Dba purchased the remaining 40% stake in LTU German Airlines held by Rewe Group through the Intro Verwaultungs investment concern belonging to Hans Rudolf Woehrl, dba's largest shareholder. Intro now owns 100% of LTU, having acquired a 60% share of the struggling charter carrier in a deal announced in February ( ATWOnline, Feb. 20). Woehrl will face difficulties attempting to implement a €45 million ($57.3 million) cost-cutting program at LTU.
Ethiopian Airlines will wet-lease one A330-200 from June 17 and one MD-11 from July 1 to handle expected growth. It cancelled plans to lease two 747-400s because the aircraft would not deliver on time ( ATWOnline, May 2). "The lease is for six months, then we want to have two 777-200s or more 767-300ERs. It depends what is available on the market," CEO Girma Wake told ATWOnline at last week's IATA AGM in Paris.
US Dept. of Transportation approved Mesa Air Group's use of the name go! for its Hawaii inter-island startup over the objection of mainland-based GoJet Airlines. The new carrier, which will operate from the commuter terminal at Honolulu International, is scheduled to launch service today offering one-way fares from $19. GoJet, a subsidiary of Trans States Holdings that operates a fleet of CRJ700s as a United Express carrier, argued that Mesa's new name "would cause public confusion." Mesa responded that go!
SAS Scandinavian Airlines said passengers on four flights this month between New York and Stockholm will have the opportunity to test new Sony Ericsson mobile phones using VOIP technology rather than a mobile/cellular network. The aircraft are equipped with Connexion by Boeing, which makes it possible for passengers traveling with laptops accessing the Connexion service to use VOIP phones without risking interference with aircraft systems or avionics.
BAE Systems confirmed that it served upon EADS a formal notice of exercise of its put option regarding BAE's sale of its 20% stake in Airbus back to the French-German company. BAE Systems had announced May 2 it would use the put option if it could not reach agreement on the value of the stake.
US Congress will permit the Dept. of Transportation to move forward with its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that is intended to ease how the department interprets foreign control of US airlines. On Wednesday, both the Senate and House agreed to drop language from a supplemental appropriations bill that would have delayed the rule through the Sept. 30 end of the current fiscal year to permit Congress to study the issue.
El Al hopes to make Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport a connecting hub for transport to the Far East. "We already have passengers who are traveling with us from Europe and the US to Asia. We see some potential for us in this business," Chairman Israel Borovich told this website at the IATA AGM in Paris. Asian destinations currently comprise Beijing, Hong Kong and Bangkok. El Al will add two more 777s by next year and has begun installation of a new business class product, including lie-flat seats, on its long-haul fleet.
Delta Air Lines continued to expand its network yesterday with the launch of 23 new North American routes that will serve 19 states and Canada and each of DL's major hubs. Six of seven new routes from Atlanta are operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines, four of five from New York JFK are flown by Comair and six of seven from Salt Lake City are handled by SkyWest. More routes will be inaugurated throughout the month. Separately, Delta raised fuel surcharges on "most" transatlantic flights by $10 effective yesterday.
United Airlines flew 10.13 billion system RPMs in May, a 4.5% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 2.1% to 12.13 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 2 points to a May-record 83.8%.
Air France-KLM said May traffic rose 6.2% over the year-ago month to 16.18 billion RPKs against a 4.3% lift in capacity to 20.45 billion ASKs. Load factor gained 1.4 points to 79.1%. The company posted a "significant increase" in unit revenue last month, "once again driven by sustained levels of premium traffic." EasyJet carried 2.9 million passengers in May, up 15.2% on the year-ago month. Load factor dipped 0.2 point to 83.9%.
JetBlue Airways broke ground yesterday on its $24.5 million crew facility at Orlando International. Scheduled for completion in 14-18 months, the JetBlue Crew Lodge will include 292 guest rooms, a 4,000-sq.-ft. assembly hall, fitness facilities and other features. The LCC already operates a training center at MCO that opened in June 2005 and a three-bay hangar facility used by LiveTV, its wholly owned subsidiary. Separately, JetBlue will launch thrice-daily New York JFK-Nashville flights aboard Embraer 190s from Aug. 31.
Air One is set to become a regional member of Star Alliance in the future, but the Italian carrier is aiming higher, Head of Network & Marketing Giorgio De Roni told this website at the IATA AGM. "First, I think, it makes sense that we become a regional member, then we will apply for full membership," he said. As a first step, Air One is planning to introduce more codeshare agreements with Star carriers.
The replacement carrier for troubled Olympic Airlines is supposed to start operating this fall, Sabre Aviation Consulting Services President Nejib Ben-Khedher told this website during this week's IATA conference in Paris.
CSA Czech Airlines posted a CZK496 million ($22.6 million) loss in 2005, a significant reversal from the CZK324 million profit earned in 2004, and expects to finish 2006 in the red, the carrier told the CTK Czech News Agency. Operating revenues rose 12% to CZK22.4 billion against a 21.4% increase in costs to CZK23.4 billion. CSA transported 5.2 million passengers last year, a 20% increase that "was achieved at the cost of inadequately high expenditures," President Radomir Lasak told CTK. "This problem has roots in 2003, when CSA decided to increase its fleet by 45% in a leap.
British Airways flew 9.66 billion RPKs in May, a 6.9% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 5.1% to 12.97 billion ASKs and load factor went up 1.3 points to 74.5%. Separately, BA and Malev Hungarian Airlines signed a codeshare agreement effective Nov. 1, placing BA's code on Malev's twice-daily London Gatwick-Budapest flights and seven Eastern European routes from BUD. Malev will place its code on BA's thrice-daily London Heathrow-BUD service and on flights to five British markets from LGW.
Boeing and FedEx jointly have initiated a 120-day in-service evaluation of active radio frequency identification tags on some major airplane parts for a FedEx MD-10F. Active tags provide considerably greater read range than passive tags, 300 ft. compared to 10 ft., giving the ability to inventory an aircraft without opening access doors, according to Boeing. Active tags also operate more quickly and provide more storage memory. The tags were created by Identec Solutions, are battery powered and contain a microchip and transmitter that operate at 915MHz.
Northwest Airlines flight attendants overwhelmingly rejected a tentative agreement reached in March that would have provided the bankrupt carrier with $195 million in annual work rule, benefit and salary concessions ( ATWOnline, March 2). According to the Professional Flight Attendants Assn., 85% of the 7,625 eligible workers cast votes and of those, 80% voted to reject the agreement. "The Flight Attendants understood how harsh and unfair the bankruptcy process can be to loyal employees.
IATA AGM formally approved a resolution making membership conditional on IATA Operational Safety Audit certification despite plenty of protest, mainly from African carriers, against the new prerequisite. Under the regulation, all new IATA members will be required to pass IOSA before they join while existing members must contract for an audit by year end and complete it by the end of 2007. "Safety is our number one priority," IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani stressed.
Lufthansa appears to have been unsuccessful in its bid to cut pilot costs in the face of strong earnings last year ( ATWOnline, Dec. 21, 2005), announcing a new deal yesterday with the approximately 4,000 pilots represented by the Vereinigung Cockpit union that offers a 2.5% pay raise from July 1, a further 1.5% raise on March 1, 2007, a small one-off payment and an incremental reduction in regular work hours.
Mettis Aerospace was selected by Teleflex Aerospace Manufacturing Group to be an exclusive supplier of aluminum outlet guide vanes in a deal with GE Aircraft Engines. The five-year deal includes a newly designed vane for the GEnx.
Rolls-Royce signed a 15-year Total Care engine services agreement with UPS covering 40 RB211-535s powering 757 freighters. The pact "covers work which would not be performed by UPS's own maintenance program," according to Rolls.
