Royal Air Maroc and the Senegalese government signed an MOU last week to establish a new state-controlled airline, ending the dispute related to the April closure of Air Senegal International ( ATWOnline, April 28). Senegal's APS news agency reported that the parties will work together to set up the carrier, which will have access to RAM's technical, commercial and operational services. Aircraft details were not revealed.
Hainan Airlines subsidiary Lucky Air received a CNY290 million ($42.4 million) capital injection from the Yunnan provincial government. Lucky now has registered capital of CNY906 million, with HNA subsidiary Grand China Airlines the controlling stakeholder at 68%. Yunnan will hold the remainder. The parties reached an agreement last June to launch a new carrier (Yunnan Airlines) based on Lucky's assets ( ATWOnline, June 10, 2008).
Virgin Blue CEO Brett Godfrey revealed that the airline will make further cuts to its domestic flying schedule in the fiscal year starting July 1. He said it plans to cut capacity 2.4% but warned that further cuts of up to 5.5% may be needed later. Blue cut 8% of its capacity and up to 400 jobs in March by grounding five 737s ( ATWOnline, March 27).
Shannon Aerospace Ltd. signed a contract with British Airways for the supply of line maintenance services at Shannon for BA's planned transatlantic business class-only A318 service from London City to New York scheduled to begin this fall. Westbound flights will make a fuel stop at SNN. SAL will provide ETOPS checks on 11 A318 services per week ( ATWOnline, Nov. 17, 2008).
AirTran Airways flew 1.54 billion RPMs in May, down 11.1% year-over-year. Capacity fell 9.6% to 1.98 billion ASMs and load factor dropped 1.3 points to 78%.
Air France CEO Pierre-Henry Gourgeon said the A330-200 carrying 228 passengers and crew that crashed late Sunday into the Atlantic Ocean experienced "multiple technical failures," and the Brazilian air force yesterday spotted debris where a TAM flight crew had seen spots of fire on the ocean surface shortly after the A330 was suspected to have gone down.
JetBlue Airways will offer 20 million shares of common stock and $150 million of convertible debentures maturing in 2039. Underwriters will be granted an overallotment option to purchase up to 3 million additional shares and $22.5 million of the debentures. JetBlue said that in order to maintain Lufthansa's ownership position, up to 15.6% of the shares will be offered to LH. Proceeds will be used "for general corporate purposes," it said.
Delta Air Lines' new service from Atlanta to Nairobi (via Dakar), scheduled to launch yesterday, was postponed indefinitely because it did not receive US Dept. of Homeland Security approval. The June 8 start of its ATL-Cape Verde-Monrovia flight also will be pushed back pending approval. Air Canada launched daily Montreal-Geneva service aboard a 767-300ER. Swiss International Air Lines is codesharing. AC also began daily flights from Calgary to Whitehorse and London, Ont., aboard a CRJ-700 and an E-190 respectively.
Continental Airlines estimated that May consolidated unit revenue declined 19.5%-20.5% year-over-year, with mainline RASM falling an estimated 19%-20%. It attributed part of the decrease to the swine flu scare, which it said reduced consolidated passenger revenue by $30 million last month. Consolidated April RASM was down 13.1% while mainline unit revenue fell 11.3%. Last month CO flew 7.53 billion consolidated RPMS, a 9% drop from May 2008. Capacity was down 8.8% to 9.31 billion ASMs, lowering load factor 0.3 point to 80.9%.
Zest Air of the Philippines placed an order for six additional MA60s. The carrier, formerly Asian Spirit, already operates five of the Chinese-built aircraft and expects to take delivery of the newly ordered planes starting in October. Two more will arrive in December, with the remaining three coming next year, AVIC's Xi'an Aircraft Industry Co. said. The MA60 has received 92 firm orders, with letters of intent signed for another 70. The MA600 has received 12 orders.
News from Travel Technology Update: An International Chamber of Commerce arbitration tribunal ordered IATA to cease using any ticketing information transmitted by Amadeus in its PaxIS product. The tribunal found that IATA's use of the data breached its contractual agreements with Amadeus and infringed on Amadeus' rights under the European Union Database Directive. The directive states that the holder of database rights may prohibit the extraction and/or re-utilization of the whole or of a substantial part of the database contents.
Ryanair reported a full-year net loss for the first time since its IPO 20 years ago, a €169.2 million ($239.8 million) deficit in the year ended March 31 that represented a sharp reversal from the €391 million profit posted in 2007-08 as it wrote down the value of its 29.8% stake in Aer Lingus by €222.5 million.
British Airways CEO Willie Walsh, writing in the company's in-house BA News, told employees that the carrier "is in a fight for survival" and cautioned that temporary solutions "just aren't enough."
SR Technics signed a technical training agreement with Etihad Airways running until February 2010 covering 1,000 instructor days of theoretical and practical training on A320s and A330s/A340s as well as difference training, run-up in simulators, health and safety and aviation/technical English.
China Eastern Airlines is expected to hold 65% of its new Kunming-based joint venture with the Yunnan provincial government, with which it signed an agreement Sunday. The government will hold the remainder and is investing both real estate and cash. The new carrier will not fly with CEA's logo or code but will use the green logo of Yunnan Airlines, the predecessor of CEA's local branch company that merged with the larger airline in 2002. It will adopt its own name and flight code.
Gate Gourmet announced the purchase of United Airlines' Tokyo Narita flight kitchen and will provide catering and provisioning services to UA under a new long-term deal. The company said the acquisition will more than double its production capacity at NRT.
China Southern Airlines received government approval for a private placement of 721.2 million A shares worth more than CNY2.28 billion ($333.4 million), SinoCast reported. Proceeds will be used to pay off loans and are part of a capital increase that also will include 721.2 million H shares. Both reportedly will be subscribed to by an overseas subsidiary of CZ parent China Southern Air Holding Co.
Air Malta is enjoying a reasonably stable ride through the current industry crisis thanks to decisions made several years ago, but it remains weighed down by excess staff, CEO Joe Cappello told ATWOnline recently. "Thanks to increased efficiency and productivity, today our cost base is significantly lower than what it was six years ago. Had these changes not been implemented, KM would not have had a fighting chance to survive in the turbulent aviation business, especially in these last couple of years," he said.
Amadeus said total travel bookings fell 2.1% last year to 526.6 million but its revenue was up 2.2% from 2007 to €2.86 billion ($4.05 billion). It said its market share rose 1.7 points to 35.6%. In the first quarter of 2009, its travel agency bookings slid 9.1% year-over-year and the entire GDS market dropped an estimated 13.2%, it said.
SkyTeam said the first level of its first co-branded alliance lounge, located in London Heathrow's Terminal 4, will open Thursday. Facility eventually will consist of two floors covering more than 1,600 sq. m. Second level is scheduled to open in November. Eligible passengers on Delta Air Lines, KLM, Continental Airlines and Kenya Airways will have access immediately, with more coming as additional SkyTeam carriers shift operations to T4.
Assn. of European Airlines members said last week that there remains no indication about when an economic recovery might begin and that the current downturn could have a "profound impact on the market" well past this year. IATA said last week, "The worst may be over.
Flydubai's inaugural flight departed from Dubai International's Terminal 2 yesterday morning on its way to Beirut, marking "an opening of the skies for low-cost travel to and from the Emirate," the startup said. The 737-800, operating as FZ157, carried 189 passengers and arrived in Lebanon a little more than 3.5 hr. later.
