Southwest Airlines will launch its New York LaGuardia service on June 28 with five daily flights to Chicago Midway and thrice-daily service to Baltimore, the LCC announced yesterday ( ATWOnline, Dec. 3, 2008).
Qantas Executive GM John Borghetti announced his resignation effective May 4, completing the management shakeup that included the elimination of 90 senior positions last month ( ATWOnline, March 26). Borghetti had been a contender for the Qantas Group CEO position along with former CFO Peter Gregg. The job eventually went to former Jetstar Airways CEO Alan Joyce and Gregg resigned last summer ( ATWOnline, Aug. 20, 2008).
Aviation Global Deal Group, a partnership of Air France KLM, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways and UK airports operator BAA that supports the inclusion of aviation emissions under a single global policy, presented a draft policy framework to UN climate change negotiators in Bonn. The framework is "ambitious, equitable and effective," AGD said. It maintained its position that regulation should be global rather than regional and suggested that a worldwide target be established for the sector in order to ensure aviation plays its due part.
Finmeccanica subsidiary Alenia Aeronautica completed the acquisition of a 25%-plus-one-share stake in Sukhoi Civil Aircraft. Price was not disclosed. Alenia is a partner in the development of the Superjet 100. It said the aircraft has received 98 orders and is due to be certified and delivered to launch customer Aeroflot by year end.
An American Airlines MD-82 inflight engine fire in September 2007 was "probably due to an unapproved and improper procedure used by mechanics to manually start one of the engines," the US National Transportation Safety Board said in a report issued yesterday, adding that "the fire was prolonged and the safety of the aircraft further jeopardized by how the flight crew handled the emergency."
Despite the global recession, flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith believes now is the perfect time to launch the airline: "There are 2 billion people within 4 hr. flying time out of Dubai who are still underserved. The market share of LCCs in our region is just about 2%," he told ATWOnline.
The US Dept. of Transportation yesterday approved Continental Airlines' entry into Star Alliance, granting tentative antitrust immunity to the carrier and certain Star partners and to CO's proposed transatlantic joint venture with Air Canada, Lufthansa and United Airlines.
Mesa Air Group agreed to sell its stake in Kunpeng Airlines, its regional joint venture with Shenzhen Airlines. Mesa said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it will sell its share to Shenzhen or its nominee and terminate the lease of five CRJ200s to Kunpeng for $4.5 million, minus $900,000 in returned security deposits. Mesa announced its intention to end its 44% participation in the JV last summer and said it expects the aircraft to be returned this month ( ATWOnline, Aug. 20, 2008).
American Airlines Senior VP-Human Resources Jeff Brundage told the carrier's nonunion employees yesterday that the company has decided to institute a hiring and pay freeze for the remainder of 2009. In a letter to workers, Brundage said AA is experiencing "a decline in revenue, a decrease in bookings, lower demand for cargo services and increasing costs for such items as pension expense and medical insurance." He added that it is "having a tough time borrowing money right now." AA has about 19,000 nonunion employees.
Blue Wings, a Dusseldorf-based scheduled and charter carrier that suspended operations on April 1 after the authorities revoked its operating license, plans to re-launch full service Friday.
Russian Technologies, the state-owned controller of the newly established, Moscow Vnukovo-based Russia Airlines ( ATWOnline, Oct. 24, 2008), plans to order 150-200 aircraft starting next year, RT head Sergei Chemezov said, according to Reuters. According to Chemezov, "Boeing has promised to help us find credit in the US. From next year we would like to start buying airplanes. . .The most important question is where [we can] get the money."
United Airlines flight attendants represented by the Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA announced yesterday that the union is "exercising the opportunity to negotiate for improvement for the first time since 1996" and is "seeking contract improvements after enduring huge cuts in pay, quality of work life, healthcare and retirement for nearly seven years." The current labor contract becomes amendable on Jan. 7, 2010. If negotiations have not concluded by Aug. 7, the parties will petition the National Mediation Board to begin mediation.
News from Travel Technology Update: Farelogix unveiled FLX Commando, a patent-pending agency reservations tool that simulates cryptic GDS command-line functions, and E-FLX, described as the travel industry's first "hub" for issuing, storing, managing and reporting Electronic Miscellaneous Documents. Farelogix has been busy: The new product announcements came on the heels of the debut of Project Hawkeye, Farelogix' open-source, Web-based travel management point-of-sale application whose source code is now available for free public download from the company's Web site.
Dermot Mannion's eventful tenure as Aer Lingus CEO, which featured privatization, two successful defenses against a Ryanair takeover and a reversal in fiscal fortunes leading to a €107.8 million ($145.3 million) loss last year, ended yesterday with his resignation after 3.5 years on the job. "It has been a privilege. . .to have led the company through a period of profound change," Mannion said in a statement. "My decision to step down will allow a new CEO to bring fresh thinking and new ideas to the business."
US airlines' customer service improved for the first time in five years in 2008, researchers from St. Louis University and Wichita State University said yesterday in releasing their annual Airline Quality Rating report. Improvement was across the board, with carriers scoring better on baggage handling, ontime performance, denied boarding and customer complaints, researchers said. The airline with the best overall AQR among the 17 graded was Hawaiian Airlines, followed by AirTran Airways, JetBlue Airways, Northwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
US Airways named former Eos Airlines Senior VP-Guest Experience Hector Adler VP- inflight services. Ryanair promoted Head of Scheduled Revenue Ken O'Toole to director-new route development. AirTran Airways named Transportation Security Administration Office of Strategic Communications and Public Affairs Deputy Assistant Administrator Christopher White director of public relations.
BOC Aviation announced a sale/leaseback transaction with Southwest Airlines covering six 737-700s that will be leased back to the carrier for 14 years each. The first tranche of three aircraft closed April 2 and the second is scheduled to close in the current quarter. The lessor closed a similar deal with SWA in January covering 10 aircraft ( ATWOnline, Jan. 15).
Delta Air Lines, including its Northwest Airlines subsidiary, flew 15.6 billion system RPMs in March, a 12.6% decrease from the year-ago month. Capacity was down 7.9% to 19.39 billion ASMs and load factor fell 4.4 points to 80.5%. JetBlue Airways said preliminary passenger RASM fell 12% in March. It flew 2.25 billion RPMs during the month, down 8.5% year-over-year, against a 5.6% fall in capacity to 2.83 billion ASMs. Load factor dropped 2.5 points to 79.3%.
EasyJet Chairman Colin Chandler will resign effective July 1 and be replaced on an interim basis by Senior Independent Director David Michels, the LCC announced. Chandler has held the post since 2002. British Telecom Chairman Michael Rake was named deputy chairman and will join the easyJet board prior to Chandler's departure.
ATR has had serious discussions with airlines and suppliers about producing a larger turboprop and has found "a lot of interest" in the manufacturer's building a bigger aircraft than the 70-seat ATR 72, Head of Sales John Moore told ATWOnline. "We are certainly looking at that market and have had some very positive feedback from airlines that they do see a need for a larger capacity turboprop," Moore said yesterday. "There are a growing number of routes where the 70-seat turboprop is too limited."
Delta TechOps finalized new five-year contracts worth more than $200 million with Global Aviation Holdings subsidiaries World Airways and North American Airlines. Under the contracts, which are extensions to previous deals, it will perform component repair, inventory exchange programs and drop-in A and C check support. It also will provide time and material engine maintenance for World's PW4000s and CF6-80C2s and be the exclusive provider of 331-200 APU repairs for NAA.
China Airlines announced a net loss of TWD32.35 billion ($968.9 million) for 2008, widened sharply from the $77.5 million deficit reported in 2007. Operating loss of TWD10.21 billion compared to $41.54 million the prior year. CI said fuel costs climbed 45% during the first three quarters of 2008 and falling demand offset declining fuel costs in the fourth. The company lost TWD21.05 billion on its fuel hedges.
US Export-Import Bank announced approval of some $1.08 billion in financing to support the delivery of up to 30 737-900ERs to Indonesia's Lion Air. The financing comprises $238 million in a first stage and a nonbinding preliminary commitment of $841 million. Ex-Im Bank said the transactions were its first in support of the -900ER.
