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.
Airbus "terminated" talks with Latecoere regarding the sale of two industrial plants in France, a setback in its effort to implement the Power8 restructuring program. The announcement follows a similar termination of negotiations in March with MT Aerospace regarding the divestiture of three German industrial plants ( ATWOnline, March 28). A primary plank of Power8 is the divestiture of six or seven plants slated to play key roles in the development and construction of the A350 XWB.
British Airways flew 8.8 billion RPKs in April, down 7% from the year-ago month, against a 0.4% decline in capacity to 12.29 billion ASKs. Load factor fell 5.1 points to 71.6%. Air Canada and Jazz flew a combined 4 billion RPMs in April, up 0.8% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 0.4% to 4.83 billion ASMs and load factor rose 0.4 point to 82.7%.
Embraer reported a more than tripling of its first-quarter net income to $85 million from $26.2 million in the prior year on a 60.6% surge in revenue to $1.34 billion as commercial aircraft deliveries nearly doubled to 38 compared to 20 last year. Operating income more than tripled to $48.7 million from $15.5 million in the year-ago quarter. The manufacturer delivered 15 E-175s, 17 E-190s, three ERJ-145s and three E-195s during the quarter. Its firm order backlog at quarter's end was $20.3 billion, up 26.1% over $15 billion at the end of the prior-year quarter.
CAE won orders for full-flight simulators and related CAE Simfinity training devices valued at more than C$60 million ($59.4 million) from Lufthansa Flight Training, Flight Training Finance, Swiss Aviation Training and Zhuhai Flight Training Centre. LFT purchased a CAE 7000 Series 777-200 LRF FFS, while FTF ordered a CAE 7000 Series 757 FFS and SAT committed to a CAE 7000 Series E-190 FFS. ZFTC bought two CAE 5000 Series A320 FFSs as well as a CAE Simfinity A320 IPT, a reconfigurable CAE Simfinity APT trainer and a CAE Simfinity 787 VSIM.
Lufthansa Systems reached a deal with Saudi Arabian Airlines to provide its SAP ERP technology for streamlining MRO processes. Technology features a rotation planning system and advanced scheduling and documentation capabilities. LHS entered the agreement as part of an IT consortium that includes SAP, InfoTrust and Atos/Hewlett-Packard.
Australia's Regional Express (Rex) has been forced to cut more services because of the continuing pilot shortage ( ATWOnline, Nov. 6, 2007). It will withdraw from the Cooma-Sydney route indefinitely--it was scheduled to recommence in June--as well as reduce flying elsewhere in the network.
Lufthansa Technik won a contract from Croatia Airlines to provide component support for its four Q400s, plus two soon to be delivered. It will be LHT's first time working on the turboprop.
US Senate ended debate on FAA reauthorization legislation without voting on the bill yesterday, likely ending any chance the agency will receive a new authorization before a new President takes office in January. The chamber last week took up long-stalled legislation to fund and modernize FAA, including establishing a budget for building a satellite-based ATC system, but senators began arguing over amendments and rules of debate once it officially was introduced ( ATWOnline, May 2).
Azul Linhas Aereas Brasileiras will be the name of JetBlue Airways founder and former Chairman and CEO David Neeleman's new Brazilian airline. The Azul moniker, Portuguese for blue, was chosen over Samba following a public vote. Neeleman is CEO of the new carrier, which is scheduled to begin flying in January and has 76 E-195 firm orders and options ( ATWOnline, March 28).
European Commission withdrew previously announced plans to limit the maximum size of cabin baggage throughout the EU to 56x45x25 cm. Decision to shelve the plan, which already had been postponed from May 2007, was made to avoid "undue operational complications and inconvenience for passengers on cabin baggage size." Initial plans to restrict the size of hand baggage were part of a package of security measures drawn up in 2006 following the discovery of a terrorist plot to smuggle explosives aboard transatlantic flights.
US FAA said that more than five years have elapsed since it conducted assessments on 103 system designs at eight airlines, exceeding the timeframe during which the reviews were supposed to have taken place and the latest in a string of admissions by the agency regarding lapses in its airline oversight.
Jamaican government and International Finance Corp. signed an $820,000 grant agreement with the US Trade and Development Agency "to assist with technical services for the Air Jamaica divestment process," Jamaica's Ministry of Finance and Public Service announced. The government is targeting March 2009 as its divestment deadline. Prime Minister Bruce Golding previously said that Air Jamaica lost approximately $170 million in 2007 and has accumulated losses in excess of $1 billion overall. It carried 1.7 million passengers last year.
Aer Lingus will increase its checked baggage fee on short-haul flights effective May 8. Cost for airport check-in will rise to €18 ($27.84) from €12 and online check-in will go to €12 from €9. EI does not charge baggage fees on long-haul services.
Etihad Airways said it achieved 100% e-ticketing across its entire network of 45 destinations after bringing Peshawar, Tehran and Khartoum online. The Abu Dhabi-based carrier achieved 96% e-ticketing with its interline partners.
American Airlines flew 10.79 billion RPMs in April, down 6.6% from the year-ago month owing largely to the MD-80 flight cancellations. Capacity fell 4.3% to 13.46 billion ASMs and load factor dropped 2 points to 80.1%. American Eagle flew 681.8 million RPMs, down 7.6%, against a 3.1% drop in capacity to 963.3 million ASMs. Load factor slipped 3.4 points to 70.8%. Southwest Airlines flew 6.26 billion RPMs in April, up 5.7% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 5.3% to 8.63 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 0.3 point to 72.6%.
European Commission has given Italian officials until May 19 to respond to its request for more information on the €300 million bridge loan the outgoing government awarded Alitalia last month ( ATWOnline, April 30). Meanwhile, speculation continues on possible interest in AZ, including from Air One and Lufthansa.
