Swiss International Air Lines will lease an A300-600 from Hapag-Lloyd Express to increase capacity on African services to Malabo, Douala, Yaounde, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. Separately, Swiss will add a third daily Zurich-New York JFK flight from May 1 using A330-200s. All flights will be operated as codeshare services with future Star Alliance partner United Airlines, a previous agreement with American Airlines having expired.
ARINC was awarded a contract for VHF data link service by Hong Kong Express Airways. The airline will use ARINC's GlobaLink/VHF service on its Embraer 170s.
Boeing selected supply chain management company New Breed Logistics of North Carolina to provide services supporting final assembly of the 787 beginning in 2007. Separately, Boeing named Boeing Fabrication VP and GM Ross Bogue VP and GM for the 747/767/777 programs and the Everett, Wash., site, replacing retiring Dan Becker.
Malev Hungarian Airlines and American Airlines, future oneworld partners, agreed to implement e-ticket capability on each other's flights from March 1.
Air France Industries signed a six-year deal with Royal Jordanian for full equipment support of four new A320s and two new A321s, along with a Maintenance Base Kit to be installed in Amman. Support will be provided per flight-hr. The first aircraft was delivered on Dec. 4, 2005, and the rest will be delivered by November 2006.
KLM Engineering & Maintenance and KLM cityhopper signed a contract covering pooling and maintenance of components for cityhopper's 21 F70s and 18 F100s. Agreement was valued at €60 million ($71.8 million). KLM E&M will cooperate with Fokker Services to support the airline.
US FAA Director-Aviation Research and Development Joan Bauerlein won this year's National Public Service Award presented by the National Academy of Public Administration and the American Society of Public Administration.
IBS Software Services said Air New Zealand has implemented iFly, its solution for managing airline staff travel requirements. ANZ is the launch customer.
Sabre Travel Network signed full-content agreements with Virgin Atlantic Airways and SAS Scandinavian Airlines. The SAS agreement runs until 2007 and includes Wideroe.
China Airlines flew 2.76 billion RPKs in January, a 10.6% increase over the year-ago month. Number of enplaned passengers grew 11.6% to 764,125 and FTKs increased 4% to 469 million. Finnair Group reported an 8.6% increase in January RPKs and a 6.6% rise in capacity, resulting in a 1.4-point gain in load factor to 74.3%.
Lufthansa Systems signed a consultancy contract with China Cargo Airlines to analyze the carrier's business processes and IT systems and signed with Royal Jordanian to implement SIRAX, a revenue accounting process solution.
Austrian Airlines Group completed the sale of its catering company Airest to SAVE Group of Italy. The deal is worth approximately €30 million ($35.8 million) and will require the consent of competition authorities, which is expected in the coming weeks. Airest will continue to supply Austrian with catering service. Separately, Austrian reported an 11.9% increase in January RPKs to 1.73 billion and a 3.3% rise in capacity to 2.38 billion ASKs, driving up passenger load factor 5.6 points to 72.7%.
Midwest Air Group, parent of Midwest Airlines, announced it adopted an updated shareholder rights plan replacing the one that expired last week. It is effective through Feb. 15, 2016, and "is designed to protect shareholder value over the long term and provide fair treatment of our shareholders in the event of a takeover attempt," according to Chairman and CEO Timothy Hoeksema.
Landmark Aviation said it will provide fueling services for American Airlines when AA begins its Dallas Love Field service March 2. The agreement covers AA's MD-80s and American Eagle's ERJ-145s, which will operate 98 weekly flights to Kansas City, St. Louis, Austin and San Antonio.
US FAA announced a five-year partnership with Ordinate Corp. of California to develop a standard Aviation English Test. "This is another step in FAA support to ICAO member states, air carrier operators and air traffic service providers to help them meet the ICAO March 2008 English language proficiency requirement," said Graham Elliott, manager of the FAA Academy's Aviation Language Training Program.
Washington Dulles received a $200 million pledge yesterday from the US Dept. of Transportation to help build a fourth runway. The funding will be provided over the next 11 years. The airport's third north-south runway will be completed in 2008, costing $356 million, and will allow Dulles to handle up to 50% more flights per hour "during the right conditions," DOT said. Passenger throughput has increased from 12 million in 1996 to more than 27 million in 2005.
The Australian government, as expected, yesterday rejected Singapore Airlines' plans to offer service on the transpacific route to the US, bowing to a concerted campaign by Qantas to limit competition on its most profitable route and ruling that there would be minimal benefits to Australia.
Etihad Airways will launch daily Abu Dhabi-Manchester service from March 27 aboard an A330. Separately, Boeing said Etihad will implement its Airplane Health Management maintenance condition monitoring system on five new 777-300ERs being delivered in the first half of this year.
AirBaltic will eliminate business class service on routes from Riga to Bergen, Hamburg, Helsinki and Oslo from March 1. Service on the routes will be all-economy with buy-on-board food and beverage.
Triumph Group of Pennsylvania said its Frisby Aerospace subsidiary was awarded a $300 million contract by Saab Aerostructures to produce the 787 Large Cargo Door Actuation System.
Air New Zealand will go ahead and outsource the heavy maintenance of its long-haul fleet after all following the failure of unions to secure adequate support for a compromise proposal that would have kept the operation in-house. The airline had accepted the union's proposal late last month ( ATWOnline, Jan. 31). ANZ CEO Rob Fyfe said he was "extremely disappointed" by the decision that will result in the loss of 507 maintenance jobs.
Sabre Travel Network signed a "long-term" agreement to provide GDS services to Priceline.com, another erosion of Worldspan's position as the online technology leader. Priceline president and chief executive Jeffery Boyd said a principle reason for the deal is that it "provides us with redundancy in case of technical problems at Worldspan."
Cenco International will supply a new flagship testing facility in Arnstadt, Germany, to N3 Engine Overhaul Services, a joint venture between Lufthansa Technik and Rolls-Royce. The facility will provide technical support for Trent 500, 700 and 900 engines.
