Turkish Airlines informed the Istanbul stock exchange yesterday that it will purchase five 777-300s. In a statement on its website, the carrier said the aircraft will "be delivered each month starting October 2010 until February 2011." It currently operates three leased 777-300s and has been hinting that it is on the verge of making a big long-haul order ( ATWOnline, Jan. 14).
Mesa Air Group, which ended its codeshare agreement with Mokulele Airlines earlier this week, forged a new agreement with another Hawaiian carrier, Island Air. Mesa subsidiary go! yesterday began marketing services by Island Air, which operates a fleet of 37-seat Dash 8s between Honolulu and Molokai, Lanai, Maui (Kapalua and Kahului), Kauai (Lihue) and the "Big Island" of Hawaii (Kona and Hilo).
El Al posted a 2008 net loss of $38.8 million, reversed from a $44.8 million profit in 2007, citing fuel expenses. The Israeli airline said high fuel prices in the first half of the year, followed by hedging charges in the second half when the price of oil dropped, led to a 45% year-over-year increase in fuel costs to $771.2 million. But President Haim Romano said the carrier "recorded a drop in most expense items aside from fuel" and has focused on "becoming more efficient."
In the biggest management shakeup in its history, Qantas eliminated 90 senior management positions to cut costs and streamline the airline as analysts warned that further layoffs and aircraft deferrals are inevitable. CEO Alan Joyce would not rule out the option. "It is certainly a lever we may have to use," he conceded to ATWOnline yesterday.
CAAC put an A320 full flight simulator into service at its Hua-Ou Aviation Training Center, the facility's third FFS. The Thales simulator will increase Hua-Ou's training capacity by more than 25%, it said.
Frontier Airlines Holdings, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, posted a $3.2 million net loss and a $1.5 million operating profit in February, numbers it said bode well for its effort to secure financing to exit Chapter 11.
US Airways Chairman and CEO Doug Parker, responding yesterday to reports that his counterpart at Continental Airlines, Larry Kellner, did not oppose re-regulation of commercial airlines ( ATWOnline, March 24), said, "In general, [re-regulation] is exactly the wrong direction." Parker said one of the industry's major problems is that it has not been truly deregulated. "We've spent 31 years trying to get deregulated."
US Regional airlines enjoyed robust growth and financial returns over the past several years when mainline partners reduced capacity and outsourced flying, but those days may be coming to an end, Delta Connection Senior VP Don Bornhorst told ATWOnline. "In the old days, capacity pulldowns meant more flying for the regionals," he said, but prospects for regional airline growth are limited this year as capacity cutbacks by mainline carriers likely will be "mirrored" by their regional partners.
UK Secretary for Transport Geoff Hoon said the government would be "completely at ease" if the merged British Airways and Iberia chose to locate their headquarters in Spain, The Times reported ( ATWOnline, Feb. 3).
Eurocontrol said the number of flights in Europe this year will decrease 8.1%-1.4% from 2008, with a "most likely case" of 4.9%, and demand is not expected to recover this year. It said drops will occur across all sectors of the industry, including low-cost airlines, which operated 5% fewer flights last month than in February 2008.
Ryanair will launch thrice-weekly flights from Nottingham East Midlands to Reus and Palma in July. It will cease serving Paris Beauvais from EMA. It also said all Beauvais service will be suspended June 3-10 as the airport closes to upgrade its landing systems.
Air China parent CNAC intends to move forward with its acquisition of a stake in East Star Airlines despite the Wuhan-based carrier's "strong opposition" to its "forceful purchase."
IATA yesterday revised downward its 2009 forecast, projecting a global airline industry loss of $4.7 billion for the year, a near-doubling of the $2.5 billion loss it forecast in December. Collective revenue is expected to decrease 12% year-over-year to $467 billion. "The state of the airline industry today is grim," DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said. "Demand has deteriorated much more rapidly with the economic slowdown than could have been anticipated even a few months ago."
Alaska Airlines flew 1.27 billion RPMs in February, down 10.2% year-over-year. Capacity dropped 10.5% to 1.73 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 0.2 point to 73.5%. Allegiant Air flew 351.2 million RPMs in February, a 6.3% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 1.9% to 401.6 million ASMs and load factor climbed 3.5 points to 87.4%. Copa Airlines flew 485.6 million RPMs in February, up 9.9% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 15.7% to 627.2 million ASMs and load factor fell 4.1 points to 77.4%.
SR Technics and Air India announced that their existing maintenance contract covering Air India Express's CFM56-7B engines will expand to include CFM56-5Bs on AI's fleet of 27 A320 family aircraft (planned to increase to 43 by 2010). Extended contract will expire in May 2010 and contains an extension clause for an additional two years. Services will be performed at SR Technics' engine services center in Zurich.
Chongqing Airlines took delivery of the first of three 122-seat A319s on lease from ILFC, Airbus announced. A joint venture between China Southern Airlines and Chongqing International Invest, the carrier currently operates four A320s and will take delivery of the remaining two A319s this spring.
International Aero Engines announced the delivery of the first set of V2500s to Airbus's A320 final assembly line in Tianjin. The V2500 will be installed on nine of the first 10 aircraft assembled there, including the first plane scheduled for delivery to Sichuan Airlines this summer ( ATWOnline, Sept. 30, 2008).
US Airways expects to generate $400-$500 million this year in ancillary revenue, according to President Scott Kirby. Speaking yesterday at the airline's media day in Phoenix, Kirby said that after initial negative reaction, there has been "very little consumer pushback" to the new fees. Ancillary revenue contributed $165 million to US last year, with $116.5 million coming from the first-bag fee, $37.6 million from the second-bag fee, $5.3 million from the Choice Seats program and $5.7 million from increased beverage fees.
Greek government signed an agreement to sell Olympic Airlines' flight, maintenance and ground handling divisions to Marfin Investment Group, which should take over the carrier in October if the deal is approved by the country's parliament ( ATWOnline, March 11). It is worth a reported €177.2 million ($241.5 million). The new OA will employ some 4,000 workers, about half the current total.
Bombardier Aerospace announced the addition of Alenia Aeronautica, Fokker Elmo and Goodrich Actuation Systems to its team of CSeries suppliers. Alenia will provide horizontal and vertical stabilizers, Fokker will be responsible for the design and production of the wiring and interconnection system and Goodrich will handle design and production of the flap and slat actuation systems.
Gol and Varig parent Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes swung to a BRL1.39 billion ($606.7 million) loss in 2008 from a BRL272.3 million profit the prior year, but said it "continues to evaluate expansion opportunities" while approving a BRL203.5 million capital increase.
The US Air Transport Assn. and Assn. of European Airlines jointly urged the US Dept. of Transportation to oppose a provision in the proposed House of Representatives FAA reauthorization legislation that calls for airline alliance antitrust immunity to expire every three years.
Flydubai said it has hired 61 captains, 18 first officers and 80 cabin crew in preparation for its upcoming launch. The carrier said it received 11,500 applications.
