British Airways announced the completion of its £54 million ($107.5 million) purchase of French all-business-class carrier L'Avion Friday. The airline will be integrated into BA's OpenSkies startup by early next year. The combined carrier will operate up to three daily flights between Paris Orly and New York JFK/Newark aboard 757s.
Frontier Airlines announced the receipt of a $75 million commitment in post-petition debtor-in-possession financing from Perseus LLC, a Washington-based investment firm that also will serve as equity sponsor for Frontier's plan of reorganization.
Lufthansa ground and cabin staff represented by ver.di voted to go on indefinite strike from 11 p.m. local time Sunday evening. "Our members are ready for a strike in all areas of the company. From Monday we will be taking industrial action," union chief Erhard Ott said on German television. The strike will affect operations such as maintenance and catering initially and will not start simultaneously throughout Germany, instead affecting airports in stages.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Friday that the capital required to fund Alitalia's relaunch has been secured, although he did not disclose the origin of the money. "For now, we have two things--the necessary capital and the slogan 'I love Italy. I fly Alitalia," he told reporters following a cabinet meeting.
Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe told Radio New Zealand listeners last week that further cost-cutting and capacity reductions are on the agenda as the carrier faces fuel costs that doubled to approximately NZ$2 billion in its fiscal year ended June 30. "We'll be doing everything we can to mitigate the deterioration of financial performance on our business,'' Fyfe said, adding, "There are routes where we may look at reducing capacity if we can't cover our costs.
Hawaiian Airlines flew 653.4 million RPMs in June, down 3.7% year-over-year, against a 2.8% lift in capacity to 801.5 million ASMs. Load factor fell 5.5 points to 81.5%. Mesa Air Group airlines flew 526.2 million RPMs in June, down 15.3% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 12.7% to 669.3 million ASMs and load factor dropped 2.4 points to 78.6%.
Delta TechOps clinched a seven-year deal with Alaska Airlines to provide MRO on CFM56-7s powering 737-700s and -900s. Contract is worth more than $200 million and is expected to draw on Delta's partnership with Chromalloy for engine solutions, quality assurance and economics.
Etihad Airways will launch four-times-weekly Abu Dhabi-Almaty on Dec. 2 aboard an A319. AirTran Airways will launch a Milwaukee-Fort Lauderdale service in November and will increase frequencies from MKE to Baltimore, Fort Myers, Las Vegas, Tampa and Orlando International during the winter schedule. AirAsia will launch service from Kuala Lumpur to Guilin (four-times-weekly from Sept. 3) and Manado (thrice-weekly from Sept. 12), plus a thrice-weekly Singapore-Pekan Baru beginning Aug. 14.
Lufthansa may have to deal with additional strikes from next week forward. The ver.di union yesterday said it expected a "high response" from members voting to authorize additional strike action and that it is preparing for more. Voting was scheduled to conclude last night.
Amadeus won a 10-year deal with Royal Air Maroc for distribution services in its home market. Agreement takes effect Jan. 1, 2009, and brings the number of contracts Amadeus has signed with Arab Air Carriers Org. members to 13.
Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air parent Alaska Air Group reported second-quarter net income of $63.1 million, up 36.9% from the $46.1 million earned in the year-ago period, although the result was driven largely by special gains. The profit includes a positive $155.3 million adjustment for mark-to-market fuel hedge accounting and charges of $32.1 million related to fleet transition. Excluding special items, the company reported a net loss of $14.1 million compared to net income of $47.2 million a year ago.
Malev Hungarian Airlines will cancel its loss-making long-haul service from Budapest to New York JFK and Toronto this fall and withdraw two 767s from its fleet. Last flight to YYZ departs Sept. 21 and the final JFK service will be Oct. 25, ending the carrier's North American presence. "The major hike in expenditure makes it completely unviable for an airline the size of Malev to operate long-haul services economically," it said, adding that it intends to focus its resources on its European network, especially Eastern Europe, and strengthening its regional market share.
Mexican government suspended Aerocalifornia and ExpressJet for failure to pay outstanding fees, according to a Communications and Transport Ministry statement cited by Dow Jones. Aerocalifornia owes MXP259.6 million ($25.8 million) in fees dating back to 2005 and ExpressJet, which flies in Mexico as Continental Express and Delta Connection, owes MXP44.6 million.
Eighth edition of the European Commission's blacklist of banned airlines does not include Iran's Mahan Airlines, thanks to "significant efforts and progress accomplished by this carrier which were verified during an on-site inspection," but continues to include Indonesian airlines, including Garuda Indonesia.
EasyJet enjoyed a 32% year-over-year increase in revenue to £641 million ($1.28 billion) in the fiscal third quarter ended June 30 and said it has offset more than 50% of the expected full-year fuel cost increase with new revenue and cost-cutting initiatives. However, the new fiscal year will dawn with a winter that "will be challenging for the whole airline sector," and the LCC said it will cut capacity growth to 4%-6%, "with flexibility to scale back further."
US House of Representatives this week unanimously passed aviation safety legislation that aims to create more distinct separation between FAA regulators and airlines in response to an alleged "cozy" relationship between FAA inspectors and Southwest Airlines ( ATWOnline, July e).
Boeing announced the multiyear lease of three MD-11 BCFs to Aeroflot Cargo, which already operates four DC-10s, through its Boeing Capital Corp. financing subsidiary. The airline has committed to acquire three more MD-11s for conversion, with redelivery scheduled for next year.
Air Berlin will lease out 50 of its 1,436 pilots to other airlines in order to save around €4 million ($6.3 million) in salary. AB is grounding 14 narrowbody aircraft by Nov 1 ( ATWOnline, June 24).
China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines, both of which are based in China's largest city, denied reports that they are planning to merge. Several domestic press reports this week claimed that CEA and SAL already are in negotiations that were initiated by CEA's controlling stakeholder (the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission) and the arm of the Shanghai Municipal Government that controls SAL.
Lufthansa Systems reached a five-year agreement with Aeroflot Nord to provide its ProfitLine/Yield Rembrandt revenue management solution featuring data intelligence, demand forecasting and advanced reporting capabilities.
Crediting fuel hedging, capacity reductions by competitors and fare increases, Southwest Airlines overcame a difficult cost environment to post second-quarter net income of $321 million, up 15.5% from a $278 million profit in the year-ago quarter and a sharp contrast to US competitors reporting big losses.
Lufthansa yesterday continued to suffer the effects of the 36-hr. strike launched Tuesday by pilots at regional subsidiaries CityLine and Eurowings ( ATWOnline, July 23). "We do not know the amount of damages we will suffer from the pilot walkout. It is not easy for us to even offer details of how many flights we had to cancel during the last 36 hours," an LH spokesperson told ATWOnline. The number will be somewhere between 900 and 1,000. The Vereinigung Cockpit union called the strike that was scheduled to last until 11 p.m.
Aviation Partners Boeing said the first blended winglet-equipped 767-300ER flew on July 20. Aircraft belongs to American Airlines and operated a ferry flight from Kansas City to San Bernardino, where it will undergo two months of certification and performance testing. Winglets measure 3.4 m. and were manufactured by GKN Aerospace. US FAA and EASA certification is expected in November with revenue service beginning the following month. APB said it has 130 767-300ER shipset orders from 10 airlines.
WestJet now is allowing passengers to select their seats prior to 24 hr. before departure for a C$10 ($9.96) fee. Reserving an emergency exit row seat costs $15. Selecting a seat within 24 hr. of takeoff or at the airport will remain free. Separately, it will launch seasonal twice-weekly Regina-Las Vegas starting Sept. 8.
Boeing reported a 19% drop in second-quarter net income to $852 million from $1.05 billion last year and its Commercial Airplanes unit posted a 19% decrease in operating earnings to $777 million from $960 million in the year-ago period. But Chairman, President and CEO Jim McNerney predicted that the company will fare better in the year's second half and produce a solid performance that will allow it to match its reaffirmed earnings guidance of $5.70-$5.85 per share for full-year 2008.
