AirTran Airways announced that Director-Marketing Tad Hutcheson and GM-Operations Jim Tabor were named VP-marketing and sales and VP-operations respectively. Crane Aerospace & Electronics named Dewey Turner III senior VP-global sourcing and manufacturing. Messier-Dowty appointed Christian Breyton group VP-supply chain management and Jean-Marie Jacquet group VP-production. Additionally, the company selected Pierre Lescure to lead a new Stepchange in Quality taskforce.
Worldspan said Midwest Airlines signed a multiyear agreement to implement Rapid Reprice on its website for repricing airline tickets when itineraries change.
FL Group and Kaupthing Bank signed a letter of intent to form a company to manage 15 737-800s ordered by FL Group earlier this year. FL Group will hold 49% of the leasing venture. Lease agreements have been placed for nine of the aircraft, five of which will go to Air China as previously announced. Hainan Airlines will lease another four for eight years with deliveries in August-December 2006.
AirCell said it completed a successful "extended airborne demonstration program" of its inflight mobile phone system. The system is targeted for commercial deployment in 2007 and will permit passengers to use their Wi-Fi and cellular devices. FAA has yet to approve the inflight use of mobile phones, however.
Wizz Air announced establishment of a new crew base in Warsaw, its third base overall and second in Poland. It also took delivery of its first new A320. The aircraft, the seventh in its fleet, is leased from Aviation Capital Group on a 5.5-year term and will serve the Polish market starting Dec. 1. Separately, the carrier unveiled an incentive for frequent travelers, offering immediate 15%-25% bonuses on funds passengers contribute to a prepaid account.
Okay Airways, China's first private carrier, has abandoned its low-cost model. People's Daily reported the seven-month-old airline was unable to cut expenses due to China's unified regulatory and pricing systems.
US airlines will return to profit at the operating level next year if oil stays at or below $60 a barrel, according to JP Morgan analysts Jamie Baker and Pakhi Elder, who forecast the industry will earn $4.6 billion at the operating level compared with an estimated loss of $2 billion in 2005. Operating profit excluding fuel should hit $28.8 billion in 2006, up from $21.9 billion this year. Driving the improvement are declining capacity and "surging RASM," the analysts wrote in a report released yesterday. System RASM rose 12.5% in September and will rise 13.1% this month.
Airbus's plans to build an engineering center in Mobile received approval from Alabama officials yesterday, paving the way for construction to commence in January. Scheduled to open a year later, the facility initially will handle design work on the A350, including ceiling panels, sidewall panels, overhead stowage bins, interior furnishings, seats, crew rest compartments, lavatories and galleys.
AirAsia said the Malaysia Ministry of Finance approved its application for an investment allowance incentive constituting an income tax exemption equating to 60% of qualifying capital expenditure incurred within the five years from July 1, 2004, until June 30, 2009. In conjunction with "the normal 100% allowance" for capital expenditures, "our future budgeted tax payments are minimal," noted AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes.
Continental Airlines completed the sale of 18 million shares of Class B Common Stock at a price of $11.35 per share, raising gross proceeds of $204.3 million. Sole underwriter UBS Investment Bank has a 30-day option to purchase an additional 2.7 million shares to cover overallotments, if any.
SkyTeam and Philips agreed to a global business-travel contract providing the electronics company access to 25 countries through eight alliance carriers. The deal offers customized travel solutions, a single point of entry, harmonized discounts and a single source of performance reporting.
Cendant Corp.'s board of directors approved the break-up of the company into four standalone, publicly traded "pure-play" companies with the Cendant name disappearing. Orbitz, the online travel site, and the Galileo GDS will be part of the as-yet-unnamed Travel Network company, which will maintain its headquarters at Cendant's New York City office. The unit will be headed by current Cendant Chairman and CEO Harry Silverman. Companies within the Travel Network group represent 18%-20% of 2005 estimated revenue and 21%-23% of estimated pre-tax earnings.
AirAsia completed fuel hedging for the second half of 2006 at $48 a barrel. "Fuel cost is the single largest cost item of the business and it constitutes approximately 60% of our total operating cost," AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes said. "We took advantage of the recent dip in oil prices, in light that there might be more risk on the downside going forward."
India and New Zealand announced yesterday a bilateral air services agreement to replace the countries' 1997 accord. Terms were negotiated last week in Queenstown. Designated airlines will operate up to seven flights per week with full third, fourth and fifth freedom rights at points in Australia and Singapore. Codesharing will be introduced but there will be no direct flights.
Cargolux will start a direct weekly service to Damman Oct. 31 operating 747 freighters. The flight will continue to Hong Kong before returning to Luxembourg. Meantime, the carrier agreed with SITA to retain the name CHAMP Cargosystems for their joint IT cargo company.
Ryanair renewed its Europewide travel insurance deal with Mondial Assistance Group. Under the arrangement, Ryanair passengers from France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark can buy 28-day insurance cover for €14 ($16.71). In the coming months the product will be launched in Poland, Portugal and Finland owing to strong demand, according to Ryanair Deputy CEO Michael Cawley.
Accident investigators are looking for clues into the Saturday evening crash of a 737-200 belonging to Bellview Airlines. Flight 210 went down just north of Lagos around 8:45 p.m. local time, shortly after taking off from Lagos-Murtala Muhammed Airport en route to Abuja. According to published reports, all 111 passengers and six crewmembers onboard were killed. Reportedly, the pilot advised of problems 3 min. after takeoff. The aircraft at that stage was 15 mi. south of the city over the ocean; however, the wreckage was located 20 mi. north of Lagos.
Assn. of European Airlines members posted a 7% increase in passenger traffic in September compared to the year-ago month. Regional results were very much on trend, with a growth of 12.3% to/from the Far East, 6.1% in Europe and 3.1% on the North Atlantic. Overall seat occupancy was 79.5%, the highest September on record and 2 points higher than in the previous year. For the first nine months, load factor was up 1.3 points.
US Airways Group last Friday said its investors took up their last tranche of options to purchase additional shares of US Airways Group common stock at $15 per share. The remaining one-third of the options, exercisable for approximately 2.5 million shares, were scheduled to expire Oct. 13.
Caribbean Star Airlines will acquire three new Q300s from Bombardier, the first step in going to an all-Q300 fleet, according to CEO Skip Barnette. Sister carrier Caribbean Sun will begin eight weekly flights between San Juan and St. Eustatius (Statia) Nov. 15. Half the flights also will link St. Kitts to Statia. The airline will increase its current service from San Juan to St. Vincent, St. Thomas, St. Croix and Tortola by an additional flight each day.
Mxi's Maintenix software will be used by China Airlines as part of an agreement between CAL and Boeing under which Boeing will supply to CAL its Enterprise One solution of which Maintenix is a core component. Also, KLM Engineering & Maintenance selected Maintenix to support its A330 MRO. It already uses the solution for 737 MRO management.
European low-cost seat capacity rose by 29% in 2004, accounting for 22% of intra-European capacity--up from 11% in 2002--and "in excess of 30% of all passengers traveling on intra-European routes," according to Route Development Co.'s recently released Low-Cost Monitor 2005. Traditional carriers, meanwhile, "remained almost static in 2003 and increased seat capacity by only 2% in 2004, according to the study, which was supplied to ATWOnline by the UK-based company.
