Northwest Airlines' new regional subsidiary, Compass Airlines, yesterday announced the receipt of US FAA certification to launch CRJ200 operations. It expects to start flying next month between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Washington Dulles. It will be based in nearby Chantilly, Va., and will operate out of NWA's hubs at MSP, Detroit and Memphis as Northwest Airlink. During the third quarter, it expects to put the first of 36 76-seat, two-class E-175s into service ( ATWOnline, Oct. 6, 2006).
American Eagle will launch daily Miami-Northwest Arkansas Regional service on April 10 aboard an ERJ-140. EasyJet launched a daily Madrid-Palma de Mallorca flight and announced the following new services: Daily flights from Berlin Shoenefeld to Lisbon and Venice starting May 11 and daily seasonal flights from London Gatwick to La Rochelle (July 14-Sept. 9) and from Geneva to Cagliari (June 29-Sept. 7). US Airways launched daily New York LaGuardia-Myrtle Beach service aboard ERJ-145s operated by Chautauqua Airlines.
The transition to a satellite-based NextGen ATC system in the US will hinge on politics and financing rather than technological issues, according to industry players. "Technology, in my view, is not the restraint," Lockheed Martin VP-Transportation System Solutions Monte Belger, who formerly served as US FAA's acting deputy administrator, said at this week's US Chamber of Commerce Aviation 2007 conference, available via webcast. "But there are enormous public policy decisions to be made. The industry costs to equip [aircraft] with ADS-B are huge."
The subject of significant speculation following last month's execution of the new EU-US open skies agreement, bmi moved to strengthen its transatlantic operation through a tie-up with Star Alliance partner United Airlines. The pair filed a joint motion with the US Dept. of Transportation this week requesting approval for antitrust immunity, which the government put on hold five years ago absent an open skies accord.
Gulf Air CEO Andre Dose, who took charge this week ( ATWOnline, April 4), announced a reduction of his senior staff in order to "drive the necessary efficiencies and to allow our management to focus on our customers." VP-Finance Ahmed Al Hammadi, VP-Services Tariq Sultan and VP-Business Units Ali Murtada will be leaving the airline.
Lufthansa will install a new first class cabin on one of its long-haul aircraft for a test run this year. "Even though the A380 is delayed for Lufthansa, we will introduce our new first class on time on our A340 fleet, starting the reconfiguration process with the 2008 winter schedule," Executive VP-Marketing and Sales Thierry Antinori told ATWOnline. LH will complete the retrofit of its 83 long-haul aircraft with its new business class next month. Economy passengers should benefit from the installation of individual video screens starting this fall.
IATA raised its 2007 global airline net profit forecast to $3.8 billion from $2.5 billion and projected a 2008 collective industry net of $7.6 billion, pointing to "better than expected traffic coupled with careful control of capacity."
Mishandled baggage costs continue to grow but can be mitigated through adoption of new technologies, particularly RFID baggage tags and sensors, experts said yesterday in the ATWOnline webcast "Innovations in Baggage and Aircraft Turnaround." The webcast, sponsored by SITA and available for replay here, examined ways carriers can handle baggage more efficiently and cost-effectively.
British Airways flew 9.67 billion RPKs in March, up 3.3% on the year-ago month. Capacity rose 2.3% to 12.67 billion ASKs and load factor lifted 0.7 point to 76.3%. Ryanair transported 3.8 million passengers in March, up 26% on the year-ago month. Load factor fell 1 point to 79%. WestJet flew 1.02 billion RPMs in March, a 23% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 18% to 1.2 billion ASMs and load factor was up 3.3 points to 85.2%.
As the three global alliances angle for a foothold in the Chinese market, China Eastern Airlines is leaving its options open, preferring to identify a new strategic investor before committing to one of the groupings.
Garuda Indonesia said it posted a IDR131 billion ($14.4 million) profit in the first two months of 2007, a period in which it has lost money each of the past three years. It suffered a IDR173.9 billion loss in the first two months of 2006. It cited a 9-point increase in load factor to 76% and an 8% lift in yield to $0.074 as key factors in the result. Passenger numbers rose 9% to 1.4 million. "Enhanced efficiency and consolidations" pushed the number of profitable domestic routes to 24 from three in the first two months of last year, it said.
The European Commission yesterday expressed dissatisfaction with the application of its air passenger rights regulation, saying that customers confronted with denied boarding, delays or cancellations remain "in a weaker position compared to airlines" and that carriers and member states now have six months effectively to implement the two-year-old rule or face sanctions.
JetBlue Airways will launch flights from San Francisco to New York JFK (five-times-daily) and Boston (daily) on May 3. Frontier Airlines will operate thrice-weekly Dallas/Fort Worth-Mazatlan service from June 7 aboard A319s. Southwest Airlines will launch daily Denver-Tampa service on May 4. Aer Arann will launch four-times-weekly Sligo-Manchester service on May 14.
Gol received approval yesterday from Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency for its planned acquisition of Varig ( ATWOnline, March 29). "Varig will incorporate modern concepts of efficient administration and reduce operating costs to become a competitive company," Gol CEO Constantino de Oliveira Jr. said. The transaction, valued at $320 million, still requires approval from the Brazilian antitrust authority.
Mobiqa and Nok Air are partnering to make tickets available for download on customers' mobile phones via an SMS containing a barcode that can be scanned at check-in. Separately, Nok launched twice-daily Bangkok-Krabi service aboard a 737-400.
American Airlines filed an application with US DOT to operate daily Chicago O'Hare-Buenos Aires service beginning Oct. 28 onboard 219-seat 767-300s. AA already serves EZE from Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami and New York JFK. The US and Argentina signed an expanded air services agreement last week ( ATWOnline, April 2).
Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, parent of Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo, reached a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission regarding accusations of inaccurate financial reporting from 2000 to 2002, agreeing to make no future misleading financial statements while paying no penalty for alleged transgressions that took place under previous management. SEC said AAWW failed to "report accurately its financial results, maintain requisite accounting records and implement adequate internal accounting controls" in fiscal years 2000, 2001 and the first half of FY02.
Gulf Air said former Crossair and Swiss International Air Lines CEO Andre Dose officially took over as CEO this week ( ATWOnline, Feb. 2). It added that Dose will be "unveiling a new long-term business plan" in a few weeks after spending time studying the airline and its operations.
Japan Airlines ordered five additional 787-8s, bringing its total to 35 and pushing Boeing's total Dreamliner sales to more than 500 if new orders from unidentified customers are included. JAL placed an order for 30 787s in December 2004, nine months after Boeing launched the program. The manufacturer said yesterday that it has sold 514 Dreamliners to 43 customers, meaning 23 new orders from four customers including JAL have been received since the end of last week.
Iberia will launch five-times-weekly flights from Madrid to Boston (from May 6) and Washington Dulles (from June 2) aboard A340s. EasyJet will commence six-times-weekly flights between Basel-Mulhouse and Olbia on June 29. SAS Braathens will launch twice-daily Oslo Gardermoen-London City service on Aug. 28, supplementing its five-times-daily flights to Heathrow.
ATR delivered six new aircraft in the first quarter comprising two 72-500s to Finncomm Airlines, two 72-500s to CCM, one 72-500 to Kingfisher Airlines and one 42-500 to Pakistan International Airlines. It expects to deliver 44 aircraft in 2007.
ANA applied for permission to wet-lease two 767-200SFs from ABX Air, each with a 40-tonne payload, for use on an expanded summer freighter schedule. It plans to increase flights to China from Osaka Kansai by 90% and ATKs by 72% compared to summer 2006. New services will include a four-times-weekly KIX-Beijing flight. Separately, ANA signed a general terms agreement with Thai Airways under which Thai will perform heavy MRO on 11 ANA 747-400s at its new maintenance center at Suvarnabhumi. Work will be completed by next year.
Skybus Airlines, which aims to start domestic low-fare A319 service out of Columbus this spring, late Monday announced the completion of a second round of financing worth $72.2 million, bringing the amount raised by the company to $160 million. "The confidence shown in Skybus by the business community in Columbus and major financial institutions in New York and Boston is a terrific endorsement of our business model, which uniquely focuses on delivering great destinations at extremely affordable prices with brand new aircraft and nonstop flights," CEO Bill Diffenderffer said.
Etihad Airways will add three A330-200s and two A340-600s to its fleet through the summer and increase its flying program 18%. New services are from Abu Dhabi to Sydney (now thrice-weekly aboard A340-500s, becoming daily June 29), Dublin (four-times-weekly from Aug. 3) and Milan Malpensa (thrice-weekly from Sept. 1), while 40 weekly flights will be added to existing routes on its network. An increase in its London Heathrow service to twice-daily has resulted in suspension of its Gatwick operation.
