Pemco Aviation Group closed the previously announced sale of Pemco World Air Services, its commercial division specializing in MRO and passenger-to-freighter conversions, to an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners for $43 million ( ATWOnline, July 12). The sale was approved by Pemco's stockholders earlier this week. As part of the transaction, Pemco Aviation Group changed its name to Alabama Aircraft Industries and said it will focus on defense work. PWAS will retain its name.
Air New Zealand is set to launch a series of measures to reduce its carbon emissions, including using biofuels. CEO Rob Fyfe told The Australian that the airline "has two or three projects underway looking at biofuels," with an announcement scheduled for late September. It also is looking at a range of measures such as improved descent profiles, reducing the flaps setting for landings and turning to ground power as soon as possible after arrival. It will acquire more ground power units.
SAS, which grounded its fleet of Q400s after the landing gear on two separate flights collapsed last week, is under investigation by a Swedish prosecutor to determine whether passengers were placed at risk by the carrier, the Associated Press reported. SAS said it would cooperate with the investigation but called the prosecutor's assertion that it had endangered passengers "groundless." There were no serious injuries in either incident. SAS has been inspecting and replacing the landing gear on its fleet of 27 Q400s
Wizz Air will add a third A320 to its base at Gdansk in March, launch thrice-weekly service to Bournemouth, Coventry and Gothenburg and add frequencies on its existing routes. The LCC said it expects to grow the number of passengers traveling to and from its Gdansk base to more than 1 million in 2008. Separately, Wizz Air will introduce "comfort seats" with extra legroom in rows 12 and 13 on its A320s on Oct. 29. The extra legroom costs €5 ($6.98) if paid online concurrently with the booking and €10 if paid after the initial booking.
SITA added Eclipse as a new member to its Channel Partner Program. Under terms of the agreement, the French IT distributor is allowed to sell a select number of SITA's systems to about 100 small and medium-sized airports in France handling up to 5 million passengers per year. Average passenger growth at French regional airports last year exceeded 5% to almost 40 million. Solutions and services available under the Indirect Channels label include SITA's AirportConnect CUTE, AirportConnect Kiosk, Bag Manager, Bag Message and DCS in Application Service Provider mode.
Shanxi Aircraft Industry Group, a subsidiary of AVIC II, signed a framework agreement at the Beijing Air Show yesterday with Antonov to establish an aircraft engineering center in the Chinese capital by year end. SAIG MD Bai Songbai said that the center will be engaged mainly in retrofits of Y8 aircraft in its initial phase.
A J Walter Aviation will help Thales Training and Simulation support customers of its flight simulators by providing maintenance and spare parts supply of aircraft avionics and instruments fitted to the simulators. Initially, Thales will use the service to support its contract to maintain Qatar Airways' three C2000X simulators for the A320, A330 and 777.
Gate Gourmet completed the purchase of deSter Holding BV of Amsterdam. According to Gate Gourmet, deSter is the world's largest provider of inflight hospitality items. It also owns Supplair, a supplier of packaged airline meals. The company was purchased from EQT, a private equity fund that bought deSter in 1999. Terms were not disclosed.
Lufthansa and Deutsche Post are expected to announce the launch of a JV cargo airline today, The Financial Times reported. The new carrier is planning to start operations in the summer of 2009 and will have up to 11 777-200Fs based in Leipzig by 2011.
New ICAO strategy for "sustained improvements in aviation safety in Africa was endorsed by representatives of 40 States from the African Region and world aviation stakeholders" on the eve of the 36th Session of the ICAO Assembly, which began Wednesday and runs through Sept. 28. The "Comprehensive Regional Implementation Plan for Aviation Safety in Africa" was developed by ICAO in cooperation with the continent's civil aviation authorities and the air transport industry as well as bodies such as the European Commission, World Bank and African Civil Aviation Commission.
Safran Group announced that Snecma Services Chairman and CEO Jean-Lin Fournereaux, 55, will be nominated as chairman and CEO of Sagem Defense Securite at a board meeting scheduled for Sept. 27. He will replace Jean-Paul Herteman. Succeeding Fournereaux, who has led Snecma Services since early 2004, is Denis Vercherin, 54, currently senior VP of Hispano-Suiza.
United Airlines said yesterday in a government filing that third-quarter unit revenue will increase 7.5%-8.5% year-over-year while unit costs will rise 5.25%-5.75% compared to the same period last year. Capacity will be down 1.2% year-over-year in the quarter, UA added.
Alaska Airlines and sister regional carrier Horizon Air introduced a new online service that allows passengers to go to the carriers' websites to make changes to itineraries. "The Change Itinerary feature. . .is the first online tool in the industry that displays an easy-to-read matrix of 20 itinerary change options with corresponding adjustments to fares and taxes," the carriers claimed. "The new tool allows customers to change travel dates as well as departure and arrival cities, and can be used even after some of the itinerary's travel has been completed.
Qantas Group launched a comprehensive "carbon offset program" under which Qantas and Jetstar passengers can elect to offset their share of flight emissions by making monetary contributions through qantas.com and jetstar.com.
Bombardier said that 35 of 85 Q400s targeted for detailed inspection after the landing gears on two SAS flights collapsed last week have returned to service ( ATWOnline, Sept. 18).
ICAO projected that world airline traffic (RPKs) will grow at an average annual rate of 4.6% through 2025, half a point lower than the rate achieved over the 1985-2005 period, while the average annual growth rate for international RPKs over the period will fall 1.5 points to 5.3%, according to a forecast released yesterday.
Iberia Airlines and American Express signed a strategic agreement linking their rewards programs. From Sept. 17 onward, American Express card holders belonging to the Membership Rewards program in Spain will be able to transfer their accumulated points to the Iberia Plus program.
Rockwell Collins said it is adding several new features to its Airshow 4200 moving map display and flight information system. The additions provide passengers with an upgraded system with a complete new Atlas Style Map Set, more details on existing maps, and new features including a World Clock page and a Flight Deck Instrument Panel page.
Chinese carriers' share prices collectively are soaring as the nation's airline industry enters what analysts are predicting will be a period of robust growth driving demand for a large volume of new aircraft. Air China's share price jumped from CNY14.5 ($1.90) to CNY25.3 yesterday while China Southern's doubled from CNY13 to CNY26.77 and China Eastern lifted from CNY11 to CNY20.22. Shanghai Airlines grew from CNY12 to CNY18.36 and Hainan Airlines rose from CNY6 to CNY12.34.
Virgin Atlantic said it will nearly double the number of premium economy seats in its London Heathrow-based 747 fleet to 62 from 32 currently in response to "surging passenger demand."
Lufthansa Systems launched Lido electronic Aircraft Performance Monitoring, a Web-based tool for determination of inflight performance levels of an aircraft and especially its propulsion and flight control efficiency. Separately, LHS said Condor chose it to support the airline's scheduling, operational flight planning and crew planning processes.
JetBlue Airways appointed Glenn Hipp to the position of VP-supply chain and fuel. He will be responsible for companywide sourcing efforts and corporate purchasing as well as JetBlue's fuel procurement strategy. Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, parent of Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo, named Jason Grant senior VP and CFO succeeding Michael Barna, who resigned from the post he has held since 2005 "to pursue other interests." Grant, 35, has been with the company since 2002 and most recently served as senior VP-network planning and business development.
Lancope Inc. said AirTran deployed its StealthWatch Network Behavior Analysis System to secure its financial transactions, protect passenger data and ensure that all information in its network is safe.
Airlines continued to inspect Q400 aircraft that were grounded last week after two separate incidents in which landing gear collapsed on SAS flights. Bombardier sent out detailed inspection guidelines to Q400 operators. Developed with Goodrich, manufacturer of the landing gear, the procedures spell out how to inspect, repair or replace the retract actuator, which showed signs of corrosion during preliminary investigation of one of the SAS accidents. "All procedures require a thorough application of corrosion-inhibiting compound," Bombardier said in a statement.
