Lynne Osmus was appointed by President George Bush as FAA acting administrator effective Jan. 16, when current Acting Administrator Bobby Sturgell has said he will resign. Sturgell had named Osmus, formerly assistant administrator for security and hazardous materials, as acting deputy administrator this week. She is expected to serve in the post until President-elect Barack Obama's yet-to-be-named choice for administrator is confirmed by the Senate, a process that could take some time. Obama takes office Jan. 20.
Delta Air Lines flew 9.78 billion system RPMs in December, a 0.7% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 2.4% to 12.2 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 2.4 points to 80.1%. Northwest Airlines flew 6.04 billion system RPMs in December, down 3.6% year-over-year, against a 4.5% decline in capacity to 7.38 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 0.7 point to 81.9%.
Vietnam Airlines reported a $14 million pre-tax profit in 2008, down 39% from the $23 million earned in 2007, according to a statement cited by Agence France Presse. GD Pham Ngoc Minh said the carrier "has never faced so many continuous challenges and disadvantages," even though full-year revenue climbed 22.8% to $1.56 billion. It transported 8.8 million passengers and load factor rose more than 1 point to approximately 76%.
Air Berlin's single largest shareholder, Dutch investment company AI Aviation Cooperatief, sold its 18.94% stake in the carrier, AB said yesterday. AI is a subsidiary of Access Industries, which is controlled by Len Blavatnik, a Russian/American investor. No details were released regarding the buyer. "We made this ad hoc announcement today. According to company law it is not possible to say more about the deal at the moment," an AB spokesperson told ATWOnline in Berlin.
A year that featured soaring fuel prices, a slumping global economy and a 58-day machinist strike ended with 662 net commercial aircraft orders for Boeing, a steep drop from the record 1,413 garnered in 2007. The 662 orders is the eighth-highest annual total on record for Boeing. The 737NG again was the manufacturer's most popular model with 484 net orders. It sold 93 787s, "primarily [to] Middle East customers," as well as 54 777s, 28 767-300ERs and three 747-8Is.
Saudi Arabian LCC Nas Air took delivery of three new 110-seat E-190s from Embraer, the Arab Air Carriers Org. reported. Nas now operates 14 aircraft and signed a maintenance support agreement covering them with Lufthansa Technik.
AeroMexico will launch daily flights from Mexico City to Toronto and San Francisco, both on Feb. 2, and to Denver on March 2. Cebu Pacific Air will operate thrice-weekly flights from Cebu to Cotabato beginning Jan. 10 and to Dumaguete from Jan. 12. Frequencies to Tacloban, Ozamiz and Iliolo will be increased in the coming weeks. EVA Air will relaunch thrice-weekly Taipei-Paris Charles de Gaulle passenger flights on Jan. 21 aboard a 777-300ER. Route has been operated as a cargo service since November 2007.
US Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) this week introduced legislation to abolish the "perimeter rules" that restrict flights to/from Washington National and New York LaGuardia. Federal statute prohibits flights between DCA and airports beyond 1,250 mi., though several notable exceptions have been made. A similar 1,500 mi. restriction is imposed on LGA with an exception made for service to Denver.
Lufthansa confirmed yesterday that it did not make an offer for Alitalia, which Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi revealed Wednesday ( ATWOnline, Jan. 8). An LH spokesperson told both Germany's dpa news agency and Reuters that the airline preferred to cooperate with its Star Alliance partners in the Italian market. In November, LH announced the launch of an Italian subsidiary based at Milan Malpensa ( ATWOnline, Nov.
Mesa Air Group announced that shareholders approved an increase in the number of authorized shares of common stock to 900 million from 75 million and the issuance of shares to satisfy Mesa's potential obligation to repurchase outstanding senior convertible notes due in 2023 and 2024. "We appreciate our shareholders giving us this flexibility while we continue to discuss a number of options with our bondholders," Chairman and CEO Jonathan Ornstein said.
Thai Airways will seek a delay in the delivery of six A330s scheduled to arrive between April and year end, having already received permission from Airbus to push back payments ( ATWOnline, Jan. 7). "We want to negotiate for more time before the delivery. The more months we can delay, the easier it is for us to manage our expenses," acting Chairman Surachai Thansitpong told Bloomberg News. Thai will continue to use aircraft that were scheduled to be replaced by the new A330s.
Cathay Pacific Airways said it expects to report a HK$7.6 billion ($980.2 million) unrealized mark-to-market loss on its fuel hedging contracts for 2008 and that its full-year financial result is "still expected to be disappointing." It issued a profit warning two months ago and said that "revenue has continued to weaken" since that time ( ATWOnline, Nov. 7, 2008).
Joint US/Australia naval communications base in Exmouth, Western Australia, is not to blame for two air data inertial reference unit failures on Qantas A330s ( ATWOnline, Jan. 6), according to the base manager. Russell Levine told The Sydney Morning Herald that it was "highly, highly unlikely" that radio signals from the base could scramble a commercial aircraft's navigation systems because the two use completely different frequency bands. Levine said the very low frequency signals from the Harold E.
Goodrich and Rolls-Royce completed formation of their 50/50 engine controls joint venture. Aero Engine Controls will supply controls for Rolls aircraft engines. Goodrich said it will retain the aftermarket products and services business associated with the JV's products and that as part of the transaction it received $100 million in cash, which was used to make a voluntary incremental contribution to its pension plan.
Continental Airlines 737-800 took off from Houston Intercontinental yesterday afternoon and flew for approximately 1 hr. 45 min. with the No. 2 CFM56-7B powered by a biofuel blend including algae oil supplied by Sapphire Energy and jatropha oil provided by Terasol Energy. The flight follows Air New Zealand's 747-400 test flight last week that featured one engine powered by a jatropha blend ( ATWOnline, Jan. 6). The CO aircraft burned 3,600 lb. of 50/50 mix of jet fuel and biofuel in one engine and 3,700 lb.
Ryanair and Aer Lingus both confirmed Tuesday talks, and while the former did not comment, EI released a statement yesterday saying the LCC's bid is "not capable of completion."
Austrian Airlines has found places in its network for two 767-300ERs made available through a reduction in service to Mumbai and Chicago O'Hare. One will operate on OS's daily Vienna-Tel Aviv service beginning this spring while the other will fly on its six-times-weekly VIE-Dubai service beginning March 1, increasing capacity on the route by 20%. Five additional flights to DXB are operated with A320s or 737-800s.
Wizz Air said it transported 5.9 million passengers in 2008, a 41% increase over 2007. It currently operates 20 A320s and plans to take delivery of seven this year. It is targeting more than 8 million passengers in 2009. Air Canada and Jazz flew 3.28 billion RPMs in December, down 6.6% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 9.9% to 4.56 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 2.9 points to 81.7%. EasyJet transported 3.1 million passengers in December, up 7.3% from the year-ago month. Load factor rose 3.3 points to 82.3%.
British Airways soon will announce new restructuring measures designed to reduce costs and increase efficiency, it indicated in BA News, its in-house weekly newspaper. "Only through delivering fundamental change can we achieve the small profit we are targeting this year and emerge from the crisis as a strong global player," CFO Keith Williams said, warning that the shakeup will be "far-reaching, reshaping our company from top to bottom."
AAR named Dave Cann VP-regulatory compliance. He was head of US FAA's Flight Standards Service Aircraft Maintenance Division until his retirement one year ago.
Amadeus and Star Alliance announced that three additional Star members switched over to the Star Alliance Common IT Platform based on the Amadeus Altea customer management system. Austrian Airlines, Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines "have all switched their inventory, pricing, flight schedules, seat planning and passenger re-accommodation applications," according to a statement from Amadeus and Star. Croatia and Adria are regional members of Star.
Airstream International Group was named as exclusive agent to offer for sale or lease one BAe 146-200 and one -300 on behalf of Tronos Ltd. Aircraft most recently were operated by Flightline Ltd. on behalf of BA CityFlyer.
Finnair will launch twice-weekly Helsinki-Istanbul Ataturk flights on March 3, doubling to four-times-weekly on March 30. Route will be operated with both A319s and E-190s. Swiss International Air Lines will launch a four-times-daily Zurich-Lyon service on March 29 using RJ100s. Japan Airlines announced an expanded codeshare agreement with British Airways under which JAL will place its code on BA flights from London Heathrow to Lisbon, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow International beginning Jan. 14.
Last year was one of the safest years on record for air travel, according to Ascend, with 539 reported passenger and crew fatalities, down from 730 in 2007 and the second-best year on record. The UK-based consultancy and information services provider said that only 2004 had fewer fatalities at 434. On the down side, 2008 saw an increase in the number of fatal accidents to 28 from 24 in 2007. Ascend said the fatal accident rate for 2008 was 1 per 1.3 million flights compared to 1 per 1.2 million for the nine years since 2000.
