Airbus reached a historic milestone Friday, delivering its 5000th aircraft (an A330-200 to Qantas) at a special, although low-key, ceremony in Toulouse. Its first aircraft, an A300B2, was delivered to Air France in May 1974 and nine years passed before it delivered its 1,000th. With growing acceptance of its expanding product line, the 2000th was delivered in 1999, the 3000th in 2002 and the 4000th in 2005. Since 2001, Airbus has secured at least 50% of the market for airliners over 100 seats.
New York Aviation Rulemaking Committee released its report last week outlining possible solutions to airspace congestion in the US Northeast and the US Dept. of Transportation is expected to follow up this week with a formal proposal for reducing delays at New York JFK, LaGuardia and Newark.
Qantas yesterday said it now expects its pre-tax profit for the fiscal year ending next June 30 will increase approximately 40% year-over-year, rather than the 30% forecast last August. It posted a A$1.03 billion ($907.8 million) pre-tax profit in the 12 months ended June 30, 2007. "Since then, Qantas's operating businesses have continued to perform strongly, with the results for the first five months of 2007-08 above forecast and the forward booking profile also remaining robust," CEO Geoff Dixon said.
Babcock & Brown announced the acquisition of seven aircraft currently on lease with four carriers. The planes, worth a combined $250 million, will increase the lessor's portfolio to 54 aircraft, it said. The purchase comprises four A319-100s on lease to US Airways, one A320-200 on lease to Clickair, one 737-900ER on lease to SpiceJet and one 747-400 on lease to United Airlines. B&B CEO Colm Barrington said, "Market conditions remain robust, with strong demand from airlines for new aircraft and insufficient capacity from manufacturers to meet this demand."
US airline pilots pushing age 60 may be in store for an unexpected Christmas present this year if President Bush signs a bill passed unanimously by Congress that would allow them to fly until age 65. Sources in both the Senate and House told ATWOnline they expect the President to sign before the holiday. Late Wednesday night the Senate unanimously passed the Fair Treatment for Experienced Pilots Act ( ATWOnline, Dec.
Airbus announced creation of the Airbus Maintenance Training Network designed to extend its MRO Network and simplify access to its training courses. Contracts with major training providers include Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co. Ltd., Iberia Maintenance & Engineering, SIA Engineering Co., Sogerma Training and SR Technics, according to the aircraft manufacturer. Computer assisted training, Virtual Aircraft and the Airbus active learning and competence focused training concept are some of the learning tools available.
SR Technics reached a seven-year Integrated Engine Solutions deal with Air India covering its A330-200s and a three-year IES agreement with Vietnam Airlines covering three A330s. Contracts include MRO services on PW4168s to be conducted at SRT's shop in Zurich.
CIT Aerospace ordered five 737NGs just two days after announcing a deal to purchase 15 737-800s from Ryanair ( ATWOnline, Dec. 11). Aircraft are worth around $311 million at list prices and will be delivered in 2011 along with the last of the 10 737 NGs previously ordered by CIT.
Northwest Airlines and the Air Line Pilots Assn. yesterday jointly asked a federal court to approve a restructured pension plan for the carrier's 4,500 pilots. The airline froze but did not terminate its pilots' pension plan during its bankruptcy restructuring and claims that more than $2 billion in pension payments still can be made under the new "equitable" plan. Separately, the carrier yesterday launched its "EarthCares" program by making a $1 million gift on behalf of its employees and customers to The Nature Conservancy in equal payments over the next three years.
Hamilton Sundstrand was selected by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to provide the electrical system, fire detection and suppression system, air management system, APU and flap/slat actuation system on the new Mitsubishi Regional Jet. MHI already has selected the Geared Turbofan produced by HS's United Technologies partner Pratt & Whitney ( ATWOnline, Nov. 14).
SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines flew 1.44 billion RPMs in November, up 10.7% from the year-ago month. Capacity increased 12.3% to 1.9 billion ASMs and load factor dropped 1.1 points to 75.6%. Midwest Air Group flew 380.7 million RPMs in November, up 14.2% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 21.1% to 545.7 million ASMs and load factor fell 4.2 points to 69.8%. Yield rose an estimated 4% to 15.51 cents and passenger unit revenue fell an estimated 2% to 10.82 cents.
East Line Technique, an independent technical service center in Russia, opened a wheel and brake service shop at Moscow Domodedovo. The 290-sq.-m. facility is certified by European authorities to service 747s and 757s, and certification for 737s, 767s, A310s and A320 family aircraft is planned for early 2008, the company said. Also participating are Aircraft Wheels and Brakes, Goodrich Corp. (UK), SAS and APPH Basingstoke MRO (UK), according to East Line.
US Congress moved closer to raising the commercial pilot retirement age from 60 to 65, with the House voting unanimously late Tuesday to support the Fair Treatment for Experienced Pilots Act (HR 4343). Senate sources told ATWOnline they were hopeful the legislation will be considered in the upper house this week. FAA already has proposed raising the age limit, but legislators claim the agency will take too long to introduce a new rule.
IATA lowered its forecast for 2008 worldwide industry earnings by 35.9% to $5 billion from $7.8 billion previously, citing rising fuel prices and the "broadening impact of the credit crunch."
UK House of Lords Science and Technology Committee issued a report calling on the government to tax "premium economy" seats on long-haul flights at the same £40 ($82) rate as economy seats rather than, as is current practice, at the £80 rate it charges for first class seats. The committee argued that "premium economy was intended to represent a small extra charge to guarantee extra legroom for those who required it. .
Goodrich reached a seven-year, multimillion-dollar deal with Emirates to provide component support related to the repair of all Goodrich Actuation Systems products fitted in the airline's A330s and A340s.
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%.
