Qatar Airways will begin daily Doha-New York JFK on Oct. 26 aboard a 777-300ER. Six-times-weekly Geneva-Newark will end. Doha-Geneva will operate four-times-weekly aboard an A330. Jet Airways will commence daily Bangalore-Brussels on Oct. 31 aboard an A330-200. This weekend it launched daily -200 flights to Dubai from Mumbai and Delhi. Finnair will launch thrice-weekly Helsinki-Yekaterinburg on Sept. 2 aboard an A319. Ural Airlines will codeshare.
Wizz Air announced it will open a base at Timisoara in March 2009, its 10th overall. The LCC will base three A320s and employ more than 100 people at the Romanian airport over the next three years, it said, representing an investment of more than €100 million ($147.9 million). Wizz also operates bases at Bucharest Baneasa and Cluj. It will launch thrice-weekly service from Timisoara to London Luton, Rome Fiumicino and Dortmund on Dec. 17. On March 11 it will begin thrice-weekly flights to Bergamo, Barcelona and Treviso and twice-weekly service to Paris Beauvais and Valencia.
American Airlines parent AMR Corp. last week entered into an agreement with Merrill Lynch to sell up to $300 million in common stock "from time to time" through transactions "made by means of ordinary brokers' transaction on the New York Stock Exchange at market prices," it said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. AMR's capitalization was approximately $2.6 billion at Friday's closing.
Spanish investigators are focusing on whether the Spanair MD-82 that crashed last week had reached adequate speed for takeoff and whether its flaps operated properly.
Etihad Airways yesterday signed a firm contract for the purchase of 25 A350 XWBs, 20 A320s and 10 A380s. Order was announced at the Farnborough Airshow ( ATWOnline, July 15).
Grupo Marsans' planned sale of Aerolineas Argentinas and its Austral subsidiary to the Argentine government ( ATWOnline, July 18) moved forward after the lower house of the national congress, the Chamber of Deputies, approved the renationalization last week. AR was privatized in 1991 and reportedly is carrying debt of around $900 million. The Chamber of Deputies approved the measure by a 167-79 vote, according to press reports.
S7 Airlines flew 8.48 billion RPKs through the first seven months of 2008, up 18.1% from the year-ago period. Passenger numbers rose 20% to 3.5 million and load factor slipped 0.2 point to 79.2%.
Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson told employees Friday that while DL supports the proposed transatlantic joint venture among American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia "in principle," it will advocate that "AA and BA need to give up enough slots and gates so that everybody has unfettered access to Heathrow." The employee hotline message was cited by The Dallas Morning News. BA CEO Willie Walsh has gone on record saying that carrier will refuse to surrender slots at LHR.
Singapore Changi's 27-year old Terminal 1 is getting a S$500 million ($353.9 million) facelift to improve passenger flow and refurbish interior designs and finishes. The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore signed a contract yesterday with Takenaka Corp. for the improvements, with completion expected in the third quarter of 2011. The project includes a new departure curbside canopy spanning the length of the building and a 35-m. airside expansion.
Transavia.com flight schedule will operate normally today after a judge prohibited the carrier's pilots from striking and ordered management and Dutch pilots union VNV to continue negotiations to solve their pay dispute. VNV had called for industrial action between 2 a.m. and 5 p.m. today, which would have led to the cancellation of some 70 flights affecting more than 20,000 passengers. Separately, the Amsterdam-based LCC will abandon its twice-daily Rotterdam-Paris Orly service on Sept. 27.
Lufthansa, which has been considered the prohibitive favorite to become Austrian Airlines' strategic investor and savior, was the only carrier to confirm its participation in Austrian's privatization, although other airlines are thought to have registered their interest before Sunday's deadline. Austrian state holding company OIAG had given prospective investors until Sunday to declare their intentions to bid for its 42.75% stake, and possibly more. An LH spokesperson told Bloomberg News yesterday that the German company "have expressed our interest,"
Air Pacific carried more than 100,000 passengers in one month for the first time in July. Load factor was 72%. It flies to 18 destinations in 12 countries and last week launched its second-weekly Nadi-Funafuti flight, via Suva. Separately, it announced the promotion of Manager-Regulatory Affairs Jona Sevura to manager-government and industry affairs.
US FAA said it received a score of 91 out of 100 in a new ICAO audit conducted under the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Program. It said average score is 56.
TAM Cargo yesterday opened a new 2,160-sq.-m. airfreight terminal in Manaus with 80 tons of storage capacity. The facility has exclusive areas for different types of cargo and cold storage for perishables, TAM said. "The new terminal can handle nearly 35% more freight than its predecessor in addition to allowing for expansion in coming years depending on market demand," according to the airline.
B/E Aerospace subsidiary FSI won US FAA STC status for retrofit installation of its Door 3 Overhead Attendant Crew Rest on Continental Airlines' 777-200s. OHAR is 800 lb. lighter than the Lower Lobe Crew Rest it replaces and is expected to generate revenue through additional seat and cargo capacity. Installation will take place in Hong Kong.
CSA Czech Airlines may be put up for privatization before year end, Finance Ministry official Tomas Uvira told Reuters. "This may be one of the last chances to sell CSA, as the market situation could be much worse in coming years," he said, adding that an adviser should be secured next month ( ATWOnline, April 7). The Czech government holds 91.5% of the carrier.
NextJet of Sweden subleased three 68-seat ATPs from West Air Sweden, BAE Systems Regional Aircraft announced. West Air will provide maintenance and support. NextJet will use the aircraft, two of which already have been delivered, to link five smaller communities in the north to Stockholm Arlanda beginning Oct. 25. It was awarded a three-year PSO by Swedish authorities. NextJet currently operates B-1900Ds and Saab 340As on scheduled flights.
Published charges among Europe's 50 busiest airports by passenger volume have increased an average of almost 4% since 2007, with the biggest growth occurring at London Heathrow and Gatwick, according to RDC Aviation's Airport Charges Monitor.
Midwest Airlines has fallen behind on payments to General Mitchell Airport, owing some $1.1 million in gate fees, an airport spokesperson told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. It is the latest in series of downward turns for the financially beleaguered carrier that recently announced it would cut its workforce by 40% and ground its MD-80 fleet by September ( ATWOnline, July 22). Midwest pays an estimated $700,000 each month in gate fees, according to an airport official.
TUIfly will take delivery of a new 737-800 in October and configure it with 52 business class seats. Aircraft will be used on high-priced leisure operations like around-the-world charters.
Japanese authorities ordered Japan Airlines and ANA to inspect all Q400s after a pilot was forced to abort a flight recently prior to a takeoff from Osaka. Bombardier confirmed that reports indicated a propeller blade on a Pratt & Whitney Canada engine on a JAL Q400 was dented. A spokesperson for the Canadian manufacturer emphasized that the inspection was not a "grounding order" and that the company was working with airline representatives and Japanese authorities. It would not speculate on the cause of the damage until the engine is inspected fully.
UPS on Friday opened a 27,000-sq.-ft. flight training center at Anchorage International, which it is building into its "gateway to Asia." Currently, 402 UPS Airlines pilots are based in ANC and 30 aircraft, including its entire 747-400F fleet and some MD-11Fs, will be domiciled there by 2010. The new facility houses two flight simulators including the carrier's only 747-400 simulator, classrooms and offices. "Established to support all phases of flight training, the new facility will make it unnecessary for Anchorage-based pilots to fly to Louisville for training," UPS said.
TAM flew 2.16 billion domestic RPKs in July, up 8% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 13.8% to 3.07 billion ASKs and load factor fell 3.8 points to 70.4%. International traffic jumped 37.5% to 1.48 billion RPKs against a 27.2% hike in capacity to 1.82 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 6.1 points to 81.5%. Copa Airlines flew 534.8 million RPMs in July, up 14.6% year-over-year, against a 15.2% rise in ASKs to 632.3 million. Load factor dipped 0.5 point to 84.6%.
