Lufthansa Group airlines flew 13.87 billion RPKs in June, a 27.9% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 29.4% to 17.1 billion ASKs, lowering load factor 1 point to 81.1%. US Airways Group said June consolidated passenger RASM rose 2%-4% year-over-year. It flew 5.86 billion RPMs, down 0.6%, against a 0.6% increase in capacity to 6.95 billion ASMs. Load factor fell 1 point to 84.4%. Ryanair transported 5.2 million passengers in June, up 19% from the year-ago month. Load factor fell 1 point to 84%.
Northwest Airlines said yesterday that its previously announced capacity cuts, which will include the removal of more than 40 aircraft from its fleet in 2008, will result in a reduction of 2,500 frontline and management employees. NWA also unveiled a range of new fees designed to combat "record fuel costs." "Our fuel costs have more than doubled in the past year," President and CEO Doug Steenland said. "In order to manage through this unprecedented fuel challenge, we have to take action to both control costs and increase our revenue."
CAE yesterday announced that the 777-300ER full-flight simulator it designed and manufactured for Delta Air Lines won Level D certification under US FAA Part 60. FAA implemented Part 60 in late May as an extension of its National Simulator Program to bolster qualification requirements for the use of flight simulation training devices. The CAE FFS, which is in operation at DL's Atlanta training center, is the first to achieve this certification.
Air Berlin yesterday announced that Stuttgart prosecutors have dropped insider trading charges against CEO Joachim Hunold, Chairman Johannes Zurnieden and three other executives "due to lack of evidence." Their offices and homes were raided 13 months ago when suspicion arose over stock purchases made prior to AB's acquisition of dba ( ATWOnline, June 20, 2007).
US Airways will remove IFE from domestic flights this fall in order to save approximately $10 million per year, VP-Sales and Marketing Travis Christ told Bloomberg News. "We simply can't afford to do it anymore," he said. Bloomberg reported that video systems aboard US's A320s will be shut down Nov. 1 and removed from aircraft during maintenance. It said passenger demand has dropped (US charges $5 for headsets) and the IFE systems can add some 500 lb. to each aircraft.
MNG Airlines, the Istanbul-based cargo carrier, purchased an A300-600F from Air Atlanta Icelandic. Aircraft will join MNG's fleet at the end of this month. It currently operates eight A300-200Fs and five F27Fs.
Chinese carriers were dealt another blow to their bottom lines this month as authorities decided to raise the jet fuel price by CNY720 ($104.83) per ton.
Airline groups around the world continued to condemn the European Parliament's decision to include both EU and non-EU carriers in an emissions trading scheme from 2012 ( ATWOnline, July 9). International Air Carrier Assn. DG Sylviane Lust said the decision "creates the worst of all worlds--even more financial pressure on airlines without any proven benefits for the environment," while European Regions Airline Assn.
Jat Airways launched twice-weekly Belgrade-Pula flights last week aboard an ATR 72, reestablishing air service to Croatia after 17 years. Service will continue to Aug. 21, and Jat said it is "prepared" to extend it if it remains popular. Separately, Jat transported 141,000 passengers in June, up 11% year-over-year, as load factor rose 4 points to a record 65%. Six-month passenger numbers climbed 9% to 578,781.
Air New Zealand will freeze senior executive salaries and has "challenged each division to identify opportunities to review nonessential activity and reduce employee numbers through attrition and nonreplacement of roles that are not operationally critical," CEO Rob Fyfe told Bloomberg News.
ExpressJet Airlines said yesterday that it will suspend its independent branded flying operation on Sept. 2, citing rising fuel costs, ending a program that never made money after its April 2007 launch ( ATWOnline, May 10, 2007).
SITA concluded a partnership with Singapore's Stratech Systems through which it will make Stratech's all-weather iFerret vision-based airfield/runway surveillance solution available to SITA's airport customers to identify, track and display foreign object debris in real time. The system has been deployed at Singapore Changi and will be tested by FAA this winter at Chicago O'Hare.
Lufthansa Systems signed a contract with EgyptAir for implementation of its SchedConnect codeshare management solution. Scheduled to be introduced in a few weeks, the technology is expected to help fulfill Star Alliance membership requirements ( ATWOnline, April 4). Features include schedule synchronization and codeshare integration.
US National Transportation Safety Board said it is investigating a "near midair collision" between a Cayman Airways 737-300 and a LAN Airlines 767-300 over New York JFK on July 5. It said the Cayman aircraft was executing a missed approach and "conflicted" with the departing LAN flight. It said closest proximity was undetermined and the parties involved presented conflicting versions of the incident. Both airlines said the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. report, which described the evening incident as "very scary," was incorrect.
ANA confirmed to ATWOnline that it has not yet decided to order the A380 as widely reported late last week and in fact has not even issued an RFP. A spokesperson told this website that the airline set up a New Aircraft Selection Committee last week to examine both the A380 and the 747-8. "No RFPs have gone out yet," the spokesperson said, adding that ANA will decide among the 747-8, the A380 or continuing to build its long-haul fleet around the 777-300ER.
V Australia, the international arm of Virgin Blue, announced that Brisbane-Los Angeles will be its second route. Service will start March 1, 2009 with a 777-300ER. It will launch operations Dec. 15 with daily Sydney-LAX ( ATWOnline, April 1). Transaero launched four-times-weekly Moscow Domodedovo-Vladivostok aboard a 767-300ER.
The first weekend of charter flights across the Taiwan Strait concluded Monday with 11 carriers having offered services, which many regard as an important step toward the opening of scheduled flights between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. The 11 airlines are Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, China Airlines, Mandarin Airlines, TransAsia Airways, Uni Air and EVA Air. ( ATWOnline, July 3)
Spirit AeroSystems Europe said it won deals with Airbus to design and produce a wing structure for the A350 XWB program and reached a $1.7 billion extension on its existing contract to supply leading and trailing edges and other wing structures on the A319, A320 and A321 assembled in the UK from 2011 to 2015. The A350 structure will comprise 50% carbon fiber and measure 32 m. in length. Work will take place at facilities in Prestwick, Kinston, N.C., and Subang outside Kuala Lumpur.
As expected, and much to the disappointment of airlines, the European Parliament yesterday adopted a compromise agreement with the European Council on including aviation in the EU Emissions Trading System beginning Jan. 1, 2012.
Air France KLM flew 18.21 billion RPKs in June, a 2.6% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 4.1% to 22.34 billion ASKs and load factor slipped 1.2 points to 81.5%. It said it expects capacity during the winter schedule and next summer to grow approximately 2%. British Airways flew 9.71 billion RPKs in June, down 3.7% year-over-year. Capacity rose 1.2% to 12.66 billion ASKs, lowering load factor 3.8 points to 76.7%.
Southwest Airlines and WestJet agreed yesterday to form a "codeshare partnership" by late 2009 that would link the networks of the two LCCs and allow passengers flying on US domestic-only SWA to connect to Calgary-based WS's network throughout Canada.
Oxford Aviation Academy announced the acquisition of Dublin-based Parc Aviation, which supplies flight crew on medium/long-term contracts to airlines. The acquisition is backed by STAR Capital, OAA's majority shareholder. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Virgin America, as expected, appealed a decision by the US Dept. of Transportation's Office of Airline Information denying its request for confidential treatment of its financial, traffic and origin and destination survey data filed with DOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics ( ATWOnline, June 27). Republic Airlines and Shuttle America also appealed the decision denying confidential treatment.
Gol and VRG parent GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes said it expects to report a negative pre-tax margin of 17%-19% for the recently completed second quarter and a negative operating margin of 21%-23%. The company reported a BRL35.4 million ($22.1 million) loss in the second quarter of 2007 and a BRL3.5 million deficit in the first quarter of 2008. Second-quarter capacity is estimated to have risen 23%, down from the forecast 25%, and load factor is expected to be 64%-65%, up from the forecast 61%-63% but down from the year-ago period's 66%.
