Alaska Airlines flew 1.48 billion RPMs in April, down 5.9% year-over-year. Capacity dropped 8.3% to 1.87 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 2 points to 78.9%. AirTran Airways flew 1.51 billion RPMs in April, up 0.3% year-over-year, against a 7.9% fall in capacity to 1.88 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 6.5 points to 80.4%. WestJet flew 1.19 billion RPMs in April, a 5.5% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 7.2% to 1.47 billion ASMs and load factor dropped 1.3 points to 81.2%.
Emirates Group said that "under the circumstances" its AED1.49 billion ($405.6 million) profit in the fiscal year ended March 31, a 72% drop from the record AED5.3 billion posted in 2007-08, was a "satisfactory result" and demonstrated its "flexibility in a challenging economic period." Group revenue rose 10.4% to AED46.3 billion but profit suffered as a result of "the record fuel prices in the first six months of the [fiscal] year and the impact of the global recession," EK said. Fuel accounted for 36.2% of the carrier's expenses compared to 32.9% in the prior year.
US Airways yesterday launched seasonal daily Philadelphia-Oslo Gardermoen service aboard a 757. Aerolineas Argentinas will begin a daily Buenos Aires-Cordoba-Mendoza flight on July 1 JetBlue Airways yesterday launched daily New York JFK-Montego Bay flights aboard an A320 and said it will begin serving Kingston from JFK this fall.
Bmi founder and Chairman Michael Bishop initiated UK court proceedings to force Lufthansa to purchase his 50%-plus-one-share stake in the carrier, according to multiple UK press reports. Bishop in December exercised an option to sell his stake to LH (which owns 30% minus one share) for an estimated £350-£400 million ($544-$622 million) under terms of a contract signed in 1999. LH announced seven months ago that it would purchase Bishop's stake ( ATWOnline, Oct.
Pratt & Whitney's PurePower PW1000G geared turbofan program for the Bombardier CSeries and Mitsubishi Regional Jet will enter the detailed design phase by midsummer, VP-Next Generation Product Family Bob Saia told ATWOnline yesterday. This stage, which follows completion of the preliminary design phase, will take 12-15 months, leading to first engine runs by the third quarter of 2010. "We start testing in the middle of next year, we get engine certification at the end of 2011 and start flying on the MRJ. . .and we fly on the CSeries in the middle of 2012," Saia said.
Boeing Chairman, President and CEO Jim McNerney said that with the 787 on the "eve" of first flight, "we're turning to profitability" and working on developing an efficient production process that will allow the manufacturer to benefit from the troubled program as quickly as possible.
US FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. began mediated negotiations this week, guided by a three-member panel comprising former FAA Administrator Jane Garvey, Richard Bloch and George Cohen ( ATWOnline, May 4). Agreement provides for binding resolutions of unresolved issues, "guaranteeing a new collective bargaining agreement," FAA said. Process is expected to last through early June.
Embraer announced the delivery of the first of two 50-seat ERJ-145s to Passaredo Linhas Aereas through its ECC Leasing subsidiary ( ATWOnline, March 20). The aircraft operated its first flight for the Ribeirao Preto-based airline Monday. The second plane is being prepared for delivery at Embraer Aircraft Maintenance Services in Nashville. Passaredo also operates six Brasilias.
Boeing Corporate President and CFO James Bell said Boeing Capital Corp. will provide about $1 billion in financing for new aircraft deliveries in 2009 but expressed confidence that there also are "adequate sources of financing" in traditional credit markets. He added that it's too early to make an assessment for 2010 but said the company does not plan to be a primary financing source going forward. "There is not the need [for Boeing] to finance aircraft [on a large scale]," he insisted.
Boeing said it completed the first engine runs on the Trent 1000s powering the first 787 yesterday. Engines ran for 40 min. According to the company, "the occasion marks the first all-electric start of a commercial jetliner engine on a commercial jetliner." Engines already had been started electronically in test facilities, it noted. Engine runs began with the Hamilton Sundstrand APS-5000 APU providing power to start them.
Seabury Solutions announced that Southwest Airlines implemented its Airline Performance Analysis System, a decision-support tool that measures the operational and financial performance of individual flights.
US FAA yesterday said it proposed a $1.3 million civil penalty against Gulfstream International Airlines, alleging "improper scheduling of flight crew duty time" and installing unapproved air conditioner compressors on its fleet of 27 1900D turboprops.
US National Transportation Safety Board wrote to American Airlines this week recommending that the carrier evaluate its maintenance program's Continuing Analysis and Surveillance System "to determine why it failed," contributing to a September 2007 MD-82 inflight engine fire during a departure climb from St. Louis ( ATWOnline, April 8). "Then, make necessary modifications to the program to correct these shortcomings," NTSB told AA.
ICAO yesterday said it "intensified efforts" to assist member states in developing effective and harmonized national contingency plans in the event of a global H1N1 influenza (swine flu) pandemic.
Worldwide Flight Services inked a three-year contract with LTU International to provide cargo handling services, warehousing and customs clearance in Miami.
Regional Express Holdings of Australia reported a A$7.5 million ($5.8 million) pre-tax profit for the fiscal third quarter ended March 31, down 6.3% year-over-year. Revenue fell 7.8% to A$57 million on a 19.8% drop in passenger numbers to 292,386. Load factor slipped 4.1 points to 63.2% on a 15% reduction in ASKs. Fiscal year-to-date pre-tax earnings of A$21.9 million were up 1.9% from the year-ago period, although Rex said its full-year net may be down as much as 10%. It flies 40 Saab 340s.
Southwest Airlines announced yesterday that it will start service in November or December at Milwaukee, a market targeted for growth this year by rival AirTran Airways.
Lufthansa may "walk away" from its acquisition of bmi unless current shareholders inject more capital, CFO Stephan Gemkow told the Financial Times. "What we want to have is the company in its contractually agreed state and that means the company has the licenses it needs to operate and the funds it needs to operate," he told the paper. "We have a situation in which, to our understanding, the conditions have not been met. .
In a closed-door session at the Regional Airline Assn. annual conference in Salt Lake City that extended late into Tuesday evening, CEOs of a number of US regionals focused primarily on safety issues raised after the Feb. 12 Colgan Air Q400 crash that killed 50 people outside Buffalo, while the US Senate promised to conduct its own examination of regional safety.
CEOs of Air France KLM Group and Delta Air Lines signed a profit/loss-sharing joint venture agreement yesterday in Paris covering a wide network around 10 hubs representing more than 200 flights and approximately 50,000 seats per day. The airlines said their venture, which will concentrate on service to/from Amsterdam, Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York JFK and Paris Charles de Gaulle as well as Cincinnati, Lyon, Memphis and Salt Lake City, represents about 25% of the industry's total transatlantic capacity.
Alaska Airlines pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn. ratified a four-year labor agreement that includes pay increases, retirement options for current employees and "work rules that provide increased flexibility for pilots and improved productivity for the airline," the parties announced. Deal covers 1,455 pilots and is effective as of April 1, 2009. The company's defined benefit pension plan will be closed to pilots hired following ratification; those pilots will participate in a 401(k) program. Negotiations began in January 2007 and the contract was finalized one month ago.
Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. is on schedule to deliver the first MRJ90 by 2013 to launch customer ANA, which has firm orders for 25, Executive VP Junichi Miyakawa said yesterday at the Regional Airline Assn. conference in Salt Lake City. The company completed its preliminary design review in April with critical review scheduled to be finished by year end. First flight is anticipated in 2011.
Virgin America said it has completed installation of the Gogo inflight Internet service on its fleet and as of yesterday is offering the service on each of its 100 daily flights ( ATWOnline, Dec. 3, 2008). Cost is $12.95 for daytime flights longer than 3 hr., $9.95 for shorter daytime flights, $5.95 on redeye flights and $7.95 for handheld devices.
