Swedish union Pilotforbundet threatened late Wednesday to take its 100 SAS pilots out on strike beginning May 18 unless a collective wage agreement is reached. SAS said the action probably will not affect its operation, as just 100 of its 1,700 pilots are members of Pilotforbundet. Swedish Airline Pilots Assn., the country's largest pilot union, said it did not support Pilotforbundet's initiative. It already has a wage agreement covering its SAS members.
SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines parent SkyWest Inc. reported first-quarter net income of $29.2 million, down 16.2% from $34.8 million in the year-ago period, on a 10% increase in revenue to $868 million. Commenting on the results, the St. George, Utah-based regional said that "significantly higher fuel costs. . .have risen faster than SkyWest has been able to raise fares to offset these costs."
Tarom and SkyTeam announced an Alliance Associate Adherence Agreement yesterday, paving the way for the Romanian carrier to join the group as an associate. Air Europa, Copa Airlines and Kenya Airways already are associates and FlyLAL Lithuanian Airlines said in March that it was invited to begin the associate membership process ( ATWOnline, March 25). Tarom will offer SkyTeam passengers 130 additional daily flights to Eastern Europe and the Middle East, the alliance said.
Australia's Regional Express (Rex) has been forced to cut more services because of the continuing pilot shortage ( ATWOnline, Nov. 6, 2007). It will withdraw from the Cooma-Sydney route indefinitely--it was scheduled to recommence in June--as well as reduce flying elsewhere in the network.
Tiger Airways enjoyed an 81.6% increase in revenue for the fiscal year ended March 31 on a 50% rise in passengers to 2.3 million. Full-year capacity climbed 39.6% and load factor rose 8 points. The Singapore-based LCC did not provide further details and said full results will be released following a formal audit.
EasyJet more than trebled its net loss for the six months ended March 31 to £43.3 million ($85.4 million) from £12.7 million in the year-ago period owing largely to higher fuel costs and the integration of GB Airways.
Bombardier Services signed contracts with SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines for provision of heavy maintenance. Ten-year deal with SkyWest includes C checks and other heavy MRO and modifications on the carrier's 222 CRJ200s, CRJ700s and CRJ900s. Agreement with ASA includes heavy MRO on 110 CRJ200s. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Airbus "terminated" talks with Latecoere regarding the sale of two industrial plants in France, a setback in its effort to implement the Power8 restructuring program. The announcement follows a similar termination of negotiations in March with MT Aerospace regarding the divestiture of three German industrial plants ( ATWOnline, March 28). A primary plank of Power8 is the divestiture of six or seven plants slated to play key roles in the development and construction of the A350 XWB.
British Airways flew 8.8 billion RPKs in April, down 7% from the year-ago month, against a 0.4% decline in capacity to 12.29 billion ASKs. Load factor fell 5.1 points to 71.6%. Air Canada and Jazz flew a combined 4 billion RPMs in April, up 0.8% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 0.4% to 4.83 billion ASMs and load factor rose 0.4 point to 82.7%.
Hainan Airlines still is exploring the possibility of joining an alliance although it has not made a firm decision, Liang Pubin, GM of the carrier's Brussels office, told ATWOnline. "We have a team that is exploring the possibility," he said. "The general idea is that it is a necessity to join an alliance, but we have to research the actual advantage and disadvantages of becoming an alliance member and then of course, we have to see what the possibilities are.
Embraer reported a more than tripling of its first-quarter net income to $85 million from $26.2 million in the prior year on a 60.6% surge in revenue to $1.34 billion as commercial aircraft deliveries nearly doubled to 38 compared to 20 last year. Operating income more than tripled to $48.7 million from $15.5 million in the year-ago quarter. The manufacturer delivered 15 E-175s, 17 E-190s, three ERJ-145s and three E-195s during the quarter. Its firm order backlog at quarter's end was $20.3 billion, up 26.1% over $15 billion at the end of the prior-year quarter.
CAE won orders for full-flight simulators and related CAE Simfinity training devices valued at more than C$60 million ($59.4 million) from Lufthansa Flight Training, Flight Training Finance, Swiss Aviation Training and Zhuhai Flight Training Centre. LFT purchased a CAE 7000 Series 777-200 LRF FFS, while FTF ordered a CAE 7000 Series 757 FFS and SAT committed to a CAE 7000 Series E-190 FFS. ZFTC bought two CAE 5000 Series A320 FFSs as well as a CAE Simfinity A320 IPT, a reconfigurable CAE Simfinity APT trainer and a CAE Simfinity 787 VSIM.
Sukhoi Superjet 100's first flight is expected sometime this month, Superjet International Senior VP-Commercial Aircraft Paolo Revelli Beaumont confirmed at this week's Regional Airline Assn. conference in Indianapolis. "All component testing is done," Beaumont said ( ATWOnline, May 5). First delivery to launch customer Aeroflot is expected in the first quarter of 2009.
Lufthansa Systems reached a deal with Saudi Arabian Airlines to provide its SAP ERP technology for streamlining MRO processes. Technology features a rotation planning system and advanced scheduling and documentation capabilities. LHS entered the agreement as part of an IT consortium that includes SAP, InfoTrust and Atos/Hewlett-Packard.
Delta Air Lines will begin four-times-weekly New York JFK-Georgetown, Guyana, on June 1, four-times-weekly JFK-Malaga on June 4 and five-times-weekly JFK-Lyon on July 17. Southwest Airlines announced the following new services from Denver: Twice-daily to Portland, Ore., and Indianapolis beginning June 4; an eighth daily flight to Las Vegas beginning June 4; new twice-daily to Sacramento, daily to Fort Lauderdale and New Orleans and a seventh daily flight to Phoenix from Aug. 4; a second daily flight to San Antonio from Aug. 23.
Airbus confirmed yesterday that CEO Tom Enders sent a letter to A380 customers revealing that the manufacturer is "undertaking a review of the A380 program," and Emirates and Etihad Airways said they had been warned by the company that further delivery delays are possible. Emirates, the leading A380 customer, has 58 on order and expects to take its first five in its current fiscal year that started April 1 and another 12 in the year ending March 31, 2010. It is planning to start A380 service to New York JFK in October.
Air Berlin will switch its Milan service to Malpensa from Orio al Serio beginning July 16. It will continue to serve Berlin Tegel and Dusseldorf from MXP's Terminal 1 with 25 weekly flights.
Futura International Airways took delivery of two 737-900ERs. Aircraft are powered by CFM56-7Bs and are leased from GECAS. The Palma de Mallorca-based leisure carrier is the first European airline to operate the -900ER.
Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. and Saab said they are working to forge a partnership agreement in which the Swedish manufacturer will provide customer and product support services for the new Mitsubishi Regional Jet.
Lufthansa is considering taking a stake in Austrian Airlines Group, a source close to the German carrier told ATWOnline, saying, "We are watching the value of Austrian's shares very closely, especially with the shareholders meeting scheduled for [today] in Vienna."
Lufthansa Technik won a contract from Croatia Airlines to provide component support for its four Q400s, plus two soon to be delivered. It will be LHT's first time working on the turboprop.
US Senate ended debate on FAA reauthorization legislation without voting on the bill yesterday, likely ending any chance the agency will receive a new authorization before a new President takes office in January. The chamber last week took up long-stalled legislation to fund and modernize FAA, including establishing a budget for building a satellite-based ATC system, but senators began arguing over amendments and rules of debate once it officially was introduced ( ATWOnline, May 2).
Azul Linhas Aereas Brasileiras will be the name of JetBlue Airways founder and former Chairman and CEO David Neeleman's new Brazilian airline. The Azul moniker, Portuguese for blue, was chosen over Samba following a public vote. Neeleman is CEO of the new carrier, which is scheduled to begin flying in January and has 76 E-195 firm orders and options ( ATWOnline, March 28).
European Commission withdrew previously announced plans to limit the maximum size of cabin baggage throughout the EU to 56x45x25 cm. Decision to shelve the plan, which already had been postponed from May 2007, was made to avoid "undue operational complications and inconvenience for passengers on cabin baggage size." Initial plans to restrict the size of hand baggage were part of a package of security measures drawn up in 2006 following the discovery of a terrorist plot to smuggle explosives aboard transatlantic flights.
China Eastern Airlines plans to schedule a second shareholder conference to consider Singapore Airlines' bid for a strategic stake following the Aug. 24 conclusion of this summer's Olympic Games. CEA minority shareholders rejected SIA's purchase of a 24% stake in January ( ATWOnline, Feb. 14).
