London Stansted passengers will not face a strike by baggage handlers and check-in staff this weekend ( ATWOnline, Aug. 21) after the TGWU and GMB unions reached a two-year labor deal with Swissport. GMB said the company offered an 11% pay increase.
ANA, Hawaiian Aviation Contract Services and Sojitz Corp. last week established a new Honolulu-based flightcrew leasing company called Crew Resources Worldwide that will provide pilots for ANA and other carriers.
El Al reported a second-quarter loss of $15.1 million, according to press reports, a reversal from the $29.9 million earned in the year-ago quarter before increased foreign competition, fuel costs and war devastated the bottom line. Revenue increased 2% to $429.2 million. A full-year loss is expected ( ATWOnline, July 20). The carrier took another hit this week when the Israeli government signed a deal with Alitalia to be the preferred carrier for officials flying internationally.
Pinnacle Airlines, a Northwest Airlink partner, has been notified by NWA that the company is ready to begin renegotiating its Airline Service Agreement, according to a recent filing with the SEC. The current service contract prohibits Pinnacle from operating aircraft with more than 50 seats. In addition to its exclusive agreement with Northwest, Pinnacle CEO Phil Trenary said the Regional will continue to look for other opportunities and has completed work on a second certificate enabling it operate aircraft for other partners.
Boeing announced that China Airlines will use the Maintenance Performance Toolbox and will be the first carrier to use it in conjunction with Boeing's Maintenance and Engineering Management application, which CI adopted last year.
IATA and China's General Administration of Civil Aviation signed an MOU to "further the safe, efficient and sustainable development of China's air transportation system," IATA said. The agreement focuses on cooperation in safety, traffic management, training, fuel, technology and other areas.
Pan Am World Airways liquidation trust said last week it soon would receive $30 million from the Libyan government, to be paid out to 15,000 former Pan Am employees and other creditors by year end, as part of a settlement reached last year in which Libya acknowledged its involvement in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland.
Pinnacle Airlines flew 381.3 million RPMs in July, an 8.1% drop from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 8.7% to 484.2 million ASMs and load factor rose 0.5 point to 78.7%. Frontier Airlines flew 849.3 million RPMs in July, a 16.1% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 11.6% to 996.4 million ASMs and load factor was up 3.3 points to 85.2%.
Jetstar Airways won approval from the US Dept. of Transportation to begin marketing proposed A330-200 flights from Sydney (thrice-weekly) and Melbourne (twice-weekly) to Honolulu scheduled to commence Nov. 23. While final approval has not been granted, Jetstar CEO Alan Joyce said DOT has "indicated to Qantas that Jetstar is qualified to perform these international operations." Qantas will continue to operate thrice-weekly Sydney-Honolulu service after Jetstar launches. Separately, Jetstar said last week it initially will hire 200 flight attendants.
Korean Air said it will ask Boeing for about $12 million to reimburse it for costs associated with preparing 29 aircraft for the Connexion by Boeing service that was pulled from the market last week ( ATWOnline, Aug. 18). An airline official told The Korea Times that it cost $400,000 to furnish a plane with the Connexion service. The carrier planned to introduce the service in an additional 25 aircraft by 2008.
Japan Airlines parent JAL Group applied to the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to increase fuel surcharges on all international passenger tickets from Oct. 1. The proposed new surcharges will rise from ¥1,300 ($11.20) to ¥2,000 on a Seoul-Tokyo ticket, from ¥11,500 to ¥17,100 on a Japan-Brazil ticket and from ¥8,000 to ¥13,600 on flights from Japan to Europe and North America.
Saudi Arabian government initiated the privatization process for flag carrier Saudi Arabian Airlines by formally offering a stake of up to 49% in the company's catering and affiliated inflight sales units. The carrier submitted its plan to the government earlier this month ( ATWOnline, Aug. 4).
AirBridge Cargo signed an interline agreement with Continental Airlines and appointed general sales agent partners in the US as it prepares to launch 747F flights to the US next year. ABC said CO will provide "an important link into its network, notably for the movement of oil and gas equipment from Texas to Sakhalin Island off the coast of Russia." ABC, the scheduled services arm of heavy freight specialist Volga-Dnepr, operates two IL-76 freighters weekly from its Krasnoyarsk hub to Sakhalin.
Air China, Cathay Pacific Airways, China National Aviation Co. and CITIC Pacific shareholders approved the proposed realignment that would establish cross-shareholdings between Air China and Cathay and make Dragonair a CX subsidiary. The long-anticipated deal, announced in June ( ATWOnline, June 12), must receive regulatory approval. Air China Chairman Li Jiaxiang said the realignment will "create a potent new force in the airline industry."
TFC GmbH Kaufer was chosen by CSA Czech Airlines to supply an A320 cabin training simulator. It is scheduled for delivery to CSA's Prague training center in September 2007.
Alaska Airlines will begin San Francisco-San Diego service with four daily weekday flights and a reduced weekend schedule on Oct. 29. It also will add nine weekly flights from Los Angeles and SFO to Mexican resort destinations for its winter timetable. Separately, the carrier extended its Northern Bites $5 meal option, currently available on Mexican services, to nearly all flights longer than 3 hr. Also, Alaska flew 1.75 billion RPMs in July, up 7.3% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 6.6% and load factor increased 0.6 point to a July-record 82.8%.
Great Wall Airlines, the joint venture cargo startup in which Singapore Airlines holds a 25% stake, suspended operations Friday after the US government imposed sanctions against its majority stakeholder for allegedly conspiring to supply Iran with missile components. The US Treasury Dept. last week froze all US-related assets of Great Wall Industry Corp., the Shanghai-based firm that owns 51% of Great Wall Airlines, saying it is one of four Chinese companies providing military support to Iran.
Singapore Airlines flew 7.76 billion RPKs in July, a 5.5% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 2.3% to 9.56 billion ASKs, raising load factor 2.5 points to 81.2%. Horizon Air flew 249 million RPMs in July, up 4.8% over the year-ago month, against a 2.9% rise in capacity to 318.8 million ASMs. Load factor rose 1.4 points to 78.1%. Finnair said July RPKs increased 15.6% over the year-ago month, with capacity rising 10.5% and load factor improving 3.6 points to 82.4%.
BAA believes London Heathrow would struggle to accommodate an influx of US airlines following the signing of open aviation area agreement between the US and EU, The Times reported. According to a BAA internal briefing acquired by the newspaper, demand already exceeds supply at LHR for slots as well as apron and terminal capacity and the airport would be unable to cope with another increase in demand for new services. A BAA spokesperson said the airport operator expects carriers to attempt mass migration from London Gatwick to LHR if and when an OAA deal is reached.
Assn. of European Airlines members posted a 99% completion rate on short/medium-haul flights in the second quarter with an 81.1% ontime performance, down 2.2 points from the year-ago period, according to data supplied by 26 of the 31 member carriers. Long-haul flights were completed 99.7% of the time with 72.7% punctuality, down 4.2 points. Baggage irregularities rose to 13.3 missing bags per 1,000 passengers from 11.9 in the second quarter of 2005. The reporting carriers flew approximately 93 million passengers during the quarter on 980,000 flights.
Worldspan announced finalization of multiyear full-content distribution agreements with Air Moldova, Aegean Airlines, AeroSvit Airlines, Air Burkina, Arkia Israel Airlines, Aurigny Air Services, dba, Eos Airlines, Transaero Airlines and VLM Airlines.
American Airlines launched a website, www.flytochinaonaa.com, on which passengers and businesses can learn about and register support for the carrier's application to operate nonstop service between Dallas/Fort Worth and Beijing beginning in March. Following Northwest Airlines' announcement last week that it applied to operate Detroit-Shanghai service, there now are four carriers competing for the award of one transpacific route ( ATWOnline, Aug. 21).
