South Korea's Jeju Air will launch 737-800 service from Incheon to Osaka (daily) and Kitakyushu (thrice-weekly) on March 20, becoming the country's first LCC to operate internationally, The Korea Times reported. Jeju launched domestic flights in June 2006 and currently flies two 737-800s and four Q400s. It plans to take delivery of two more 737s next year.
Air France KLM subsidiary CityJet will take over the London City-Amsterdam route from VLM Airlines and KLM Cityhopper on Jan. 5. It will operate a two-class, 95-seat RJ-85 eight-times-daily on weekdays, once on Saturdays and four times on Sundays. VLM will take over CityJet's current twice-weekday LCY-Eindhoven service on Jan. 12 and base an additional F50 at Rotterdam from Jan. 5 to operate charter flights. It will continue to operate its eight-times-weekday LCY-Rotterdam service.
ACE Aviation Holdings, which was created in 2004 as part of Air Canada's restructuring and still holds a 75% stake in AC, this week revealed plans to use C$811 million ($644 million) in cash reserves to purchase all of its outstanding convertible shares and senior notes, allowing it to seek shareholder approval for liquidation.
Star Alliance yesterday confirmed that Brussels Airlines, which is owned partially by Lufthansa, will join the organization, and Star CEO Jaan Albrecht said the 21-member group eventually may more than double in size.
Federal Court of Australia upheld the A$20 million ($13.2 million) fine imposed on Qantas for its role in an international cartel that colluded on air cargo fuel surcharges between 2002 and 2006. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission reached a settlement with QF and British Airways, which was fined A$5 million, in October ( ATWOnline, Oct. 29). ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said yesterday that the penalty reflected the seriousness of the contraventions and Qantas's large share of the market.
Air France KLM lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission regarding the conditions under which Lufthansa intends to take over Austrian Airlines. The Franco-Dutch group said it "strongly believes" that the transaction "is not being conducted in the best interest of Austrian Airlines stakeholders and at a fair market price. This sale therefore entails state aid elements that need to be thoroughly investigated."
IATA might lose up to 20 members owing to its requirement that all members earn their way onto its IATA Operational Safety Audit registry by year end, DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani conceded during Tuesday's Global Media Day in Geneva. "IOSA sets tough and transparent standards. IATA's biggest satisfaction is to bring all our members on board, but for those that do not make the standard, there is no place in our association," he stated resolutely.
American Airlines Chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey said this week that the US airline industry "should certainly be at the top of the list of the industries that are deserving of economic stimulus as it relates to infrastructure," the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. The US government is debating a $14 billion bailout of the country's automobile manufacturing industry, while President-elect Barack Obama said his economic stimulus package likely will include hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in national infrastructure improvements.
GE Aviation signed a contract with Singapore Airlines to launch its OnPoint solutions covering systems content and capabilities for 777s. Contract support is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year after final agreement details are complete. GE's Singapore facility will provide program management for the project.
China Eastern Airlines, whose stock has been suspended from trading since Nov. 27, said yesterday that it will receive a CNY3 billion ($435.8 million) cash injection from the government, according to press reports. China Southern Airlines received a similar payout late last month ( ATWOnline, Dec. 8).
Nordam Group named Repair Group COO and former CFO Bill Peacher as its new CEO, effective Jan. 1. He succeeds Ken Lackey, who will remain executive chairman.
Aer Lingus cabin crew represented by Impact voted in favor of the airline's cost-cutting proposals by a 59%-41% margin. Approximately 150 cabin staff will lose their jobs--94 at Dublin, Cork and Shannon combined and an extra 60 at SNN, according to press reports. The SIPTU union accepted a similar deal involving ground staff ( ATWOnline, Dec. 8). EI CEO Dermot Mannion said the labor deals will allow the carrier to "recalibrate" its budget for 2009 and that it now expects to "come out with a much better figure. .
JetBlue Airways will launch daily Orlando International-San Jose, Costa Rica, service on March 26 aboard an E-190. It is JetBlue's first Central American destination. KLM will launch five-times-weekly Amsterdam-Calgary service on May 3 aboard an A330-200.
Eurocontrol said the number of flights in Europe in November fell 7% from the year-ago month and noted that "a decline of this magnitude has not been seen since the months immediately following 9/11." Even low-cost carriers, which for years have been the biggest driver of European growth, operated fewer flights--the first decrease for the segment in 15 years. Conversely, Eastern Europe, particularly Turkey, continued to see growth. Boosted by high oil prices, Russia also has been a significant contributor of new flights on the European network.
US FAA broke ground on a new air traffic control system command center in Warrenton, Va., that will replace the current facility at nearby Washington Dulles in 2011. Equipping the 63,000-sq.-ft. facility will cost around $46 million, the agency said.
Ryanair yesterday confirmed that it will shutter its Fuerteventura operation on Jan. 31 "after local tourism group AIE failed to honor the commercial agreemen. . .to promote Fuerteventura as a tourist destination" ( ATWOnline, Nov. 20). It will cancel 23 weekly flights to Birmingham, Bremen, Dublin, Dusseldorf Weeze, Nottingham East Midlands, Frankfurt Hahn, Liverpool, London Stansted and Shannon. " It said that "legal action" would continue against AIE and its members.
Virgin Atlantic Airways and Lufthansa confirmed discussions regarding future cooperation and the latter's impending takeover of bmi ( ATWOnline, Dec. 10). "Lufthansa can confirm that it is exploring options regarding the future ownership of BMI. These options include different scenarios," the German carrier said in a statement cited by the BBC.
CAAC yesterday "urged state-owned airlines to cancel or delay orders for new aircraft next year," according to China's official state news agency Xinhua, which estimated that Airbus and Boeing are slated to deliver a combined 180 aircraft to the nation's carriers in 2009.
United Airlines flew 7.47 billion system RPMs in November, a 17% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 14.2% to 9.71 billion ASMs and load factor was down 2.7 points to 76.9% Continental Airlines said November consolidated RASM rose 1%-2% year-over-year and mainline unit revenue climbed 2%-3%. It flew 6.58 billion consolidated RPMs last month, down 10.5%, against a 7.3% fall in ASMs to 8.51 billion. Load factor dropped 2.8 points to 77.3%.
Siemens PLM Software signed a deal with Safran Group's Snecma to provide its Teamcenter lifecycle management solution, which is expected to increase partner and supplier collaboration and improve product development practices. Deployment through three implementation phases will occur over the next three years. Separately, Satair will continue to provide Siemens with product support and serve as its authorized distributor in the Asia/Pacific region under a renewal agreement.
PASSUR Aerospace said Orlando International selected its Pulse Proactive landing fee management technology featuring radar network intelligence, flight information validations, Web transparency and specialized activity filters.
Air New Zealand will conduct the world's first commercial aviation test flight powered by a sustainable second-generation biofuel on Dec. 30. The flight was scheduled for Dec. 3 but was postponed after the loss of one of the airline's A320s during a "return from lease acceptance test flight" in France ( ATWOnline, Nov. 12). The 2-hr.
Mexicana took delivery of an A330-200 on lease from CIT Aerospace. A second will arrive later this month. Aircraft is powered by Trent 772Bs. Separately, MX recently unveiled a new logo and livery featuring an angled eagle's head and two shades of blue.
The US Aerospace Industries Assn. said yesterday that US civil aircraft sales are on pace to reach $80.6 billion in 2008, up 0.5% from $80.2 billion last year. It forecast that civil aircraft sales will rise 7.4% to $86.6 billion in 2009. Speaking at AIA's annual forecast luncheon in Washington, President and CEO Marion Blakey asserted that the "main reason [for slow growth this year] was not the economic atmosphere but the work stoppage at Boeing."
