 billion ASMs that lifted load factor 4 points to 80.8%.
TAM changed the name of its cargo business from TAM Express to TAM Cargo. The growing unit generates revenue from carrying cargo in the bellies of its 110 passenger aircraft. It said it will invest BRL30 million ($17.9 million) this year on infrastructure for domestic cargo terminals and national and international freight systems. Its gross cargo revenue totaled BRL776.8 million in 2007, up 60% over 2006, comprising 9.2% of the Brazilian airline's total revenue.
Frontier Airlines flew 942.4 million mainline RPMs in March, up 14.7% from the year-ago month, against a 4.5% rise in ASMs to 1.12 billion. Load factor climbed 7.6 points to 84.8%. Yield increased 0.7% to 11.81 cents and unit revenue was up 10.5% to 9.96 cents. Allegiant Air flew 427.7 million system RPMs in March, a 36.6% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 32.7% to 492.6 million ASMs and load factor rose 2.5 points to 86.8%.
US Airways reported a first-quarter net loss of $236 million, reversed from a profit of $66 million in the year-ago period, and said it increasingly will implement an "a la carte" pricing structure to counter rising fuel costs.
CAE won Level D certification from US FAA and EASA for its A380 FFS, the industry's first. Airbus will use the simulator to offer initial training to A380 customers.
Air Transport Assn. and IATA this week protested a new US government proposal that airlines be made responsible for collecting fingerprint data from foreign nationals exiting the US, with IATA saying that "airline counter staff are not a substitute for trained border patrol officers." ATA said, "This is an industry in crisis, and adding the Dept.
