Air France unveiled the new cabin on its narrobody fleet featuring "a host of aesthetic and practical new features." It will take delivery of seven A320 family aircraft featuring the new cabin through April. The first, an A321, went into service last Friday. The revamp includes larger overhead baggage bins, new ceilings/lighting, trim that appears to widen the windows and renovated passenger controls. New decor rounds out the changes.
Hahn Air signed interline e-ticketing agreements with Georgian Airways, Carpatair, Meridiana, Vladivostok Air, KrasAir, Domodedovo Airlines and Samara Airlines, bringing to 73 the number of carriers with which it interlines.
Emirates SkyCargo and Dubai Customs signed an MOU to explore greater use of electronic correspondence in transactions between the airline and the agency and also in dealings with other supply chain partners. In addition, the initiative will allow importers and exporters to perform 51 customs transactions electronically without having to visit customs centers physically.
Japan Airlines said 320 flight attendants applied for its early retirement plan out of 900 who were eligible. Early retirement also has been offered to certain senior management and ground staff. JAL said 1,200 have taken advantage of the offers across the company in the past year. It intends to reduce personnel costs by ¥50 billion ($468.3 million) each fiscal year through FY2009-10 with a variety of initiatives ( ATWOnline, Oct. 15, 2007).
China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council has emerged as the controlling shareholder of the country's new large commercial aircraft manufacturing concern, according to Shanghai Securities News. Other stakeholders include AVIC I and AVIC II--which will hold the second-largest stake jointly--local government, Baosteel Group and Aluminum Corp. of China.
Lufthansa flew 8.73 billion RPKs in December, up 5.5% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 4.3% to 11.9 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 0.8 point to 73.4%.
Continental Airlines pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn. took a harder stance against consolidation than some of their US counterparts Friday, issuing a statement saying, "We agree with management that we are content as a profitable, standalone entity." The union launched a response team center in reaction to recent speculation and said, "the pilots of Continental must be key in the decision to welcome or reject any merger candidate."
The Washington state senate is considering passenger rights legislation along the lines of the New York state law that took effect earlier this month, and the Air Transport Assn. estimates that as many as 12 state legislatures may attempt to pass similar bills this year. ATA has appealed a federal judge's decision to uphold the New York law, arguing that states do not have the jurisdication to regulate airlines ( ATWOnline, Dec. 24, 2007).
Northwest Airlines flight attendants represented by the Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA released a set of conditions under which they would support a merger, including a labor agreement "that provides substantial improvements in compensation and work rules to the current flight attendant agreement" and continuation of a "strong hub presence" at Minneapolis-St. Paul. The union claimed that NWA executives confirmed details of their severance packages in the event of a merger prior to the airline's exit from bankruptcy, citing a 2007 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
US Airways named VP-Financial Analysis Dion Flannery as president of US Airways Express. He succeeds the retiring Robert Martens. Finnair named Alliance Director Kati Ihamaki as VP-sustainable development.
Coast Air, a Norwegian regional carrier that operated eight domestic routes as well as international service to Copenhagen and Gdansk, shut down last week, according to press reports.
American Airlines introduced a mobile version of its website that will allow users to check in and confirm their itinerary and schedule/status in addition to other features. Booking, reservation changes and loyalty program features will be available this spring.
Air New Zealand slashed its standard domestic fares 9%-27% to stimulate travel and tourism. The changes, effective from Feb. 23, are for lead-in "smart saver" fares on 40 domestic routes. These will be introduced alongside reductions of 20%-30% in top-end fares on a number of regional routes popular with business customers and cuts of 15% in top-end fares on main trunk routes. The restructuring comes after a two-year, NZ$350 million ($268.6 million) buildup of the regional fleet that has seen average seat capacity increase 46%.
Chinese carriers are expecting airport charges to rise for international operations following Friday's CAAC announcement that it will adopt a new policy on March 1. The regulator intends to eliminate the discrepancy between the charges paid by domestic airlines and their foreign counterparts. Under the new policy, Chinese carriers will see an increase in the fees they pay to operate internationally while foreign airlines are expecting a reduction in their charges. Currently they are forced to pay 2-3 times more at Chinese airports.
Estonian Air said it reached a labor agreement with the Estonian Transport and Road Workers Union that will include a 12.1% salary increase this year. ETTA called off a "warning strike" scheduled for today.
India and Saudi Arabia signed an air services agreement that will more than double the number of available seats per week between the countries to 20,000 from 8,500. Saudi carriers now can fly to Bangalore, Lucknow and Calicut in addition to the five Indian cities already permitted. Indian airlines will have access to Madina, their fourth destination in Saudi Arabia. Cargo flights will have no restrictions.
Air India, Jupiter Aviation and Airbus signed an MOU last week to establish a three-way JV MRO facility in India to perform work on all types of Airbus aircraft operated by AI and other Indian airlines. Air India told The Economic Times that it will develop a business plan for the MRO over the next two months to be submitted to its board for approval. The deal was reached during French President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to India last week.
Japan Airlines will link its loyalty program to those of China Eastern Airlines and Mexicana from Feb. 1. JAL has similar agreements with Air France, Emirates and its oneworld partners.
Aviation Capital Group said it concluded 48 aircraft lease and acquisition transactions in 2007. It also placed orders for 45 A320 family aircraft, 30 737s and five 787s worth more than $5 billion at list prices and arranged 19 aircraft sale/placement transactions.
Japan Airlines will offer first class on two of its 18 daily Tokyo Haneda-Fukuoka flights from April 1. JAL said it will be the first time that first class will be available on a domestic flight.
CSA Czech Airlines approved the sale of its Air Czech Catering subsidiary to Alpha Overseas Holdings. Final settlement of the transaction is expected in late March/early April. Separately, CSA will expand its codeshare with Korean Air to cover flights from Prague to Bratislava, Zilina, Ostrava and Budapest and negotiations are ongoing concerning KE flights to Japan. KE currently puts its code on CSA flights to 13 destinations in Western Europe.
Austrian Airlines will increase daily Vienna-Dubai service to 13-times-weekly beginning Nov. 13. Currently operated with a 737, the route eventually will be operated by A320s with 24 Business Sleeper seats. AAG flew 1.27 billion RPKs in December, down 22.7% from the year-ago month. Capacity dropped 20.6% to 1.84 billion ASKs and load factor was down 1.9 points to 69.4%.
