Macquarie Airports yesterday announced the sale of its 44.7% stake in Aeroporti di Roma to the Gemina investment firm for €1.24 billion ($1.66 billion), nearly triple the €480 million it paid for the share in March 2003. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval. "We have been actively seeking to resolve the situation at AdR for some time.
Dutch government's proposed €25 tax on tickets for passengers departing the Netherlands drew fire from the Assn. of European Airlines. The levy is designed to bring in €350 million per year in addition to "reducing the impact of aviation on climate change," AEA said. However, said Secretary General Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus, "If the entire Dutch aviation sector were to close down, the impact on global CO2 emissions would be so small you could hardly measure it. But that is not what will happen.
US Dept. of Transportation issued a ruling largely in favor of the 28 airlines (seven domestic and 21 foreign) who complained in February about a variety of security, rental and terminal fees imposed by Los Angeles World Airports ( ATWOnline, April 16).
News from Travel Technology Update: "Content is king." Or is it? The driver of the last two rounds of airline-GDS negotiations was the perceived need for subscribers, particularly travel management companies, to have access to full airline content. But the No.
Etihad Airways will launch thrice-weekly Abu Dhabi-Singapore flights on Sept. 27 aboard an A330-200, with service becoming daily by year end. Air Canada Jazz started daily Vancouver-Sacramento flights aboard 50-seat CRJs. EasyJet launched daily London Gatwick-Palermo service aboard a new A319, which is the 20th aircraft based at LGW and the 135th in the LCC's fleet.
TAP Portugal is negotiating with Airbus regarding its order for 15 A350s, President and CEO Fernando Pinto told ATWOnline at the Paris Air Show. The Portuguese carrier was one of the first to commit to the aircraft when it placed an order for 10 plus five options in November 2005 ( ATWOnline, Nov. 22, 2005). Deliveries were scheduled to begin in 2013. "The 'old' version worked for us," Pinto revealed. "The XWB is a very different aircraft. We have to review if it fits in our fleet.
Austrian Airlines flew 1.59 billion RPKs in May, down 16.2% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 19.7% to 2.2 billion ASKs and load factor rose 3.1 points to 72.4%. Aeroflot flew 1.98 billion RPKs in May, up 12.7% from the year-ago month. Load factor was 67.5%. Copa Airlines flew 373.1 million RPMs in May, up 20.6% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 18.3% to 495.1 million ASMs, lifting load factor 1.4 points to 75.4%.
Continental Airlines and future SkyTeam partner China Southern Airlines yesterday unveiled a "strategic partnership" under which the carriers will offer loyalty program and lounge reciprocity and "extensive codesharing." Frequent-flier programs will be linked in September, with lounge access to become available when CZ joins SkyTeam later this year. From November, CO will place its code on CZ flights connecting to the US carrier's daily Newark-Beijing service as well as CZ's Guangzhou-Los Angeles service. China Southern will place its code on CO flights from LAX.
Grupo Marsans President Gonzalo Pascual confirmed to ATWOnline that his company is talking with SAS Group about the possible acquisition of Spanair ( ATWOnline, June 15). "It could be a good combination," Pascual said at the Paris Air Show. "Most of our activity is long-haul--Europe to South America--or within Latin America, whereas Spanair flies to domestic, European and North African destinations."
Worldspan signed Saudi Arabian Airlines to a multiyear technology services agreement under which the GDS will help Saudi Arabian upgrade its ticketing process to include global e-ticket processing and interlining. The carrier will adopt Worldspan ETDBase, Worldspan Interchange and other solutions.
Airbus order book overflows on first day at Paris Bombardier, AVIC I agree to cooperate on ARJ-21, CSeries development Emirates expects major widebody order later this year Lion Air orders 40 additional 737-900ERs valued at $3 billion GECAS orders six additional 777Fs valued at $1.4 billion Carson: 'Unbelievable' demand driven by nontraditional markets Embraer wins E-Jet orders from Lufthansa, JAL Boeing denies 787 problems ATR confirms 53 orders this year Additional stories
European Commission and US FAA unveiled a transatlantic emission-reduction initiative called AIRE (Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions), which EC VP-Transport Jacques Barrot said will "speed up the application of technologies and procedures having a direct impact on greenhouse gas emissions." AIRE will be based on "gate-to-gate" testing and experiments on such initiatives as continuous descent approaches, the EC said. Airbus, Boeing, Air France KLM, SAS Group, Delta Air Lines and FedEx are among those companies involved in the initiative.
TAME of Ecuador converted two E-190 options. The airline operates two E-170s and a single E-190. The new aircraft will be delivered by year end. "This decision is based on the success achieved by operating this type of airplane, which was first acquired in 2006, that has boosted passenger demand," TAME President Fernando Martinez de la Vega said. Separately, the manufacturer said it is expanding its partnership with CAE to include initial and recurrent pilot training on both the E-170 and E-190 as well as on the Lineage 1000.
Comtran Ltd. said its advanced jet nozzle for MD-80s was certified by EASA as meeting Chapter 4 noise requirements. "It is important for operators to note that this modification not only brings their MD-80 series aircraft into full Chapter 4/Stage 4 compliance but also that [it] can be accomplished in as little as four hours during thrust reverser overhaul," CEO Douglas Jaffe said.
Libyan Airlines ordered three firm CRJ900s plus two options, Bombardier announced. Firm aircraft are worth an estimated $108 million at list prices. "This purchase represents the launching of our fleet renewal program. The CRJ900 aircraft was selected because we believe it is the type of regional jet that can meet the requirement of domestic and regional routes in our network," Libyan Chairman Tarek Arebi said. The carrier currently serves 27 destinations.
European Air Express, a German regional based in Monchengladbach, said it will shut down Sept. 30 due to tough competition from LCCs. EAE was founded in 1999. It operates five ATR 42-300s and transported 98,000 passengers last year on 144 weekly flights to seven destinations.
Terra Firma and AWAS completed their acquisition of Pegasus Aviation Finance of San Francisco, which was announced last month ( ATWOnline, May 14). The combination will create the world's third-largest aircraft lessor, AWAS said. The new company owns 223 aircraft valued at more than $5.5 billion and has an additional 101 aircraft under management and on lease to more than 120 customers. It has $2.2 billion worth of orders in place with Airbus and Boeing.
Brussels Charleroi was shut down Friday following a strike by security staff employed by the Walloon Ministry of Transport. Ryanair, by far the largest carrier at the airport, said the "illegal" strike was the second in the past year and forced it to cancel all flights to and from CRL through the weekend. The LCC said it has "asked for an explanation as to why no contingency plan has been put in place" and that it was "unacceptable that the travel plans of 15,000 passengers over a busy weekend can be disrupted by the unlawful actions of a small number of airport security staff."
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Thai Airways said its board decided to cancel its contract to manage Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong "due to delay of handover [of] the airport to Thai according to the contract." The carrier was supposed to take control more than a year ago, the Associated Press reported from Bangkok. Thai also said it would hire 426 new flight attendants.
Delta Air Lines and Gol announced an interline agreement effective July 1 under which DL passengers will be able to connect through Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo to each of the LCC's 58 Brazilian destinations as well as eight in South America.
Finnair increased Helsinki-St. Petersburg frequencies to 20-times-weekly thanks to the award of three additional flights covered by a codeshare agreement with Rossiya. It also flies daily to Moscow Sheremetyevo in cooperation with Aeroflot. Finnair CEO Jukka Hienonen recently told ATWOnline that there are 13 Russian cities with more than 1 million people that Finnair would like to serve if it can secure permission. "Of course we can't fly to all of them, and it still isn't easy for us to get more traffic rights into Russia," he said.
US Airways Group flew 5.57 billion RPMs in May, up 0.1% from the year-ago month on a 1.6% fall in domestic and a 15.4% increase in transatlantic traffic. Consolidated capacity dropped 1.8% to 6.83 billion ASMs and load factor was up 1.6 points to 81.5%. Ryanair transported 4.1 million passengers in May, up 17% from the year-ago month. Load factor fell 2 points to 80%.
Southern Air announced that it completed the purchase of its 9th and 10th 747-200F from Martinair and Atlas Air respectively for use on its wet-lease and charter network. Acquisitions were internally financed, the Connecticut-based carrier said, with additional capacity to be added later this year.
The Chinese commercial aviation industry appeared to post a significant turnaround in 2006 with a collective net profit of CNY2.38 billion ($311 million) compared with a CNY1.35 billion loss in 2005. However, that reversal, outlined in the recently released CAAC annual report, largely was a result of Air China's success. The Beijing carrier reported a CNY3.19 billion net last year ( ATWOnline, March 21), which helped boost the industry back toward 2004 profit levels.
