Jordanian government yesterday announced the "successful completion" of an IPO of 71% of flag carrier Royal Jordanian at JOD3.08 ($4.32) per offer share ( ATWOnline, Dec. 5). With 59.9 million shares being sold, the market capitalization of the carrier is JOD260 million. Total proceeds came to JOD164.5 million. The shares are expected to begin trading on Dec. 17.
China Southern Airlines announced the launch of a new telephone payment system that will allow customers to book their e-tickets with a CZ representative rather than directly entering their credit card information. CZ flew 6.79 billion RPKs in November, up 18.6% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 10.5% to 8.89 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 5.2 points to 76.4%.
JetBlue Airways Flight 641 left New York JFK yesterday morning for San Francisco featuring the airline's new free Wi-Fi service onboard. Dubbed BetaBlue, the service allows passengers to access Yahoo! Mail (sans attachments) and Messenger from their laptops and personal e-mail and text messages from two models of BlackBerry PDAs ( ATWOnline, Dec. 10). The aircraft returned to JFK last night and will continue to fly mostly on JetBlue's transcontinental network.
Amadeus reached agreement with Avianca to provide a new-generation IT platform that integrates its Altea Customer Management Solution and e-commerce technology. The software is expected to streamline reservations, departures, inventory management and other logistics.
Gate Gourmet's investment yesterday in Sydney-based consulting firm Performa and its subsidiary Elan, which specializes in training services and crew-leasing, is expected to expand GG's hospitality capabilities across the airline and hotel industries. Contract terms were not disclosed.
Lufthansa will launch five-times-weekly Frankfurt-Nanjing service March 31 and thrice-weekly Munich-Shenyang service via Seoul June 8, bringing the number of Chinese destinations served to five. Routes will be operated with 221-seat A340-300s. LH flew 9.38 billion RPKs in November, up 6.7% on the year-ago month. Capacity rose 5% to 12.37 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 1.2 points to 75.8%.
Copa Airlines flew 419.9 million RPMs in November, up 14.4% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 16.1% to 535.7 million ASMs and load factor fell 1.1 points to 78.4%.
Frontier Airlines said it expects a pre-tax loss of $0.58-$0.68 per share excluding special items in the third fiscal quarter ending Dec. 31. It did not offer a comparison to the year-ago quarter, when it reported a net loss of $14.4 million. It also said it planned to reduce year-over-year mainline capacity growth for the fiscal fourth quarter to 8.6% from the originally scheduled 13.7%. Frontier flew 788.8 million RPMs in November, up 22.5% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 14.1% to 1.01 billion ASMs and load factor rose 5.3 points to 78.1%.
Sukhoi Civil Aircraft signed an agreement with Malev Hungarian Airlines to build a Superjet 100 service and repair center in Hungary. No further details were provided. Last week, Malev indicated it would consider ordering up to 15 of the new Russian-built 95-seaters ( ATWOnline, Dec.10). Thus far, Sukhoi has 70 firm orders for the Superjet, with first delivery scheduled for early 2008.
Air France KLM flew 16.09 billion RPKs in November, up 3.5% on the year-ago month, against a 3.7% climb in capacity to 20.53 billion ASKs. Load factor fell 0.1 point to 78.4%. TAM flew 1.9 billion domestic RPKs in November, up 15.5% on the year-ago month, against a 9% rise in capacity to 2.63 billion ASKs that lifted load factor 4.1 points to 72.1%. International RPKs climbed 58.4% to 960 million while capacity grew 65% to 1.41 billion ASKs. Load factor fell 2.9 points to 68%.
United Airlines parent UAL Corp. approved a special distribution of $2.15 per share to holders of its common stock, or approximately $250 million, scheduled for Jan. 23. It also said it has paid down $500 million of the term loan under its existing credit agreement ( ATWOnline, Nov. 28).
Sinotrans Air Transportation Development Co. and Korean Air will expand on their cargo agreement with construction of a new freight station in Tianjin. The joint venture will launch with $14.9 million in capital, of which Sinotrans Air contributed $3 million for a 20% stake while Korean invested $7 million for a controlling 47% stake. Other investors are Air Korea, Hanjin Group and Dongliqu Economic Investment Co. The station will be developed in two phases.
Cypress Airways' ground staff plans to strike Dec. 12 and Dec. 17-18 to protest the carrier's plan to outsource ground handling at Larnaca and Paphos to the Swissport & GAP Vassilopoulos joint venture. The strike potentially will affect 107 flights, the airline and two of its unions said Friday. "If need be, our aircraft will fly empty to specific destinations to ferry inbound passengers," CY said in a statement, insisting it will continue operating through the job action.
EasyJet announced six new routes: From Bristol to Biarritz (four-times-weekly from April 23), Olbia (thrice-weekly from April 26) and Split (twice-weekly from April 26); daily London Luton-Pisa from March 30; thrice-weekly Edinburgh-Nice from April 24, and thrice-weekly Glasgow International-Faro from April 22. The LCC transported 2.9 million passengers last month, up 13.2% from the year-ago month. Load factor rose 0.3 point to 80.8%.
Green Skies Inc., a consulting firm specializing in aviation-related environmental initiatives, was launched Friday in Washington. "North America is behind and the industry can seize the moment and take a unified approach, or wait for others to enact rules that penalize or enact new tax burdens on our business," CEO Michael Miller said.
Austrian Airlines Group will announce today that former Lufthansa Marketing Director Andreas Bierwirth will become CCO and AAG General Secretary Peter Malanik will be promoted to COO. Jeffrey Shane confirmed last week that he will resign as US Dept. of Transportation undersecretary for policy effective Jan. 31. He did not announce his future plans.
Midwest Air Group said it has complied with requests for additional information from the US Dept. of Justice pertaining to its acquisition by TPG Capital and Northwest Airlines ( ATWOnline, Oct. 31). It added that the parties have agreed not to complete the sale before Jan. 31 without DOJ approval. It said closing will "occur as soon as practicable."
Ryanair called on the European Commission to block Air France KLM from buying Alitalia "until both airlines have paid back a combined €2.7 billion ($3.9 billion) in illegal state aid received from the French and Italian governments" ( ATWOnline, Dec. 7).
American Eagle pilots said AMR Corp.'s decision to sell off the regional subsidiary ( ATWOnline, Nov. 29) would lower their wages and bring inexperienced pilots into their ranks. In a statement released last week, Eagle pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn.
SAS Group airlines flew 3.16 billion RPKs in November, up 3.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 4.5% to 4.83 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 0.9 point to 65.4%. SAS Scandinavian Airlines flew 2.17 billion RPKs, up 0.4%, against a 2.8% increase in ASKs to 3.15 billion that lowered load factor 1.7 points to 68.8%. Aer Lingus flew 1.21 billion RPKs in November, up 17.4% over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 23.3% to 1.65 billion ASKs and load factor fell 3.7 points to 73.4%.
Nationwide Airlines, grounded by the South African Civil Aviation Authority ( ATWOnline, Dec. 4) at the end of November, resumed its Johannesburg-London Gatwick service Friday and planned to restart Johannesburg-Cape Town flights yesterday, both aboard its 767 aircraft that it said received "a clean bill of health" from CAA. Its 737-200s, 737-500s and 727s will be released into service "in accordance with SACAA approval" and flights "will gradually return to normal," Nationwide said on its website.
