Lufthansa Technik signed a 12-year Total Component Support contract with LAN Airlines covering up to 129 A320s and up to eight A340s. The agreement expands a TCS agreement already in place and has an added value of more than $200 million, according to LHT.
TAM told a Brazilian congressional panel holding hearings on last month's A320 crash that it no longer allows aircraft to land at Sao Paulo Congonhas or Rio de Janeiro Santos Dumont without both thrust reversers activated, a change in policy put in place after the accident.
China Southern Airlines reached a deal with majority investor China Southern Air Holding Co., a state enterprise owning 50.3% of the carrier, to purchase the entire equity interest in China Southern Airlines Group Air Catering Co., the assets of Guangzhou BiHuaYuan Training Centre and the assets of Hong Kong-based Nan Lung Travel & Express (including its 51% stake in Nan Lung International Freight) for a combined CNY269.5 million ($35.5 million). In turn, CSAHC will purchase CZ's 90% stake in the Guangzhou Aviation Hotel for CNY74.7 million.
China Southern Airlines flew 7.7 billion RPKs in July, up 14.7% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 13% to 10.05 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 1.1 points to 76.6%.
Midwest Air Group board said it will meet today to "consider alternatives" following the announcement of competing bids for the carrier from AirTran Holdings and TPG Capital/Northwest Airlines ( ATWOnline, Aug. 15).
Etihad Airways said its first A320 will commence operations Sept. 1, with two more set to arrive in September and October. A further three of the dual-class, 140-seat aircraft are expected in the 2008 first quarter ( ATWOnline, June 7). First A320 route will be Abu Dhabi-Tehran. Future cities include Beirut, Dammam, Karachi, Muscat, Bahrain, Cairo, Doha, Kuwait, Amman and Damascus.
Shenzhen Airlines plans to raise as much as $1 billion in an initial share sale to fund fleet expansion next year, according to a report in the South China Morning Post. As a privately run airline, Shenzhen has found it increasingly difficult to reach loan deals with banks owing to its high asset liability rate, even though it has posted net profits for 10 consecutive years. The carrier remains committed to its "369" strategy of expanding its fleet to 70 aircraft in three years, 100 in six and 160 in nine.
Lufthansa and Air Astana signed a cooperation agreement in the Kazakh capital yesterday that will include codesharing and schedule coordination beginning next year and a linking of the carriers' loyalty programs that may begin as early as October. The deal is similar to the one LH signed with Russia's AiRUnion last month ( ATWOnline, July 12). LH operates a daily Frankfurt-Almaty service with twice-weekly ongoing service to Astana.
Qantas reportedly will spin off its loyalty program in the mold of Air Canada's Aeroplan, which will become part owner of the Australian carrier's Frequent Flyer program, according to newspaper reports in both countries. Neither Qantas nor Aeroplan is commenting, but major media outlets in both countries reported that QF, while keeping a controlling stake in Frequent Flyer, will list it publicly on the Australian Securities Exchange in less than a year and is negotiating with Aeroplan to take a stake. The program is estimated to be worth A$3 billion ($2.5 billion).
American Airlines flew 12.92 billion system RPMs in July, down 2.9% from the year-ago month, as domestic traffic fell 2.3% and international dropped 4%. Capacity declined 3.7% to 14.7 billion ASMs on a 3.5% domestic drop and a 4.1% international decrease. System load factor was up 0.8 point to 87.9%. Domestic rose 1.1 point to 89.4% and international was up 0.2 point to 85.2%. United Airlines flew 10.92 billion RPMs in July, a 1.4% decrease from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 1% to 12.5 billion ASMs and load factor was down 0.4 point to 87.3%.
Honeywell Aerospace and Sensis Corp. are carrying out a technology demonstration that combines Sensis's Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X ground-based system with Honeywell's Mode S and TCAS avionics. The result is that ASDE-X aural conflict alerts provided to air traffic controllers also are transmitted at "virtually the same instant" to the cockpit(s) of affected aircraft, according to officials.
Sabre Airline Solutions will provide four solutions to Aloha Airlines: Sabre Flight Control Suite, Sabre Streamline StaffPlan system, Quasar passenger revenue accounting system and Sabre Qik Business Processing Solutions.
CAE signed an agreement to acquire Flightscape for approximately C$18 million ($17.1 million). Flightscape is an Ottawa-based safety company providing expertise in flight data analysis and flight sciences, CAE said.
News from Travel Technology Update: Amadeus and Sabre plan to create a joint venture that would provide secure, automated payment processing, clearing and reconciliation solutions for non-air travel sales. The two companies filed with the European Commission for antitrust approval to create the new entity. European Union law requires such a filing. Regulatory approval in the U.S. is not required.
Rwanda government selected Brussels Airlines and Meridiana Africa Airlines for the privatization of Rwandair Express, l'Echo reported, citing Rwandair President Manzi Kayihura as saying that the company with the best strategy would win the tender rather than the one with the highest bid. Rwandair is seeking to place 40% of its capital with an industrial investor and 40% with private investors, leaving the state with 20%. The airline currently operates one 37-seat Dash 8 and one 142-seat MD-82.
Amadeus announced a 10-year deal with Cathay Pacific Airways under which CX and Dragonair will adopt the complete Altea Customer Management Solution to manage reservations, inventory and departure control.
Lufthansa flew 11.03 billion RPKs in July, up 5.7% on the year-ago month, against a 3.6% increase in ASKs to 13.71 billion. Load factor was up 1.6 points to 80.4%. Iberia flew 4.97 billion RPKs in July, a 7.1% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 3.1% to 5.76 billion ASKs and load factor rose 3.2 points to 86.3%. Copa Airlines flew 466.8 million RPMs in July, a 25.2% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 22.2% to 548.9 million ASMs, lifting load factor 2 points to 85%.
Qantas has set aside $40 million "to cover a potential fine that may be imposed" by the US Dept. of Justice as part of the international investigation into price-fixing.
ARINC said it introduced the "ARINC Mobile Communications Gateway," a wireless data communications module to support onboard sales and credit card transactions as well as other applications. It soon plans to announce flight trials of the system with airlines that use the Abanco In-Flight payment solution. ARINC and Abanco signed a marketing and reseller agreement last month.
Swedish Civil Aviation Authority halted all flights to Iraq operated by domestic carriers after a Nordic Airways MD-80 was fired upon Aug. 8. The aircraft, which departed from Sulaimaniya with 130 onboard, was not hit. Nordic and Viking Air operate to Iraq.
Lufthansa Systems signed a five-year-contract with Italian cargo carrier Ocean Airlines for its FMS database. Ocean already uses the flight planning services of LHS's Lido OC solution.
Air Moorea DHC-6-300 Twin Otter crashed Friday on initial climb from Moorea Temae Airport, where it departed for a 10-min. flight to Tahiti. Thirteen of 19 passengers onboard and the lone pilot were killed, the Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network said in a preliminary report. The remaining six passengers had not been found, although some reports indicated that there were 16 confirmed fatalities. The carrier, which is affiliated with Air Tahiti, operates 20 roundtrip daily shuttles between Tahiti and Moorea.
ARINC delivered what it said are the first common-use airline passenger kiosks ever deployed in the Russian Federation. The nine SelfServ check-in kiosks are installed at Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 of Moscow Sheremetyevo.
