JetBlue Airways launched daily White Plains-Orlando International service Wednesday and will start a second daily HPN-MCO flight and daily flights to West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale on April 2, all aboard A320s. HPN is JetBlue's 51st destination and 7th in New York. Separately, the carrier took delivery of its 100th A320 last week. The aircraft will have stylized 100s painted on the tail.
Northwest Airlines announced the withdrawal of a $129 million salaried employee unsecured claim from its reorganization plan. Under a new salaried equity plan covering 5,200 salaried and management employees, those below director level will receive cash and restricted stock worth $77.4 million. "This salaried equity plan will help ensure that Northwest retains a team of experienced salaried employees, and ties the interests of that team to the financial performance of our company," President and CEO Doug Steenland said.
European Commission cleared KarstadtQuelle's acquisition of Lufthansa's 50% share in Thomas Cook. The German retailer, which already owned 50%, reached agreement with Lufthansa to buy its stake for €800 million ($1.07 billion) in December ( ATWOnline, Dec. 25, 2006). LH will raise its stake in Condor Airlines from 10% to 24.9% as part of the deal.
Air Canada President and CEO Montie Brewer said 48% of customers in the 2006 fourth quarter "willingly bought a higher fare" when purchasing tickets through AC's Web-based branded fare domestic pricing structure ( ATW, February 2007). Speaking yesterday at the National Bank Financial Transportation and Logistics Conference in Toronto, available via webcast, Brewer added that 25% of customers buying the lowest fare purchased an additional amenity. "We've found that customers will buy up," he said.
Delta Air Lines, which plans to exit bankruptcy at the end of next month ( ATWOnline, March 28), yesterday announced its application to list its new common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DAL.
Sensis said Continental Airlines has subscribed to its Aerobahn Service of Web-based tools to monitor and manage taxiway and ramp traffic at Houston Intercontinental.
Royal Jordanian officially joined oneworld yesterday, becoming the first Middle East carrier to enter an alliance and oneworld's first new member in six years. Yesterday's ceremony in Amman marked the start of a significant expansion for the alliance that also will include Japan Airlines, Malev Hungarian Airlines, Dragonair, LAN Argentina and LAN Ecuador. Aer Lingus will leave the grouping next month.
US Airways named former American Eagle and Polar Air Cargo President Robert Martens as senior VP and president of US Airways Express. Martens, 61, will have direct oversight of US's Piedmont Airlines and PSA Airlines subsidiaries.
Harmony Airways of Canada announced suspension of its scheduled services. It will fly to Toronto for the last time on March 30 and cease all other flights by April 9. Launched in 2002 and based in Vancouver, the full-service airline operates 757s to six Canadian cities, five Hawaiian destinations, Las Vegas and Palm Springs. It reportedly is exploring continuing to fly as a charter or ACMI provider. "Harmony has always been committed to providing the best inflight service in Canada and we apologize for the inconvenience this causes," it said on its website.
Talk of a possible bid for Iberia continued to soar in the wake of last week's approval of the EU-US open skies agreement, with Texas Pacific Group--a member of Airline Partners Australia and among those shortlisted to bid for Alitalia--added to the list of potential suitors that already includes British Airways, Lufthansa and an unnamed Spanish investment fund.
Assn. of European Airlines members flew 736.94 billion RPKs in 2006, up 5.2% from the previous year. Capacity climbed 4.4% to 963.48 billion ASKs and load factor rose 0.6 point to 76.5%. Passenger numbers were ahead 4.5% to 343.6 million. Among 30 members, Spanair enjoyed the largest RPK increase at 20.6%, followed by THY Turkish Airlines at 20%. THY's 25% capacity increase was by far the largest. Adria Airways' 4.5-point improvement in load factor to 63.7% was the organization's biggest. Highest load factor overall was 83.7% at KLM.
Lineas Aereas Azteca was grounded this week ( ATWOnline, March 27) "due to a series of findings by the [Mexico] Bureau of Civil Aviation, which has determined that this airline has not guaranteed operations within basic security standards, mainly due to problems with maintenance and training," according to airports operator Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, which issued a statement to assure passengers that other carriers can fill the traffic void.
UK airports operator BAA said yesterday it is spending an additional £40 million ($78.5 million) to hire 1,400 extra security guards and open 22 new security lanes across its seven airports in order to reduce lines to 5 min. or less "95% of the time." It also said it is planning a "multibillion-pound investment program" that will "add vital new facilities, improve existing terminals and add significantly to the UK's overall airport capacity" by 2012.
Flyglobespan earned a pre-tax profit of £4.7 million in the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, down 24.2% from a £6.2 million pre-tax profit in the prior year, according to the Scottish LCC's annual report cited yesterday by The Herald. The drop largely was the result of a £2.7 million charge related to aircraft acquisition. The airline intends to operate 13 737s, three 757s and five 767s by year end, Chairman Tom Dalrymple said. FY revenue rose 27% to £208 million and operating profit fell 5.7% to £5.2 million. Passenger boardings grew 25.4% to 1.8 million.
Lufthansa Technik is investing up to $500 million in preparing for the A380, Chairman August Hennigsen told ATWOnline during last week's proving flight from Frankfurt to New York JFK ( ATWOnline, March 20). "We intend to offer complete MRO support for the aircraft," he said, noting that LHT acquired expertise as its engineers were involved in the A380 specification. LHT also was involved closely in defining Lufthansa's cabin and IFE configuration.
News from Travel Technology Update: The merging of the US Airways and America West reservations systems got a lot of attention because of the check-in problems that resulted in long lines at Philadelphia and Charlotte, but the "larger issue was the processing for closing a flight," US Airways president Scott Kirby said. Kirby told analysts at the JPMorgan Aviation and Transportation Conference that "we had made it needlessly complex to close a flight," a process that involves tallying passengers and bags and collecting other data before an aircraft can push back from the gate.
Days after the release of an Indonesian Directorate General of Civil Aviation report that found that none of the country's 20 major airlines meets all safety standards and just three weeks after it suffered a fatal 737-400 accident in Yogyakarta, Garuda Indonesia appears to be planning for the future with a significant 737NG order and a return to profitability.
Lineas Aereas Azteca had its operations suspended yesterday for safety and financial violations, Mexican Transport Minister Luis Tellez said, according to Reuters. The carrier, which launched in June 2001, operates a fleet of six 737-300s and two -700s on an extensive domestic network, according to the Ascend CASE database. Tellez said the government gave Azteca 90 days to resolve its issues, which were not detailed.
Airbus and Lufthansa continued the A380 route-proving program through yesterday, flying the aircraft between Germany and Hong Kong and then to the US for a demonstration flight over Washington. ATWOnline was a guest on both flights.
GECAS and Lynxs Holdings of Texas have formed a 50/50 joint venture, Lynxs Group, to develop, finance and manage new air cargo facilities. GE holds an option to expand its stake over the next five years. The companies did not announce potential sites.
VEM completed its sixth 767 freighter conversion, its first for ABX Air, in Porto Alegre. ABX's second of five aircraft already is undergoing conversion. VEM is working in conjunction with Israel Aerospace Industries.
Assn. of European Airlines named Athar Husain Khan, formerly of KLM, as GM-infrastructure. Boeing named 787 program CFO Craig Saddler as president of Boeing Australia.
Virgin America will partner with EchoStar Communications to provide live inflight satellite entertainment. Passengers will have access to DISH Network television as well as pay-per-view movies, music and games.
Marek Mazur is out as CEO of LOT Polish Airlines after just 38 days, according to press reports from Warsaw. His replacement, when named, will be the airline's fourth CEO since last fall ( ATWOnline, Feb. 15). Mazur told Polish television he did not know why he was let go, according to the Associated Press, but several reports indicated that the Ministry of the Treasury was against the appointment from the start and ousted Mazur once it secured the backing of "bankruptcy officers" on LOT's board.
