Air Berlin launched its China service last week with five-times-weekly A330 services from Dusseldorf to Beijing and Shanghai Pudong. AB will interline with Hainan Airlines on connecting flights to other Chinese destinations and will return the favor when Hainan launches its Beijing-Berlin flights on Sept. 5. From November, AB will upgrade its business class cabin on the routes to Premium Business Class with installation of 30 new lie-flat seats. Kenya Airways will launch services to Antananarivo and boost flights to West and Central Africa, Dubai and Guangzhou.
Continental Airlines reported an estimated 3%-4% year-over-year increase in consolidated April RASM. It flew 7.84 billion consolidated RPMs during the month, down 0.2% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 3.4% to 9.86 billion ASMs, dropping load factor 2.9 points to 79.4%.
First Sukhoi Superjet 100 has completed ground tests and been cleared for first flight this month, the manufacturer said late last month, according to RIA Novosti. Separately, Sukhoi entered into an agreement with Russia's Vnesheconombank, COFACE of France and SACE of Italy on establishment of an export credit financing scheme for Superjet sales to both Russian and international airlines.
BAE Systems Regional Aircraft will lease two RJ100s to P.T. Riau Airlines of Indonesia under a deal announced last week. Aircraft will replace F50s on busy routes and will be used to support new services to Kuala Lumpur and Penang from points in Riau Province. Delivery is slated for August.
Alitalia Group said its net debt at the close of the first quarter was €1.35 billion ($2.1 billion), a 1.1% reduction from the figure on Feb. 29. It had €180 million in cash-in-hand and short-term financial credits.
Korean Air is eyeing opportunities to expand its market share in North America using Incheon as a gateway hub to China, GM-North America Song Bo Young told ATWOnline in Seoul. KE currently serves 23 Chinese destinations and also will promote Incheon as a gateway from the US to Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. The proposed merger between Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines, which already are codeshare partners with KE through SkyTeam, will strengthen its North American market position, Song said. Last year, North American service added some $800 million to KE's bottom line.
European Commission VP-Transport Jacques Barrot issued a statement Friday signaling the governing body's "acceptance of secondary trading of airport slots." The buying, selling and trading of airport operating slots among airlines has been seen most recently at London Heathrow, a result of the EU-US open skies agreement, but the EC's stance on the practice had not been clear. "Today we are recognizing for the first time that secondary trading is an acceptable way of allowing slots to be swapped among airlines," Barrot said.
Taiwanese carriers China Airlines and EVA Air reported first-quarter losses of TWD2.97 billion ($97.4 million) and TWD2.29 billion respectively. The airlines, which reported the results in filings with the Taiwan Stock Exchange cited by Bloomberg News, each blamed high fuel costs for the poor results.
Rockwell Collins won deals from Airbus to provide its Communication Global Work package, Avionics Data Network and landing systems technology for the A350 XWB. The communication package includes VHF and HF systems, ARINC 781 satellite capacity, ACR for data link with ATN and FANS-B, audio technology and Gatelink. ADN features RC's AFDX and can link displays and Integrated Modular Avionics-based applications.
ARINC said it will offer its AirPlan enRoute technology to selected airlines this summer under an agreement with ATH Group. Based on the Attila arrival management system, the technology is expected to save fuel and reduce delays by streamlining arrival times of incoming flights.
Air Arabia will open a third hub in Rabat in the second half of this year in order to connect to European destinations, the Arab Air Carriers Organization reported. The LCC has entered into a joint venture with privately held Regional Air Lines and Bahrain Ithmaar Bank. It launched a second hub in Kathmandu in January in partnership with Yeti Airlines ( ATWOnline, Jan. 15).
American Airlines and US FAA turned in reports to Transportation Secretary Mary Peters Friday regarding last month's disruptive grounding of AA MD-80s, and the carrier reportedly detailed an inconsistent oversight response by FAA including discord between the agency's Washington headquarters and a Dallas area field office.
JAL Group last week issued a revised full-year forecast for the year ended March 31, 2008, saying that "trends in recent performance" led it to raise expected net earnings to ¥16 billion ($153.9 million) from the ¥7 billion projected in its most recent forecast last November. It reported a ¥16.2 billion loss in the year ended March 31, 2007.
US Airways will launch daily Charlotte-Tucson, Charlotte-Sacramento and Philadelphia-Sacramento flights on June 3. Seasonal flights to Portland, Ore., from CLT (daily) and PHL (a second daily frequency) begin the same day. Northwest Airlines will launch daily Tokyo Narita-Taipei service Aug. 31 aboard a two-class 757-200. It also will offer seasonal daily Minneapolis/St. Paul-Lexington June 5-Aug. 18 aboard a Pinnacle Airlines CRJ200 AirTran Airways will start four-times-daily Atlanta-San Antonio on June 11 aboard a 717-200.
Boeing began final assembly on the fifth 787, which is the third flight-test aircraft. It said the first aircraft scheduled to fly "is on track for 'power on' in June." It also said that the first 777 freighter was towed from its Everett factory onto the flight line late Tuesday. Flight testing will begin this summer.
MAXjet Airways, the all-business-class carrier that shut down in December ( ATWOnline, Jan. 3), is operating as a "luxury" charter service and is in the process of being acquired by NCA Sports Group, it announced on its website. It will continue charter operations under the new ownership.
Hawaiian Airlines parent Hawaiian Holdings reported a $19.9 million loss in the first quarter, widened from an $11.9 million deficit in the year-ago period, but its prospects have brightened somewhat owing to events that have transpired since the quarter's conclusion.
US Senate, which earlier this week appeared on the verge of finally passing a long-stalled FAA reauthorization bill, failed to agree on both procedural rules for the proposed legislation's floor debate and whether amendments regarding airline pension plans should be included. Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) thought they had reached a compromise earlier in the week on funding FAA operations.
Goodrich was selected by Pratt & Whitney to be the exclusive provider of the complete nacelle systems for the Geared Turbofan on both the Mitsubishi Regional Jet and CSeries. Goodrich said the contract is expected to generate more than $5 billion in original equipment and aftermarket revenue in the 25 years following EIS. "The Goodrich nacelle system on the Geared Turbofan demonstrator engine is performing very well and we look forward to flight testing the complete propulsion system later this year," Pratt VP-Next Generation Product Family Bob Saia said.
Opposition from some quarters to potential moves by US airlines in response to the recent Delta Air Lines/Northwest Airlines merger announcement is fierce, with Virgin Atlantic Airways vowing to fight a British Airways/American Airlines/Continental Airlines transatlantic alliance and United Airlines' pilots expressing strong disapproval of management's reported merger negotiations with US Airways.
Clickair and Germanwings announced an Internet marketing partnership under which they will make select flights between Spain and Germany available on each other's websites. Effective immediately, Clickair customers will be redirected to Germanwings' site if they wish to fly to Stuttgart or Cologne Bonn from Barcelona, while Germanwings customers will have access to Clickair flights to Barcelona from Frankfurt, Berlin Tegel and Munich.
A J Walter Aviation won associate membership in IATP, gaining access to international spares distribution from hubs in London, Singapore, Prague and Dubai.
AirTran Airways parent AirTran holdings yesterday announced the initial closing of concurrent offerings of 5.5% convertible senior notes due 2015 and common stock and said the initiatives netted proceeds of approximately $140.3 million. Sale of an additional 2.3 million shares of common as part of an overallotment option is set to close today.
