Delta TechOps yesterday extended maintenance agreements with airberlin, Gol and ABX Air totaling a projected $800 million. AB's 10-year extension is for off-wing maintenance on CFM56-7s powering 737NGs. Gol added 10 years for maintenance of CFM56-3s and CFM56-7s powering 737 Classics and NGs. Extension of ABX's engine MRO agreement was unspecified. Separately, DTO reached a five-year deal with Asiana Airlines for MRO on CFM56-3s. Contract is expected to yield $45 million in revenue.
News from Travel Technology Update: On March 18, American Airlines experienced one of its most horrendous weather days ever at its principal hub, Dallas/Fort Worth. It canceled hundreds of flights. Yet by the next evening, its operations were largely back to normal. American's quick recovery from what could have been a headline-making nightmare was due in large part to new software developed by its operations research department.
American Airlines parent AMR Corp. launched the US first-quarter reporting period on a decidedly down note yesterday, posting a $328 million net loss compared to an $81 million profit in the year-ago quarter and projecting a difficult 2008 owing largely to "very volatile" fuel costs.
Bombardier announced the conversion of four options for CRJ900 NextGens by the Iraqi government, which placed a firm order for six of the type last month ( ATWOnline, March 14). New deal includes options on a further 10 aircraft. Four new orders are worth a combined $159 million at list prices.
Aviareps will represent Russia's Orenair in Germany under a GSA agreement announced yesterday. Sales and marketing activities will take place in Frankfurt. The carrier's maiden flight between Cologne/Bonn and Orenburg is May 9.
US airline industry may be much closer to achieving carbon neutral growth than is widely assumed, according to FAA Assistant Administrator for Aviation Policy, Planning and Environment Dan Elwell. Speaking to reporters in Washington yesterday, Elwell noted that the agency expects US traffic to grow at an average annual rate of around 4%, although short-term growth may be below that owing to the recent failures of three airlines that accounted for around 1% of system capacity as well as capacity reductions at major carriers owing to the high cost of fuel.
TAT Group subsidiary Aircraft International Renting placed an order for two 70-seat ATR 72-500s for delivery late this year and next to Bangkok Airways. Order is valued at $37 million at list prices and will bring the airline's -500 fleet to 20.
British Airways said that Director-Operations Gareth Kirkwood and Director-Customer Services David Noyes will be leaving the carrier and confirmed their departures "follow the airline's move to Terminal 5." BA will appoint a COO and combine the roles.
China Eastern Airlines enjoyed a turnaround in 2007, posting a net profit of CNY269 million ($38.4 million) that represented a reversal from the CNY3.3 billion loss suffered the previous year. Operating revenue rose 13% to CNY42.52 billion, but CEA cited yuan appreciation as the main driver behind its improved performance as a great deal of its debt was incurred in US dollars, reducing its financial costs by 114% year-over-year. Operating expenses climbed 4% to CNY43.08 billion with jet fuel accounting for 40.9%, up from 29.2% in 2006.
Executives from Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines moved quickly yesterday to persuade investors, employees, consumers and regulators that the proposed blockbuster merger of the two carriers will be positive for all, while insisting they will avoid many of the pitfalls of past mergers.
Mxi Technologies announced that Air Canada agreed to implement its Maintenix management software throughout its fleet. Designed to automate maintenance and engineering processes, technology is expected to be fully operational by 2010.
Air France-KLM said it was "pleased" by the Delta Air Lines/Northwest Airlines merger announcement and that it looked forward to combining with the new carrier "in the form of a joint venture offering a network with extremely attractive multiple hubs." AF-KLM said it had offered short-term financial aid to the airlines as part of the transatlantic alliance granted antitrust immunity last week ( ATWOnline, April 11) but said that "considering the strong liquidity position of the combined airlines," it is "totally
Ryanair and easyJet are threatening to withhold a portion of the airport charges imposed by BAA at London Stansted and Gatwick respectively while they challenge the fee increases in court.
The announcement of the merger agreement between Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines rippled across the US commercial aviation landscape yesterday as the respective pilot groups took opposing sides and the identity of future consolidation candidates was scrutinized.
Newly elected Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who won a third nonconsecutive term in elections that concluded Monday, said saving the ailing flag carrier would be a priority of his government and that "tens" of Italian investors were ready to inject capital into the airline.
Lufthansa Systems won a five-year deal with UTair for provision of its ProfitLine/Yield Rembrandt revenue management technology. It features pricing intelligence and demand forecasting.
Legislation to ban the use of mobile phones on all commercial flights in the US was introduced yesterday by Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) and John Duncan (R-Tenn.). The three are members of the House aviation subcommittee. Mobile phones currently are not permitted on domestic flights and both FAA and the Federal Communications Commission would have to lift their own bans before an airline could offer the service. The proposed legislation, if passed by Congress and signed by the President, would take the decision out of the two agencies' hands.
Hewa Bora Airways DC-9 crashed yesterday afternoon at Goma International in DR Congo, killing as few as nine and as many as several dozen, according to a variety of press reports that revealed wildly divergent discrepancies in the number of casualties and left open the possibility that some occurred on the ground. Just last week HBA was added to the EU's aviation safety blacklist ( ATWOnline, April 14).
SkyWest Airlines will launch twice-daily Delta Connection service from Salt Lake City to both Gillette and Rock Springs, Wyo., July 7. SkyWest and Atlantic Southeast Airlines flew 1.56 billion RPMs in March, up 2.2% from the year-ago month, against a 3% increase in capacity to 1.97 billion ASMs. Load factor fell 0.6 point to 79.2%.
Skymark Airlines of Japan transported 3.7 million passengers last year, up 26% from 2006, while load factor soared 13.5 points to 77.2%, the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation reported.
TNT will invest €100 million ($157.9 million) over the next five years to expand its Europe-Asia express cargo services. The Dutch company said the money will be used to "strengthen its network coverage, connectivity and infrastructure" in response to "soaring demand for freight express services between Southeast Asia, China and Europe. . . driven by customers in the high-tech, equipment and machinery and healthcare sectors that are increasingly moving large volumes of high-value goods."
Sun Country Airlines will furlough 45 of its 156 pilots from May 1 to Oct. 31 during which time it will lease out two of its nine 737-800s to Air France-KLM subsidiary Transavia. While the Minneapolis/St. Paul-based carrier does not plan to cut routes, it will reduce frequencies on existing routes during the period. SCA, which operates its fleet of -800s on scheduled services and charters to points in the US, Mexico and the Caribbean, does more robust business during the winter months as it caters to leisure passengers from cold weather cities traveling to warm weather vacation spots.
Vietnam's Pacific Airlines, in which Qantas Group purchased an 18% stake with an agreement to raise that holding to 30% in 2010, will change its name to Jetstar Pacific as part of a partnership with QF that will see it become "Vietnam's first low-cost, value-based airline."
