German court ruled that the government was partly liable in the 2002 midair collision between a DHL 757 freighter and a BAL Bashkirian Airlines Tu-154M that killed 71 people, as the government had granted Swiss ATC firm Skyguide control over a portion of German airspace, according to press reports. The court has yet to decide how much compensation is due Bashkirian, which reportedly is seeking $3.3 million. Other civil lawsuits are pending.
Air Deccan said its 21.2% market share in June made it India's second-largest airline, passing Indian Airlines, which held a 20.8% share, according to Deccan. The LCC operates 14 A320s and 21 ATR turboprops on 265 daily flights to 55 domestic destinations.
Delta Air Lines and Aeromexico formed an MRO partnership through which their respective maintenance divisions, Delta TechOps and Aeromexico Maintenance and Engineering, will market and perform MRO services jointly. In addition, Delta will be the exclusive MRO provider for Aeromexico's CFM56-7s and 131-9B APUs while AM will provide heavy MRO for DL's MD-88s.
AirAsia will subcontract rural turboprop services to Fly Asian Xpress, or FAX, which intends to begin operations Aug. 1. AirAsia is taking over the majority of domestic routes once operated by Malaysia Airlines and will transfer operations of its six F50s and five Twin Otters to FAX.
Air Traffic Control Assn. named Peter Dumont president. Dumont is a VP and acting COO at Serco. Singapore Airlines Cargo named Singapore Airlines Executive VP-Marketing and the Regions Huang Cheng Eng as chairman and director effective Aug. 1. Huang joined SIA in 1974.
Armavia A320 crash that killed 113 people in May was attributable to what appears to be a loss of situational awareness by the flight crew, Russian aviation officials stated yesterday, according to press reports. Last month's flight data recorder analysis revealed no problem with the aircraft ( ATWOnline, June 20). According to civil aviation head Tatyano Anodina, the aircraft was too low on approach and the crew was unable to respond in a timely manner to a GPWS alert.
British Airways sold its 14.6% shareholding in WNS, an Indian business services company, for a net $96 million. BA said it will report a gain on the disposal of approximately £48 million ($88.7 million) in the second quarter and use the proceeds to pay existing debt, which amounted to £4.1 billion as of March 31.
Etihad Airways unveiled a new Diamond Zone seat on its A340-500. It includes a 23-in. video screen, can rotate 180 deg., has a built-in massager and can lie flat, among other features. The Pearl Zone also will feature lie-flat seats. The aircraft is configured in three classes and will seat 12 in Diamond, 28 in Pearl and 200 in Coral class.
Tiger Airways has recorded an 81% lift in passenger volume since moving to the Budget Terminal at Singapore Changi four months ago ( ATWOnline, March 28). Since then, 400,000 passengers have traveled with Tiger, load factor has leapt 21 points and capacity has doubled to six A320s. Next month the airline will operate almost 200 flights per week from the terminal.
Amadeus signed a global content distribution agreement with Paramount Airways of India. Travelport, formerly Cendant Travel Distribution Services, signed a multiyear distribution agreement with Virgin Atlantic Airways making the airline's full content available on the Galileo GDS as well as Orbitz and CheapTickets.
Copa Airlines flew 311.4 million RPMs in June, a 15.3% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 8.2% to 406.9 million ASMs, lifting load factor 4.7 points to 76.5%. Mesaba Airlines flew 108.6 million RPMs in June, a 38.8% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 40% to 149.3 million ASMs and load factor rose 1.5 points to 72.8%.
Iberia confirmed that its new Barcelona-based LCC, now formally named Clickair, will launch in October with 12 domestic and additional European destinations, AFX News reported. Originally dubbed Catair after its Catalonia home, the airline officially has been branded Clickair to highlight the importance of the Internet to its sales efforts.
Mellon Leasing announced the sale of three ex-Comair Embraer 120s to Everts Air of Alaska. Meridian Aerospace Group acted as exclusive agent for Mellon.
Avient Solutions will supply its new inventory management system, SmartCargo, to Avient, an unaffiliated freight carrier operating from the UK and France on routes to Africa.
LAN Airlines flew 1.37 billion RPKs in June, a 6.4% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 8.2% to 2 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 1.2 points to 68.6%. TAM flew 1.57 billion domestic RPKs in June, a 45.6% increase over the year-ago month. Domestic capacity rose 21% to 2 billion ASKs and load factor increased 13.2 points to 78.5%. International RPKs grew 51.9% to 540 million as ASKs climbed 40.4% to 718 million and load factor went up 5.7 points to 75.1%.
Delta Air Lines named Atlanta attorney Michael Campbell executive VP-human resources and labor relations. Eastern Caribbean Airlines, a subsidiary of Viva International, named Pedro Maldonado director-operations and Jesus Rodriguez-Pazo chief pilot.
Worldspan signed a new multiyear, full-content distribution agreement with Swiss International Airlines. Separately, Swiss entered into a reciprocal loyalty program alliance with Jet Airways.
Swiss International Air Lines and the Aeropers pilots union agreed on the principles of a new three-year labor agreement that will become effective Nov. 1 if approved. The pilots had threatened a strike after the previous accord expired earlier this month ( ATWOnline, July 6). The parties agreed not to reveal details of the deal until it has been submitted to union members for approval.
Descartes Systems Group was selected by AeroSvit Ukrainian Airlines to provide customs compliance technology. AeroSvit will use Descartes' Global Logistics Network to transmit cargo manifest information as required by Canada's Advance Commercial Information program.
Lufthansa Systems will implement e-ticketing at Cirrus Airlines. It also signed a five-year deal with Asiana Airlines to implement its Sirax revenue management system.
