Oasis Hong Kong Airlines was forced to postpone its inaugural 747-400 service to London Gatwick yesterday, saying the flight was delayed by Russian authorities "for as yet unexplained reasons" and adding, "We regret and apologize for the inconvenience caused to our passengers and are doing our utmost to resolve the issue directly with the Russian authorities." The flight was scheduled to depart at 1 p.m. local time and was canceled at 6:30 p.m., Reuters reported.
CSA Czech Airlines has started to contact potential investors in its cargo terminal and handling operation in Prague ( ATWOnline, Oct. 3). Prospective buyers should be shortlisted by the middle of December. CSA has started preparing to transform the terminal into a subsidiary, which should be established in January.
Air Transport Assn. formally announced the launch of a revamped website featuring an improved search engine, a new site map and topics list and printer-friendly pages among other enhancements.
Bmi discontinued its daily London Heathrow-Mumbai service because of a problem with the landing gear on the A330 it uses on the route, The Times reported. "We have tried without success to locate a suitable replacement unit but the uncertainty of the length of time we will be without the aircraft has also not helped the situation," CEO Nigel Turner told the paper. Repair work will not begin until Oct. 30 at the earliest and bmi said it is not sure when it will relaunch service.
Consorcio Aeromexico, the holding company for Aeromexico and Aeroliteral, reported third-quarter net income of MXN124 million ($11.4 million), narrowed from earnings of MXN263 million in the year-ago quarter, according to Reuters. Revenues were down 0.7% to MXN5.61 billion.
Swiss International Air Lines will increase its service from Geneva starting Dec. 15. It will launch a daily service to Prague and boost frequencies to London City to six-times-daily from four. Both services will be aboard Avro RJs. Separately, Swiss is installing new lighter seats from Recaro on its four A321s and seven A319s. A321 capacity will increase to 200 from 186 and A319 capacity will go to 138 from 126. It already has put the seats on its 14 A320s.
Air Berlin will establish its own pilot training school in cooperation with Technic Flight Consulting Kaufer. Future flight cadets can earn their commercial pilot licenses in 24 months.
ExpressJet Holdings, which operates as a Regional partner of Continental Airlines, established a subsidiary that will offer corporate aircraft services. ExpressJet Corporate Aviation will launch in December with ERJ-145XRs and will dedicate 10 planes to the service by May, flying them under the ExpressJet CFR 121 operating certificate. CO informed its partner in January that it would remove 69 ERJs from its network following the two companies' failure to reach a new financial agreement.
Hurt by charges related to the closure of its Connexion inflight Internet service, Boeing reported a 31% drop in third-quarter net income to $694 million from $1.01 billion in the year-ago quarter. The earnings fall overshadowed the continuing strength of the commercial aircraft unit, which enjoyed a 45% increase in revenues to $6.7 billion and upped deliveries by 61% to 100. The company yesterday also announced the establishment of a joint venture MRO facility in Shanghai as it intensifies focus on the growing Chinese market.
European Commission authorized two state aid measures for Air Caraibes, enabling it to cut operating costs for its regional services. The aid will permit the airline to lease a new Embraer 190 for use between Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana and a new ATR 72-500 for use between Guadeloupe, Martinique and Saint Martin at a reduced rate owing to tax credits received by the lessors. One of the measures replaces aid approved in February but cancelled by French authorities.
Mesaba Airlines won a reprieve late Monday when a US Bankruptcy Court judge denied unionized employees the right to strike against the bankrupt carrier. Unions representing pilots, flight attendants and mechanics had threatened to walk off the job if the company moved forward with its plan to impose pay cuts as part of its restructuring plan.
Snecma Services signed a 10-year time and material engine maintenance contract with Travel Service covering the CFM56-7s powering its 737NGs. Snecma also will provide on-wing maintenance within the scope of its Engine Maintenance On-Site service. Separately, Air Berlin signed a 10-year contract with Snecma covering MRO on the CFM56-5Bs powering its A320s. The Berlin Tegel-based LCC eventually will deploy a fleet of 100 A320s.
Air Berlin said joint check-in facilities with dba will be available from Nov 2. "The integration of dba into our company is completed. Now we have to repaint the aircraft," Air Berlin CEO Joachim Hunold said in an statement. AB acquired dba two months ago ( ATWOnline, Aug. 18) Separately, AB announced the launch of a thrice-weekly Nuremberg-Moscow Domodedovo service from Dec. 21 using 737-700s.
Hamilton Sundstrand signed a new agreement with KLM Engineering & Maintenance to expand its On-Site Support program. The deal extends the contract through 2015 and includes point-of-use consigned Hamilton Sundstrand inventory (primarily electric power generation equipment) to support additional aircraft applications. HS also will have an expanded role in supply chain management at KLM E&M.
EasyJet expects its profit for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 to be "slightly ahead" of its previous guidance of 40%-50% growth. The LCC transported 3.01 million passengers in September, up 9.8% from the year-ago month. Load factor rose 0.1 point to 86.5%.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Danish cabin staff said they reached new terms with the carrier on Monday, averting a strike that would have halted both domestic and international flights from Denmark starting this weekend. The Danish Cabin Attendants Union said the one-year agreement covers a 3.5% wage hike, hours and other conditions, Reuters reported. It is effective retroactively from March and will run until Feb. 28, 2007.
Arik Air of Nigeria announced on its website that it "temporarily delayed the commencement of all passenger flights." The startup had been scheduled to launch last week ( ATWOnline, Oct. 6). "Nonpassenger test flights will continue to run to ensure that your first and every flight are of the highest standard," Arik said, adding that it will start operations "soon."
Korean Air will begin adding a surcharge on paper tickets early next year as part of an effort to push electronic bookings to 100% by the end of 2007, according to VP-Strategy Development Keehong Woo. "We're putting a lot of our resources into increasing the e-ticket share," he said. The airline currently books 60% of tickets electronically.
Delta Air Lines flew 9.08 billion system RPMs in September, a 3.4% decrease from the year-ago month. Capacity dropped 5.4% to 12.17 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 1.5 points to 74.6%. Domestic RPMs fell 12.2% to 6.1 billion against a 14.3% decline in capacity to 8.3 billion ASMs, sending load factor up 1.7 points to 73.5%. International traffic grew 21.6% to 2.97 billion RPMs as capacity climbed at the same rate to 3.87 billion ASMs, leaving load factor at 76.9%.
Swiss International Air Lines announced that an agreement has been reached with Aeropers, the union of the company's Airbus pilots. Union members have approved the three-year accord, which will enter into effect Nov. 1. Swiss said the deal acknowledged both the airline's ongoing restructuring and the increasingly competitive environment.
SR Technics Group announced the implementation of a new corporate structure from Nov. 1 that will organize the company by international business rather than country-specific divisions. SR Technics Switzerland, UK and Ireland will continue to exist but will be superceded by the Aircraft Services, Component Services, Engine Services and Business Development, Sales & Marketing divisions. Those segments will be headed by Alex Kugler, Mike Humphreys, Gerry Timoney and Declan O'Shea respectively. Staff units also will be organized into cross-national entities.
Philippine Airlines will decide by year end whether to order eight widebodies from Boeing or Airbus, President Jaime Bautista told reporters last week ( ATWOnline, Sept. 7). He said PAL is considering the A340-600 and 777-300ER as part of an expansion plan that includes an order for 20 (15 firm plus five option) A320 family aircraft from both the manufacturer and GECAS. It took delivery of the first aircraft from that order, an A319-100, last week.
