Air Madrid, which declared bankruptcy and suspended operations last month ( ATWOnline, Dec. 18, 2006), was unable to reach a rescue deal with Germany's LTU but remains confident a buyer will emerge, according to Spanish press reports cited by AFX News.
Indian airlines are preparing for INR180-200 million ($4.1-$4.5 million) in combined losses resulting from days of heavy fog in Delhi, according to The Economic Times. Runway visibility was down to 100 m. as 35 arrivals and 50 departures were cancelled Tuesday, with another 61 diverted. The three-day total of cancellations and diversions reached 300, the paper said. Air Deccan said it has canceled 15-20 flights on each of the past three days and faces losses of more than INR40 million.
ExpressJet Airlines flew 861.1 million RPMs in December, up 5.4% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 3% to 1.12 billion ASMs and load factor rose 1.7 points to 77.1%.
Cyprus Airways said it has completed its restructuring process ( ATWOnline, Jan. 11, 2006) and is expecting to turn a profit this year. It lost CYP23.2 million ($53.1 million) in 2005 and has not announced its 2006 results. The carrier cut 500 employees from a staff of 1,800 and implemented salary cuts of up to 25% but in line with an increase in productivity. It also announced the addition of Sofia, Heraklion and Rhodes to its network.
KLM will invest more than €100 million ($132.5 million) in the next two years to equip some 130 aircraft with a "fresher, more modern interior." It also will repaint the Fokkers flying for KLM cityhopper in the mainline livery. New Koito lie-flat seats, which boast on-demand entertainment and in-seat power, will be installed in World Business Class aboard KLM's 22 747-400s and 10 MD-11s, bringing them in line with its new 777s and A330s. TV screens aboard 747s will be replaced with Matsushita/Panasonic LCD screens.
Germanwings MD Thomas Winkelmann said the LCC is expecting to increase its turnover this year by 15% compared to 2006 based on an expected load factor of 82% and more than 8 million passengers. "We plan to grow profitably in 2007. We will add three more A320s to our fleet, new destinations and will present new innovations in the first quarter of this year," he said. Separately, the airline announced several new European services to launch by March 25.
Ryanair said it filed a legal action in the Council of State, France's highest administrative court, against the government and a complaint to the European Commission challenging what the LCC called "an unlawful labor decree" that forces foreign airlines to apply domestic labor laws when basing aircraft in France. Ryanair claims that the regulation, which came into force Nov. 23, "is contrary to European laws on free movement of labor and services and the freedom of establishment and is also contrary to the liberalized air transport market."
Nordam Group extended Ken Lackey's tenure as chairman and CEO through 2008. President and COO John Uczekaj left the company. CFO Bill Peacher will take over as COO of Nordam's Repair Group and Lackey will handle COO duties for the manufacturing divisions.
Virgin America insisted it remains "committed to getting our wings" despite a sharp rebuke last week from the US Dept. of Transportation, which tentatively denied the proposed startup's application for an operating certificate on grounds that it is not clearly 75% owned and controlled by US citizens.
World Air Holdings, parent of World Airways and North American Airlines, last week said it posted a $5.9 million net profit in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, up 8.5% from the $5.5 million earned in the year-ago period. Its operating income of $8.2 million was a 20.2% decline from the year-ago quarter's but higher than the $6-$8 million forecast in November when it announced the delay in its third-quarter report ( ATWOnline, Nov. 22, 2006).
Lufthansa will add around 3,000 new employees in 2007, according to Bild. The carrier is looking for 1,200 flight attendants, 800 ground staff and 240 pilot cadets. It currently employs 94,000, up from 92,300 at the end of 2005.
South African Airways introduced lie-flat seating on all long-haul routes. In addition, it increased the pitch on its A340 economy seats and added amenities to its first class service including enhanced seats, revamped lounges and check-in services, chauffeur service in Johannesburg and London and other improvements.
SriLankan Cargo will launch a regional charter service that will include destinations not served by regularly scheduled flights. It said it will obtain all landing clearances. It operates two freighters and also carries cargo on 14 mainline aircraft.
Vietnam Airlines is among the companies selected by the government to become a public stock company in 2008, the state Vietnam News Agency reported. The carrier has registered capital of VND5.74 trillion ($344.2 million).
An Adam Air 737-400 that disappeared Jan. 1 after sending out two distress calls still has not been found, Indonesian officials said yesterday, casting doubt over whether any of the 96 passengers and six crew aboard the flight survived the apparent crash.
Monarch Airlines carried more than 3.2 million scheduled passengers in 2006, a 24% increase over 2005 when the UK-based LCC carried 2.6 million. The figures exclude charter activity and represent earned seats flown on scheduled services to Spain, Gibraltar, Portugal and Cyprus from Aberdeen, Birmingham, London Gatwick, London Luton and Manchester. Monarch will increase capacity on a number of popular services and launch eight new routes in 2007: To Ibiza from LGW, LTN, BHX and MAN, LGW-Murcia, LTN-Almeria, LTN-Larnaca and MAN-Jerez.
Aviation Safety Network yesterday said that the 27 fatal airline accidents that resulted in 888 deaths during 2006 were "significantly lower" than the 10-year average of 36 accidents and 1,005 fatalities but that the number of "loss of control" accidents was a "noteworthy" statistic. Those crashes accounted for 17 of the 27 accidents and more than 800 deaths. "The moving 10-year average trends show a decrease in the average number of fatal accidents for all continents.
ITA Software, which revolutionized air fare shopping, is applying its shopping technology to a new arena: frequent flyer rewards. Its first client is Aeroplan, founded as Air Canada's frequent flyer program but spun off as a separate company after the carrier's bankruptcy reorganization. André Hebért, Aeroplan's vice president of IT and eBusiness, said the move was part of a larger project called ClassicPlus, whose goal was "to offer not just more seats for redemption, but every seat on the aircraft."
WHEN ASKED TO IDENTIFY the feature upon which Vienna International Airport has built its reputation, Herbert Kaufmann, member and speaker of the board of Flughafen Wien, owner and operator of VIE, does not hesitate: "We are the gateway to Eastern European countries. Vienna Airport is the most natural link to the emerging markets of Eastern Europe with its close geographical proximity and our wide range of destinations throughout the region."
OVER THE LONG TERM, AIR CARGO is a reliable growth industry. Nearly all experts tracking the movement of airfreight globally, including both Boeing and Airbus, project average annual scheduled air cargo traffic growth of about 6% over the next 20 years, higher than the anticipated rate of growth for passenger traffic. But from year to year, and even within the same year, airfreight traffic can fluctuate wildly, subject to the changing winds of an unpredictable and often volatile global economy.
IT WAS AN AMBITIOUS GOAL THAT IATA SET FOR the world's airlines in November 2004: As a core part of its Simplifying the Business initiative, it called for the elimination of paper tickets flowing through its bank settlement plansthe systems that handle the movement of funds for tickets booked by travel agenciesby the end of 2007.
MORE THAN 100 YEARS OF powered flight have taught the aviation industry one unshakeable truth: Very few accidents are caused by a single event; more often they are the result of a conflux or alignment of multiple contributory system failures. And in aviation, where most accidents have "human error" as a contributing factor, it is imperative that the industry understand as quickly as possible in a free and open exchange what set of circum-stances conspired to cause humans to err.
AFTER A DREAM RUN THAT SAW the doubling of capacity in two years and the opening up of dozens of routes all over the country, India's domestic airline industry seems to be headed for a hiatus. Signs of weakness in the sector are now there for all to see. Every airline is battling red ink and the carriers are expected to tot up aggregate losses of more than $500 million for the year to March 31, 2007.
FOLLOWING A BETTER-THAN-expected 2006, 2007 may well be the peak year in the current airline earnings cycle and certainly will surpass last year's result. Analysts with whom ATW spoke are guardedly optimistic about the New Year, with expectations for the first industrywide net profit since 2000 barring any new shock(s) to the system.
The decision, implemented on Jan. 8, applies to domestic business and first class fares and international fares purchased on the U.S. Expedia.com site. American's economy seats are still available on the site. The move does not affect American's bookings through Expedia Corporate Travel, which are processed through Sabre, or through international points of sale.
