SIA Engineering signed a five-year fleet management program agreement with V Australia for maintenance of seven 777-300ERs. Contract is valued at S$90 million ($66.4 million) and calls for transit and light maintenance checks, defect rectification, cabin maintenance, spares support, component repair and overhaul and logistics management. Work will take place in Brisbane, Sydney and Los Angeles.
TUI said that Monteray Enterprises, which is wholly owned by shipping magnate John Fredriksen, acquired an 11.7% stake in the company with the purchase of 29.5 million shares. Fredriksen now is the largest shareholder in the travel company.
US FAA named Air Force Reserve Brig. Gen. Robert Tarter VP-safety services for the Air Traffic Organization. He also was a pilot for Delta Air Lines. Swiss International Air Lines elevated Bernd Bauer to head of sales and marketing-Europe. He succeeds Alexander Arafa, who become head of cabin crew last week.
Pratt & Whitney Canada will open a 49,987-sq.-m. flight test operations center at Montreal Mirabel. Facility will feature two bays for test aircraft and development engines and is expected to employ more than 75, including test engineers and specialized technicians. "Establishing this single, state-of-the-art facility will improve our competitiveness and support flight testing for the complete range of Pratt & Whitney engines, from turboprops to turbofans up to 90,000 lb. of thrust," Senior VP-Service Centers & Operations Benoit Brossoit said.
Aeroflot signed a cooperation agreement with MIAT Mongolian Airlines that will begin with an interline agreement and by October include codeshare flights between Moscow Sheremetyevo and Ulan Bator, a special prorate agreement, luggage check-through and interline e-ticketing. Loyalty program linkup and cooperation on freight and promotion will come later. SU flew 2.13 billion RPKs in March, up 14.4% on the year-ago month, as passenger numbers rose 19.7% to 723,700. Load factor was 68.8%.
US Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said Friday that she will move quickly to determine why it was necessary for American Airlines to cancel 3,300 flights two weeks ago to conduct safety inspections and announced a series of steps she said will improve FAA's safety oversight system.
Sabre Travel Network reached a multiyear distribution deal with V Australia extending the carrier's fares and inventory to Sabre-connected travel agents worldwide.
Bombardier Aerospace named former automotive executive Guy Hachey president and COO succeeding Pierre Beaudoin, who will become president and CEO of Bombardier Inc. on June 4. Beaudoin's promotion was announced last fall ( ATWOnline, Nov. 29, 2007). Hachey will take over on May 12. In addition, President-New Commercial Aircraft Program Aircraft Services Gary Scott, who led the CSeries program, will become president of the new Bombardier Commercial Aircraft unit that will combine its Regional and NCA programs.
Boeing Commercial Aviation Services reached a deal with launch customer LAN Cargo for landing gear MRO services on 767 freighters. Contract includes international access to landing gear repair and replacement.
CAAC yesterday announced it will transfer rights to routes operated by China Eastern Airlines in Yunnan Province to other carriers and impose a fine of CNY1.5 million in response to a March 31-April 1 incident in which pilots returned outbound flights to Kunming ( ATWOnline, April 8). CAAC's investigation concluded that the "disgraceful incident" involving 21 flights largely was the fault of disgruntled CEA pilots.
US Airways Chairman and CEO Doug Parker told employees in a Wednesday letter cited in press reports that "All airlines are going to have to make dramatic changes to their existing business models in order to viable," and that while he would not comment on any "specific discussions or transaction" that may involve US, the carrier "can't ignore what's happening in the world around us."
SITA yesterday released its fourth "SITA Baggage Report" and said that commercial airlines lost a combined $3.8 billion last year "because of growing pressures on baggage management linked to passenger volumes, tight aircraft turnaround times and heightened security measures." Approximately 1.9% of the 2.25 billion pieces of checked luggage sent through the system in 2007 were mishandled. SITA said 49% of delays were related to transfers, with 16% coming from failure to load and 14% attributed to ticketing error/passenger bag switch/security/other.
US airline executives this week expressed alarm at the consistently high price of fuel, warning that no relief is in sight. "We're not expecting fuel prices to decline," Delta Air Lines President and CFO Edward Bastian said, explaining that DL's proposed merger with Northwest Airlines was driven in part by soaring energy costs. "When we thought about how we would cope with the higher price of fuel, both of us came to the conclusion that we needed greater scale," he said.
Trans States Airlines, which grounded 24 of its 50 ERJ-145s Tuesday for maintenance, expected to have all of the aircraft back in service by last night. They were grounded after an internal audit revealed that they had "exceeded time limits on inspections," VP Bill Mishk told ATWOnline. "The plan is to have a full, normal schedule on Friday," he said.
AirTran Airways flew 1.71 billion RPMs in March, up 15.8% on the year-ago month. Capacity rose 12.9% to 2.15 billion ASMs and load factor increased 1.9 points to 79.6%. Finnair said March unit revenue fell by nearly 3% year-over-year as traffic rose 15% to 2.01 billion RPKs. Capacity climbed 18.2% to 2.63 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 2.2 points to 76.4%. Aer Lingus flew 1.42 billion RPKs in March, up 22.1% from the year-ago month, against a 26.5% increase in ASKs to 1.88 billion. Load factor slipped 2.8 points to 75.3%.
Hewa Bora Airways DC-9 crash Tuesday remained under investigation as the confirmed death toll reached 40, according to the BBC ( ATWOnline, April 16). Most of the dead likely were on the ground, according to reports, as the aircraft was unable to lift off the shortened runway at Goma International and crashed through a wall into nearby shops and houses.
Chinese airlines suffered a collective drop in growth in the first quarter owing to a sharp slowdown in international growth caused by depreciation of the US dollar. According to CAAC statistics released yesterday, Chinese airlines carried 45.7 million passengers and transported 983,000 tonnes of cargo in the quarter, up 11% and 12.4% year-over-year respectively.
Navitaire reached a deal with Cebu Pacific Air for provision of its New Skies hosted reservation services and SkyPrice revenue management system. Contract terms were not disclosed. Mxi Technologies said Qantas will implement its Maintenix management software across its fleet. Features include data optimization and integrated maintenance and engineering processes.
Japan Airlines agreed to pay a $110 million fine as part of a plea agreement with the US Dept. of Justice related to its role in the fixing of international cargo rates. Qantas, British Airways and Korean Air already had pled guilty and agreed to penalties in a long-running investigation by US and European authorities that has targeted other carriers as well ( ATWOnline, Jan. 3).
EADS CEO Louis Gallois, in perhaps his starkest language yet regarding its and Airbus's fiscal plight, referenced Greek tragedy to describe the impact on aerospace manufacturing in Europe that the rising euro/sinking dollar is having. "We are at levels which are becoming unbearable," he told reporters in Paris yesterday. "We cannot stay under this Damocles sword, which is starting to fall." He reiterated that each 10 cent rise in the euro compared to the dollar costs Airbus €1 billion ($1.59 billion) as it builds aircraft in euro costs and sells them in dollars.
US Dept. of Transportation yesterday unveiled initiatives it promised would "strengthen passenger protections, improve consumer choice and reduce congestion," including doubling the maximum compensation owed to passengers bumped from oversold flights and its intention to auction off slots at New York LaGuardia.
Airstream International Group arranged the sale and leaseback of two F70s and a related spare Rolls-Royce Tay 620-15 engine. Aircraft are operated by Malev Hungarian Airlines. Aircraft and spare engine were purchased by Gladiator Leasing.
