EasyJet cabin crew and ground staff represented by the Transport & General Workers Union will vote on whether to call a strike in a long-running pay dispute, the union announced Friday. T&G said it has been negotiating a two-year deal since last October and warned the strike could begin in six weeks.
Sabena Technics hangar at Brussels Airport was destroyed Friday by a heavy fire that damaged three A320s plus a C-130 belonging to the Belgian Air Force that were in the shop for heavy maintenance. One A320 belonged to Armenian airline Armavia, which lost another A320 two days earlier when it crashed into the Black Sea ( ATWOnline, May 4).
Finnair Group on Friday unveiled a cost-cutting plan aimed at achieving annual savings of €80 million as it reported a first-period loss of €3.8 million ($4.8 million), reversing last year's March quarter profit of €12.2 million.
Armavia said yesterday that the A320 that crashed into the Black Sea off the Russian coast Wednesday had undergone all proper maintenance checks, including an overhaul in Belgium last month ( ATWOnline, May 4). Rescue workers continued to search the sea for debris and clues to the cause of an accident that killed all 113 aboard. The black box has not been retrieved from the aircraft, which sits 500 m. below the water surface, according to Russian media reports. Heavy rain and low visibility have been offered as the accident's cause by the airline and Airbus.
Star Alliance joined American Airlines in questioning the recent content-sharing deal between Amadeus and Sabre ( ATWOnline, March 9). The two GDSs announced in early March that they had entered into an agreement that enables "Amadeus customers to complete bookings on an airline [through Sabre] in the unlikely event of that airline withdrawing from participation in Amadeus" and vice versa.
Discover the World Marketing was chosen by Delta Air Lines to handle sales in Hungary, including establishment of a ticketing office in Budapest. Discover already represents Delta in Austria.
Delta Air Lines flew 9.42 billion consolidated RPMs in April, a 5.9% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 7.3% to 12.15 billion ASMs and load factor rose 1.2 points to 77.6%. Domestic traffic decreased 11.6% to 6.86 billion RPMs against a 13.5% drop in capacity to 8.88 billion ASMs, raising load factor 1.6 points to 77.2%. International traffic rose 13.9% to 2.56 billion RPMs, capacity climbed 15.1% to 3.27 billion ASMs and load factor fell 0.8 point to 78.5%. Ryanair transported 3.4 million passengers in April, a 29% increase over the year-ago month.
Niki plans to start using Vienna Airport as a hub early next year when the Austrian LCC launches daily flights to Moscow. "Air Berlin will feed us with flights from six German destinations to Vienna and on to Moscow. This is just the beginning for us to Eastern Europe," founder Niki Lauda told ATWOnline in Palma de Mallorca. Air Berlin owns a 24% stake in Niki, which soon will decide which Moscow airport it will serve. Lauda said his airline is considering other Eastern European destinations, including St.
Northwest Airlines pilots ratified the Restructuring Tentative Agreement reached with the carrier in March by a 63.4% to 36.6% margin, the Air Line Pilots Assn. said yesterday. By the time voting closed at 10 a.m., 4,554 of 4,801 eligible pilots had cast ballots, with 2,888 voting in favor and 1,666 voting in opposition. The 5.5-year deal will reduce NWA's pilot costs by $358 million.
Continental Airlines and Orlando International Airport successfully completed testing of SITA's AirportConnect Open program, which allows airlines to use the same application software on common-use terminal workstations.
Thai Airways is to launch a new airline to compete with LCCs on regional routes to Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. According to the carrier's new president, Apinan Sumanaseni, who spoke to the Bangkok Post, the airline will be called Euarng Luang, which means Royal Orchid, and will be positioned differently from Nok Air, Thai Airways' own LCC, in that it will target the market between budget and premium.
European Union and Georgia signed an agreement yesterday allowing European carriers to have "nondiscriminatory access" to Georgia and to fly between it and any EU member country. It is the fourth "horizontal" agreement signed by the EU, the others being with Ukraine, Moldova and Chile. New Zealand and India reached a new air services agreement allowing daily flights between Mumbai and Auckland with codesharing onward to other cities in each country. Services can be nonstop or via Australia or Singapore.
US Dept. of Transportation, responding to negative comments regarding its proposal to ease how it interprets foreign control of US airlines, yesterday issued a revised Notice of Proposed Rulemaking it said ensures that areas involving safety, security and national defense obligations will remain under the control of US carrier decision-makers.
United Airlines consolidated its airport operations and cargo divisions into one unit to be led by Senior VP-Cargo Scott Dolan. Senior VP-Airport Operations Larry De Shon will leave the airline and Alex Marren will assume the role of VP-operational services. Executive VP and COO Pete McDonald said the move will "further streamline United's operations" and drive down costs. Dolan, formerly COO of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, joined UA in 2004 and focused on lowering cargo operating costs as the carrier navigated through bankruptcy reorganization.
Software maker IBS said that Nippon Cargo Airlines is the launch customer for iCargo, its "next-generation air cargo and logistics management system that has the functionality to fully support supply chain management from shipper to consignee in all aspects of cargo logistics."
Volito Aviation Group purchased an A319-112 from Sachsen Landesbank. Aircraft is on lease to TAP Portugal through March 2012. PK AirFinance provided financing.
Northwest Airlines pilots are set to finish voting at 10 a.m. today on the labor agreement reached in early March ( ATWOnline, March 6). Voting by Air Line Pilots Assn. members on the five-year deal began April 6.
Goodrich entered into an agreement to sell its Turbomachinery Products business to Turbo Machinery Products, a new company formed by California investment firm Admiralty Partners, for $83 million.
Southwest Airlines flew 5.73 billion RPMs in April, a 19.3% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 7.3% to 7.47 billion ASMs, raising load factor 7.6 points to 76.7%. AirTran Airways flew 1.2 billion RPMs in April, a 32.9% rise over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 22.5% to 1.53 billion ASMs and load factor rose 6.2 points to 78.8%. All are April records.
Stork Aerospace of the Netherlands and its Fokker Elmo subsidiary reached an agreement with Boeing for the manufacture and supply of a second work package of electrical wiring for the 737NG. Deliveries are scheduled through 2011.
Singapore Airlines will launch thrice-weekly services to both Barcelona and Milan Malpensa from July 19 aboard 777-200ERs. Separately, SIA increased its fuel surcharge per sector to $20 from $15 on flights to select cities in Southeast Asia and to $60 from $50 per sector on all other flights effective May 15.
US FAA's recent proposal to require airframe manufacturers to place life limits on their transport aircraft has sparked little industry response to date, although it marks a sea change in the way aircraft are regulated.
Air Berlin increased its April traffic 24.8% year-over-year to 971,480 passengers as load factor grew 8.8 points to 83%. Mountain Air Cargo transported 9.4 million lb. of freight in April.
