Boeing added 46 orders to its backlog last week including 27 aircraft for unidentified customers: Six 747-8s (understood to be freighters), six 777s (understood to be -300ERs for Virgin Blue) and 15 787s.
Aeroflot said it will take delivery of two A320s this month and will take three A319s and three A321s by year end. Next year it expects to take delivery from Airbus of 11 purchased A320s. It currently operates 26 A320 family aircraft.
Aerolineas Argentinas and Avianca signed a codeshare agreement last week under which AR passengers on the carrier's thrice-weekly flights to Bogota will be able to connect to AV's domestic services while AV passengers flying to Argentina will have access to domestic flights operated by AR or Austral Lineas Aereas. Singapore Airlines and US Airways announced a codeshare deal under which SIA passengers to Los Angeles or San Francisco can connect to US flights to Las Vegas, Phoenix and New York JFK via Charlotte.
Republic Airways Holdings is unlikely to hold onto the 15 ERJ-135s released from the amended service agreement with Delta Air Lines announced last week.
The tentative EU-US open skies agreement continued to elicit a variety of responses last week, including unexpectedly strong support from Airports Council International-Europe and ACI-North America, which issued a statement jointly urging the signing of the accord at the forthcoming EU/US Summit on April 30.
Southwest Airlines authorized a new share repurchase program to buy back $300 million worth of common stock, or an estimated 20.2 million shares. CEO Gary Kelly said WN has repurchased 62.1 million shares worth $1 billion since the beginning of 2006. Separately, Southwest named Senior Chief Pilot Chuck Magill VP-flight operations.
Iberia reached a labor agreement with its 4,200 flight attendants that will include the conversion of 260 temporary contracts into permanent positions, pay raises linked to company performance, a lump payment of more than €7 million ($9.3 million) and "a number of employee benefits," according to IB. The deal is effective through Dec. 31. Separately, Iberia will add a third weekly Madrid-Algiers flight starting April 11.
Delta Air Lines said last week that it filed its election to obtain the benefit of the pension funding relief provided in the Pension Protection Act for the defined benefit retirement plan covering ground employees and flight attendants and that it made a voluntary $50 million contribution to the plan. It expects to contribute an additional $50 million this year as part of the funding schedule mandated by the new federal law.
Pratt & Whitney Global Service Partners signed a seven-year engine management program deal with Martinair covering on-wing performance monitoring services for the carrier's 59 PW4000s.
US airlines will have to invest $20-$25 billion through 2025 to equip aircraft for FAA's planned satellite-based NextGen system, according to ATA President and CEO James May, who spoke yesterday at the agency's annual Aviation Forecast Conference in Washington.
British Airways lost its appeal at the European Court of Justice against a €6.8 million ($9 million) fine imposed by the EC in July 1999 for "abuse of a dominant position" in the UK market. As in most cases, the ECJ followed the advice of its advocate general, who said in February that the appeal should be dismissed in its entirety. Following a complaint by Virgin Atlantic Airways, the EC ruled in 1999 that performance reward schemes implemented by BA in order to calculate travel agent commissions constituted an abuse.
LOT Polish Airlines reported a PLN539.8 million ($182.6 million) profit in 2006, largely from asset sales. A year-ago comparison was not provided. The carrier earned $27.3 million in 2005, according to ATW's "World Airline Report." Revenues from "basic operations" fell 0.4%, according to LOT, to PLN2.76 billion and costs rose 4.2% to PLN2.79 billion. Pre-tax earnings of PLN605.8 million represented a fivefold increase over the year-ago result, a figure that was achieved "from single transactions of sale of the company's assets." It did not elaborate.
Lufthansa Technik launched a dedicated Web suite allowing aircraft operators to monitor and manage all aspects of their fleets' technical operations via the Internet. Dubbed manage/m, the toolbox of Web-based modules is designed to "give the operator total control over the MRO requirements and operations of his fleet, anytime and everywhere," LHT VP-Customer Services-Aircraft Maintenance & Engineering Alexander Heilmann told ATWOnline in Frankfurt. Manage/m comprises 15 modules covering every aspect of MRO management.
Bombardier spokesperson told ATWOnline that 12 of the 13 Q400s grounded by ANA following Tuesday's emergency landing at Kochi are back in the air ( ATWOnline, March 14). The aircraft that experienced the landing gear malfunction remains grounded as inspectors investigate the cause. Other Q series operators have inspected their aircraft and found nothing unsafe, Bombardier said.
Airbus appeared to be on the verge of winning a significant order yesterday as reports from Moscow indicated that Aeroflot is close to announcing a major buy. Aeroflot CEO Valery Okulov told reporters at a news conference that SU was planning to sign a contract for 22 A350 XWBs with deliveries beginning in 2015. Reuters reported that Okulov said, "The deal will be done."
VLM Airlines is not talking with British Airways about a possible sale of the regional carrier that is currently the largest operator at London City, owner Jaap Rosen Jacobson told ATWOnline, putting to rest speculation that arose following BA's launch of CityFlyer ( ATWOnline, March 15). VLM accounts for about one-third of all aircraft movements at LCY. "There has been no negotiation with BA on this subject," Jacobson said. "I'm not saying a sale of VLM might not happen. One never knows.
LTU will launch service from Dusseldorf to Los Angeles (five-times-weekly from May 3) and Las Vegas (twice-weekly from May 3). It also will unveil a new livery when it takes delivery of its 12th A330, a -200, in May. Design will remain red and white, with a touch of silver added, and feature a larger logo on the tail. The new look "stands for the transformation of the former vacation carrier into an airline with standard routes and extremely attractive price-to-performance ratios for vacationers and business travelers."
Tiger Airways was given the green light by Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board to proceed with the creation of Tiger Airways Australia ( ATWOnline, Feb. 12). Tiger said FIRB found that "the creation of Tiger Airways Australia was consistent with the government's foreign investment policy and did not place any specific conditions on the creation of the new airline." TAA now will now work toward securing its AOC.
Cyprus Airways' 2006 full-year loss narrowed to CYP7.2 million ($16.5 million) from CYP22.6 million in 2005 as it began to benefit from its restructuring initiatives. It said in January that it expects to be profitable this year ( ATWOnline, Jan. 4). It said improved yield and an increase in RPKs fueled a 10.7% rise in revenue to CYP157 million. Operating costs fell 0.8% to CYP159.8 million, which the airline credited to the layoffs that were part of its restructuring program.
Responding to calls for guidance from shareholders considering Airline Partners Australia's bid to buy the carrier, Qantas confirmed yesterday that a pre-tax profit of A$1.23 billion ($962.8 million), which matches an average of analysts' expectations, is likely for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008.
Pinnacle Airlines yesterday signed a contract for 15 74-seat Q400s plus 10 conditional orders and 20 options. The firm aircraft are worth $381 million at list prices and the deal could climb to $1.2 billion if conditional orders and options are exercised, Bombardier said. Aircraft will be operated by Pinnacle subsidiary Colgan Air for Continental Connection.
