IATA said September traffic "remains strong despite the financial instability seen in recent months" as member carriers reported 8.2% year-over-year growth in RPKs during the month. Capacity rose 7.5% and load factor improved to 77.4%. However, DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani warned, "It is still early days. Corporations, particularly the financial service sector, adjusting travel budgets could impact premium traffic. And fuel prices rising to new record levels will add more pressure on efficiency.
IER said EDS Switzerland selected IER's new Self-Service Check-In Application for its Zurich operations. EDS now will be able to offer a complete check-in solution consisting of the EDS Departure Control System and the IER Common Use Self-Service Application and IER check-in kiosks.
Alitalia Group's net debt as of Sept. 30 was €1.71 billion, an increase of 6% from the prior month. The company repaid €13 million worth of medium/long-term financing in September.
NASA head Michael Griffin told the US House Science and Technology Committee this week that the agency will reveal certain results from an $11.3 million survey of approximately 24,000 commercial pilots that reportedly revealed that near midair collisions and runway incursions occur far more often than FAA data indicate ( ATWOnline, Oct. 23).
Lufthansa Passenger Airlines, LH Cargo and Germanwings need about 420 additional pilots next year to meet growing demand, including 315 pilots for the passenger segment alone, and the company is formulating a new training concept to help fill the ranks.
SpiceJet reported a INR377.7 million ($9.6 million) loss in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept 30, widened from a INR319.1 million pro forma deficit in the year-ago period. The carrier changed its financial year to April-March from June-May, meaning it did not report official results for the July-September 2006 period. Second-quarter revenue rose 64.6% to INR2.7 billion and pre-tax loss widened to INR374.7 million from INR310.8 million. Six-month loss of INR192.3 million was an improvement from a INR355.9 million loss in the semester ended Sept. 30, 2006.
THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY DUBAI Airshow (Nov. 11-15) occurs against a backdrop of a remarkable period of growth for airlines and airports in the region (see article, p. 26) that only has accelerated since the 2005 event was held.
Orbitz Worldwide launched Orbitz for Business International, described as a customized solution for U.S. companies with international travel requirements. Orbitz Worldwide also is rebranding its Corporate Travel Solutions Group, which comprises Orbitz for Business and Travelport for Business, under a single Orbitz for Business brand identity. Orbitz for Business International will offer global fulfillment and call center support and multi-language and time/date formats. It plans to offer in-market support in Canada, the U.K., and Australia. Other features include:
PERHAPS IT IS IRISH CEO ALAN Joyce's infectious enthusiasm, or maybe it is parent company Qantas's determination to succeed. Or it might be the Australian passion for travel regardless of adversity, or simply a robust domestic economy. Whatever the explanation, Jetstar is soaring, posting a pre-tax profit of A$87.4 million ($74.2 million) for the year ended June 30, an increase of A$75.1 million on the previous year. The result was net of A$28 million in startup costs for Jetstar International.
THE FORCES THAT ARE HELPING to reshape commercial aerospace continued to influence trends in the maintenance, repair and overhaul segment over the past year as MRO providers benefited from a rising tide of airline earnings that is lifting all boats.
EasyJet will participate in Amadeus and Galileo, becoming the first major European low-fare carrier to sign deals with GDS companies. The carrier said the move is designed to tap into the $90 billion corporate travel market in Europe. EasyJet said it will add a point-of-sale fee to fares booked through the GDSs, ensuring that its Web site "remains our primary distribution channel and fares will always be cheapest when booking direct online."
QANTAS HAS A GLOBAL REPUTATION for its extraordinary safety record for jet aircraft operations and as a leader in the development of ETOPS, FANS and more recently Flex Tracks (ATW, 4/06, p. 3). So it comes as no surprise to find that the down under airline is the first to introduce the GNSS Global Landing System to commercial service, resulting in impressive improvements in landing precision as well as significant fuel savings and noise reduction.
THE NEW YORK CITY METROPOLITAN REGION IS ONE OF THE busiest and most congested aviation markets in the world. Last year, the three primary commercial airports that serve New YorkJFK, LaGuardia and Newarkhandled 107 million passengers, according to Airports Council International, which ranked them 15th, 41st and 19th respectively. "In our opinion, it's the capital of the world," says Marc Lavorgna, a spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages the three airports. "Everybody comes to New York at some point."
ONCE LITTLE MORE THAN A ground handling company at the country's gateway airport, Oman Air's fortunes are changing dramatically as, for the first time in its history, the feisty domestic and regional airline assumes national carrier status. With that new status comes access to international routes that were beyond its reach as long as Gulf Air was officially the national airline for Oman. Earlier this year, however, the Omani government decided to withdraw from the troubled multistate entity to concentrate its energies and finances on building up the local airline.
FOR SNECMA/NPO SATURN JOINT venture PowerJet, developing and producing the SaM146 engine for S-ukhoi Civil Aircraft's Superjet 100 is the easy part. With the regional jet's first flight imminent and first delivery to Aeroflot slated for next November, PowerJet officials are beginning to move on to the hard part: Convincing Western aircraft manufacturers and regional airline operators that a propulsion system built in remote Poluevo, Russia, can be superior to more traditional powerplants produced by manufacturers with final assembly lines in more recognizable places.
Tiger Airways is upping the ante down under ahead of the late-November launch of flights from its new Australian base in Melbourne, placing 40,000 tickets on sale from A$9.95 ($9.13) inclusive of taxes and charges and announcing Newcastle, Canberra and Hobart as new destinations. Separately, Tiger launched Singapore-Chennai service over the weekend and today will begin flying to Xiamen, its fifth Chinese destination.
Benefiting from yuan appreciation and fast-growing demand in the domestic market, Chinese carriers reported a collective profit in the third quarter. Hainan Airlines posted net income of CNY228.9 million ($30.6 million) in the period, up 19.1% over CNY191.5 million earned in the year-ago quarter. Operating revenue increased 5.5% to CNY2.26 billion against a 0.6% drop in operating expenses to CNY1.72 billion. Net profit for the first nine months of 2007 was CNY418.62 million.
New Congolese airline established by SN Brussels Airlines and Hewa Bora Airways will carry the name airDC, SN Brussels announced yesterday ( ATWOnline, Sept. 12). AirDC's commercial passenger flights are expected to start in early 2008. It will operate 737s and BAe 146s from its home base at Kinshasa N'Djili on a domestic and continental network. SN African Projects Manager Johan Maertens was appointed CEO. The name airDC is a reference to RDC, the French acronym for Democratic Republic of Congo.
Russian authorities suspended Lufthansa Cargo's right to fly over Russia. An LHC spokesperson told ATWOnline that "since Oct. 28 midnight, we have no traffic rights any more to fly via Russian territory." The change affects 49 weekly flights between Frankfurt and Astana, where LHC has established a hub for its network to the Far East. "We have installed an emergency schedule. Each flight to or from Astana has to be diverted around Russia. That takes an additional 90 minutes flying time, up to three hours for a roundtrip,'" the spokesperson said.
Arab Air Carriers Organization criticized unilaterally imposed security measures that "sometimes negate the concept of facilitation" and emphasized the need to coordinate aviation security on a global level and apply internationally accepted standards and procedures. "Security has turned into a heavy burden on air passengers," AACO Secretary General Abdul Wahab Teffaha noted during the association's AGM in Damascus last week.
Malev Hungarian Airlines will suspend its two North Atlantic routes starting in mid-November and lasting through the winter season. Budapest-New York JFK and Budapest-Toronto services should resume in the spring. Malev said that as part of its structural transformation and cost-efficiency program, it will lease out two 767-200ERs while a single 767-300ER will continue flying to Bangkok. That thrice-weekly service will become four-times-weekly from Jan. 8.
Royal Jordanian signed a lease agreement, initially for six months, with Jordan's Transworld for a 737 freighter. RJ will begin flying the aircraft to Baghdad and Damascus. It already operates A310-300 freighters.
South African Airways named former Telkom CFO Kaushik Patel to the same position at the airline. He replaces Acting CFO Clive Else, who will become CEO of SAA Technical effective Dec. 1. Jan Blake will leave the latter position to become GM-mergers, acquisitions and disposals. Fortune Ntlhoro was named chief procurement officer. Boeing Commercial Airplanes named VP-Sales & Marketing Operations Martin Bentrott as VP-Middle East and Africa sales.
