Ryanair's effort to simplify the check-in and boarding process, cut costs and increase ancillary revenue will include a new £2/€3 ($4.00-$4.07) fee charged to each person using an airport check-in desk beginning Sept. 20.
Austrian Airlines Group carriers flew 1.99 billion RPKs in July, down 19.2% on the year-ago month. Capacity fell 18.7% to 2.5 billion ASKs and load factor dropped 0.4 point to 79.5%. Jat Airways carried 186,480 passengers in July, up 11% from the year-ago month. Load factor soared 8.5 points to 77%.
Air India and Indian Airlines took the final regulatory step toward their merger last week as the Ministry of Corporate Affairs issued its final approval to the application, thus establishing the new National Aviation Co. of India Ltd. that will fly under the Air India name.
Alitalia flew 3.75 billion RPKs in July, the same number as the year-ago month. Capacity fell 0.1% to 4.72 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 0.1 point to 79.5%. WestJet flew 1.05 billion RPMs in July, up 17% on the year-ago month. Capacity grew 16% to 1.27 billion ASKs and load factor rose 1.1 points to 82.6%. Air New Zealand reported a 6.7% year-over-year growth in July passenger numbers and an 11.4% rise in RPKs to 1.4 billion. Load factor was up 6.2 points to 82.2% and yield increased 0.2%.
Bombardier opened a support office at Tokyo Haneda to provide technical and customer assistance to CRJ and Q-series operators in the region. It also is scheduled to open a spare parts depot for CRJ and Q-series aircraft at Narita in the fourth quarter. Separately, the manufacturer chose Australia's Hawker Pacific as a recognized service facility for Dash 8 and Q series aircraft. C checks and other heavy maintenance will be performed at HP's Cairns shop.
Dubai Aerospace Enterprises plans to purchase at least 125 aircraft for its DAE Capital leasing segment over the next five years, CEO Robert Genise told Bloomberg News, adding that the company will "probably" need $4-$4.25 billion in debt financing for the acquisitions. DAE Capital is considering a future IPO and will focus principally on sale/leaseback arrangements with airlines, he told the news service.
Swiss International Air Lines announced that it will increase its stake in Swiss Aviation Training to 100%, buying out the 50% held by GCAT Flight Academy UK. Former Swiss COO Manfred Brennwald will be CEO of SAT. No financial details were provided.
Malaysia Airlines appointed George Snyder as its senior technical consultant-safety and security. Snyder was closely associated with the operational and safety turnaround at Korean Air in the early part of the decade when he served there as senior VP-corporate safety, security and compliance. Prior to that he was US Airways' VP-safety and regulatory compliance. SAS Group named Norwegian public relations executive Claus Sonberg executive VP-corporate communications and investor relations.
Air China will invest CNY5 billion ($657.9 million) to establish the country's largest flight simulator training base. It will be located in Shunyi District in suburban Beijing. CA reached a deal with district authorities yesterday. The complex will comprise 30 full-motion flight simulators, eight fixed-base simulators, a cabin crew training center, MRO training center, ground-handling service training center and other relevant support facilities that the airline said will help reduce its long-term dependence on foreign training resources.
Singapore Technologies Aerospace said it became the first company in Southeast Asia to receive a Design Organization Approval from EASA, enabling STA to approve and perform engineering design work on EU-registered aircraft.
Singapore Airlines announced that it received court approval for a share buyback through a capital reduction that will see it cancel one share for every 15 held, paying shareholders S$18.46 ($12.07) per cancelled share. SIA said it will carry out the cancellation on Sept. 7.
Galileo parent Travelport completed its $1.4 billion acquisition of Worldspan yesterday after the deal was given regulatory clearance by the European Commission, which concluded it is "unlikely to result in unilateral price increases by the merged firm."
Colgan Air pilots voted to reject a bid to join the Air Line Pilots Assn. Colgan operates a fleet of Saab 340s and Beech 1900s under partnerships with US Airways, United Airlines and Continental Airlines.
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, whose term ends Sept. 13, yesterday was named president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Assn. effective Nov. 12. She will succeed the retiring John Douglass, who has held the positions since September 1998 and will remain at AIA through 2007. AIA is the trade association for the domestic aerospace industry.
China Airlines was ordered by the Taiwanese government to ground temporarily its 11 remaining 737-800s for safety checks following the post-landing fire and explosion that destroyed a -800 Monday morning at Naha Airport in Okinawa.
Compass Airlines, Northwest Airlines' new regional subsidiary that launched service in early May with a CRJ200, yesterday operated its first revenue flight with one of two new 76-seat E-175s from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Omaha. The pair of dual-class aircraft will be used on routes from MSP to Omaha, Dallas/Fort Worth, Missoula and Nashville. It plans to fly 10 175s by year end and 36 by the close of 2008.
Air New Zealand is set to announce a new lower-cost, higher-value domestic product next Tuesday when it announces its fiscal-year results. The indication came yesterday in a press release issued in response to Virgin Blue's announcement that it will launch New Zealand domestic services within 12 months (see story above).
Qantas said yesterday it will invest A$50 million ($40 million) to improve and expand its domestic terminal at Perth, with work set to commence by year end. It also revealed that it conducted an audit of all its aircraft maintenance workers after "discovering irregularities in documentation relating to the qualifications of one of its engineering employees." No other problems were found, QF said, adding that the worker in question resigned. Separately, Jamila Gordon, a former IBM executive, was named CIO.
Air Berlin said both the European Commission and the German Federal Cartel Office have followed the Swiss Cartel Office in clearing its acquisition of 49% of Switzerland's Belair ( ATWOnline, March 28). A subsidiary of Hotelplan Group, Belair currently operates two 757-200s and one 767-300.
Lufthansa Technik and Bulgaria's Hemus Air will open a maintenance facility in Sofia. It is expected that LHT will hold 80% of the joint venture, Hemus MD Dimitar Pawlow told the BTA national news agency. MRO work will begin on 737s on an unspecified date, with 777s and A340s to follow. LHT operates similar JVs in Budapest, Malta and the Philippines and recently linked up with Austrian Airlines to open a 777 center in Vienna ( ATWOnline, Aug. 6).
Product Support Solutions and Holly-Connects announced "successful deployment of US Airways' next-generation platform for voice self service" following a two-month development. The system will handle more than 12 million calls per year. US said it transitioned three legacy voice platforms and 11 applications to the Holly platform.
Sabre Travel Network announced that Qantas is the launch customer for Sabre Branded Fares, a tool it said will be "integrated into the standard travel agency desktop of its GDS" and "enable the airline to package and brand a variety of fares featuring different attributes." Last week, Galileo unveiled a solution for Canadian travel agents that would make Air Canada's a la carte fare products and Web-only content available on its GDS ( ATWOnline, Aug. 16).
Midwest Airlines and Midwest Connect flew a consolidated 489.3 million RPMs in July, up 25.9% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 24.9% to 578.6 million ASMs and load factor gained 0.7 point to 84.6%. The company estimated a 3.6% decline in yield to 13.63 cents and a 3.5% fall in RASM to 12.58 cents. Republic Airways flew 795.1 million RPMs in July, up 22.6% on the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 19.3% to 990.6 million ASMs, lifting load factor 2.2 points to 80.3%.
