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.
Reed Exhibitions' plan to move Asian Aerospace to Hong Kong International Airport in 2007 also calls for a shorter show, with the elimination of public days ( ATWOnline, Feb. 14). The newly named Asian Aerospace International Expo and Congress will take place Sept. 3-6, 2007, at the AsiaWorld-Expo complex at HKIA. A three-day "major international aerospace congress" will be held in conjunction with the event. This year's edition of Asian Aerospace, running Feb. 21-26, takes place at its traditional location and venue, the Changi Exhibition Center in Singapore.
US Dept. of Transportation released its expected ruling Friday eliminating the prohibition on airlines that own, control or operate computer reservations systems from denying access "to two or more carriers whose flights share a single designator code and discriminating against any carrier because the carrier uses the same designator code as another carrier." DOT said its rationale hinged on changes in the industry. It said the rise in Internet distribution is "reducing the [GDS] market power over airlines" and US carriers have divested their GDS ownership interests.
Star Alliance member carriers at Paris CDG Terminal 1 have begun moving into new check-in Hall 4, the alliance announced last week. Thai Airways and bmi already are using the new Star Alliance facilities and Adria Airways, ANA, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa and SAS Scandinavian Airlines will relocate by the end of the month. There are 24 check-in desks currently available. Singapore Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways and Varig will start making use of the new facilities in 2008 once additional areas of the terminal are refurbished.
Cirrus Airlines of Germany joined the European Regions Airline Assn. Cayman Airways and Cielos Airlines, the latter a cargo carrier from Peru, joined the Latin American Airline Assn.
Lufthansa Technik signed a contract to deliver its Total Component Support service for seven CRJ200s operated by Danish Regional Cimber Air over a two-year time period and also signed a TCS deal covering a CRJ900 for Spain's Air Nostrum.
US Rep. Harold Rogers (D-Ky.), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on homeland security, said Thursday that the US Transportation Security Administration's request to raise passenger security fees by $1.4 billion this year and ask airlines to pay retroactive security costs of about $300 million has little chance of passing. "The budget contains the perennial gimmick of raising aviation security fees even though Congress and the airlines have rejected this before," Rogers said. "It may very difficult to adopt this proposal this year."
Airbus confirmed that an A380 suffered wing damage during a stress test last week, according to press reports. The rupture between two engines occurred when the aircraft was going from 1.45 to 1.5 times its limit load. The airframer said it still expects to deliver the first A380 on schedule at the end of 2006.
