Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, parent of Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo, has begun distributing 40,940 shares of new common stock as it continues to restructure following its emergence last year from Chapter 11. The shares will go to holders of allowed general unsecured claims against AAWW and its subsidiaries and are the first to be allocated since an initial pro rata distribution of more than 16 million shares in July. Distribution of the remaining 1,065,950 shares to holders of allowed claims will occur on a quarterly basis beginning in January. As of Sept.
Air France Cargo and KLM Cargo are implementing the next phase in their cooperation that aims to present One Face to the Customer without, however, integrating the operational activities of the two organizations. A Joint Cargo Management Team headed by Michael Wisbrun is responsible for the integrated commercial functions, including sales, customer service, products, marketing, revenue management and network planning. Strategy and development functions, including commercial IT functionality and alliances, also are integrated into the management team.
US Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta and European Commission VP in charge of Transport Jacques Barrot agreed to resume negotiations starting Oct. 17 "with a view to reaching a comprehensive first step air services agreement between the US and EU," according to a brief statement from DOT.
North American Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary of World Airways Holdings, reached an agreement valued at $15 million to furnish service for TravelSpan, a tour operator that provides vacation packages to the Dominican Republic, Tobago and other Caribbean destinations.
Virgin Blue is likely to launch an appeal after eight former Ansett flight attendants won an antidiscrimination case, claiming the airline had rejected their applications for jobs on the basis of age. The Queensland Anti-Discrimination Tribunal ruled in favor of the women, aged between 35 and 56, who unsuccessfully had sought jobs with Virgin Blue during the 12 months after Ansett's collapse in September 2001. None of the flight attendants made it past the first interview and they alleged the assessment process for cabin crew positions focused on young and attractive applicants.
Amadeus said Norwegian will be the launch customer for its scaleable Pioneer Customer Management Solution intended to address the requirements of low-cost carriers. According to Amadeus, Pioneer, which uses Unix and Linux technology, is based on a community IT platform; comprises reservations, inventory, revenue management and departure control solutions, and supports all sales channels. Separately, Norwegian said it flew 267 million RPKs in September, up 89% over the year-ago period, on a 49% rise in capacity to 334 million ASKs.
AirBridge Cargo took delivery of a third 747 freighter that will enable it to add four weekly flights between Europe and Shanghai via its hub in Krasnoyarsk. The 747-300SF, built in 1990, features a 30-pallet main deck and is one of three of its kind with GE engines to be converted to freighters, AirBridge said. The airline was awarded significant frequency increases to Shanghai and Beijing in recent negotiations as well the right to add Guangzhou, Nanjing, Hong Kong and Moscow on westbound flights.
SkyEurope transported 196,549 passengers in September, up 74% compared to the some month last year, resulting a load factor of 80.1%. In the past 12 months, SkyEurope transported 1.7 million passengers, up 132% from the 12-month period ended Sept. 30, 2004.
GE Commercial Aviation Services will lease two ex-US Airways A320s to India's Air Deccan for delivery in January. Aircraft and Engine Support LLC took delivery on Sept. 30 of one MD-87 from Investors Asset Holding Corp. The sale of the aircraft, which formerly was leased to AeroMexico, was arranged by Sigma Aircraft Management.
SAS Technical Services AB named Michael Brag its chief commercial officer and acting MD of SAS Component A/S. Brag, 39, joined SAS Group in 2003 and is a member of the management board overseeing marketing, sales, partnerships and supplier agreements. SAS Technical Services holds full-service MRO contracts on more than 200 aircraft.
Boeing said Japan Airlines has become the first licensed user of its Maintenance Performance Toolbox, a secure online service offering electronic assistance and integration for aircraft maintenance and troubleshooting. JAL partnered with Boeing in developing the product. The Toolbox features visual navigation methods and databases intended to facilitate prevention, repair and recordkeeping and is available on any device with an Internet connection.
Gol announced completion of the first phase of its new aircraft maintenance center in Confins just north of Belo Horizonte. The completed hangar is authorized to perform maintenance on 737-300s, dash 700s and dash 800s. The complex is scheduled to be finished in the second quarter of 2006.
Denim Air passed an IATA Operational Safety Audit. Denim is an ACMI operator with clients that include KLM, Olympic Airways, Air Nostrum, Loganair, VLM, Air Mauritania and Air Senegal.
Jet Airways proposed allowing foreign pilots to stay three years instead of one to solve India's chronic pilot shortage. According to Hindu Business Line, Jet CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer has proposed the initiative to the government. At the same time, insiders at Jet have confirmed to ATWOnline that the airline is talking with Air Sahara about taking a stake. Air Sahara approached Ernst and Young to assist it with capital raising options to meet its expansion plans.
EasyJet carried 2.74 million passengers in September, up 16.5% compared to September 2004. Load factor dipped half a point to 86.4%. For the rolling 12 months ended Sept 30, the airline carried 29.56 million passengers, up 21.4% over the year-ago period, and load factor improved a slight 0.7% to 85.2%. Revenue increased 23% to £1.34 billion ($2.38 billion). The company reiterated its August guidance that it expects its profit for the just-ended fiscal year "to be broadly in line with last year."
Air China reported robust growth figures for September, with passenger numbers up 11% to 2.5 million and cargo up 5.5% to 67,000 tonnes. Passenger load factor climbed 1.4% to 78.5%.
UK government yesterday rejected a request by CAA to impose a £1 ($1.76) levy per passenger on all UK-originating international flights to fund its ATOL scheme to protect customers when tour operators fail ( ATWOnline, Sept. 26). The proposal was criticized by both easyJet and Ryanair and both airlines welcomed Monday's decision by Aviation Minister Karen Buck.
The 20 US airlines reporting performance data to the US Dept. of Transportation achieved an ontime arrival rate of 75.2% in August, down from 78.3% in August 2004 but noticeably improved over July 2005's rate of 70.9%. Of the 24.8% of flights that were delayed 15 min. or more, 7.72% were owing to aviation system delays, including weather; 7.05% to late arriving flights; 6.42% to factors within the airline's control; 1.15% to extreme weather, and .007% for security reasons (numbers may not add up due to rounding).
European Union and Chile last week signed an aviation agreement that removes nationality restrictions in the bilateral air services agreements between EU member states and Chile. It is the first so-called "horizontal" aviation agreement to be signed and allows any EU airline to operate flights between any EU member state where it is established and Chile. "The agreement recognizes that airlines in the EU are no longer national airlines but European airlines. This is an important step in our external aviation policy," said Jacques Barrot, VP in charge of transport policy.
Finnair is adding a seventh MD-11 in December and aims to acquire an eighth next year as it builds its Asian network. "Within a couple of years, we will have some 10 widebody aircraft. We will add between one and two new destinations in Asia per year and increase frequencies to current destinations," President and CEO Keijo Suila declared in a statement. The carrier opened Guangzhou last month and adds Nagoya in June.
Horizon Air and the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn. reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract for the airline's more than 400 mechanics and fleet service agents. The deal must be approved by union membership.
MTU Aero Engines and Lufthansa Technik intend to grow their Kuala Lumpur engine MRO joint venture Airfoil Services to a $20 million business by 2010 compared to $5 million in annual sales today by expanding into HPC blades as well at the current LPT blades and adding the GE CF34 to the present V2500, CFM56 and CF6 portfolio. Employment will rise to 500 from 130.
Continental Airlines announced yesterday that it added another $84 million to its defined benefit pension plans, bringing its year-to-date contributions to $304 million. That total meets its minimum required contribution for 2005.
Vietnam Airlines reported a 28.9% jump in revenue to 15.6 trillion tong for the nine months to Sept. 30 as tourist numbers surged to the country. Passengers were up 21% to 4.5 million and load factor was 69%.
