Airbus said Friday it has manufactured an all-composite A350 center wing-box panel, the first structure on the next-generation aircraft it has completed and the largest "monobloc" composite panel it has produced.
London Gatwick owner Global Infrastructure Partners, which completed the acquisition from BAA last week ( ATWOnline, Oct. 4), plans to sell a stake in LGW to an institutional investor. GIP said it would seek an "equity syndication" similar to the 25% London City share it sold to Highstar Capital, Bloomberg News reported.
CFM56-7B powering a 737NG operated by TUIfly has logged more than 40,000 hr. on wing without a single removal, setting a new record for the engine model, CFM announced. It was installed in February 1999 and has logged 40,654 flight hr. and more than 14,000 flight cycles to date.
Aeroflot announced the sale of a controlling stake in its Aeroflot Plus charter subsidiary to Jet Alliance of Austria. Aeroflot Plus operates out of Moscow Sheremetyevo's business terminal with three Tu-134s and two Yak-42s. Terms were not disclosed. Separately, SU launched the following A320 services Wednesday: from Vladivostok to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (thrice-weekly), Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (twice-weekly) and Khabarovsk (twice-weekly) and from KHV to UUS (thrice-weekly) and PKC (twice-weekly).
US FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said regulators, airports and airlines have "picked off all the low-hanging fruit there is to pick" to improve runway safety and now must focus on gathering "more detailed information" that can be analyzed to preemptively identify airfield risks.
It turns out that a "better than expected" Dubai Airshow that featured an order for 12 A350-900s from Ethiopian Airlines was not the highlight of Airbus's November, which featured an order for 52 A320s from an undisclosed customer that pushed the manufacturer's total to 74 new aircraft for the month.
Dnata announced a deal with Go-Ahead Group under which the Dubai-based company purchased certain ground handling operations at London Heathrow and Manchester. The deal, valued at £15 million ($24.9 million), comprises Plane Handling, which provides cargo and ramp handling at LHR and cargo handling at MAN, and Aviance's passenger and ramp handling operation at LHR's Terminals 3 and 4. Transaction is scheduled to be complete on Jan. 30 and marks Dnata's entry into the UK market. It currently operates at 17 airports in seven countries.
Seabury Group completed its merger with Minneapolis-based Organizational Concepts International, a global advisory and investment management firm. Terms were not disclosed. Seabury made a minority investment in OCI in 2008. The firm will use the Seabury name and add Minneapolis to its global office locations, with former OCI President and CEO Marty Kuehne serving as CAO and MD-human capital. John Kuehne, who was executive VP and partner at OCI, will become CFO and MD.
Niki plans to increase capacity by more than 30% next year as it endeavors to fill the void left by SkyEurope Airlines and a restructuring Austrian Airlines. "This is my chance and I'm going to take this opportunity," President Niki Lauda told ATWOnline. On Feb. 1 the LCC will begin daily flights from Vienna to Belgrade, Sofia and Bucharest Otopeni and on March 26 it will launch daily services to Barcelona and Nice and a six-times-weekly flight to Copenhagen. Its fleet will grow from the current 11 aircraft to 17 A320 family jets and E-190s next year.
Southern Air Holdings, parent of Connecticut-based ACMI freight carrier Southern Air, announced the appointment of DHL Express Asia/Pacific CEO Daniel McHugh as CEO effective Jan. 1. He succeeds Southern founder James Neff, who is retiring but will remain a board member. Southern operates 16 747 freighters and plans to introduce its first two 777-200LRFs in the 2010 first quarter. It will operate the aircraft for Thai Airways.
Aerowing patented what it described as a "new technology to enhance and improve the leak detection market." According to Nevada-based Aerowing, the portable HyTracker Leak Detector hydrogen tracer gas detector can detect fuel leakage down to "bacteria size."
BAA yesterday announced the formal completion of the £1.51 billion ($2.51 billion) sale of London Gatwick to the Global Infrastructure Partners consortium ( ATWOnline, Oct. 22).
Bombardier reported a $168 million profit in its fiscal third quarter ended Oct. 31, down 25.7% from the $226 million earned in the year-ago period, but enjoyed an increase in commercial aircraft deliveries and yesterday announced that AMR Corp.'s American Eagle firmed options for 22 CRJ700s.
AeroLogic, the joint venture between DHL Express and Lufthansa Cargo, will add two more 777-200Fs this month, an LHC spokesperson confirmed to ATWOnline. It already operates two of the freighters. The additional planes will be used to boost frequencies on current routes to Asia from Leipzig/Halle. Load factor is around 75%-80%. Two more 777-200Fs are expected in the spring and another two in the fall.
Wizz Air will begin serving Latvia next spring with flights from Riga to London Luton (thrice-weekly), Oslo Torp (thrice-weekly) and Turku (twice-weekly) launching on March 28. Twice-weekly Prague-Bari and Budapest-Turku flights will begin at the same time.
Finnair is expected to cancel more flights today as ground staff represented by the Finnish Aviation Union continue to walk off the job at Helsinki Vantaa in protest of the outsourcing moves announced Monday ( ATWOnline, Dec. 1). Around 20 flights were cancelled yesterday. Talks between the carrier and the IAU were scheduled for today.
IATA Director-Global Safety Chris Glaeser said this week that through the first 11 months of 2009 there were 73 airline accidents worldwide in which significant aircraft damage was recorded, meaning the industry is on pace for a 38% improvement from the 109 accidents in 2008. "This is the best accident rate we've seen," he told the FAA International Runway Safety Summit in Washington. However, it should be noted that there have been multiple accidents this year with high fatalities, including the May 31 Air France A330-200 crash that killed all 228 aboard.
American Airlines is partnering with TPG Capital to offer to invest $1.1 billion in Japan Airlines to assist with the ailing carrier's restructuring and ensure it remains in the oneworld fold.
Both Delta Air Lines and Continental Airlines said year-over-year unit revenue declines are down to around 8%, providing some statistical indication that the US industry has weathered the worst of the demand storm.
Allegiant Air flew 350.5 million RPMs in November, up 25.3% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 24.6% to 387.9 million ASMs and load factor increased 0.6 point to 90.4%.
Air Canada will begin charging economy passengers C$30/$30 to check a second bag on flights to/from the US and C$50/$50 on flights to/from Europe and Israel on Jan. 19. A second piece of checked luggage will continue to be free on flights within Canada and to/from Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and Australia. Premium loyalty program members will be exempt.
ARINC announced a comprehensive technology replacement agreement with Avicom Japan, that country's service provider for airline and civil aviation communications, under which it will enhance Japan's ACARS data link infrastructure with "efficient ACARS multiple-service technology." New technology will allow for increased data link message traffic while enabling Avicom to prepare for eventual controller-pilot data link communications and aeronautical telecommunications network operations, according to ARINC.
AirTran Airways customer service, ramp and reservations agents rejected representation by the International Assn. of Machinists, the airline announced. The US National Mediation Board said there was an "insufficient showing of interest" from employees.
Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport announced an agreement with airline representatives regarding airport charges in 2010 and 2011. Charges will increase 4% on July 1 and an additional 3% on Oct. 1. On April 1, 2011, they will rise by another 3% and then by 2.5% on Oct. 1, 2011. In total, charges will rise 12.5% over the two-year period. The agreement is contingent on a deal setting a charge schedule in 2012-15 that must be reached by Feb. 19. In the absence of such a contract, charges will rise 8.4% on April 1.
