Austrian Airlines Group launched its capital increase earlier this month following a unanimous vote by shareholders at an extraordinary AGM ( ATWOnline, Oct. 4), issuing up to 51.68 million bearer shares with no par value. The subscription and offer period concludes Dec. 1, an OS spokesperson told this website. Maximum offer price is €8.12 ($10.66) per share.
EasyJet is introducing a Speedy Boarding facility that allows up to 20 passengers to book priority boarding and have the greatest choice of seats. Speedy Boarding is sold on a first-come, first-served basis and the fee is based on length of flight and departure airport. Prices vary from £2.50 ($4.84) to £7.50. "This latest innovation...reflects the development in the concept of having a flexible product that can be adapted to the customer needs, but only paying for what you need," CEO Andy Harrison said.
AT&T signed a $7 million networking equipment agreement with US Airways under which AT&T will provide Cisco hardware bundled with its MPLS-based IP network to service more than 230 airport locations.
Air New Zealand announced an 11% reduction in transtasman seat capacity beginning in April. Seats to Australia will fall by 15% from Wellington, 28% from Dunedin, 15% from Palmerston North and 7% from Christchurch compared to April-October 2006. "Not even the low airfares generated by significant excess capacity and competition have driven enough customer demand from these four centers to maintain the status quo," GM-Shorthaul Airline Norm Thompson said, citing a 63% load factor out of Wellington as an example. In addition, ANZ will use smaller aircraft on the Auckland-Sydney route.
Swiss Pilots Assn., which represents Swiss European Air Lines pilots, rejected the company's offer for a new labor agreement ( ATWOnline, Oct. 23). Despite concessions on the part of Swiss European, SPA said it is not prepared to negotiate further on the current offer. Swiss said the union's demands would result in a cost increase of approximately 35%. The pilots currently are flying under an interim agreement reached in April.
Northwest Airlines said it will not renew interline agreements with approximately 50 carriers that do not have plans to offer interline e-ticketing when the accords expire on Jan. 1.
Lufthansa is expanding its presence in Malta. First, Lufthansa Technik will set up new MRO capabilities for C and D checks on the A330 and A340 families. Under terms of an MOU signed by the Maltese government and LHT Malta, a joint venture with Air Malta, a hangar will be constructed by Malta Industrial Parks and leased to LHT.
News from Travel Technology Update: The defections of online travel companies to other GDSs are making sizable dents in Worldspan's revenues and net income. Like other GDSs, Worldspan's revenues also have shrunk due to lower transaction fees from airlines that have signed new distribution agreements. Worldspan reported a 14% decline in net income for the third quarter, to $15.5 million, on revenues of $212.5 billion, down 11%.
MAXJet Airways named Chairman William Stockbridge President and CEO replacing Gary Rogliano, who left "to pursue other opportunities," according to the airline. "I will work closely with our team to accelerate MAXJet's expansion," Stockbridge said. He formerly was CEO of Centurion Air Cargo and founder, president and CEO of Gemini Air Cargo. Board member Rick Sharp will take over as chairman.
Alteon Training expanded its agreement with Asiana Airlines and will install a 777-200/-300 FFS at Asiana's training center in Seoul by April. In addition, an Asiana 737-500 FFS will be transferred to Alteon's new center in Singapore.
CSA Czech Airlines board postponed indefinitely construction of its CZK1.35 billion ($61.9 million) Hangar G MRO center. The airline said the financial burden imposed by the project, which was to include CZK400 million of CSA's own resources, was too great. "The parameters of this investment project have not changed, and they are still very interesting," President Radomir Lasak said. "The conditions in CSA have changed, and that is decisive for us today.
IATA DG Giovanni Bisignani warned airlines and governments in the Middle East not to "lose the plot on cost-efficiency" and to "differentiate growth and profitability" in an address to the Arab Air Carriers Organization AGM in Kuwait.
Northwest Airlines ground workers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport staged a brief walkout yesterday to protest the hiring of nonunion contract workers to clean aircraft, part of NWA's effort to slash costs to emerge from bankruptcy. The protest reportedly involved 250 workers and lasted less than an hour. It is believed to be isolated and merely symbolic; the IAM union representing NWA ground workers agreed to the contract cleaners as part of a concessionary deal. The airline said the protest did not disrupt operations.
Jade Cargo International took delivery of its second of six 747-400ERFs. The third is scheduled to come in February. From Nov. 27 Jade will add thrice-weekly flights from Shenzhen to Barcelona (via Brescia) and Osaka.
Arab Air Carriers Organization Secretary General Abdul Wahab Teffaha refuted the mounting calls to curb the expansion of some Arab carriers in the EU because they are subsidized by their governments. "We find these calls unbalanced, as they overlook the forms of indirect support awarded to some airlines in the EU, and in other regions, especially in the area of slots, priority terminals in airports, and sometimes limiting ground services providers in those terminals," he said in his state of the industry speech at the organization's AGM in Kuwait.
Finnair Technical Services and Finncomm Airlines signed a €30 million agreement for maintenance support of ATR engines. The agreement includes four ATR 42-500s and seven ATR 72-500s to be acquired by Finncomm through 2009, as well as a possible five additional aircraft for which the airline has options. The deal covers each engine for 12 years.
Boeing named Doug Kight VP-human resources for Boeing Commercial Airplanes effective next month. He currently is VP and assistant general counsel at corporate headquarters in Chicago.
Megadata Corp. said JetBlue Airways purchased a subscription to the Passur ETA feed for New York JFK. Separately, JetBlue finalized a long-term distribution agreement with Amadeus.
Allegiant Travel Co., parent of Allegiant Air, filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in anticipation of an IPO of its common stock. The offer comprises 5 million shares of common stock listed on NASDAQ, or 5.75 million if underwriters exercise overallotment options. Merrill Lynch & Co. will be sole book-runner with Bear Stearns & Co. and Raymond James as co-managers.
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said yesterday in a letter to Aer Lingus shareholders that the LCC will not raise its €2.80 ($3.59)-per-share bid despite the poor response from EI shareholders. "In our opinion, there is nothing in the Aer Lingus defense document or its strategy as articulated by the chief executive that justifies a price in excess of €2.80," O'Leary said in the letter, according to press reports. Ryanair has extended the deadline for its offer until Dec. 4 ( ATWOnline, Nov.
