Cimber Air, which acquired bankrupt Sterling Airlines' assets last month ( ATWOnline, Dec. 5, 2008), will relaunch the carrier at Copenhagen as Cimber Sterling "with a few" of the former Sterling's 737s, it announced. It will add 16 new international routes from CPH, comprising 56 weekly flights scheduled to start in late March. Destinations include Montpellier and Bourgas.
European Commission authorized what it called "rescue aid" for Austrian Airlines Group in the form of a €200 million ($265.2 million) loan facility guaranteed by Austrian state holding company OIAG. The EC said the loan was issued at market rates and the amount was limited to what is needed to maintain the company ahead of its privatization ( ATWOnline, Dec. 8, 2008).
Delta Air Lines is holding firm on a tentative agreement it reached last month with the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which manages Minneapolis-St. Paul International, saying that it will not renegotiate terms and expects the commission's board to approve the deal at a Jan. 26 meeting.
Ryanair is willing to raise its offer for rival Aer Lingus though it warned it will not engage in a lengthy regulatory clearance process unless it receives significant support from EI shareholders, including acceptance of the offer by either the Irish government or the Employee Shareholder Ownership Trust.
Fraport received approval from the Hessen state court to begin construction of the fourth runway and third terminal at Frankfurt Airport ( ATWOnline, Dec. 20, 2007). However, the approval contains a "proposed restriction on night flights," according to IATA, which "should be reconsidered in a future court ruling." Fraport said in June that the runway should be operational by the 2011 winter schedule.
Iberia flew 3.96 billion RPKs in December, down 7% from the year-ago month, against a 5.7% decline in capacity to 5.21 billion ASKs. Load factor fell 1.1 point to 76%. TAM flew 2.15 billion domestic RPKs in December, up 5% year-over-year, against a 14.3% rise in capacity to 3.25 billion ASKs. Load factor dropped 5.8 points to 66.1%. International traffic climbed 22.1% to 1.46 billion RPKs, capacity rose 21.9% to 2.05 billion ASKs and load factor was up 0.1 point to 71.4%.
Okay Airways applied to CAAC for permission to resume operations following its suspension last month ( ATWOnline, Dec. 8, 2008). CAAC North China Regional Administration spokesperson Sun Defu confirmed to ATWOnline that the regulator received Okay's application on Jan. 15 and will conduct a safety check before granting approval, for which Sun did not provide a timetable.
Jet Airways reported a INR2.14 billion ($42.8 million) loss in its third fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, widened from a INR911.2 million deficit in the year-ago period, and said that it will maintain focus on "domestic market consolidation" and "cost reduction initiatives," including plans to "rationalize our workforce."
A preliminary US FAA report released Friday said a US Airways A320-200 "made a forced landing on the Hudson River after striking birds and losing engine power" moments after taking off from New York LaGuardia. Flight 1549 was on its way to Charlotte but wound up ditching in the river ( ATWOnline, Jan. 16). A National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. spokesperson told the Associated Press that Capt. Chesley Sullenberger III, 57, reported a "double bird strike" less than a minute after taking off.
ACSS said it was selected by Air Berlin "to launch a collaborative program to implement and certify its SafeRoute Merging & Spacing function in the European airspace." ACSS is a joint venture between L-3 Communications and Thales. SafeRoute uses ADS-B to improve situational awareness and enhance an aircraft's operating efficiency during takeoff, flight, approach, landing and taxi, according to ACSS. The Merging & Spacing Function "makes flying more efficient by providing the pilot with speed cues that enable an aircraft to reach its approach point with greater precision. .
Singapore Airlines will cut 214 flights to China, Europe, Australia and India after passenger numbers slumped 7.5% in December. Cities affected are Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Mumbai, New Delhi, London and Zurich. SQ carried 1.6 million passengers last month and flew 8.05 billion RPKs, down 3.5% year-over-year. Capacity rose 1.7% to 10.07 billion ASKs and load factor slipped 4.4 points to 79.9%.
US Dept. of Transportation named Dr. Karlin Toner to serve as a senior staff adviser and coordinator of inter-agency development of the NextGen air transportation system. She will chair the Senior Policy Committee overseeing NextGen and will work directly under the Secretary of Transportation.
Qantas launched A380 flights on the Sydney-Singapore-London Heathrow "kangaroo route" last Friday. QF31 will operate on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with the QF32 return operating on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Bmi gained approval to operate a five-times-weekly London Heathrow-Kiev Boryspil service. UK and Ukraine recently signed a revised air services agreement permitting increased capacity. Specific airport and launch date were not announced. US Airways will launch daily seasonal Charlotte-Paris Charles De Gaulle on April 21 aboard a 767.
Cabot Aviation, on behalf of Aircraft Solutions A320, arranged the purchase of three V2500-A1-powered A320-200s from Cyprus Airways. First aircraft was delivered on Jan. 14 and the other two are due in the first half of this year.
ANA board promoted Senior Executive VP-Marketing & Sales, Customer Service Promotion, Products & Services Strategy Shinichiro Ito to the position of president and CEO effective April 1, succeeding Mineo Yamamoto, who will become vice chairman of ANA Group the same day. Ito, 58, has been at ANA for 35 years and previously held positions in engineering and maintenance, airport administration, personnel and corporate planning.
SkyEurope Airlines received a one-month extension to Feb. 15 on a €15 million ($19.8 million) loan granted in December 2007 and a €10 million loan from last September from York Global Finance.
Cathay Pacific Airways announced that it reached an agreement with Airport Authority Hong Kong to delay the completion of its new cargo terminal by up to two years to mid-2013 ( ATWOnline, Dec. 2, 2008).
SR Technics reached a deal with easyJet to provide 157 intermediate layover checks on the carrier's A319 fleet. Work will take place in Zurich via a dual HMV line allowing for two simultaneous checks. Each check will take 14 days and all are scheduled between mid-March 2009 and summer 2015. Heroux-Devtek yesterday said Fokker Services awarded its Landing Gear Division a contract to manufacture replacement landing gear components for F100s. Valued at $15-$24 million, the contract calls for aftermarket kits including piston and cylinder components.
Royal Australian Navy yesterday agreed to assist in the investigation into two air data inertial reference unit failures aboard Qantas A330s after initially denying that the joint Australia/US naval communications base in Exmouth, Western Australia, was to blame because it uses different frequency bands ( ATWOnline, Jan. 8). The Harold E. Holt naval base uses very low frequency signals to communicate with US Navy and RAN submarines and it was reasoned they were too weak to penetrate an aircraft fuselage.
American Airlines plans to recall 24 furloughed pilots in February, a spokesperson told the Associated Press. It will mark the first time in eight months that AA has added pilots.
Gulf Air plans to ground five former SAS A340-300s and start a fuel hedging program in order to cut costs, according to the Arab Air Carriers Org. A340 lift will be replaced by four 777s. Gulf also plans to take delivery of four A330s and five A320s this year.
Pinnacle Airlines subsidiary Colgan Airways ordered 15 Q400s valued at approximately $432 million for delivery between August 2010 and April 2011. The order represents conversion of 10 conditional orders and the exercise of five options from an original order placed in 2007. Colgan will operate the aircraft under its existing capacity purchase agreement with Continental Airlines ( ATWOnline, Oct. 8, 2008).
All 150 passengers and five crew evacuated successfully from a US Airways A320 that executed an emergency water landing in the Hudson River on the west side of Manhattan following an apparent bird strike yesterday afternoon in what appears to be the first controlled ditching of a US commercial aircraft in more than 50 years.
Airbus booked 777 net aircraft orders in 2008, topping Boeing's 662 net orders, but like its rival reported a significant drop-off from the previous year, when it recorded 1,341 net orders. The 2008 orders, valued at $100 billion, comprised 472 A320 family aircraft, 163 A350s, 138 A330s/A340s and nine A380s. The net total also includes cancellation of five A310s.
