Aeroflot transported 604,500 passengers in March, up 23.4% from the year-ago month. Traffic grew 20.5% to 1.86 billion RPKs and load factor was 67.2%. Alitalia flew 3.04 billion RPKs in March, up 6.5% from the year-ago month. Capacity was static at 4.36 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 4.5 points to 69.8%. Mesa Air Group airlines flew 630.2 million RPMs in March, up 3.4% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 2.3% to 801.3 million ASMs and load factor climbed 0.9 point to 78.7%.
Japan Transocean Air, part of JAL Group, ordered 10 firm CFM56-3 Advanced Upgrade kits valued at approximately $15 million, plus 20 options. JTA currently operates five engines equipped with the Advanced Upgrade. CFM said the new order with the options, which began delivery in the first quarter, will enable the airline to upgrade the majority of its CFM56-3s by 2010.
Aloha Airlines is disputing Mesa Air Group Chairman and CEO Jonathan Ornstein's claim that the 10%-11% increase in go! traffic has come at Aloha's expense. "We didn't lose 10 points," Senior VP-Sales and Marketing Thom Nulty told ATWOnline. "He was certainly misinformed." Ornstein made the statement last week at an analyst conference in Mexico ( ATWOnline, April 17). Aloha and Hawaiian Airlines each are engaged in ongoing legal battles with Mesa.
Boeing Commercial Aviation Services said Air Pacific is the launch customer for its 737NG "landing gear overhaul and exchange program." The touch work will be done by members of the Boeing Service Center Repair Network. Boeing said it will allocate "a number" of 737NG landing gear shipsets to support future customers. Separately, BCAS said it signed Spirit AeroSystems, the former Boeing Wichita, to repair and overhaul nacelles for 777s and 737NGs as part of the Boeing Component Repair and Leasing Services Network Service Center program,
Japan Airlines repainted a 777-200ER in oneworld livery and began flying the aircraft this week on routes to Europe. It will unveil a 777-300 in oneworld livery for domestic routes on April 30. JAL joined the alliance this month ( ATWOnline, April 3).
International Registry of Mobile Assets, an outgrowth of the Cape Town Convention and Protocol, said it registered 18,000 objects (airframes, engines and helicopters) in its first year of existence through Feb. 28. Some 39,600 interests were registered against those objects. The Registry, which is "an essential part of the Cape Town architecture," is expected to grow as more countries ratify the Convention. To date, 16 nations have signed the treaty, which is intended to provide creditors involved in international financial transactions with greater security.
Spanair launched thrice-weekly Madrid-Pamplona flights. It will start weekly flights from Pamplona to Tenerife Sur (May 4) and Palma de Mallorca (June 6). TAM said it contracted Passaredo Transportes Aereos to operate regional services to Barreiras and Vitoria de Conquista from Brasilia, Salvador and Ribeirao Preto. Air China launched twice-weekly Beijing-Sapporo flights this week.
Lufthansa Technik reached agreement with Virgin America on a 10-year contract valued at more than $250 million to provide total material operations and line maintenance support for the San Francisco-based startup. Under the contract, LHT will establish central component and supplies depots at SFO and New York JFK and in the future will operate similar depots at other airports as VA's network grows.
Continental Airlines reported first-quarter net income of $22 million, reversed from a net loss of $66 million in the year-ago quarter, on a 7.9% lift in revenue to $3.18 billion. Excluding special items such as the sale of its remaining investment in ExpressJet and unusual charges, CO posted a $26 million profit for the quarter, an improvement over a $46 million net loss for the prior-year period on a similar basis.
American Eagle named Dave Campbell senior VP-technical operations and Cathy Jacobs VP-people dept. Campbell was VP-base maintenance at AA's Alliance Fort Worth and Kansas City bases and Jacobs was VP-employee relations.
Sixteen years worth of profitable quarters have raised standards and expectations at Southwest Airlines, which yesterday reported a 52.5% increase in first-quarter net profit to $93 million from $61 million in the year-ago quarter but called the result "disappointing" thanks to drops in both operating and non-GAAP earnings.
PT Bhakti Investama, an Indonesian investment firm, acquired a 50% stake in Adam Air parent Adam Skyconnection Airlines, the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation reported. Price was not disclosed.
Goodrich Corp. yesterday unveiled Prime Solutions, a full-service nacelle system aftermarket MRO program that it said "will give airline customers the option of no longer having to invest in nacelle maintenance infrastructure."
Midwest Airlines and Midwest Connect flew 403.8 million RPMs in March, up 8.1% on the year-ago month. Capacity rose 6.3% to 494.1 million ASMs and load factor increased 1.4 points to 81.7%. Spanair flew 694 million RPKs in March, a 17.3% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 9.5% to 1.04 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 4.5 points to 66.6%. Pinnacle Airlines flew 386.8 million RPMs in March, up 8.5% on the year-ago month. Capacity rose 9.2% to 508.3 million ASMs and load factor fell 0.5 point to 76.1%.
CSA Czech Airlines carried 1.1 million passengers in the first three months of 2007, up 5.2% from the year-ago quarter. More than 90% of those passengers flew CSA's scheduled services with the most popular destinations being Paris Charles de Gaulle, Moscow Sheremetyevo, Amsterdam, Madrid and Dublin. It took delivery of eight A320 family aircraft during the quarter, a ninth last week and will take its final new aircraft of 2007, an A319, this week.
Ryanair announced changes to its schedule from Stockholm Skavsta comprising new services to Marseille (four-times-weekly from May 7), Treviso (thrice-weekly from May 23) and Alghero (four-times-weekly from May 24) and a cessation of flights to Brussels Charleroi (from May 22), Gdansk (from May 22) and Kaunas (from May 23). Continental Airlines will offer weekly Continental Express Cleveland-Quebec service aboard an ERJ-145 June 9-Oct. 28.
Delta TechOps yesterday announced major deals with Pratt & Whitney and regional partner Mesa Air Group, plus tentative agreements with engine suppliers and parts makers. The contract with Mesa is a 12-year deal worth approximately $300 million to support Mesa's CF34s. Delta said its TechOps division now manages Mesa's entire engine fleet and will provide on-site program management at its Phoenix base. Mesa MRO Services Director Gary Appling said TechOps will furnish MRO, on-wing planning, engineering, ECTM, and reliability and engine shop planning.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines announced the launch of SAS.mobi, a version of its website available on mobile phones that offers check-in, flight status, timetables, loyalty program access and other features. The site was created by Adimo of Sweden.
Delta Air Lines will launch daily New York JFK-Tel Aviv service on March 10, 2008, aboard a 767-300ER. It began flying to Tel Aviv from Atlanta last year with 777-200ERs and said it will be the only US airline serving Israel from two US cities.
American Airlines parent AMR Corp. reported first-quarter net income of $81 million, reversed from a net loss of $92 million in the year-ago period, marking its fourth consecutive profitable quarter and its first opening quarter in the black since 2000.
SunExpress, the joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines, is increasing its presence in Izmir, where it will employ 160 and base four aircraft during the summer schedule. It will operate 56 weekly flights to 11 Turkish cities and 40 to 11 international destinations. The Antalya-based carrier expects this year to breach the 3-million-passenger mark for the first time in its 17 years of operation, up from 2.6 million in 2006. It flies 10 737-800s and four 757-200s and will add two more -800s in 2008.
Aeroflot yesterday said it posted a RUB7.9 billion ($306.3 million) profit in 2006, which would mark a 31% increase over 2005 earnings of RUB6.03 billion and was the company's second revision of its full-year performance. In late February it said it earned RUB6.98 billion ( ATWOnline, March 1) and it claimed a RUB7.3 billion profit in an April 10 statement.
AVIC I Commercial Aircraft Co. revealed its ambition to explore the US as a potential market for its ARJ21 regional jet, with VP Chen Jin noting that a new FAA office in Shanghai, established last month, will help CAAC to conduct airworthiness certification of the aircraft this October.
Australian Communications and Media Authority yesterday approved an inflight cellular communication trial on one Qantas aircraft for up to 12 months and said it will consider "the potential for permanent regulatory arrangements for the service" once it collects and analyzes results from the evaluation program ( ATWOnline, Aug. 29, 2006). "The granting of permissions for the evaluation service is the culmination of many months of work aimed at facilitating an industry need," ACMA Chairman Chris Chapman said.
