STG Aerospace said Oasis Hong Kong Airlines ordered five shipsets of the latest ColorMatch variant of STG's floorpath marking system for its 747-400 fleet.
AeroMexico's board said all its members consider last month's $100 million offer from the Saba family to be "reasonable." The carrier is controlled by state holding company Consorcio Aeromexico, which has been trying to sell it to private investors since 2005 ( ATWOnline, Aug. 23). Archrival Mexicana was sold to an investment group led by Grupo Posadas in late 2005 for $165.5 million plus assumption of liabilities that brought the total value of the deal to $1.46 billion.
Lufthansa was hit again by a strike by its Lufthansa CityLine pilots, resulting in heavy delays Friday morning. Twenty-two flights were cancelled, more than 60 were delayed and 3,500 passengers were affected before operations were restored in late morning. Unlike the strikes earlier in the week that were orchestrated by the ver.di trade union, the Aug. 31 action was led by Vereinigung Cockpit, which has considerably more pilot members than ver.di. The pilots say they are striking for better working conditions at CityLine.
Air Berlin reported that a general agreement on employment conditions was accepted for the 133 pilots of its dba subsidiary by the Vereinigung Cockpit pilot union. Members of VC will vote on the accord by mid-September.
SAS appointed Bjorn Alegren president of its SAS Ground Services subsidiary and Patrik Knutsson VP-corporate purchasing and chief purchasing officer. Alegren has held a number of senior positions at SAS including since 2005 the purchasing role taken on by Knutsson, who joins SAS from IBX. Alegren succeeds Hans-Otto Halvorsen, who is leaving the company "following a decision made mutually with Group management."
Boeing said Honeywell Aerospace joined its Integrated Materials Management initiative under which Boeing and suppliers maintain an airline's inventory of spare parts. Lufthansa Technik signed a Total Component Maintenance agreement with Mexicana covering more than 250 part numbers for its 47 A320 family aircraft.
WHILE THE TREND toward increased outsourcing of maintenance, repair and overhaul activities is undeniable and proving to be an effective strategy for many airlines, there is a significant challenge to the growth of the trend, according to experts who spoke to Airline Procurement. That challenge relates to the inherent confusion and disjointed systems that exist in most MRO organizations.
The company cited "commercial reasons" for the decision. FACE was intended to support the core processes of passenger airlines, such as schedule distribution, reservations, inventory, ticketing and departure control. The next-generation system was touted as more flexible and more cost-efficient than traditional reservations systems. Lufthansa Systems did not elaborate on the commercial reasons for its decision, but the move came on the heels of Cathay Pacific Airways' announcement that it planned to migrate to the Amadeus Altéa passenger services platform.
OVER THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS, airline passengers have become empowered by technology. Booking a flight and checking in at the airport now can be "self-service" activities in which interaction with airline employees is minimal or nonexistent. This is largely welcomed by carriers because it allows for lower staffing levels and, regarding check-in, can streamline foot traffic in terminals.
NEXT TIME YOU'RE ON AN AIR NEW Zealand flight and the inflight service is a bit slow, it may be because the carrier's executives are engaged with passengers about everything from football to politicswhile serving them. The born-again airline, winner of ATW's 2005 Phoenix Award, is rewriting the management relations book, with executives rolling up sleeves and working side-by-side with staff on a regular basis.
Some of the world's leading airlines got their starts through the heroic competitive struggles of aviator entrepreneurs who began with a couple of little planes and built empires gradually over decades. The origins of Air Canada, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year and its first passenger flight this month, aren't quite so romantic: It was created by an Act of Parliament and started from scratch by government bureaucrats. But as its long and successful history has shown, the bureaucrats got it right.
Sabre and Amadeus revealed details of their new joint venture that aims to provide an industry solution for secure, automated payment processing, clearing and reconciliation of non-air travel components. The joint venture received antitrust approval from the European Commission on Sept. 12. Called Moneydirect, the solution is based on an Amadeus product launched in Australia and New Zealand in 1998. It will focus on hotels, cruise lines, tour operators, car rental companies, ferries, railways, and travel intermediaries such as travel agencies and wholesalers.
The second quarter was the first reporting period since the 2002 third quarter that ended with no US legacy carriers operating under Chapter 11 protection, a notable signifier that the world's largest air transport market has finally completed its long and painful slog through restructuring. With the
WHEN US AIRWAYS CAPT. LEWIS Tetlow was forced to retire as a commercial airline pilot upon turning 60 last April under longstanding US FAA regulations, he gathered his rod and tackle and went fishing for two days. That was the extent of his life of leisure. Since then, he has spent a large portion of his time on Capitol Hill lobbying Congress to raise the mandatory retirement age for US airline pilots.
Alitalia's board met yesterday to "consider the need to raise new financial resources by means of a substantial, as yet undefined, increase in capital to be carried out during the coming months in connection with the project for ceding control of the company." The airline also revealed that the new business plan the board expected to review "will foresee redundancies," although it said that number also was undefined.
US FAA shortened the time airlines have to carry out detailed inspections of 737NG main slat track downstop assemblies from 24 days to 10 days, citing "additional reports" of parts coming off assemblies. The agency issued an emergency AD last weekend requiring "repetitive detailed inspections" of the downstop assembly on 737NGs in the wake of last week's fire and explosion on a China Airlines 737-800 in Okinawa ( ATWOnline, Aug. 28).
Delta Air Lines COO Jim Whitehurst announced his resignation late Tuesday, having been passed over for the CEO position awarded to Richard Anderson and the role of president that was given to CFO Edward Bastian ( ATWOnline, Aug. 22).
Tiger Airways chose the V2500 for its recently ordered A320s. The order for engines for the 50 A320s plus V2500Select aftermarket agreements is worth S$1.3 billion. Tiger ordered 30 A320s and took options on 20 at the Paris Air Show in June. The aircraft will underpin its aggressive expansion into the Australian domestic market from November and the Singapore-India market from October.
Aviation Capital Group completed a private debt offering of $270 million of senior unsecured notes to institutional investors. Merrill Lynch & Co. and Calyon Securities were the joint lead placement agents and HSH N Financial Securities LLC was the co-agent for the offering. Proceeds will be used to refinance existing secured debt and pre-fund future aircraft purchases.
Lufthansa Technik Vostok is the name of a new component services support base being established at Moscow Domodedovo. LHT said it expects to have the customer service base and a stores facility for expendable materials in place by year end, with a component pool for Western aircraft types available by the end of 2008.
