Tiger Airways received final approval from Indian authorities to operate commercial flights from Singapore to Chennai, Cochin, Goa, Trivandrum, Kolkata and Kozhikode, the LCC announced. It said it will announce a schedule "fairly soon" and expects to link its Indian services to its new operation in Australia.
B/E Aerospace said yesterday that it has been selected to provide main cabin retrofit and new-buy seating programs for some 250 aircraft by US Airways, Frontier Airlines and AirAsia in contracts collectively valued at more than $70 million. The US deal includes retrofitting A320s and equipping new-buy single-aisle aircraft with economy and first class seating. The contract with Frontier covers retrofitting A318s and A319s as well as equipping A320s with economy seating. The AirAsia award is a follow-on order for economy seating for new-buy A320s.
Royal Brunei Airlines named Ray Sayer its new CEO, effective Sept. 1. Los Angeles World Airports named Gina Marie Lindsey executive director, replacing Lydia Kennard, who resigned in January. Formerly executive director of Seattle-Tacoma International, Lindsey will oversee Los Angeles International, Ontario, Van Nuys and Palmdale airports.
News from Travel Technology Update: Galileo said it can "state unequivocally" that it has no intention of forcing any customers to migrate to a new system in the U.S. The statement was the clearest indication yet that if Travelport, Galileo's parent, succeeds in acquiring Worldspan, it does not intend to integrate the two systems. That means Travelport will operate three GDS platforms; Galileo, which was developed in Europe, was never integrated with the U.S. born-and-bred Apollo system.
IBM signed an agreement with Avianca to operate and manage the airline's information technology in a deal valued at $12 million. The Colombian carrier said outsourcing its IT will lower costs and enable it to focus on "core business operations."
Virgin Atlantic Airways revealed yesterday that it intends to launch a business class-only carrier within the next 12-18 months. In a first stage, the new airline will fly transatlantic routes to the US from London and other European cities including Paris, Frankfurt, Milan and Zurich. Direct flights from points throughout the EU to the US will be possible under the new open skies regime that will take effect March 30, 2008. Virgin did not say which aircraft it would use to operate the flights.
IATA raised its profit outlook for 2007 on stronger-than-anticipated economic growth in Europe and Asia that has caused airline revenue growth to come in higher than previously believed.
IATA member airlines yesterday approved a five-month "one-off" extension to May 31, 2008, to the deadline for transitioning to 100% e-ticketing for tickets processed through the IATA Bank Settlement Plan.
European Commission yesterday approved the proposed merger of First Choice Holidays and the tourism division of TUI Group, excluding certain hotel assets.
Swiss International Air Lines will launch daily Zurich-Delhi service on Nov. 25 aboard A330-200s and a daily ZRH-Shanghai Pudong flight in summer 2008. It is adding two A330-200s and one A340-300 this summer and will take two additional A340-300s by next April.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines announced the completion of installation of its new Business Sleeper seats on A330-300s and A340-300s operating between Newark, Chicago O'Hare, Seattle and Washington Dulles and its Copenhagen and Stockholm Arlanda hubs. The business cabin has a 2-2-2 configuration, with 46 seats on the A340 and 34 on the A330. New seats feature 61 in. of legroom and a video screen nearly 25% larger than on SAS's previous seats. Transatlantic services also feature Economy Extra seating (35 seats on the A330 and 28 on the A340) with 38-in. pitch, IFE screens and power outlets.
Australia's Regional Express Holdings, which operates as Rex, said last week that it earned a A$17.3 million ($14.3 million) profit in the first nine months of its fiscal year, a figure 51.8% higher than in the year-ago period. It is projecting full-year profit growth of 40%. Nine-month passenger numbers rose 19.8% to 1.05 million.
BCI Aircraft Leasing acquired the first of three 737-300QCs that it had been leasing. The aircraft are on long-term operating lease to Europe Airpost. The other two will be purchased in the coming months.
Saudi Arabian Airlines will start issuing electronic boarding passes to passengers traveling through Saudi airports in August, the Arab Air Carriers Organization said.
Delta Air Lines promoted VPs Robert Cortelyou to senior VP-network planning, Pam Elledge to senior VP-global sales and distribution and Gail Grimmett to senior VP-revenue management.
While US carriers are certainly in far better shape financially than in recent years, "profitability" is a relative term. Even considering that the first quarter is traditionally the weakest reporting period, it's hard to view the year's first three months -- when half of the 10 largest US airlines were in the red -- as anything but slightly disappointing given that 2006 was the industry's best year since 2000 and better results are expected in 2007.
First, the good news. Global airline yields and traffic growth are on the upswing and have contributed to a significant expansion of aggregate industry revenue to approximately $470 billion in 2007. This is a welcome development after years of staggering financial losses. The bad news is that airline costs, led by a doubling of fuel prices, are increasing at 4%-5% per annum and will reach $450 billion, resulting in a paltry 3% estimated operating margin, according to IATA.
WHEN IT SURFACED YEARS AGO, radio frequency identification technology was heralded as a breakthrough tool in supply chain management. But while manufacturers and users continue to refine and test it through pilot programs, RFID still is not considered ready for prime time, interviews with the technology's experts indicate. Cost of implementation, resistance to switching from existing technology and competing budgetary demands have slowed its adoption by OEMs, airlines and maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities.
AIRPORT PRIVATIZATION HAS SPREAD RAPIDLY throughout the world since Margaret Thatcher's UK government sold off airports operator BAA in 1987, with one glaring exception: The US. Major airports in the world's largest air transport market are not viewed, as they increasingly are in much of Europe and Asia, as for-profit, self-sustaining businesses. Rather, Americans largely perceive airports as public utilities, much like libraries and motor vehicle administrations, that should be owned and managed by state and local governments.
Galileo said it can "state unequivocally" that it has no intention of forcing any customers to migrate to a new system in the U.S. The statement was the clearest indication yet that if Travelport, Galileo's parent, succeeds in acquiring Worldspan, it does not intend to integrate the two systems. That means Travelport will operate three GDS platforms; Galileo, which was developed in Europe, was never integrated with the U.S. born-and-bred Apollo system.
WITH A HISTORY dating back to 1932, UK-based A J Walter Aviation today lays claim to being the largest privately owned stocker of aircraft spares in the world, with more than 4 million parts of some 400,000 line items. It currently boasts a staff of 140 at the world headquarters, located in a small village in the heart of the Sussex countryside not far from London Gatwick, and another 40 at more than 30 offices around the globe.
One of the earlyand substantialpurchasers of the 787 is Continental Airlines, which has placed orders for 25 Dreamliners. In an e-mail Q&A with Airline Procurement, Senior Engineering Director John Wiitala revealed how the carrier will deal with some of the MRO issues. Airline Procurement: How is Continental setting up for maintenance, repair and overhaul of the 787? What will be different versus the existing fleet?
KEEPING AN AIRLINER aloft to generate maximum profits calls for efficient management of a vast number of spare parts. Making sure there are enough pumps, tires, avionics gear, engines, cabin carpets, brackets and thousands of other aircraft supplies available for MRO is a major procurement challenge. No wonder that maintenance and supply managers worry ceaselessly about whether there is a shortage of this or that bit of hardware at the right time and in the right place to keep aircraft flying.
