Virgin Atlantic opened a new £11 million ($19.2 million), 8,000-sq.-ft. club lounge at London Heathrow on Monday that features a spa pool, cinema, salon, rooftop garden, game room and other facilities and amenities. Architect was Softroom of London.
KLM named Senior VP-Operations Control & Fleet Services Michel Coumans MD of KLM cityhopper and CEO of KLM cityhopper UK effective April 1. He succeeds Elfrieke van Galen, who will take a new position within KLM Group. Amadeus named Mary Keagul North America VP-product strategy and operations responsible for the company's portfolio of e-commerce solutions.
Hooters Air is going bust after chipping steadily away at its flight schedule over the past three months. It will end scheduled service by April 17, according to the Myrtle Beach Sun News. The airline is owned by Robert Brooks, chairman of Atlanta-based restaurant chain Hooters of America. He launched Hooters Air in 2002 after acquiring Pace Airlines, a North Carolina-based charter carrier. Based at Myrtle Beach International Airport, Hooters was designed for leisure travelers. It eventually extended service to 15 destinations and operated up to seven aircraft.
Chile is the first nation to make the IATA Operational Safety Audit a condition of its airline certification process, IATA said yesterday. At present, 150 airlines representing 70% of scheduled international traffic have completed or are scheduled to complete the IOSA process. All IATA carriers must be IOSA-certified by the end of 2007. "The decision of the government of Chile is a model for how industry can work with governments at the national level by using IOSA as a requirement for airline operators," IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said.
Qantas said yesterday it plans to raise $400 million of unsecured debt through a Rule 144A/Regulation S offering of 6.05% 10-year notes due in 2016. The offering is priced at 133 basis points over the 10-year US benchmark treasury bond. "The notes were rated Baa1 by Moody's Investor Services and BBB+ by Standard & Poor's and were well received by investors," Qantas CFO Peter Gregg said.
Royal Jordanian signed a three-year, $3.2 million agreement with SITA for a "complete solution for its IT business," enabling interoperability with its future oneworld partners. Approximately 600 RJ employees will require on-the-job training to operate the new applications. RJ also signed an agreement with Hitit Computer Services to use its Crane frequent-flier solution starting in June. Continental Airlines signed a seven-year contract renewal for air/ground data link services with ARINC. The deal includes GLOBALink VHF, HFDL and satellite.
Lufthansa Technik Group, which saw its operating profit climb 26% to €258 million in 2005 ( ATWOnline, March 24), said growth should slow in 2006 as the competitive environment heats up. LHT Executive Board Member August Wilhelm Henningsen said at a press briefing that he expects 4%-5% growth in business this year, all of which should come from outside Lufthansa Group. Last year, 58% of LHT's work came from third-party clients as it increased its total global customer base by 4%. To compensate for the decline, it will continue to target cost savings.
Delta Air Lines and its pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn., were told last week by a three-man arbitration panel to continue negotiating ahead of an April 15 deadline and to submit confidential progress reports on April 3 and 7, according to press reports. Arbitrator Richard Bloch said a ruling by the panel would constitute "an abandonment of responsibility that will and should haunt all of you." Meantime, ALPA's Strike Preparedness Committee will conduct a practice strike tomorrow.
Gol signed a contract with STG Aerospace to retrofit its 24 737s with the SafTGlo photoluminescent floorpath marking system by the end of the month. It will be installed on future deliveries as well.
Cabin staff at Comair, a Regional partner of Delta Air Lines, will be in bankruptcy court this week attempting to stop a proposed $8.9 million in pay cuts the company has said it needs to survive. The flight attendants, represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, balked at the pay cuts and voted Friday by a 93% margin to authorize a strike.
Swiss International Air Lines will add six RJ100s to its fleet during the summer schedule to replace its last ERJ-145s. Separately, Swiss will change terminals at Stockholm Arlanda and Tokyo Narita. In Stockholm it will move into Terminal 5, where most of its future Star Alliance partners are housed. From June 1 it will join its Star partners in the upgraded Terminal 1 at Narita.
Korean Air is boosting summer services and upgrading aircraft used on the Seoul-New York JFK route. Weekly flights to Seattle will increase from three to four and weekly frequencies to Toronto will rise from two to three. Other increases are Paris CDG from five weekly flights to daily, Amsterdam and Zurich to thrice-weekly and Moscow to four-times-weekly. From Aug. 1 Korean will introduce 777-200ERs with cocoon-styled sleeper seats on the JFK route. The aircraft also feature AVOD in all three classes, inflight Internet and revamped interiors.
IBS Software Services announced that CargoJet of Canada and Northern Air Cargo of Alaska will be the launch customers for its SmartCargo inventory management software.
SR Technics will assume full component management and maintenance responsibility for the 32 737-700s SkyEurope Airlines will be introducing from this month onward. The 11-year agreement is expected to generate business worth approximately €45 million ($54.2 million) and "marks a major step for SR Technics into the Central and Eastern European market," the MRO company said. Services will be performed as part of its Integrated Component Solutions offering and include a consignment stock located at Bratislava Airport, 24-hr.
Venezuela late last week apparently agreed to rescind a proposed ban on most US airline operations into the country that was set to take effect March 30 ( ATWOnline, March 20), although it was unclear at press time whether the decision was in fact final. Currently, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines and FedEx operate services between the countries.
Assn. of Asia Pacific Airlines' preliminary traffic results for February showed a 4.1% growth in international passenger boardings. Passenger traffic (RPKs) rose at the same rate and that, combined with slower expansion of capacity--up 2.5%--pushed load factor up 1.1 points to 73.8%. International freight traffic was more robust, lifting 5.3% in FTKs. Again capacity growth was modest at 2.6%, resulting in a 1.7-point increase in load factor to 66.9%.
Unisys Corp. said Air China chose the Unisys Logistics Management System to manage its air cargo operations. Under a five-year agreement, Unisys also will be providing hosting and integration services and working closely with Air China on customization of services for the Chinese domestic marketplace as well as the implementation and cutover expected in March 2007.
Avexus announced that Kitty Hawk Aircargo selected Avexus software solutions--hosted centrally through the Internet-based Avexus Hosted Solution Environment--to manage the end-to-end maintenance operations of its fleet. Included are Avexus Asset Management & Operations as well as its Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul software solutions. Additionally, the solutions will provide performance reporting and analytics.
SITA said a new Web-based check-in application it developed for Swissport went live with launch customer Swiss International Air Lines Friday. Under a year-old alliance between Swissport and SITA, the ground handling company is introducing Swissport branded self-service check-in kiosks on both sides of the Atlantic that are programmed to serve up to 60 airlines.
