DayJet yesterday announced the receipt of $50 million in capital resulting from the completion of its third round of private equity financing. The company said the money will allow it to launch its delayed on-demand VLJ service, to be based in Florida, in the second quarter ( ATWOnline, June 15, 2006).
IATA DG Giovanni Bisignani opened this week's World Cargo Symposium in Mexico City by pointing to "concerns" raised by cargo operators' heavy investment in Asia, including imbalanced trade flows, overcapacity and China's lack of standardized business practices. He noted that rapid growth in China and surrounding markets is driving air cargo's strong expansion rate, expected to average 6% annually over the next 20 years, but said, "Asia is exporting more than it is importing. . .So the planes are full leaving Asia but half empty coming in.
CSA Czech Airlines reported a 2006 net loss of CZK397 million ($18.5 million), lower than the forecast CZK493 million loss and narrowed from a CZK496 million deficit in 2005, the Associated Press reported. CSA expects to return to the black in 2007 with a CZK42 million profit. Separately, the airline said it will lease an A310 to Air India for one year.
The pilot of the Garuda Indonesia 737-400 that crashed in Yogyakarta said a major, unexpected downdraft caused the accident, according to the president of the Garuda Pilots Assn.
Australian Transport Minister Mark Vaile conceded that some Qantas jobs may head offshore if the carrier's sale to Airline Partners Australia goes through following the receipt of government approval Tuesday. He also told viewers of the National Nine network that the government would not "micromanage" the new owners. Meanwhile, controversy over the government's refusal to extract job guarantees from APA continued ( ATWOnline, March 7).
Accommodations Plus International of New York signed a multiyear deal with JetBlue Airways to provide hotel accommodations and services for crewmembers. API also will furnish an integrated crew management system transferring crew information from the airline to hotel and transportation partners.
JetBlue Airways yesterday named Russell Chew COO effective March 19. Formerly COO at US FAA and before that MD at American Airlines, Chew had been named executive VP-operations at Hawaiian Airlines less than a month ago ( ATWOnline, Feb. 13).
GE Aviation signed a five-year OnPoint Solutions maintenance agreement with North American Airlines covering CF6-80C2s powering five 737-300ERs. Deal is valued at more than $20 million.
LAN Airlines' board approved a capital increase of 22.1 million ordinary shares this week, replacing the increase of 7.5 million shares approved in January ( ATWOnline, Jan. 4). Proceeds will help finance LAN's fleet expansion, comprising five unidentified long-haul aircraft, four freighters and 15 A320 family aircraft scheduled for delivery through 2011.
Indonesia's air safety record was under intense scrutiny yesterday following a second fatal 737-400 accident in 10 weeks, this one involving a Garuda Indonesia aircraft that skidded off a runway upon landing in Yogyakarta and caught fire in an adjacent rice field, killing 21 of 133 passengers and one of seven crewmembers.
Air France KLM flew 14.41 billion RPKs in February, up 3.5% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 1.9% to 18.28 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 1.2 points to 78.9%. US Airways Group flew 4.51 billion RPMs in February, up 1.9% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 0.9% to 5.92 billion ASMs and load factor improved 0.7 point to 76.3%.
Singapore Technologies Aerospace and Boeing announced that ST Aero's ST Aviation Services Co. was selected to perform "certain passenger-to-freighter conversions" under the 767-300 Boeing Converted Freighter program, with ANA as its first customer. ANA launched the 767-300BCF program in 2005. SASCO will perform conversions on five firm aircraft with two options. The initial ANA commitment was for three firm and four options. SASCO is the second conversion center chosen by Boeing for the 767-300 after Aeronavali of Italy.
Garuda Indonesia 737-400 en route from Jakarta caught fire upon landing in Yogyakarta late yesterday. A local official told Reuters that "it happened when it overshot beyond the runway and burst into flames." There reportedly were 133 passengers and seven crew onboard. Indonesian Transport Minister Hatta Rajasa told local television that 76 people were rescued, according to Bloomberg News. Witnesses reported fatalities. An airport official told local radio that he "saw many bodies, dozens of bodies badly burnt near the exit," according to Fox News in Australia.
Thousands of French Airbus workers staged a one-day strike at plants across the country yesterday, with an estimated 4,000 marching in the streets of Toulouse to protest the company's Power8 restructuring plan that calls for 10,000 job cuts including 4,300 in France.
JetBlue Airways will remove each of its 26 E-190s from service for up to three days through the end of April to fix a software glitch affecting a variety of systems onboard the aircraft. In order to avoid delaying or canceling flights, it will contract ExpressJet Airlines to operate four 50-seat E-145s on affected routes. A JetBlue spokesperson told ATWOnline that the airline will inform passengers and that no more than two daily lines of E-190 flying out of 120 will be affected.
South African National Assembly voted last week to take direct control of South African Airways, removing the carrier from the Transnet group of companies, as a step toward eventual privatization, the South African Press Assn. reported. "It makes it possible for SAA to rely on its own balance sheet to raise funds for its operations, instead of always relying on the government," Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said.
Air Canada will begin taking delivery next month of eight 777s coming this year and plans to use them to launch daily Vancouver-Sydney flights on Dec. 14, the first nonstop service between Canada and Australia. Air New Zealand will codeshare. A 270-seat 777-200LR will replace the -300ER from Feb 1. AC said it suspended plans to fly to Australia via Los Angeles. It will introduce the 777 on its Toronto-London Heathrow service in April. Subsequent introductions will be on YYZ-Frankfurt and YYZ-Tokyo Narita in June, YVR-NRT in July and YYZ-Hong Kong in August. It has 18 777s on order.
Spirit Airlines launched a new fare structure yesterday that includes fees for all checked bags as part an approach it said "liberates customers from being forced into paying for services they do not desire or use."
NAV Canada and UK NATS are able to track more than 1,000 daily flights across the Atlantic through technology developed by NAV Canada, the North American ATM company announced. Flights are monitored along their entire route by the Gander Automated Air Traffic System in Newfoundland and the Shanwick AATS in Prestwick. The software provides controllers with a "moving picture" of air traffic in areas without radar, while both systems allow text-based satellite communications between controllers and pilots.
The US Dept. of Transportation told ATWOnline yesterday that the proposed EU-US open skies agreement reached last week does not contain a clause exposing US carriers to inclusion in the European emissions trading scheme, refuting information supplied to this website.
United Airlines flew 8.19 billion RPMs in February, a 0.6% drop from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 1.5% to 10.56 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 0.6 point to 77.5%. Southwest Airlines flew 4.85 billion RPMs in February, up 3.3% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 6% to 7.26 billion ASMs and load factor dipped 1.7 points to 66.8%.
US Airways completed the merger of the reservation systems of the old US and America West Airlines over the weekend, but not without a few glitches as check-in kiosk malfunctions at eastern airports using US legacy systems resulted in numerous delays. Charlotte, Boston and Philadelphia were the most affected, although there were only five cancellations throughout the carrier's network. US switched its entire operation to AWA's Shares system.
Gol flew 1.57 billion RPKs in February, up 66.4% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 61.4% to 2.17 billion ASKs and load factor climbed 2.2 points to 72.3%.
Lufthansa Systems added Russia's SkyExpress, Vladivostock Air and AirBridge Cargo to the list of airlines using its FMS database of worldwide aeronautical data.
IBM announced a 7.5-year, $217 million business transformation outsourcing agreement with American Airlines covering its human resources functions. IBM will provide support for standardized HR resources processes, IT and call center support. Mercer HR Services will deliver compensation and benefits administration and consulting.
