Aeroports de Paris' planned IPO could raise up to €600 million ($740.25 million) through the issuance of new shares, the Parisian airports operator said in a filing with stock market regulator AMF. The French government, which currently owns ADP, intends to remain a majority shareholder with a 51% holding. The IPO would include the issue of new shares and the government selling part of its stake; 10% of the shares would be reserved for ADP employees.
GE Commercial Aviation Services will acquire five CRJ700s for lease to GoJet Airlines of Missouri for its United Express service. Four are conversions of existing conditional orders and one is a new order. List price of the five aircraft is approximately $154 million. Deliveries will increase GoJet's CRJ700 fleet to 15. No schedule was announced.
Open skies agreement between the UK and Canada signed last week ( ATWOnline, April 24) offers virtually unlimited passenger and cargo flights to and from third countries to UK carriers via Canada and to Canadian airlines via the UK. Under the new bilateral, Canadian and British carriers will face no restrictions on how they set prices when carrying traffic through their own country's cities to the third country. More than 2 million passengers fly annually between Canada and the UK.
Following three days of deliberation, the Master Executive Council of the Delta Air Lines pilots union ratified the tentative labor agreement reached April 14 and sent it to members for a May vote. The accord then will be subject to approval by the US Bankruptcy Court and is scheduled to go into effect June 1 and become amendable on Dec. 31, 2009. The MEC voted late Friday and approved the deal by a 12-1 count.
SITA said it had revenue of $1.56 billion last year as it moves toward consolidation of its business units that were separated several years ago. SITA INC revenues rose 13% to $726 million while SITA SC revenues totaled $828 million.
European commercial airframe and engine MRO market generated revenues of $10.6 billion in 2005 and the figure will rise nearly 50% to $15.2 billion by 2012, according to consultancy Frost & Sullivan. Growth is being driven by strong air traffic demand between Eastern and Western Europe as well as the continuing trend toward outsourcing MRO. According to the firm, many of the A320 and 737 aircraft delivered in 1997-2002 will experience their first airframe heavy checks and engine removals "and correspondingly create a short-term spike in demand" during the forecast period.
BAE Systems Aircraft Trading and Management Services sold two A319s on behalf of a consortium of European banks and investors and Magritte Aircraft Leasing Ltd.
US Air Transport Assn. on Friday criticized the Transportation Security Administration's plan to begin rolling out its Registered Traveler program this year, saying it "firmly believes that limited TSA resources should not be diverted from efficiently and effectively screening all passengers to a program that provides limited and questionable benefits for some customers.
Volito Aviation, through its wholly owned subsidiary Volito Aviation Leisure KB, placed an A320 with Donbassaero Airlines through April 2012. The aircraft is financed by PK AirFinance. Separately, Volito Aviation increased its facility with HSH Nordbank AG in Kiel to $250 million. The facility is secured by commercial jet aircraft on lease to various carriers worldwide.
Former Air Wisconsin Chairman and CEO Preston Wilbourne died April 20. He was 80. Wilbourne joined the airline as GM in 1965 shortly after it commenced operations. At the time, it operated a single de Havilland Dove. He rose through the ranks to become chairman and CEO, retiring in 1990. Etihad Airways announced a revamp of its commercial management team, which now will feature four regional GMs based in Abu Dhabi and five department managers.
Sabre Holdings announced agreements with United Airlines and Delta Air Lines. The latter signed a seven-year, full-content agreement with Sabre Travel Network to make all published fares and inventory available to Sabre subscribers, including published fares that the airline sells through any third-party distributor and through its reservation offices and website. In addition to the Sabre agreement, Delta also signed a new marketing agreement with Travelocity and a participation agreement with Travelocity's Site59 unit. Sabre signed a similar agreement with United good for five years.
Air New Zealand will raise fares on all domestic flights and outbound international flights by 10% on May 1. The carrier said rising fuel costs necessitated the change. "Fuel is now our number one cost," said CFO Rob McDonald. "We regret having to increase fares but the numbers are stark." The airline's annual fuel bill has more than doubled since 2004, jumping from NZ$480 million ($303.3 million) to NZ$1 billion. ANZ also announced a NZ$42 million upgrade to its domestic terminal facilities at Auckland International Airport.
Swiss International Air Lines boosted its fuel surcharge on long-haul flights to CHF106 ($83.29) in each direction from CHF93. European and domestic services will see a fuel surcharge of CHF32 each way. The revised surcharges will be levied on all tickets issued in Switzerland from April 25. Swiss last increased its fuel surcharges in September 2005.
Empire Aero Center of New York was awarded a contract to provide heavy maintenance on Transaero Airlines 747-200s. The first aircraft is slated to undergo C and D checks at the end of April. Contract value was not disclosed.
Dniproavia accused Lufthansa of influencing German aviation authorities to get the Ukrainian carrier's route authority to serve Frankfurt and Berlin cancelled in violation of a 2005 open skies agreement between the countries. According to an "open letter" from Dniproavia to the Dept. of Aviation of the Federal Republic of Germany and shareholders of Lufthansa Airlines, the German LBA, "on Lufthansa's advice," on March 8 prohibited the airline from flying to Germany and cancelled its flights to Berlin and Frankfurt. Dniproavia alleged LH's goal is to monopolize the markets.
Bmi leased a 767 to be operated on its service to Riyadh from April 22 and a new route to Jeddah scheduled to launch May 18. The aircraft will be configured with two classes and will feature Star Alliance livery.
Austrian Airlines Group unveiled a new fare concept for short- and medium-haul flights permitting passengers to combine different fares and booking classes on the same itinerary, booking economy for an outbound flight and business class for the return, for example. Austrian also restructured economy fares to narrow the range of prices and is offering a "red-ticket" fare with an "all-in" price ranging from €159 ($196.2) to €299 depending on destination. It introduced a new business class fare, Business Holiday, for leisure travel on routes with high tourist potential.
Venezuela's threat to restrict flights by US airlines into the country appears to have been successful, as the US FAA raised the nation's safety rating to Category 1, meaning it complies with ICAO standards. US aviation officials conducted a safety audit and inspections last month after the South American country agreed to postpone until April 25 its ban on all operations conducted by Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines and some American Airlines flights ( ATWOnline, March 31).
ARINC will unveil a new airport IT systems support program today at the annual conference of the American Assn. of Airport Executives. The program includes "integrated systems support, operations, maintenance support and technical staffing." Separately, ARINC said Sun Country Airlines signed a long-term extension of its datalink communications contract.
Aer Lingus said Friday it will add a fuel surcharge to flights to and from the US and Middle East of €35 ($43.20)/$40 each way effective May 15. It said it is the first time it has imposed a fuel surcharge on any of its routes and that the move is "regrettable but necessary." The airline said it is 51% hedged in 2006 and that fares on transatlantic flights fell nearly 5% last year while fuel costs increased by €33.1 million.
Wizz Air took delivery of a new IAE V2500-powered A320, which the low-fare airline plans to operate to Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia as part its expansion of Eastern European services. The aircraft is leased from ILFC. Wizz also plans to launch thrice-weekly flights on July 14 between Cork and Katowice, the first direct service on the route.
Air Canada said it welcomed "the successful conclusion of an Open Skies Agreement for Canada and the UK." AC said the deal will allow it to introduce "more flexible simplified pricing" and enable it to expand its popular multitrip flight passes. London Heathrow is the carrier's most important international gateway.
Singapore Airlines now offers interline e-tickets for connections to American Airlines, British Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Varig, bringing to 17 the number of carriers with whom SIA has partnered for interline e-ticketing.
Austrian Airlines reduced frequencies from Vienna to Tehran from five to three weekly flights owing to lower demand attributed to the worsening political climate. Meanwhile, in order to be more competitive against carriers such as Emirates, Austrian plans to install intercontinental business class seats in several 737-800s for flights to the Middle East. Currently it operates one 737-800 outfitted with 16 C class and 142 Y seats for flights to Dubai.
