Southwest Airlines yesterday unveiled 33 new nonstop flights across 26 city-pairs. From March 11 it will launch thrice-daily Baltimore/Washington-Pittsburgh, twice-daily Dallas Love Field-Birmingham, twice-daily San Diego-Reno/Tahoe and twice-daily Cleveland-Orlando service along with additional daily frequencies across 18 city-pairs. It also will add frequencies from Chicago Midway on March 17 and April 15. Separately, SWA's board authorized a new share repurchase program to acquire up to $400 million of the company's common stock, or approximately 25.1 million shares.
Finnair Technical Services and LOT Polish Airlines signed an agreement for the overhaul of eight ATR 72 landing gear sets on aircraft operated by the carrier's EuroLOT subsidiary.
Regional Express Holdings, which operates as Rex, posted a A$5.7 million profit in the first fiscal quarter, up 46% from the year-ago period, and raised its FY forecast to a 20% year-over-year increase in net profit. First-quarter passenger numbers grew 20%, load factor rose 3 points to 68% and passenger revenue surged 22.3%. Costs climbed 8.5%.
EVA Air will launch thrice-weekly Taipei-Mumbai service on Dec. 10 aboard 747-400s. EasyJet will fly Munich-Edinburgh daily starting April 4. Virgin Atlantic Airways yesterday launched weekly Manchester-St. Lucia service aboard a 747-400. SAS Sweden will start service from Stockholm Arlanda to Munich (five-times-daily from Feb. 12), Palma de Mallorca (weekly from March 31), Malaga (thrice-weekly from April 28), Glasgow (twice-weekly from April 16) and Reykjavik on April 27.
TAP Maintenance & Engineering is working to become a significant third-party player in South America following its acquisition of VEM-Varig Engineering and Maintenance earlier this year ( ATWOnline, Oct. 4). TAP, which led the consortium that purchased the Brazilian company, invested €20 million in the recently renamed VEM Maintenance & Engineering, in which it holds a 51.1% stake.
Lufthansa Systems said Asiana Airlines selected the Lido Operations Center and Lido Briefing solutions in a five-year deal to support its flight planning processes. The agreement extends the existing cooperation between Asiana and LHS covering revenue accounting and MRO management.
Net income for the 17 member airlines of the Assn. of Asia Pacific Airlines plummeted 69% to $1.2 billion for the 2005-06 fiscal year against an increase of 11.3%, 2.3 points above the global average, in operating revenue to $68.1 billion. Meanwhile, operating costs surged 15.9%, 7 points above the global average. The main culprit was fuel costs, which jumped 43% to $18.8 billion.
TAM, already the largest Airbus operator in Latin America, signed a contract for 12 A319s, 16 A320s, three A321s and six A330s that brings the number of A320 family aircraft on firm order to 56. It also took 12 options. The deal finalizes an MOU signed in June ( ATWOnline, June 29). TAM currently operates 14 A319s, 48 A320s and 10 A330-200s.
US Airways' bid to acquire bankrupt Delta Air Lines raises questions about the future of the regional airlines that have service agreements with the mainline carriers and compete on a number of routes.
US Airways and America West Airlines pilot groups, represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn., conducted informational picketing yesterday in Charlotte and Phoenix, upset that the company is looking to acquire Delta Air Lines even though it "has yet to complete the integration of the pilot groups that is required" by terms of last year's US/AWA merger. "So far, the company's empty promises have failed to capture all the synergies that just the US Airways/America West merger can provide," US Airways ALPA MEC Chairman Jack Stephan said.
The US airline industry is taking stock of US Airways Group's $8 billion takeover bid for bankrupt Delta Air Lines ( ATWOnline, Nov. 16), a deal that would reshape the landscape of the world's largest commercial aviation market but must overcome significant hurdles before coming to fruition.
Iberia flew 4.65 billion RPKs in October, a 4.4% rise from the year-ago month. ASKs climbed 1.4% to 5.63 billion, lifting load factor 2.3 points to an October-record 82.6%.
El Al has canceled its 10 787 options, according to a filing with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange cited by press reports. The carrier said Boeing will return the $1.5 million deposit on the aircraft that would have been delivered in 2013 or 2014 if firmed. A Boeing spokesperson told Reuters that the company "will continue to communicate with El Al concerning its interest in the 787."
Air France KLM said non-French shareholders increased their stake in the carrier to 47% over the past few weeks and stated that it will use an "authorized mechanism" to protect its traffic rights and "to safeguard national ownership once the nonresident shareholding has reached 45%." In its most recent "Connecting" letter to shareholders, AF KLM noted that it regularly conducts a process to identify its shareholders "in order to retain its traffic rights as well as its European Community air transport operating licenses." At June 30, French investors held more than 63.2% of the group wh
Air New Zealand and Qantas withdrew their joint application to codeshare on routes across the Tasman Sea following the negative draft determination issued by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ( ATWOnline, Nov. 6).
Penauille Servisair signed a multiyear extension to its handling contract with easyJet at Liverpool. EasyJet flies seven A319s on more than 170 weekly flights from LPL.
LOT Polish Airlines has a new chairman. Tomasz Dembski has replaced Krzysztof Kapis, who was asked to leave by the board, according to PAP. No further details were available. Kapis, former head of the Polish civil aviation authority, was named chairman in March. JetBlue Airways named Trey Urbahn executive VP-chief revenue officer. Urbahn comes from OneSky Jets, an on-demand private jet travel provider. He was a founding officer of Priceline.com.
US Airways Group continued its one-airline assault on the US airline market structure with an $8 billion bid to merge with Delta Air Lines as part of that carrier's bankruptcy restructuring. The bid comes as US and America West Airlines continue their own integration into a single airline after America West acquired US Airways Group out of bankruptcy in 2005.
Delta Air Lines was scheduled to operate its first New York JFK-London Gatwick flight at 7:05 p.m. last night. DL purchased the route right from United Airlines over the summer ( ATWOnline, July 31) and now serves 21 transatlantic destinations from JFK. It will add a second daily flight on April 1. DL also announced it will launch weekly Atlanta-Tobago Crown Point service on Feb. 17 aboard a 737-800. In addition, it will expand its codeshare relationship with KLM from Dec.
SAS Group airlines flew 3.57 billion RPKs in October, a 5.1% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity was up 6.7% to 4.96 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 1.1 points to 71.9%. SAS Scandinavian Airlines flew 2.54 billion RPKs, a 2.2% decline, against a 0.3% increase in ASKs to 3.42 billion. Load factor fell 1.9 points to 74.3%. Spanair flew 683 million RPKs in October, up 23.9% from the year-ago month. ASKs rose 19.3% to 987 million and load factor climbed 2.6 points to 69.2%.
Copa Holdings, parent of Panama's Copa Airlines and Colombia's AeroRepublica, posted third-quarter net income of $37.2 million, widened 34.6% from a $27.7 million profit in the year-ago quarter, on a 29.6% jump in revenues to $230.6 million. The growing company said the quarter was its best ever in terms of earnings. Copa Airlines added five new destinations in the quarter and plans to launch Panama City-Rio de Janeiro service next month. It will take delivery of two Embraer 190s before year end, bringing its fleet to 30 aircraft.
Comair flight attendants, represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, ratified a four-year agreement reached last month that includes a pay cut (7.5%, according to the Associated Press), increases job security and caps health insurance payments at the bankrupt Regional subsidiary of Delta Air Lines ( ATWOnline, Oct. 17). "With this vote our members have shown they are ready to move forward," said Connie Slayback, a Comair flight attendant who is president of Teamsters Local 513.
AirTran Airways and Frontier Airlines have linked their loyalty programs and created a phone/Web-based referral system that will make both networks available to customers of either airline, a move the pair called a "landmark marketing partnership between low-cost carriers."
Fons Eignarhaldsfelag investment firm of Iceland, which owns Iceland Express, has acquired a 51% stake in the UK's Astraeus for £5 million. Astraeus operates four 757s and two 737-700s and is based at London Gatwick and Manchester International. Its board will be restructured, with a supervisory board comprising two representatives from Fons, one from Astraeus management and one from minority shareholder Aberdeen Asset Management. Fons said Astraeus's revenue for the fiscal year ended Oct.
