KD avia 737-300 en route from Barcelona landed on its belly at Kaliningrad on Oct. 1, although none of the 138 passengers and six crew were hurt, according to press reports and Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network. KD Executive Director Leonid Itskov told Interfax that the fuselage was not destroyed and that passengers evacuated with slides. According to ASN, the crew declared an emergency following an unsafe gear indication and confirmed gear did not deploy following a low pass. The crew landed the aircraft gear up on its second approach.
Continental Airlines said September consolidated RASM rose an estimated 8%-9% year-over-year, with mainline RASM climbing 9%-10%. It flew 6.49 billion consolidated RPMs last month, down 10.9%, against an 8.1% fall in capacity to 8.49 billion ASMs. Load factor dropped 2.5 points to 76.5%. American Airlines flew 9.86 billion system RPMs in September, a 9.1% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 7% to 12.87 billion ASMs, dropping load factor 1.8 points to 76.6%. American Eagle flew 587.4 million RPMs, down 17.2%, against a 9.9% fall in ASMs to 910.7 million.
Lufthansa will increase its winter schedule capacity 2.4% year-over-year as it adds flights to six airports to its network, lifting the number of destinations served to 194. European ASKs will rise 1.9% from the 2007-08 winter schedule and long-haul capacity will grow 2.7%, LH said. The winter schedule begins Oct. 26 and runs to March 28. Flights to domestic and European destinations will comprise 91.6% of the weekly program, roughly equal to last year.
Southwest Airlines Chairman and CEO Gary Kelly said this week that the carrier will take delivery of 10 737NGs next year, down from the 14 previously planned, with four deliveries deferred until 2016. He added that SWA continues to consider flat capacity growth next year an option and could treat the new 737s as replacements by "returning five [737 Classics] to the leasing company" and selling "five or more" that it owns.
Alitalia Extraordinary Administrator Augusto Fantozzi said he received several expressions of interest for acquisition of the group's assets and activities. Deadline for offers was Sept. 30 ( ATWOnline, Oct. 1). Fantozzi said only one proposal directly concerned air transport activities whereas the other expressions of interest were for specific branches and/or activities of various companies comprising Alitalia Group.
The ongoing Boeing machinists strike has forced Australia's Virgin Blue to postpone the launch of its V Australia transpacific service between Sydney and Los Angeles planned for Dec 15.
Rockwell Collins will provide Norwegian with avionics for 42 737NGs with an option for 42 additional aircraft. Technology includes RC's WXR-2100 MultiScan Hazard Detection System. Deliveries are slated to begin next year.
Sun Country Airlines, which is seeking to gain financial independence from scandal-hit parent Petters Group Worldwide ( ATWOnline, Oct. 1), announced yesterday that President and CEO Stan Gadek was appointed chairman replacing Tom Petters, who resigned. DHL Express named George Kerschbaumer executive VP-commercial division. He formerly served as Deutsche Post World Net's executive VP-corporate development.
Porter Airlines reached agreement with Bombardier to convert two existing options on 70-seat Q400s into firm orders. Aircraft will be the 17th and 18th in the Toronto-based regional's fleet. Value of the new contract is $52 million at list prices.
Wizz Air said it will base one extra A320 each at Timisoara, Bucharest Baneasa and Cluj Napoca and double its Romanian capacity over the next six months. From Timisoara it will launch thrice-weekly Dortmund (Dec. 18), thrice-weekly London Luton (Oct. 27), twice-weekly Paris Beauvais (Feb. 20), thrice-weekly Treviso (Feb. 19), thrice-weekly Bergamo (Feb. 19), thrice-weekly Rome Fiumicino (Feb. 17), thrice-weekly Barcelona (Feb. 19) and twice-weekly Valencia (Feb. 22).
Etihad Crystal Cargo this week took over its sales and customer service activities in Thailand from local cargo general sales agent United Kargo Kare. UKK had handled Etihad's sales in Thailand since 2004, but the carrier said it determined that its own local team should take over given the market's "strategic importance." Thailand is Crystal Cargo's second-largest Far East market and the carrier projects its business there will grow 8% annually over the next five years.
Jetstar Airways' new CEO, Bruce Buchanan, downplayed the impact of Tiger Airways in the Australasian market, telling ATWOnline yesterday that his focus is on "bigger [low-cost] competitors with large fleets that have a significant impact on the market. There is only one or two in the Asian region and I don't put Tiger in that category." Virgin Blue operates more than 50 aircraft and has local market presence, while Kuala Lumpur-based AirAsia has 70 aircraft and has been frank about its ambitions ( ATWOnline, Sept. 19).
KrasAir and Domodedovo Airlines, two of the five members of the defunct AiRUnion alliance, have been granted approval by Russian authorities to operate certain flights until Oct. 31. The other three carriers--Omskavia, Samara Airlines and Sibaviatrans--will shut down operations by Sunday.
Transaero DG Olga Pleshakova said the carrier plans to announce an order for six A350 XWBs or A380s very soon. She told the Vedomosti business daily that the airline is awaiting a detailed offer from Airbus, adding that the A350 "is a more economical aircraft" than the 787. Transaero has ordered eight A330-200s and four A320s but currently operates no Airbus equipment. It expects its fleet to reach 43 by year end, up from 38 one year ago. It recently took delivery of its first 777-200.
European Low Fares Airline Assn. criticized the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency for its "abusing pricing policy" and called on it to reduce its cost base significantly and introduce a single charge zone for terminal navigation services in Poland. "PANSA's pricing policy is clearly to the detriment of passengers and regional airports, which risk losing many of the direct routes, opened by low fares airlines in recent years, as operating to Polish regions becomes prohibitively expensive compared to other European regions," ELFAA Secretary General John Hanlon warned.
Clickair, Iberia's low-cost affiliate, plans to ground seven or eight aircraft for the winter season owing to anticipated weak demand, a spokesperson told Reuters.
Jet Airways is "very pleased" with the performance of its European hub in Brussels, which it launched in August 2007 with a daily Mumbai-BRU-Newark 777 service, claiming that its first year "proves that the concept of hubbing out of your home market works." But CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer confirmed to ATWOnline on the sidelines of a presentation in Brussels that the venture is not yet profitable. "We remain optimistic to achieve our target to break even after 18 months of operations despite the current slowdown," he said.
Pinnacle Airlines will operate seven additional CRJ900s for Delta Air Lines that are being returned by another unidentified Delta Connection carrier. Three will arrive this month and another four in November. Pinnacle will lease the aircraft from DL on a short-term basis and return them as five ordered CRJ900s are delivered from Bombardier from January through May 2009. Pinnacle currently operates 11 CRJ900s (nine for DL).
AirTran Airways plans to launch daily Atlanta-Cancun on Feb. 25 and twice-weekly Baltimore-Cancun on March 7. TAP Portugal will launch six-times-weekly Lisbon-Casablanca on Oct. 27. It will be its ninth African destination. It also will increase daily LIS-Oslo Gardermoen to nine-times-weekly from January. TAM will launch daily Sao Paulo Guarulhos-Lima on Oct. 17 aboard a two-class A320. Jet2.com will launch Edinburgh-Dusseldorf, Manchester-Rhodes and Newcastle-Cork for its summer 2009 schedule.
Southwest Airlines flew 5.31 billion RPMs in September, down 5.9% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 0.8% to 8.38 billion ASMs, lowering load factor 4.5 points to 63.4%.
The City of Chicago picked a consortium led by Vancouver Airport Services to operate Midway Airport under a 99-year lease. The group's $2.5 billion bid was the highest offer for MDW, the first large US commercial airport to be privatized under an FAA pilot program. Other members of the winning consortium are Citi Infrastructure Investors and John Hancock Life Insurance Co. It is the first US contract for YVRAS, which operates 18 airports in seven countries.
Southwest Airlines said yesterday that it will add Minneapolis/St. Paul to its network in March, its first new city since adding San Francisco in August 2007. Chairman and CEO Gary Kelly said the expansion will be "very cautious and very conservative," evidenced by SWA's only operating flights to Chicago Midway from MSP. He did not disclose the number of daily flights on the route.
ExpressJet Holdings shareholders yesterday approved a 1:10 reverse stock split, which the company said will allow it to return immediately to trading on all NYSE Group platforms and return to compliance with NYSE's continued listing standards at the close of the six-month cure period on Jan. 18 ( ATWOnline, Sept. 8).
