Midwest Airlines signed a deal with Empire Aero Center of New York for scheduled heavy maintenance on its 11 MD-80s. Work begins this month and will last for five months.
Delta Air Lines pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn., agreed to $280-$290 million in annual concessions, including a 14% pay cut, in the tentative labor agreement reached on Friday ( ATWOnline, April 17), according to The Wall Street Journal. Delta was seeking approximately $315 million in givebacks. The pilots' Master Executive Council said it would review the deal this week and decide whether or not to submit it to union members for a vote.
News from Travel Technology Update: A couple of years ago, a spate of new travel search engines hit the scene, ending SideStep's unchallenged reign over the travel search field. Is there room for another? Eric Christensen thinks so, and he believes his company, Mountain View, Calif.-based Search Party, brings something new to the table. Christensen, one of the founders of WorldRes, said that what was missing was a true apples-to-apples comparison of not only the nightly rate, but of room types, taxes and fees and cancellation policies as well.
Santos Dumont Aircraft Management of Dublin purchased 10 Aviation Partners Boeing 737-300 Blended Winglet shipsets. SD currently is remarketing five dash 300s on behalf of Oak Hill Capital and will install the winglets between November 2006 and May 2007.
Monarch Airlines placed a complete fleet order with CTT Systems for 27 Zonal Drying Systems to be installed on its A300s, A320s, A321s, A330s, 757s and 767s.
JetBlue Airways yesterday named former US Airways MD-Pricing and Revenue Management Development Richard Zeni its new VP-revenue management. The appointment was effective from March 29. Zeni had worked in revenue management at US since 1996. "The area of revenue management is vital to JetBlue as we face industry challenges and opportunities ahead.
Bombardier Regional Aircraft President Steven Ridolfi announced a new management lineup that he said is designed to "better serve the needs or our expanding customer base." James Dailly was appointed senior VP-sales. Reporting to Dailly will be Ric Allison, VP-Americas sales; Steve Crowley, VP-Asia/Pacific sales, and Kevin Smith, VP-international sales. Rod Williams was appointed VP-commercial operations.
Cathay Pacific flew 5.78 billion RPKs in March, an 8.6% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 10.5% to 7.5 billion ASKs and load factor fell 1.4 points to 77.1%. US Airways Group flew 5.6 billion consolidated RPMs in March, down 10.7% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 11.3% to 6.92 billion ASMs and load factor rose 0.6 point to 81%. Domestic traffic dropped 11.3% to 4.68 billion RPMs against a 12.8% decrease in capacity to 5.76 billion ASMs. International RPMs declined 7.4% to 923.2 million and capacity slipped 2.7% to 1.15 billion ASMs.
Gulf Air signed an MOU with SR Technics establishing terms of a five-year, $750 million contract covering MRO of the carrier's fleet of 10 A320s, six A330s, nine A340s and nine 767-300s. SR Technics will establish a $50 million, three-bay hangar and maintenance facility and training center in Oman. Gulf Air moved its MRO work from Abu Dhabi following that government's withdrawal as an investor in the carrier ( ATWOnline, Feb. 8).
Crane Aerospace & Electronics was selected to supply the onboard tire and brake monitoring system for the 777. First deliveries of aircraft with the new system are scheduled for next year.
US FAA named Wilson Felder as the new director of the William J. Hughes Technical Center. He succeeds the retired Ronald Esposito. Felder most recently served as the transition executive and director for technology development in FAA's Air Traffic Organization.
VarigLog, the former cargo and logistics subsidiary of Varig, raised its offer to buy the struggling Brazilian airline to $400 million Friday, according to a VarigLog statement cited in press reports. It had offered $350 million two weeks ago ( ATWOnline, April 5). Reports from Brazil indicated the carrier is canceling flights, running out of cash and at risk of shutting down. Varig said in a statement that the buyout proposal requires approval of its board.
Iberia flew 4.28 billion RPKs in March, up 3.4% compared to the year-ago month. Capacity increased 4.5% to 5.5 billion ASKs. Load factor slipped 0.9 point 77.7%. EasyJet transported 2.8 million passengers in March, a 7.1% increase over the year-ago month. Load factor dropped 4.8 points to 86.3%. WestJet reported a 15% increase in March RPMs to 831.3 million and a 9% rise in capacity to 1.01 billion. Load factor rose 4.1 points to a March-record 81.9%.
Delta Air Lines and its pilots avoided having the fate of their protracted labor negotiations, and possibly the carrier itself, decided by a panel of arbitrators by reaching a tentative agreement, the parties announced Friday. A three-man arbitration panel was prepared to rule Saturday on whether or not Delta could void its deal with approximately 6,000 pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn. The pilots voted this month to strike if the panel ruled in the airline's favor ( ATWOnline, April 4).
Ukraine International Airlines took delivery of two 737-500s on lease from Boeing Capital Corp. UIA now operates 12 737s. It expects 2006 traffic to be up 26% compared to 2005 and is considering whether to add another 737 before year end.
In a move likely to chill slowly thawing labor relations at United Airlines, parent UAL Corp. is providing a generous severance package to Douglas Hacker, a longtime member of the company's executive management team who sued UAL in March to recover bonus and incentive payments he claimed he was owed. Hacker was named executive VP-strategy two days after UAL filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2002 but currently is listed on the airline's website as executive VP. He joined United in 1993.
Air Mauritius announced an overhaul of its long-haul product beginning in December on its route to London Heathrow operated with two soon-to-be-delivered A340-300Es. Three revamped cabin classes will include flat-bed cocoon seats in first class and on-demand audio and video. Upgrades across all three classes will be retrofitted to the remainder of the fleet.
JetBlue Airways will launch four-times-daily New York JFK-Charlotte service on July 12 and four-times-daily flights to Raleigh-Durham on July 20 aboard Embraer 190s. Separately, JetBlue flew 2.06 billion RPMs in March, an increase of 24.2% over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 29.1% to 2.38 billion ASMs and load factor fell 3.5 points to 86.5%.
DirectFly, a new Polish Regional, launched service this week. The carrier operates five Saab 340s and offers flights to and from Gdansk, Lodz, Bydgoszcz, Warsaw, Krakow and Wroclaw. It hopes to attract passengers by offering point-to-point flights bypassing Warsaw. Initial international destinations are Berlin Schoenefeld, Copenhagen, Kiev and Lvov. DirectFly uses the AOC of Sky Express.
Boeing announced a number of changes to its senior management. Upon the retirement of Washington Office Senior VP Rudy deLeon effective June 30, Tod Hullin will assume his responsibilities as senior VP for public policy and communications. Also, Thomas Downey, who leads Boeing Commercial Airplanes Communications, will move to Chicago to become VP-corporate communications for the entire company. Connexion by Boeing President Laurette Koellner, 51, will become president-Boeing International Relations, replacing Thomas Pickering, 74, who is retiring.
Northwest Airlines pilots will receive an $888 million stock claim when the carrier emerges from bankruptcy, according to press reports citing a video on the Air Line Pilots Assn. website. Voting on the new labor deal, which was reached last month ( ATWOnline, March 6) and is worth $358 million in savings to the airline, is being conducted through May 3. The stock claim will represent 13% of all unsecured claims on NWA and will be paid in shares of the reorganized company.
