AirTran Airways said glitches following a planned Monday night upgrade to its internal reservations and check-in systems caused long lines and delays yesterday at airports, primarily Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta. The carrier said "most" of the issues were resolved late yesterday but that the systems still were "experiencing periodic outages" and passengers should allow more time for check-in.
TAT Group will adopt Sabena Technics as the single brand for its civil and military aviation maintenance activities. TAT Group acquired Sabena Technics, a subsidiary of the former Belgian flag carrier, one year ago ( ATWOnline, June 20, 2005). The rebranding "underscores the group's strategic ambition to be one of Europe's leading independent operators of maintenance services," TAT Group said in a statement.
US Airways Group flew a combined 5.56 billion RPMs in May, a 7.7% drop from the year-ago month. Capacity declined 10.8% to 6.96 billion ASMs and load factor rose 2.7 points to 79.9%. US Airways mainline flew 3.24 billion RPMs, an 8.2% decrease, as capacity fell 12.9% to 4.05 billion ASMs. Load factor climbed 4 points to 79.9%. Austrian Airlines Group flew 1.9 billion RPKs in May, an increase of 3.9% over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 4.3% to 2.7 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 0.3 point to 69.4%.
Finnair took delivery of a former Virgin Atlantic A340-300 last week that will be used on the Helsinki-Shanghai route. The second and third A340s will arrive over the next two years. It ordered nine A350s and three A340s in December ( ATWOnline, Dec. 8, 2005). The current MD-11 fleet will be phased out by 2012. Separately, Finnair placed a second ATR 72 with Bravo Aviation in a transaction arranged by Skyways Aviation.
AirBaltic will start four-times-weekly Riga-Kaliningrad flights on July 2 using F50s, codesharing with Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise. AirBaltic said it carried 119,389 passengers in May, 32% more than in the year-ago month. Load factor rose 5 points to 56%.
Lufthansa Technik joined the Airbus MRO Network, which was launched in March 2005 and now includes 14 members. "The new arrangements will simplify and accelerate the exchange of technical data. Combined with our strong engineering resources, there will be a further increase in the efficiency of MRO services for Airbus airplanes," LHT Executive Board Chairman August Henningsen said.
Delta Air Lines filed documents yesterday with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. to terminate its pilots' pension plan. The move, which Delta said is necessary to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, was not unexpected following the pilots' May 31 ratification of a concessions deal that will save the airline $280 million annually and that included incentives for pilots if they do not oppose the pension termination ( ATWOnline, June 1).
Air France will operate thrice-weekly flights between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Chennai from Oct. 30 using its own aircraft. It currently codeshares on the route with Delta Air Lines. AF's flights will be aboard a two-class A340 and also will be sold by Delta. In addition, AF will increase capacity to Bangalore from Oct. 30, offering seven weekly flights from CDG instead of five. The Paris-Mumbai route will use 310-seat 777-300s instead of the 270-seat dash 200s operated last winter.
Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee said yesterday that it had decoded the flight data recorder of the Armavia A320 that crashed into the Black Sea early last month ( ATWOnline, May 4) but the analysis uncovered no anomaly that could have caused the accident that killed all 113 passengers and crew onboard. The aircraft originating from Yerevan crashed in heavy rain and low visibility as it attempted a second approach to its intended destination of Sochi Airport.
ANA and Japan Airlines face a limited 24-hr. strike on June 21 by some pilot unions "over dissatisfaction with the management stance on career progression," among other issues. International flights will not be affected but up to 25% of domestic flights for both airlines will be impacted.
The European Commission tabled two initiatives to put "a legally sound framework" in place for the transfer of PNR data to the United States. Last month, the European Court of Justice ruled the current agreement dating from May 2004 was "founded on an inappropriate legal basis" and gave the EU and Washington until Sept. 30 to negotiate a replacement ( ATWOnline, May 31).
Frontier Airlines said its May yield rose 3% over the year-ago month to 10.31 cents and RASM increased 7.6% to 8.23 cents. Traffic grew 24.2% to 763.7 million RPMs against a 19% rise in capacity to 956.8 million ASMs, sending load factor up 3.3 points to 79.8%.
Singapore Airlines reported an 8.9% year-on-year growth in May RPKs to 6.75 billion. Capacity rose 3.7% to 9.55 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 3.3 points to 70.7%. AirTran Airways flew 1.2 billion RPMs in May, a 23.2% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 21.3% to 1.58 billion ASMs and load factor rose 1.2 points to 75.8%.
Air Canada launched daily Montreal-Denver service Friday aboard an A319. AC flew 4.06 billion RPMs in May, a 5.7% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 2.2% to 4.93 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 2.7 points to 82.3%. Domestic traffic grew 2.6% to 1.32 billion RPMs as capacity increased 4.9% to 1.67 billion ASMs and load factor fell 1.7 points to 79%. International RPMs jumped 4.9% to 2.1 billion as capacity dropped 0.8% to 2.44 billion ASMs, raising load factor 4.7 points to 86.2%.
LTU owner Hans Rudolf Woehrl does not see much likelihood that the troubled leisure airline will achieve a breakeven operating result this year after he was unable to reach agreement with the carrier's unions on wage cuts he proposed. He is seeking to reduce costs by €45 million ($57.3 million), including €15 million in salary cuts ( ATWOnline, June 12). According to Die Welt, Woehrl has not ruled out layoffs as a way to lower costs.
Air India said it received expressions of interest from seven parties/consortia in serving as its consultant in preparing a "road map" for its merger with Indian Airlines. Its board will invite the bidders to make presentations June 26-27.
Alitalia and Meridiana signed a codeshare agreement for the Rome-Cagliari route. Alitalia will add its code to Meridiana's flights while Meridiana will lease an AZ aircraft to operate on the route. Alitalia lost the right to fly to Cagliari and Olbia in April because it applied for renewal after a deadline set by ENAC. The three-year concession was awarded to Air One and Meridiana. Separately, Alitalia flew 3.35 billion RPKs in May, a 2.3% rise over the year-ago month. Capacity fell 1.9% to 4.55 billion ASKs and load factor climbed 3 points to 73.6%.
Re-regulating the US airline industry in order to avoid future pension defaults by airlines would reverse the benefits to consumers of deregulation "and would not save airline pensions," according to a new study by the US Government Accountability Office, the research and investigation arm of Congress.
