Virgin America launched twice-daily San Francisco-Washington Dulles service, its fourth route. IAD-Los Angeles flights are scheduled to begin Oct. 24. Delta Air Lines will launch twice-daily flights from Cincinnati to Cape Girardeau, Owensboro and Jackson (Tenn.) Nov. 18 aboard Big Sky Airlines Beech 1900Ds.
Boeing yesterday admitted that its plan to overcome production delays in time to deliver the first 787 to ANA on schedule next May was too ambitious, and delivery now will take place in late November or early December 2008. First flight of the Dreamliner has been pushed back to the end of the 2008 first quarter from last month's plan to fly the airplane in late November or early December, which itself represented a delay over previous plans to make the first flight in September ( ATWOnline, Sept. 12).
Lufthansa Group flew 12.68 billion RPKs in September, up 25.2% from the year-ago month owing to the addition of Swiss International Air Lines. Capacity climbed 23.6% to 15.84 billion ASKs and load factor was up 1 point to 80.1%. SAS Group carriers flew 3.9 billion RPKs in September, a 5.9% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity grew 3.9% to 5.16 billion ASKs and load factor gained 1.5 points to 75.5%. SAS Scandinavian Airlines flew 2.56 billion RPKs, up 0.2%, against a 1.4% fall in capacity to 3.29 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 1.3 points to 77.8%.
Wizz Air yesterday signed a contract for 50 firm A320s plus 25 options, an order that the manufacturer said was the largest ever from Central and Eastern Europe for a single Airbus type.
Japan Airlines announced that its JAL Premium Economy cabin will be introduced beginning Dec. 1 on its daily Tokyo Narita-London Heathrow service. It will be added on flights to Frankfurt and Paris Charles de Gaulle next year, "followed by the expansion of the new service onto US and other Europe[ean] routes," JAL said. The product will feature what the airline called the world's first shell-shaped premium economy seat with 97-cm. pitch, a business class amenity kit and enhanced food service. Forty-four seats in 2-4-2 configuration will be available on 777-300ERs and 40 on 777-200ERs.
Aer Lingus CEO Dermot Mannion warned yesterday in a letter to pilots that those who "fail to confirm your willingness to unreservedly engage in your full range of duties" related to EI's new Belfast base will be suspended from the payroll from the morning of Oct. 16.
Northwest Airlines will pre-fund the financing of 27 76-seat E-175LRs with $454 million in secured public aircraft financing structured with Enhanced Equipment Trust Certificates. Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and JPMorgan were joint bookrunners. Aircraft will be operated by NWA subsidiary Compass Airlines.
AWAS delivered the second of four 767-300ERs to Gol this week. Aircraft will be operated by VRG Linheas Aereas, the new Varig that now is a Gol subsidiary. Two further 767s will be delivered over the next six months. AWAS also finalized the acquisition of an A321 to Livingston S.p.a. from Bank of China Aviation. Livingston is the Italian leisure carrier owned by Ventaglio Group, AWAS said.
AerCap Holdings announced that AerVenture, a joint venture with LoadAir and AI Fawares ( ATWOnline, Feb. 3, 2006), will lease six new A320-200s to Aeroflot for 10 years. The CFM56-powered aircraft will be delivered to the Russian carrier between July 2008 and March 2009. Aeroflot Head of Fleet Planning and Aircraft Procurement Sergei Koltovich said the carrier's new partnership with AerVenture "should develop into a truly long-term relationship."
Wizz Air today is set to announce a significant aircraft order with Airbus, according to Reuters, which cited an invitation to the Warsaw signing ceremony that called the order "the largest one for Airbus in Central and Eastern Europe." Wizz currently flies 13 A320-200s and has 32 more on order.
Northwest Airlines will launch daily Portland, Ore.-Amsterdam service on March 29 aboard a 243-seat, two-class A330-200. Portland will become NWA's 20th North American transatlantic gateway. Malev Hungarian Airlines will increase its daily Budapest-Madrid service to 11-times-weekly from Oct. 28. Flights to Bangkok will rise to four-times-weekly beginning Jan. 8 and daily service to Venice will become 12-times-weekly on Oct. 28. Twice-weekly Budapest-Ekaterinburg flights will launch the same day.
Qantas is matching Air New Zealand's recent product initiatives ( ATWOnline, Aug. 22), turning up the competitive heat in the NZ domestic market. Next month, QF will introduce its successful Australian domestic Cityflyer product across the Tasman. Cityflyer provides passengers free beer and wine from 4 p.m. (noon in Australia), free newspapers and an enhanced food offering.
Airbus executives yesterday attempted to ignore the swirling controversy regarding their alleged involvement in insider training long enough to tout the company's progress in its Power8 restructuring program, which includes this month's launch of the "fully integrated and transnational 'New Airbus' organization."
Royal Jordanian selected the GEnx to power its 787s. The carrier announced an order for two 787-8s plus two options in the spring and said it was negotiating to lease an additional eight Dreamliners ( ATWOnline, May 22).
British Airways flew 9.76 billion RPKs in September, down 0.7% from the year-ago month, against a 0.3% increase in ASKs to 12.46 billion that lowered load factor 0.8 point to 78.3%. Southwest Airlines flew 5.64 billion RPMs in September, an 8.6% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 7.8% to 8.34 billion ASMs and load factor lifted 0.5 point to 67.7%. Finnair flew 1.73 billion RPKs in September, up 16.8% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 18.6% to 2.31 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 1.1 points to 75%.
Cargo B Airlines, the new Belgian cargo carrier commencing operations this week out of Brussels, signed a five-year deal with CHAMP Cargosystems for the provision and hosting of business applications including eCHAMP, a cargo management system to manage the end-to-end cargo process.
Delta Air Lines named Comair President Don Bornhorst senior VP-Delta Connection, putting him in charge of the daily operations of nine partner carriers. He replaces Wayne Aaron, who will return to his role as VP-strategic planning and business development, DL said. Former Song head John Selvaggio will take over for Bornhorst at Comair.
Tiger Airways opened its new terminal at Melbourne Tullamarine in addition to initiating a fare war, with transcontinental routes such as MEL-Perth going on sale for A$39.95 ($35.90) and flights from MEL to Gold Coast running A$19.95. CEO Tony Davis told media in Melbourne that 15,000 seats will be available at those fare levels. Tiger will launch domestic services next month in Australia with five A320s ( ATWOnline, July 18).
Embraer reported its firm order backlog increased by $1.6 billion in the third quarter to a record $17.2 billion. The Brazilian manufacturer delivered 38 commercial aircraft during the period in addition to nine Legacy business jets and a single Brasilia for government use. Company officials said they are seeing results from efforts to improve the supply chain and production process ( ATWOnline, Aug. 16) and that they expect to deliver 165-170 jets in 2007.
CAE is introducing a new subscription-based service called CAE True Airport designed to "keep its customers' visual databases current with constantly changing airport environments."
Air Berlin will close some routes from its London Stansted hub next month. An AB spokesperson confirmed to ATWOnline that twice-daily service to Manchester, Glasgow International and Belfast City will be shut down. AB handles 1.2 million passengers annually at the airport, its second-largest hub outside Germany after Palma de Mallorca. STN will continue to handle AB flights from eight German destinations and Spain.
Pratt & Whitney and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries announced in Tokyo yesterday that MHI has selected Pratt's Geared Turbofan as the exclusive engine for its proposed 70/90-seat regional jet, the first selection for the powerplant, which the engine-maker also is promoting for the Bombardier CSeries and the next-generation narrowbody.
