Industrial action is brewing at Malaysia Airlines over the government's recent decision to allow AirAsia to take over most of the national carrier's loss-making domestic routes. MAS unions are threatening picket-line action, which may escalate. The unions fear that up to 7,000 staff may lose their jobs. The move to allow AirAsia access to all MAS routes has been on the table for more than 18 months as the LCC posts solid profits while MAS struggles to find blue skies.
Swiss International Air Lines' fourth-quarter loss narrowed to CHF97 million ($74 million) compared with CHF123 million a year earlier, Bloomberg reported.
British Airways yesterday said it wants to raise the retirement age for staff as one of a series of measures aimed at easing its pension obligations. The airline currently has a pension deficit liability of £1 billion ($1.75 billion) in its New Airways Pension Scheme. It said it will make a payment of £500 million into the plan once the changes are accepted by unions.
Lufthansa beginning April 3 will expand its betterFly €99 return fares being offered from Hamburg to the rest of Germany for travel within Europe. The offer applies to all LH nonstop flights from any German airport to any destination in the EU, Switzerland, Norway and Turkey, a total of 181 routes to 76 points in 25 countries.
GA Telesis was awarded a servicing contract to manage and remarket more than 50 aircraft including 747-200s, 757-200s, 737-200s, 727-200Fs, MD-82s, DC-9-30s, DC-10-30s and Super 27Fs on behalf of Aviation Refinancing Transaction. The five-year contract also includes 70 spare engines.
Saudi government approved the privatization of Saudi Arabian Airlines Tuesday, according to a statement from the Supreme Economic Council cited by local press reports.
US Transportation Security Administration said that Los Angeles-based J.H. World Express "does not meet security standards and will have its indirect air carrier certification revoked for shipments on passenger aircraft." The company will be able to reapply for certification in 90 days.
The European Union's list of 92 companies now completely barred from operating in European airspace includes 50 carriers based in Democratic Republic of Congo and a combined 33 airlines from Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Swaziland.
Swiss International Air Lines, which joins Star Alliance next month, will codeshare with Star member SAS between Switzerland and Scandinavia as well as with Blue1 from Zurich to Helsinki. Swiss-Spanair cooperation will be offered between Zurich and Barcelona and Madrid. Codesharing will be initiated with Croatia Airlines between Zurich and Zagreb and with Darwin Airline on the Bern-London City sector. The codesharing is set to begin March 26, at which time agreements with Malev, Finnair and Qantas will be terminated.
European Regional airlines reported a 6.3% increase in scheduled traffic in 2005, according to the European Regions Airline Assn. Average passenger load factor was 61.5%, the highest year-end figure since ERA began collecting data in 1987, a result of "continued prudence among operators in increasing capacity." A high of 67.3% was reached in July.
Joseph Leonard, AirTran Airways' chairman and CEO, is the 2006 recipient of the Tony Jannus Award. He is receiving the honor "for his outstanding achievements, perseverance and 30 years of aviation excellence." The award is named for the man who piloted the first commercial passenger flight from St. Petersburg to Tampa, covering 21 mi. in 23 min.
Worldspan was selected by Surinam Airways to host the airline's operations at Worldspan's global data center under a five-year "hosting partnership." In addition, the GDS will provide Surinam with Worldspan Meridian systems to manage mission-critical daily operations including reservation and inventory management, flight operations, airport passenger processing, e-ticketing, global fares and pricing requirements.
British Airways will introduce "across-the-board" self-service check-in for customers traveling on intra-UK flights from April 25. Elimination of desk check-in for domestic travel is part of BA's strategy to streamline operations ahead of its spring 2008 move into London Heathrow's new Terminal 5. It hopes to have more than 80% of its customers using self-serve check-in by that time.
Enigma announced the availability of Enigma InService MRO, which it said is based on the 3C Platform and claimed is the "first out-of-the-box maintenance publishing and delivery solution that provides all the technical support information needed for efficient aircraft service and support."
ANA and its subsidiary airlines face a 24-hr. strike Thursday by pilots dissatisfied with management's stance on new pay and working condition demands. If the strike goes ahead, ANA warned that up to 50% of domestic flights will be affected.
Air Arabia, which launched in October 2003, reported a 2005 net profit of AED32.1 million ($8.7 million) as annual passenger numbers surged 122% to 1.13 million and its network expanded by more than half to 23 destinations. It recently took delivery of its first A320, increasing its fleet to five aircraft. Three more A320s will arrive this year.
At a time when lost and mishandled bags are costing the industry $2.5 billion a year (see item below), airlines collectively could save $768 million annually if passive RFID tags were implemented for baggage handling, replacing barcode tags and scanners, IATA RFID Project Manager Andrew Price said yesterday during ATWOnline's webcast on radio frequency identification technology.
United Airlines and Shanghai Airlines announced a codeshare agreement yesterday covering 11 flights from May 15. UA flights included are Shanghai to Chicago O'Hare and San Francisco, SFO to Los Angeles, Newark and New York JFK, and O'Hare to Newark and New York LaGuardia. Shanghai Airlines will operate codeshare flights from Shanghai Pudong to Shenyang, Chengdu, Dalian and Qingdao.
US scheduled airlines' January employment rolls dropped 6.1% from January 2005 to 405,000, according to a US Dept. of Transportation report released yesterday, marking the 13th consecutive monthly decline in the number of full-time equivalent employees. The seven network airlines employed 270,000 FTEs, or 66.5%, while LCCs employed 17% and Regionals 14%. The latter figure represents a 1.8% year-over-year fall, the first decrease in Regional employment during the 13-month period.
Garuda Indonesia will introduce 737-800s on its daily Perth-Bali-Jakarta service beginning March 26, replacing dash 400s. The carrier said the route will be among the first to use the new aircraft because of Western Australia's importance to the Bali tourist trade.
Delta Air Lines needs to have a cost-saving agreement with its pilots soon, CEO Gerald Grinstein said yesterday. "They have to reach that agreement. We have got to get that done by late spring," he told ATWOnline in Atlanta. Delta wants pay and benefit reductions and efficiency improvements valued in excess of $315 million per year from its Air Line Pilots Assn. unit, which has offered $115 million on top of $1 billion in givebacks provided in 2004 ( ATWOnline, Feb. 13).
Sabre Travel Network signed a multiyear full-content access agreement with KLM. Kingfisher Airlines signed a deal with Galileo to make its fares and inventory available on the GDS.
Mesa Air Group has countersued Hawaiian Airlines, according to the Honolulu Star Bulletin. In September, Mesa announced plans to start an inter-island carrier dubbed Project Hele with service to begin in the second quarter of 2006. In an effort to hold off the would-be competition, Hawaiian filed suit, claiming Mesa used proprietary information to bolster its startup proposal ( ATWOnline, Feb. 15).
US scheduled airlines experienced 32 accidents last year, three of which were fatal, resulting in 22 deaths, according to US National Transportation Safety Board preliminary safety statistics. In 2004, scheduled carriers operating under 14 CFR 121 (commercial transport aircraft with 10 or more seats) experienced 23 accidents, one of which was fatal, resulting in 13 deaths.
