The official death toll from Sunday's One-Two-Go Airways MD-82 crash in Phuket rose to 89 as investigators focused on windshear as a possible cause. "It is possible that the plane crash was caused by windshear," One-Two-Go parent Orient-Thai Airlines President Kajit Habnanonda told reporters, according to the Associated Press. The aircraft attempted to land at Phuket in a heavy rainstorm and skidded off the runway ( ATWOnline, Sept. 17).
Northwest Airlines yesterday announced a reshuffled executive management team that it said better reflects its post-bankruptcy objectives. Among the most significant changes, which will take effect Oct. 1, were NWA Cargo President Jim Friedel's appointment to the newly created position of senior VP-strategic planning and VP-Network Planning and Revenue Management Tom Bach's promotion to president-NWA Cargo. VP-Fleet Planning Dan McDonald was named VP-strategy and fleet planning and will report to Friedel.
Bmi is applying to operate daily London Heathrow-Tel Aviv service beginning in spring 2008 following a UK-Israel accord that allows each government to designate a second carrier on the route. AirBridge Cargo, Volga-Dnepr Group's scheduled service operator, will launch weekly Amsterdam-Tel Aviv-Moscow 747F flights from Oct. 7. Earlier this month it started weekly Moscow-Tokyo-Krasnoyarsk service.
The US National Transportation Safety Board said it is sending a team to aid the Thai government in its investigation of yesterday's accident in Phuket involving a One-Two-Go Airways MD-82 that ran off the runway while landing in what was described as heavy rain and strong winds.
Tripoli's new €1 billion ($1.39 billion) airport will handle 20 million passengers upon completion, the Arab Air Carriers Organization reported. Construction has started on the facility and is being carried out by a consortium of six companies, including Vinci (France), TAV (Turkey) and Oderbrecht (Brazil). A French research consultancy is supervising, AACO said. No completion date was announced. The 1,165-hectare site will be able to handle up to 100 aircraft. An additional €2 billion has been set aside to modernize other Libyan airports.
N3 Engine Overhaul Services, the Lufthansa Technik-Rolls-Royce engine maintenance joint venture, officially opened its new facility in Thuringia, Germany, Friday. LHT and Rolls have invested around €100 million ($139 million) in the N3 site, which will overhaul Trent 500, 700 and 900 engines powering the A340-500/600, A330 and A380 respectively. N3 received EASA Part 145 approval in April. It employs 270, a figure that is expected to rise to 500 by 2010.
Jetairfly will launch Brussels-Aqaba service with a stopover in Sharm el Sheikh aboard 737-800s from Oct. 25. Silverjet will launch its second daily Newark-London Luton flight on Sept. 23. In August, the all-business-class carrier flew 4,654 revenue seats with an 80% load factor. "We continue to see strong forward bookings at increasing yields," CEO Lawrence Hunt said, adding that the airline is "seeing a good mix of business and leisure customers which allows us to spread our risk."
A J Walter (Leasing) Ltd. said it is taking delivery of the second of two A320s purchased from British Airways last year for parting out. The first was delivered last November.
Horizon Air, which grounded its fleet of Q400s following the collapse of landing gear on two separate SAS flights ( ATWOnline, Sept. 13), inspected 16 of its 33 affected aircraft by Friday and plans to begin placing them back in service today. The regional carrier canceled 89 flights Friday and expected additional cancellations over the weekend because of the grounding. By Tuesday it intends to introduce a "modified schedule" as aircraft are returned to service.
Compass Airlines, a wholly owned regional subsidiary of Northwest Airlines, will build a $9.85 million aircraft maintenance facility at Louisville International Airport. The complex will provide scheduled maintenance for the carrier's new fleet of 76-seat E-175s and employ up to 70 workers when completed next year. Louisville was selected because of its proximity to NWA hubs in Minneapolis and Memphis, according to company officials.
AeroMexico said Friday that a group of Mexican investors represented by Banamex, the Mexican arm of Citigroup, has made a formal bid valued at more than $150 million to take a controlling stake in the airline, which currently is controlled by government holding company Consorcio Aeromexico. The takeover offer, first revealed last Thursday ( ATWOnline, Sept. 14), is open through Oct. 15 with an option to extend it until Nov. 30. AM's board said it will make an initial judgment on the offer within 10 business days.
Midwest Airlines, which accepted a cash buyout offer of $17 per share from TPG Capital and Northwest Airlines last month, entered into a codeshare agreement last week with NWA for tickets purchased beginning Nov. 3 for travel starting Nov. 17.
The Indian government granted Jet Airways the right to fly to a number of Gulf destinations from Jan. 1, ending a three-year prohibition against private Indian carriers operating to the region.
Continental Airlines will expand capacity at its Cleveland Hopkins International Airport hub by 40% over the next two years, starting with 50 new flights operated primarily by regional jets and the addition of 20 new nonstop destinations by next summer. Cleveland is CO's No. 3 hub behind Newark and Houston Intercontinental. Many of the RJs will be reallocated to Cleveland from the Newark hub; new 70-seat Q400s operated under an agreement with Colgan Air will take over some of the Newark service.
SunExpress, the Lufthansa/Turkish Airlines joint venture, said it will operate more than 100 daily flights from 20 German airports to its bases in Antalya and Izmir starting at the end of October. The carrier operates a fleet of 10 737-800s and four 757-200s and employs 800. It said it will transport 3 million passengers this year.
Embraer opened an E-Jets training services center in the Alteon training facility at Singapore Changi. The center has the capacity to train an average of 300 pilots annually, offering both ground school and simulator training. In 2008 it will be expanded to include flight attendant training.
Babcock & Brown filed last week with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to spin off part of its commercial aircraft leasing business in an IPO that could raise more than $440 million. The newly created lessor will be known as Babcock & Brown Air. Shares are being offered at $22-$24 each and will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol FLY, B&B said in a statement.
Bombardier said a preliminary investigation revealed some corrosion on a part of the landing gear that failed on an SAS Q400 earlier this week. A spokesperson told ATWOnline that the corrosion was evident on the landing gear actuator, which extends and retracts the gear during landing and takeoff. The Canadian manufacturer recommended that all Q400s be grounded after landing gears collapsed on two separate SAS flights on Sept. 9 and Sept. 12 ( ATWOnline, Sept.
Alitalia posted a consolidated net loss of €211.1 million ($292.7 million) for the first half of 2007, slightly narrowed from a €220.2 million loss in the year-ago period. The carrier's board last week outlined financial and performance targets for its "survival/transition" plan that aims to keep AZ viable through 2010 as it continues to seek a sale to private investors ( ATWOnline, Sept. 10).
Ryanair said it will base 12 aircraft at Milan Malpensa and launch 50 international and 10 domestic routes from the airport in response to Alitalia's plan to nearly halve its 340 daily flights from MPX ( ATWOnline, Sept. 5). In a statement dubbed "Ryanair's Manifesto for Malpensa," the Irish LCC said it is willing to commit up to $1 billion between 2008 and 2012 at two airports, MPX and Orio al Serio near Bergamo, where it currently has a base.
While Air China charted an ambitious international expansion plan that includes opening 12 new routes to the US and Europe in 2008 and 2009, China Eastern Airlines is taking a more cautious approach, with only one new international route planned in the next two years. According to the 2008-09 long-haul routes distribution program released by CAAC, CEA will start Shanghai-Los Angeles service next year but will stay away from further international expansion.
Dragonair will re-launch four-times-weekly Hong Kong-Katmandu flights aboard A320s from Dec. 2. United Airlines will launch daily Los Angeles-Frankfurt flights aboard 777s from Dec. 15. UA currently flies to Frankfurt twice-daily from both San Francisco and Chicago O'Hare and thrice-daily from Washington Dulles. Ethiopian Airlines will increase frequencies to China from the end of October. Addis Ababa-Guangzhou will rise to six-times-weekly from four and Beijing via Delhi will increase to five-times-weekly from four.
CSA Czech Airlines firmed up options on eight A319s, bringing its total firm orders for A320 family aircraft to 20. CSA said it plans to use the A320s to modernize its European fleet.
US and Japan yesterday reached an expanded air services agreement, according to UPS, which said it won authority under the deal to operate six daily freighter flights between the US and Nagoya.
