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.
The recent shift in political power in the US Congress is unlikely to create a wave of change in the Senate and House committees that handle aviation issues, according to staff members who spoke yesterday at a Washington luncheon sponsored by the International Aviation Club.
British Airways will launch service from London Gatwick to Port of Spain (thrice-weekly via Barbados aboard 777s), Dresden (daily aboard 737s) and Sarajevo (thrice-weekly aboard 737s) from March. At the same time, it will suspend flights from LGW to Athens, Kiev, Newcastle and Riga. BA reached a codeshare agreement with Caribbean Airlines, which will place its code on BA flights to Port of Spain, Barbados and Antigua. Separately, BA flew 9.58 billion RPKs in October, a 1.1% increase over the year-ago month.
Air India started construction on a INR500 million ($11.1 million) maintenance base at Thiruvananthapuram Airport. The 15 acres of land was transferred to the carrier by the Kerala government free of charge. Construction is scheduled to be completed in mid-2008. The base will service primarily 737-800s operated by Air India Express.
Frontier Airlines flew 669.3 million RPMs in October, a 15.4% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 14.1% to 920.9 million ASMs and load factor was up 0.8 point to 72.7%. Separately, Frontier named Dennis Crabtree VP-safety and security.
Airbus will boost production of A320 family aircraft to 36 per month from the current 30 over the next two years, Reuters reported. It had intended to produce 34 per month by the second quarter of 2008.
American Airlines said it has equipped more than 365 self-service kiosks with passport readers to allow international self-service check-in, with more to come.
Gol 737-800/ExcelAire Legacy 600 accident investigators released a report last week indicating that the Legacy pilots, who have been detained at a Rio de Janeiro hotel since the September collision ( ATWOnline, Oct. 10), attempted to contact Brasilia air traffic control 19 times in the 8 min. prior to the crash without success. The report was translated from Portuguese by Newsday and indicates that ATC and the aircraft lost contact with each other repeatedly during the 54 min.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority, in a move that likely will have more of a symbolic effect than a practical one, yesterday announced it will stop regulating long-haul fares after 30 years "because of greater competition in the airline market." CAA said that in recent years it has focused on "a very small subset of fares on a shrinking number of mainly long-haul routes...paid by what the CAA perceived to be 'captive' passengers," such as those working for a small business or traveling due to an emergency.
Cathay Pacific Airways flew 6.02 billion RPKs in October, a 9.1% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 4.8% to 7.58 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 3.1 points to 79.4%.
