Snecma Services and Airfoil Technologies International formed Propulsion Technologies International. The joint venture will be located in the Miami facility previously known as Propulsion Technology LLC. PTI will provide component repair services focusing on "major rotating assemblies, booster vanes, cases and frame repairs." Messier Services announced landing gear MRO contracts covering Airbus equipment (A300, A320 family and A330) with four airlines: Aer Lingus, Monarch, bmi and My Travel. A total of 60 aircraft are included. Work will be done by Messier Services France.
European Cargo Services acquired a stake in Africa West Cargo Airlines, the GSA network announced yesterday without disclosing details on the size of the shareholding or the purchase price. ECS said it believes this is the first time a GSA has invested in an airline. Africa West operates three An-12 freighters out of Lome to 14 destinations in West and Central Africa, offering some 160 tonnes of capacity per week. It feeds its African network with twice-weekly flights from Ostend.
SAS Sverige announced the cancellation of flights to, from and within Sweden Saturday owing to a cabin staff strike launched Friday ( ATWOnline, May 25).
Luxair, which comprises the airline, a tour operator and a cargo handling division, posted a 2006 net profit of €16.9 million ($22.7 million), more than the triple the €5.5 million earned in 2005. Revenues increased 2.4% to €333.5 million. The airline division managed to halve its 2005 loss, the company said, although the figure was not released.
Ural Airlines reported a net loss of RUB91.2 million ($3.5 million) in the first quarter compared to a RUB63.3 million deficit in the year-ago period, Russia's AK&M reported. Revenue climbed 17.9% to RUB1.13 billion.
Delta Air Lines flew 9.82 billion RPMs in April, a 4.2% increase from the year-ago month, as domestic traffic declined 0.6% and international surged 17.3%. Capacity fell 0.7% to 12.06 billion ASMs on a 7.3% drop in domestic ASMs and a 17.1% climb in international. System load factor rose 3.9 points to 81.5%--domestic was up 5.6 points to 82.8% and international 0.1 point to 78.6%. Alitalia flew 3.26 billion RPKs in April, down 0.4% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 0.7% to 4.3 billion ASKs and load factor rose 0.2 point to 75.6%.
Republic Airways President and CEO Bryan Bedford said the regional is "definitely looking" at larger jets, specifically E-190s and CRJ1000s, if it can find interested customers. "I think there is an opportunity out there. We are looking out at least two years for where the opportunity will be," he said at last week's Regional Airline Assn. conference in Memphis. But he pointed out that it is difficult to assess the prospects for larger aircraft because it is unclear if existing scope clauses will allow the operation of aircraft beyond the 70-seat range.
Aeroflot, which remains alive in the bidding for SkyTeam partner Alitalia (see story above), also has made an offer to buy Serbia's Jat Airways, according to press reports. Serbian Minister of Infrastructure Velimir Ilic told reporters in Belgrade that SU offered to settle Jat's debts, purchase new aircraft and maintain the carrier's workforce. The Russian carrier reportedly is not the only interested buyer. "So far Aeroflot has made the best and the most concrete offer," a Jat official told Reuters.
Sterling Airlines announced the Oct. 28 launch of flights from Oslo Gardermoen to Paris Charles de Gaulle, London Gatwick and Copenhagen as well as a Stockholm Arlanda-Nottingham East Midlands service. Frequencies were not disclosed. Sterling operates 25 737s. Separately, Sterling signed a labor agreement with its pilots this month that it said represented the final step in the merger of Sterling and Maersk Air.
American Airlines, Continental Airlines and Alaska Airlines, "along with a few smaller carriers," according to the Associated Press, will be allowed to reduce contributions to their defined benefit pension plans by a combined $2 billion over the next decade thanks to a provision in the Iraq War spending bill approved last week by the US Congress. The Dallas Morning News reported that airlines will be permitted to assume an 8.25% annual discount rate in calculating the value of their pension obligations, up from the current 6%.
Expedia announced a new five-year agreement with JetBlue Airways under which the airline's entire inventory will be available on expedia.com and Hotwire.
Air Line Pilots Assn. of Singapore announced that a Singapore court has ruled that Singapore Airlines A380 captains will make a minimum S$700 ($458.10) more per month than 747 captains and A380 officers will make a minimum S$450 more per month than their 747 counterparts.
SR Technics reached agreement with Air India to maintain the CFM56-7B engines and GTCP131-9B APUs installed on Air India Express 737-800s. SRT valued the three-year agreements at up to $22 million.
SkyWest Airlines President Chip Childs said at this week's Regional Airline Assn. conference in Memphis that the carrier will add 27 aircraft this year and expects to hire some 3,000 new employees. SkyWest in April began operating in a codeshare arrangement with Midwest Airlines, which includes onboard baking and serving of Midwest's trademark cookies, he said ( ATWOnline, April 3). SkyWest still is trying to master baking and serving cookies by a single flight attendant on a short-haul CRJ flight.
Air China flew 5.57 billion RPKs in April, up 12% on the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 11.5% to 7.19 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 0.3 point to 77.5%.
Air Line Pilots Assn. announced that its executive board voted by an 80% margin to end the union's "longstanding" support for US FAA's Age 60 retirement rule ( ATWOnline, April 11). "In the face of concerted efforts to change the rule in Congress and the FAA, the ALPA executive board directed that union resources be committed to protecting pilot interests by exerting ALPA's influence in any rule change," the union said.
Spanair named Mexicana de Aviacion Chief Commercial Officer Sergio Allard Barroso CCO, effective in July. Aerospace Industries Assn. said President and CEO John Douglass will retire at year end following nine years at the helm. No replacement was named.
British Airways said it will invest more than £25 million ($49.5 million) for 55 new airport vehicles as part of its March 2008 move to London Heathrow's new Terminal 5. BA said the vehicles "will help. . .reduce its ground emissions at Heathrow and improve its punctuality performance." The order comprises 15 vehicle types. BA said the number of ground vehicles required will fall by just under 40% as the result of the move to T5, from 1,300 this year to fewer than 800 in 2010.
SAS Sverige said the Swedish Salaried Employees' Union/Scandinavian Cabin Crew Assn. rejected a mediator's final bid, leaving open the employees' threat of work action today ( ATWOnline, May 17). "We are open to solutions that involve changes in employment conditions and/or salary levels," SAS Sverige CEO Anders Ehrling said. "However, this requires that we keep within the framework of 10.2% that the [SEU] itself defined for this year's collective bargaining."
US State Dept. Deputy Assistant Secretary-Transportation Affairs John Byerly said offering cabotage rights to EU carriers for cargo flights is under consideration and could be in play during the next round of EU-US open skies talks. While noting that no consensus administration policy has been developed, the US's lead air services negotiator said cargo cabotage is "less threatening" and may not encounter the strong opposition from labor and Congress that passenger cabotage will ( ATWOnline, May 23).
Qantas, it turns out, is worth approximately A$17 billion ($13.96 billion), or 53% more than the Airline Partners Australia consortium offered shareholders in its A$11.1 billion bid that collapsed this month ( ATWOnline, May 18). Ironically, the new A$8.57-per-share valuation announced yesterday came from Macquarie Bank, which led APA. Subsequently, QF shares have risen to a high of A$5.43.
Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair flew a combined 6.64 billion RPKs in April, a 2.3% increase on the year-ago month. Capacity rose 1.2% to 8.26 billion ASKs and load factor was up 0.9 point to 80.4%. Hawaiian Airlines flew 662.9 million RPMs in April, up 20% on the year-ago month, against an 18.9% increase in ASMs to 755.4 million. Load factor improved 0.9 point to 87.8%.
Skybus Airlines ( ATWOnline, April 25) launched operations yesterday with a morning flight from its Columbus base to Burbank aboard an A319. It was slated to operate flights later in the day to Kansas City and Portsmouth, N.H. The low-cost startup claims it will sell 10 $10 tickets (excluding taxes and fees) for each flight, but it also will charge at least $5 per checked bag.
Royal Brunei Airlines named Ray Sayer CEO effective Sept. 1. Sayer worked for British Airways in Brunei in the 1980s and most recently was CEO of Bahrain Airport Services.
