Alaska Air Group said it intends to offer 5.7 million newly issued shares. At its current share price of around $35, the airline would raise gross proceeds of almost $200 million. Citigroup Global Markets is acting as the lead managing underwriter and was granted an additional 427,500 shares to cover overallotments. Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes including working capital, the acquisition of aircraft and other capital expenditures.
Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) asked the US Dept. of Transportation to place into the public record any conversations between DOT officials and individuals and groups outside the government in which the officials have discussed DOT's proposed rule to ease how it interprets foreign control of a US airline ( ATWOnline, Nov. 9).
Aloha Airlines cleared the final hurdle on its way out of bankruptcy yesterday as its 270 pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn., ratified the labor agreement reached late last month ( ATWOnline, Dec. 1). Aloha officially will exit Chapter 11 Thursday. "I am proud and gratified that our pilots have now joined employees throughout the company in backing our Plan of Reorganization in time to meet a critical deadline," President and CEO David Banmiller said.
Delta Air Lines partnered with SideStep in a deal intended to promote Delta fares and services via the travel search engine. "A combination of search results listings and geographically targeted in-product advertising will enable Delta to reach active travelers as they search for specific trips," SideStep said in a statement. Customers will earn bonus SkyMiles, avoid booking fees, and obtain the carrier's best fares by booking directly on delta.com.
Finnair implemented Lufthansa Systems' SIRAX, an accounting process matching ticket sales with concrete flight data that accounts for codesharing, alliances, taxes and fees.
Varig's bankruptcy reorganization took a new twist Tuesday after a Brazilian buyout fund reportedly took controlling interest in the airline's parent, Varig SA. According to Reuters, the fund, Docas Invertimentos, owned by Nelson Tanure, paid $112 million to the Rubem Berta Foundation for 25% of the voting shares owned by the Foundation. It agreed to "rent" a further 42% of the shares, giving it control of the airline. TAP Portugal previously agreed to participate in a restructuring of Varig that would see the Foundation lose control of the carrier ( ATWOnline, Nov. 3).
South Korean government ordered striking Korean Air pilots back to work Sunday, ending a strike that began Thursday and resulted in the cancellation of more than 1,100 passenger and cargo flights over the four-day period ( ATWOnline, Dec. 9). The airline and the pilots, represented by the Flight Crew Union, now will negotiate an agreement with the help of a mediator. If they are unable to arrive at an accord, the government may arbitrate a settlement. FCU originally asked for a 6.5% increase in basic wages and flight pay while the company offered 2.5%.
Austrian Airlines Group officially began the search for a new CEO to replace Vagn Soerensen, who announced that he will leave the company by September 2006. Application deadline is Jan. 9.
Delta Air Lines and its approximately 6,500 pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn., announced a tentative agreement Sunday, ending several contentious weeks of threats, spin and bluster from both sides. The accord, subject to union ratification by Dec. 28, suspends US Bankruptcy Court hearings on Delta's request to cancel the current contract and will be in effect until March 1, by which time a comprehensive deal must be reached.
Amadeus signed a partnership with Travel Technology Interactive to offer passenger service and distribution solutions to Regional and small international airlines. Through the accord, the partners will offer a Web-based, end-to-end customer management solution designed by TTI, plus access to Amadeus's global distribution channel and communication network.
News from Travel Technology Update: Amadeus is beginning to "unbundle" its airline pricing so that carriers can opt out of certain features they do not require. Six yield management tools are currently available on the "take it or not" basis, said Edward Ross, Amadeus' director of corporate and marketing communication.
Frontier Airlines named Christopher Collins senior VP-operations. He came from JetBlue Airways, where he was VP-system operations. TNT Express promoted Matthew McDonough to president, North American region.
China Southern Airlines signed an agreement with Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise for the lease of five new A320s. The carrier already counts 58 A320s among its fleet of 257 aircraft. The new A320s will be delivered directly from Airbus in the first half of 2006 and will be leased for 12 years each. The deal is the largest bulk placement by SALE to date. The 158-seat, two-class aircraft will be powered by IAE V2500s.
TAM Brazilian Airlines announced it selected the CFM56-5B to power 25 new A320s. The deal is worth $300 million at list prices, according to a CFMI spokesperson. TAM placed an order for 20 A320s plus 20 options at this year's Paris Air Show ( ATWOnline¸ June 17), at which time it had a backlog of 10 A320s.
Honeywell said it received FAA certification for its nitrogen generation system for 747s. The Honeywell inerting system is based on technology that reduces the risk of a fuel tank's flammability by injecting nitrogen-enriched air, displacing oxygen and reducing the risk of a fuel tank fire or explosion. Nitrogen inerting is one method of complying with a recent FAA NPRM ordering airlines to reduce flammability levels of fuel tank vapors in order to eliminate the risk of center wing tank explosions on commercial transports ( ATWOnline, Nov. 15).
US Federal Communications Commission established rules for auctioning spectrum in the 800 MHz band dedicated to commercial air-to-ground telecommunication services, setting the stage for an auction early next year, according to Verizon Airfone. Assuming Verizon acquires a license, it said it expects to be able to offer inflight wireless Internet access in 2007. It has been demonstrating the first airborne system featuring third-generation CDMA technology since September 2004 and inflight trials have achieved ground-to-air peak data speeds of 2.4 Mbps.
American Airlines started interline e-ticketing with Korean Air and Turkish Airlines yesterday. Air Canada said it has cut its base commission to travel agents from 9% to 7%.
Austrian Airlines introduced the United Airlines Corporate Solutions system in North America for tracking and managing corporate sales and contract information and communication with customers. New Mexico-based Prism Group provides the technology for the system. Frontier Airlines is deploying a similar system also using Prism technology.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered the Federal Ministry of Aviation's secretary and the director of planning, research and statistics to resign yesterday following Saturday's Sosoliso Airlines crash at Port Harcourt that killed 107 of 110 onboard including four occupants who survived the impact but subsequently died of injuries, according to the Aviation Safety Network. The aircraft, a 1972-era DC-9-32, crashed during a landing attempt. It was inbound from Abuja. It was the second major Nigerian air disaster in the past two months.
Singapore Airlines' latest bid to gain access to the Australia-US route appears to have stumbled again now that Australian Prime Minister John Howard seems to be raising the "national interest" flag. The Australian reported that senior government figures said SIA's attempt to gain greater access had "largely failed."
Japan Airlines became the first carrier to implement Boeing's Airplane Health Management system, which monitors the condition of an aircraft in flight and relays information in real time to prepared maintenance crews at the gate. JAL uses it on 747s and 777s.
Southwest Airlines said Friday that the 737-700 that landed and veered from the runway at snowy Chicago Midway and crashed into cars at a nearby intersection, killing a six-year-old boy, was a new aircraft delivered in July 2004 and had been released from a maintenance check at its Phoenix MRO facility on Dec. 7, a day before the accident, and there was no indication of any problems. The airline said Flight 1248's captain is a 10-plus-year veteran of the carrier.
Air New Zealand expects to make a decision on whether to outsource its widebody and engine MRO activities on Dec. 19, CEO Rob Fyfe said Friday. Speaking at a Star Alliance media briefing in Montreal, Fyfe said the airline's engineering union presented a counterproposal that is being studied by management. ANZ estimates it would save NZ$25 million per year by sending the work outside at current labor rates.
FAA announced the deployment of its En Route Communications Gateway, which will process radar and flight data in all 20 en route ATC centers and "eliminate the possibility of a system outage by removing the single point of failure that existed in the previous system."
