LAN Airlines flew 2.46 billion RPKs in February, an 8.2% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 9.7% to 3.08 billion ASKs and load factor dipped 1.2 points to 80%. Aer Lingus flew 992 million RPKs in February, down 7.5% year-over-year. Capacity dropped 14.4% to 1.38 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 5.3 points to 72%. SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines flew a combined 1.2 billion RPMs in February, a 9.2% drop year-over-year. Capacity fell 9% to 1.61 billion ASMs and load factor slipped 0.1 point to 74.9%.
SkyTeam partners Air France KLM and Aeroflot were among the four groups filing official yet nonbinding expressions of interest in fellow alliance member CSA Czech Airlines, the Czech Finance Ministry announced. The Czech government is selling its 91.5% stake in the airline ( ATWOnline, March 4). Other interested parties are charter carrier Travel Service/Unimex Group and Odien, a private investor.
Republic Airways Holdings took control of 50% of Mokulele Airlines through a $3 million cash injection and the conversion of $3 million of its $8 million loan to the Hawaiian carrier ( ATWOnline, March 19). Mokulele CEO Bill Boyer was replaced by Republic VP-Strategic Alliances Scott Durgin. In response, Mesa Air Group announced yesterday that it will terminate the two-year-old codeshare agreement between its go! subsidiary and Mokulele.
Continental Airlines Chairman and CEO Larry Kellner told the Houston Chronicle that "if the government wanted to re-regulate the business, I wouldn't be opposed to it" and that "what we've got today doesn't work. It isn't creating a stable industry." He told the paper that managing labor costs was key and "the structure of the [Railway Labor Act] creates a very cumbersome process." Separately, CO received tentative approval from the US Dept.
Baltia Air Lines, a New York JFK-based startup, was allocated one weekly frequency to St. Petersburg from JFK by the US Dept. of Transportation for service to begin by Sept. 30. AirTran Airways will operate twice-daily Atlanta-Atlantic City flights beginning June 11. S7 Airlines will launch weekly Moscow Domodedovo-Madrid service on June 6 aboard an A319 and weekly Novosibirsk-Alma Ata flights on April 3 aboard an A320-200.
Delta Air Lines and V Australia signed an interline agreement covering each carrier's transpacific flights and remaining networks. DL's Los Angeles-Sydney service begins July 1. V Australia signed an interline agreement with Northwest Airlines, now a DL subsidiary, last year ( ATWOnline, April 1, 2008).
Air Jamaica said it is ending its economy class meal service effective May 1 and will offer a "packaged snack" instead. Nonalcoholic beverages will remain free. A buy-on-board snack program will be launched in September.
News from Travel Technology Update: Travelport GDS will "temporarily" indemnify travel agents from new surcharges that Air France KLM intends to impose for bookings made through the Galileo and Worldspan systems. The carrier has said that it will assess a €4.50 surcharge for bookings made through the systems by travel agents in France beginning June 1 and in the Netherlands beginning in mid-July. Travelport's combined Galileo and Worldspan presence makes it the dominant GDS company in the Netherlands. Its agreement with Air France KLM expired in December.
Qantas declined to confirm a report in The Australian Financial Review that it intends to cut 100 senior executive positions. However, a QF insider suggested to ATWOnline that the report was true and that the airline would announce details mid-week. The reductions are in addition to the 1,500 announced last year and are not unexpected as new CEO Alan Joyce strives to streamline the carrier ( ATWOnline, July 21, 2008).
A FedEx MD-11 en route from Guangzhou to Tokyo Narita crashed yesterday on landing in high winds, cartwheeling on the runway and catching fire, killing the two pilots. Video of the crash shows the aircraft landing hard, lifting back into the air briefly and then bouncing on its front and then rear ends. The left wing hit the runway, starting a fire as the MD-11 rolled. The crash occurred at 6:50 a.m. and closed the longer of NRT's two runways, forcing Japan Airlines and ANA to cancel at least 40 flights combined.
GE Aviation said it completed its acquisition of Airfoil Technologies International-Singapore with the purchase of Teleflex's 51% stake for $300 million. ATI-Singapore employs some 535 and repairs more than 2 million compressor airfoils per year, GE said.
Lufthansa Flight Training opened a simulator center in Munich yesterday. Swiss Aviation Training will operate its own E-190/195 simulator initially, with an LFT A320 simulator scheduled to enter operation in the coming weeks. An A330/A340 simulator will be running by year end.
Ethiopian Airlines reported a ETB515 million ($45.8 million) profit in its fiscal first half ended Dec. 31, up 9% from the year-ago semester, on a 54.8% surge in operating revenue to ETB6.7 billion. CEO Girma Wake said the carrier "remains optimistic that its performance will be sustained going forward, considering the strategic cost reduction efforts and improved operating procedures we have put in place."
US Airways was granted tentative route authority by the US Dept. of Transportation to operate a daily Charlotte-Rio de Janeiro Galeao service. US will use a two-class, 204-seat 767 on the route and plans to launch in the fall. Jetstar Airways plans to operate four-times-weekly Cairns-Osaka Kansai service beginning in December aboard an A330. The airline said launch is subject to completing negotiations with KIX and that it has "alternative international capacity options" from Cairns.
United Airlines expects first-quarter consolidated passenger RASM to fall 11%-12% year-over-year, with mainline PRASM dropping 12.3%-13.3%, along with an $80 million cash loss on settled fuel hedge contracts.
Virgin America will begin charging passengers $15 for their first piece of checked luggage on travel booked from May 5. The second through 10th checked bags also will cost $15 each, replacing VX's old policy of $25 for the second bag and $50 each for subsequent pieces. First class passengers will be permitted to check two bags for free, and those purchasing VX's Main Cabin Select product will get one free bag. "Because we fly to primary airports, we mainly compete with the large network carriers, all of whom already charge this fee," VP-Planning and Sales Diana Walke explained.
Universal Air Repair of Tennessee, a subsidiary of Universal Asset Management, received FAA certification to operate its10,000-sq.-ft. facility as an approved repair station with Limited Accessories ratings. It marks UAM's first venture into commercial aviation maintenance.
Naverus will design performance-based navigation procedures for Air China's A330 fleet at Lhasa under a contract signed with the carrier. It already has implemented PBN procedures at the airport for CA's 757s and A319s.
Cathay Pacific and Dragonair flew 6.65 billion RPKs in February, a 4.9% drop from the year-ago month. Capacity was down 3.7% to 8.68 billion ASKs and load factor fell 1 point to 76.6%. GM-Revenue Management Tom Owen said premium cabin demand is "persistently weak" and that yields are under "tremendous pressure." TAM flew 1.84 billion domestic RPKs in February, down 1.9% year-over-year. Capacity climbed 13.6% to 3.02 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 9.6 points to 60.9%. International RPKs rose 12.6% to 1.37 billion against a 16.9% lift in capacity to 1.92 billion ASKs.
Air India said it plans to maintain its policy of introducing 2-3 new aircraft to its fleet per month during the fiscal year beginning April 1, claiming that the global slump in demand "will be short-lived" and that traffic to and from India will rise "considering [the] improved business environment and the enormous potential" of India as a tourist destination. AI added 45 aircraft in the past 18 months and now operates more than 150. Thirty are scheduled to arrive during the upcoming fiscal year, including three 777-200LRs during the June-August period.
Austrian LCC Niki posted a profit of €7.1 million ($9.6 million) in 2008, up 103% on the prior year, President Niki Lauda told ATWOnline last week, on a 25% year-over-year increases in revenue to €229 million and passenger numbers to 2.1 million. "All in all, 2008 was a record year for us. And I also expect a good 2009," he said, adding that the airline will benefit from Austrian Airlines' struggles ( ATWOnline, Feb. 24).
Singapore Airlines has "no immediate plans" to defer any aircraft deliveries, including the four A380s scheduled to arrive this year, but said it does not "discount the possibility of deferring future deliveries as we consider the options for our fleet going forward," in a statement cited by Agence France Presse.
US airlines saw passenger revenue fall 19% year-over-year in February, the fourth straight month of declining revenue figures, the US Air Transport Assn. reported Friday. "12% fewer travelers paid 8% less to fly one mile on US airlines, with declines extending beyond the mainland US to transatlantic, transpacific and Latin markets," ATA said. Carriers also are taking a hit on the cargo front, ATA noted, reporting that RTMs lowered 21% year-over-year in January following 17% drops in both November and December. Transpacific cargo traffic sank 32% in January.
Malaysia Airlines Engineering & Maintenance said it is targeting a 15% year-over-year increase in 2009 revenue to MYR520 million ($142.4 million). Senior GM Mohd Roslan Ismail said third-party revenue has doubled in the past two years to MYR438 million in 2008 and that "there continues to be a high demand for our services." The company also said its MRO joint venture with GMR Hyderabad International is scheduled to be operational by the third quarter of 2010 ( ATWOnline, Aug. 22, 2008).
Scheduled service airline passenger fatalities fell 25.2% to 439 in 2008 from 587 in 2007, though the actual rate of accidents decreased only "marginally," according to preliminary figures reported by ICAO last week.
