Airbus reportedly intends to outsource 50% of A350 XWB production even as parent EADS' board debates whether to green-light the program and its funding ( ATWOnline, Nov. 29). One way to keep costs down is to outsource much of the aircraft's production, Airbus CEO Louis Gallois told Reuters. "On the A350, our plan is to outsource 50% of the airframe production, which would allow us to hand over [a portion of labor and costs] to partners participating in the development," he said.
Iberia said e-tickets accounted for 95% of all tickets sold in October. For domestic flights the proportion was 97.5% and international was 92%. Only Naples and Pisa, served by franchise partners Iberia Regional/Air Nostrum, still require traditional tickets.
Middle East Airlines is finalizing an agreement to acquire four A330-200s and four A319s. According to the Arab Air Carriers Organization, two aircraft would arrive in 2008 and the other six in 2009. MEA would use the additional aircraft to increase frequencies on popular routes and is considering new destinations in Qatar, Iraq and Russia.
Finnair confirmed four E-190 options yesterday, signing an order for the 100-seat aircraft worth more than €100 million ($131.4 million). The jets will be delivered in 2008-09. The carrier currently operates 10 76-seat E-170s and now has 10 E-190s on order, the first of which will be delivered next month.
Boeing named Commercial Airplanes VP-Business Strategy and Marketing Nicole Piasecki as the new VP-Boeing International and president of Boeing Japan effective in March.
SR Technics' purchase by a United Arab Emirates consortium led by Mubadala Development, investment vehicle of the Abu Dhabi government, was finalized this week. The acquisition of the Zurich-based MRO provider, valued at $1.3 billion, was announced in September ( ATWOnline, Sept. 8) and cleared by the European Commission last week.
Mesaba Airlines, a regional partner of Northwest Airlines, reached a truce with its pilots, flight attendants and mechanics who ratified contracts intended to reduce the carrier's labor costs by some 15%. The tentative agreements, reached four weeks ago, came after months of acrimonious wrangling between Mesaba management and union leaders from the Air Line Pilots Assn., Assn. of Flight Attendants ( ATWOnline, Oct.
Air Canada and WestJet responded to the Canadian government's new Blue Sky policy with guarded optimism this week, saying they looked forward to the opportunities that would accompany new bilateral agreements, open skies and liberalized access and pricing but that "a level playing field" is critical to ensuring Canadian carriers can compete. "Air Canada has been supportive of a liberalization of Canada's international aviation agreements provided it is done on an equitable and reciprocal basis," Executive VP and CCO Sean Menke said.
Delta Air Lines said it has received permission from its unsecured creditors to allow an additional estimated $719 million in unsecured, pre-petition claims for nonqualified pension benefits for retired pilots, lifting the total of allowed claims to $800 million. "As a result of this effort, our retired pilots will recover through the claim process a significant portion of their unpaid nonqualified benefits," CFO Edward Bastian said.
Pratt & Whitney and China Eastern Airlines signed an agreement yesterday to create a CFM56 engine overhaul facility in Shanghai, where P&W will maintain the airline's CFM56 engines as well as provide third-party MRO.
Assn. of European Airlines reiterated its opposition to the European Commission's plan to include airlines in its existing emissions trading scheme ( ATWOnline, Nov. 10), calling it "distortive" and "damag[ing to] the competitiveness of European airlines" following Monday's biannual AEA Assembly in Berlin. "As it stands, this proposal discriminates against aviation vis-a-vis other sectors already included in the EU ETS," Secretary General Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus said.
Austrian Airlines Group launched its capital increase earlier this month following a unanimous vote by shareholders at an extraordinary AGM ( ATWOnline, Oct. 4), issuing up to 51.68 million bearer shares with no par value. The subscription and offer period concludes Dec. 1, an OS spokesperson told this website. Maximum offer price is €8.12 ($10.66) per share.
EasyJet is introducing a Speedy Boarding facility that allows up to 20 passengers to book priority boarding and have the greatest choice of seats. Speedy Boarding is sold on a first-come, first-served basis and the fee is based on length of flight and departure airport. Prices vary from £2.50 ($4.84) to £7.50. "This latest innovation...reflects the development in the concept of having a flexible product that can be adapted to the customer needs, but only paying for what you need," CEO Andy Harrison said.
US Airways management will meet this week in New York with Delta Air Lines executives and representatives of its unsecured creditors to detail its $8 billion takeover proposal.
Brit Air, which operates regional services for Air France, ordered three CRJ700s worth $97 million at list prices that will replace three CRJ100s coming off lease. The AF subsidiary operates 19 50-passenger CRJ100s, 12 72-seat CRJ700s and 13 F100s.
Lufthansa will continue to strengthen its second hub at Munich International Airport and plans to base approximately 120 aircraft there for the summer 2007 schedule. "For 2006, LH expects more than 20 million passengers in Terminal 2 in MUC," Group Representative and Head of Hub Management Munich Karl Ulrich Garnadt told ATWOnline in the Bavarian capital.
AT&T signed a $7 million networking equipment agreement with US Airways under which AT&T will provide Cisco hardware bundled with its MPLS-based IP network to service more than 230 airport locations.
TAM placed an order for V2500s to power 11 A319s and four A321s, IAE partners Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney announced yesterday. The deal includes a V2500Select aftermarket services package and is worth $160 million in business to each engine maker. Japanese Aero Engines Corp. and MTU Aero Engines also are part of IAE. The Brazilian carrier firmed an order for 37 Airbus aircraft and 12 options earlier this month ( ATWOnline, Nov. 17). It currently operates 38 V2500-powered A320 family aircraft.
Airbus's A350 XWB program remains up in the air following the cancellation of a meeting last week at which details of the revamped aircraft and its financing were supposed to be hammered out. All parties are staying silent publicly, but widespread media reports detail a rift between the French government, which holds a 15% stake in Airbus parent EADS, and EADS stakeholders Lagardere and DaimlerChrysler over the A350's financing and whether France should be allowed to raise its EADS stake.
Malaysia Airlines' Business Turnaround Plan, which included the ceding of a significant chunk of its domestic network to AirAsia, is working "ahead of schedule," the carrier said yesterday as it reported its first three-month profit in more than a year, a MYR240 million ($65.7 million) windfall that stands in stark contrast to a MYR366 million loss in the third quarter of 2005.
DHL relocated its office and warehouse facilities in Charlotte to a 52,000-sq.-ft. site near Charlotte International Airport that is twice the size of its previous location. The facility will include 38,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space and is aimed at expediting air and ocean shipping by taking advantage of proximity to the airport and its customs facilities.
Air Berlin said yesterday that it intends to buy 60 737-800s and revealed that dba, which it agreed to acquire in August ( ATWOnline, Aug. 18), placed an order earlier this year for 15 737-700s.
