Airfoil Services Sdn. Bhd., an MTU Aero Engines and Lufthansa Technik affiliate, celebrated the groundbreaking for its global integrated Center of Excellence for airfoil overhaul. The facility in Kota Damansara, Malaysia, is expected to start operations by early 2007.
European Commission announced yesterday that its Aviation Safety Committee finished drawing up the list of carriers that will be banned from entering the European Union for safety or security reasons but did not make the blacklist public pending ratification by the Commission. "We have just taken a decisive step," EC VP Jacques Barrot said. "I am now in a position to ask the Commission to quickly adopt the blacklist and to publish it, so that we can make sure that the companies identified in it will not have the possibility to enter Europe before they have resolved their problems."
Thomas Cook Airlines of Belgium reported a pre-tax profit of €3.2 million ($3.8 million) on revenues of €132.36 million in the financial year ended Oct. 31, 2005. The carrier will add a sixth A320 in the coming months to accommodate its forecast growth. Launched in 2002, it transported 997,100 passengers aboard 3,339 flights to 45 leisure destinations during the fiscal year.
Northwest Airlines yesterday began a test of differential pricing for economy seats in its domestic fleet, charging $15 extra per flight segment for certain aisle and exit row seats. The Coach Choice product, which currently covers 5% of domestic seats, is intended to "provide added choice and comfort, particularly to late-booking business travelers, by saving some preferred coach seat assignments until check-in," according to the airline. A passenger purchasing Coach Choice seats for all four segments of a roundtrip connecting flight would pay a total of $60.
Iberia signed deals with Santa Barbara Airlines of Venezuela and Star Peru allowing the South American carriers to use its Resiber reservations management system.
Southwest Airlines has "increased the near-entirety of its fare structure," according to JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker, giving the green light to US carriers to raise their own domestic fares. Facing rising fuel costs and the erosion of its hedges, Southwest boosted one-way fares $2-$10 across two-thirds of its network over the weekend, Baker said. Its $299 fare cap, in place since 2002, has been raised $10 in "the largest single fare increase they have ever taken." A "significant" number of its one-way long-haul fares have increased by $10 as well.
United Airlines announced a $165 million commitment to upgrade its international first and business class seats through a deal with B/E Aerospace. The arrangement is part of UA's revamp of its entire international widebody fleet expected to take "roughly two to three years." It will begin introducing the new seats in 2007. "This program supports United's strategic business emphasis on international and premium services," B/E Chairman and CEO Amin Khoury said.
US Airways Group, comprising US Airways, US Airways Express and America West, flew a combined 4.43 billion RPMs in February, a decline of 8.7% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 14.5% to 5.86 billion ASMs and load factor rose 4.9 points to 75.7%. Domestic traffic was down 9% to 3.75 billion RPMs against a 16.7% decrease in ASMs to 4.84 billion. International traffic fell 6.8% to 686.1 million RPMs as capacity dropped 2.3% to 1.02 billion ASMs.
South African Airways said it will terminate its loyalty program agreement with Qantas from April 9, at which time SAA Voyager members no longer will be eligible to earn or redeem points aboard Qantas flights.
US FAA named Michael O'Malley chief of staff. He had served as Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta's deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy. Lufthansa Cargo announced that Executive Board Chairman Jean-Peter Jansen resigned effective March 31 for health reasons. Deutsche Lufthansa Chief Officer-Aviation Services and Human Resources Stefan Lauer was appointed interim chairman. Lauer will step down as chairman of the Lufthansa Cargo Supervisory Board and be replaced temporarily by Wolfgang Mayrhuber.
NAV Canada announced a tentative agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers/Air Traffic Specialists. The four-year deal covers 850 flight service specialists. No details of the agreement were released pending ratification.
Precision Conversions said it entered into a "long-term cargo conversion program" with Cargo Aircraft Management, a subsidiary of Orlando-based Cargo Holdings International. Agreement covers completion of two 757-200 passenger-to-freighter conversions in 2006 "with plans to support multiple aircraft conversions over the next five years."
LAN Airlines reported a 5.8% year-over-year rise in system traffic in February compared to a 7.1% increase in capacity, which dropped load factor 1 point to 75.5%.
Lufthansa plans to expand its lower-fare strategy for European flights, Executive VP-Marketing and Sales Thierry Antinori said during the ITB tourism fair in Berlin last week. The carrier recently introduced short-haul return flights starting at €99 ($118) at Hamburg and Dusseldorf with slightly better than expected results. Additionally, it has taken share away from Air Berlin, according to Antinori. "We will definitely roll out this concept. I assume that we will also move into other catchments in the coming months," he said.
Following a fourth quarter in which it lost €2.9 million ($3.5 million) owing to surging costs ( ATWOnline, Feb. 17), Finnair's new president and CEO, Jukka Hienonen, told this website in Helsinki that the carrier will keep working toward securing a cost base that will ensure profitability even as it continues to demonstrate operational improvements.
Sabre Airline Solutions said Jet Airways chose its AirFlite Schedule Manager and AirFlite Fleet Manager software. Sabre also was appointed technical adviser to Arabesk Group, a partnership of seven Middle East carriers (now including Tunisair) established earlier this month ( ATWOnline, March 7).
Northwest Airlines confirmed that it "executed an agreement to purchase FLYi's operating certificate and related assets" subject to certain conditions. According to the Associated Press, which cited a FLYi bankruptcy filing, NWA paid $2 million for the certificate, which should enable it to expedite the startup of a new subsidiary that will operate 76-seat regional jets using furloughed mainline pilots ( ATWOnline, March 7). FLYi, which operated as Independence Air, shut down in January.
European Commission launched a public consultation on RFID "as their power to report their location, identity and history raises serious concerns about personal privacy and security, as well as technical interoperability and international compatibility." It added that addressing some of the concerns "may well require legislative responses." The Commission said it also is stepping up exchanges with the US and Asia on RFID technologies in order to define globally accepted interoperability standards and practices with regard to data privacy and ethical principles when applying the technolo
TAM raised nearly BRL1.5 billion ($689.8 million) Friday through stock issues on both the Bovespa exchange in Brazil and the New York Stock Exchange, according to press reports.
A380 program reached the 1,000-flight-hr. milestone last week. Four A380s have been tested with Trent 900s. A fifth will join the program this year with Engine Alliance GP7200s.
Air Europa signed a seven-year, CHF20 million ($15.3 million) deal with SR Technics for component support for its new A330 fleet, which will number 6-8 aircraft. The Spanish carrier takes delivery of its first A330 this month. The pair also concluded an MRO agreement for the APUs on Air Europa's fleet of 737NGs, which it expects to enlarge from 28 aircraft at present to 40-50.
European Council last week formally closed the first reading on the new EU-OPS Regulation, which seeks to integrate technical requirements and administrative procedures in the field of civil aviation. EU-OPS includes harmonizing flight time limitations across Europe, setting a minimum FTL level directly applicable to all EU countries.
JetBlue Airways announced a new leadership structure in its human resources department, naming Vinny Stabile senior VP-people, Santo Barravecchio VP-people services and compliance and Dean Melonas VP-recruitment.
Tarom Romanian Airlines selected Rockwell Collins to provide a comprehensive avionics package, inflight entertainment and moving map systems for four new A318s scheduled for delivery beginning in November.
