US National Transportation Safety Board is sending a team to assist Brazil's Aeronautical Accident Prevention and Investigation Center looking into possible causes of the suspected midair collision between a Gol 737-800 and an ExcelAire Legacy 600 business jet on Sept. 29 that killed all 149 passengers and six crew onboard the Gol aircraft ( ATWOnline, Oct. 2).
Martinair will initiate Comfort Class service on its intra-European flights and those to Egypt from Oct. 29. The Dutch leisure carrier introduced the service, which offers 10% more legroom, a free drink and entertainment choice last November on long-haul services for €49 ($62.3) per sector. The upgrade on its short- and medium-haul flights will be sold for €25 per sector.
Rockwell Collins announced yesterday that Executive VP and COO-Commercial Systems Bob Chiusano will retire at year end and be replaced by VP and GM-Air Transport Systems Kelly Ortberg. VP-Strategy Commercial Systems Jeff Standerski will replace Ortberg. In his new role, Ortberg will be responsible for the company's aviation electronics, communications and cabin systems for the air transport, business aviation and Regional airline markets. He has worked for Rockwell for nearly 20 years while Standerski has 17 years of service.
South African Airways will launch daily nonstop service from Washington Dulles to Johannesburg effective Oct. 30 using A340-600s. Aircraft will require a technical stop to refuel during July and August
News from Travel Technology Update: Now that Worldspan has concluded a new full-content agreement with Delta Air Lines, it plans to focus on how best it can help airlines and other suppliers "de-commoditize" their products, according to Ninan Chacko, chief commercial officer. "We're very excited about this," Chacko told TTU. "We plan to focus on developing the right merchandise tools for airlines that want to unbundle or differentiate their products."
American Airlines Cargo said it lowered its fuel surcharge from $0.60/kg. to $0.50/kg. for most US-originating international shipments and from $0.24/lb. to $0.20/lb. for US domestic shipments effective Oct. 16.
Bankrupt Northwest Airlines said yesterday that it anticipates recording a loss for September through December due to a "softening in revenue" and will earn a "modest profit" for full-year 2006 excluding reorganization items on more than $12 billion in revenues. The carrier previously reported a $50 million profit, excluding restructuring costs, for the first six months of 2006.
SITA said that Northport, a European ground-handling company, will deploy its BagManager baggage reconciliation system under a seven-year agreement that covers deployment at Helsinki Airport by the end of January followed by installation at 14 Finnish domestic airports, Stockholm Arlanda, Oslo Gardermoen and Copenhagen. It is the first time that a ground handler has chosen to employ the system, which traditionally has been marketed to airports.
CSA Czech Airlines said yesterday it will initiate the sale of its catering operation and cargo terminal at Prague Airport. The announcement followed the completion of the first stage of an analysis of possible divestments that led the airline to conclude that those assets do not fit with its strategy to give "full focus on the mainline."
Alteon Training yesterday began operations at its Singapore Training Center, which will open officially in early 2007. "With this latest addition, Alteon now offers seven training locations in the Asia/Pacific region," President Patrick Gaines said. Located near Changi Airport, the Singapore center will be capable of training more than 6,000 pilots and flight attendants annually.
Ethiopian Airlines plans to increase its cargo activities to meet the demands of the nation's fast-growing export market. It will construct a new state-of-the-art cargo terminal in Addis Abeba with cold storage facilities and a total annual capacity of 250,000 tonnes and lease an MD-11 freighter for a daily Addis-Brussels flight with a capacity of 85 tonnes.
Skyway Airlines, the Midwest Airlines subsidiary, plans to upgrade to 328JETs from turboprops on three Midwest Connect routes out of Milwaukee in November. From Nov. 1, midday Milwaukee-Columbus service will be reinstated with a 382JET, making all flights on the route jet except for a Saturday morning flight that will be upgraded to the 32-seat RJ on Nov. 18. From Nov. 16 the carrier will upgrade to 328JETs on service from Milwaukee to both Dayton and Appleton.
EgyptAir yesterday exercised options for six additional 737-800s for delivery in 2009, bringing its total order for the type to 12 valued at $850 million. It took delivery of its first dash 800, part of the original order for six placed in August 2005, yesterday. That aircraft is the first 737NG dedicated to regular service equipped with Boeing's Class 3 Electronic Flight Bag. The airline's 737NGs also will be outfitted with Heads-Up Display systems. EgyptAir currently operates four 737-500s and five 777-200s.
Amadeus said that LAN Airlines announced the first phase of deployment of Altea Reservation Desktop for airlines, with full deployment planned for 1,500 LAN points-of-sale worldwide.
Singapore Airlines finalized a purchase agreement yesterday for 20 787-9s for which it signed a letter of intent in June ( ATWOnline, June 15). It also has purchase rights on 20 more dash 9s. Value of the firm order is $4.52 billion at list prices. Deliveries will be scheduled between early 2011 and mid-2013 and will be for fleet renewal as well as growth, SIA said. No engine selection has been made. Boeing has received firm orders and commitments for 444 787s with options and price rights on another 325.
Indigo Partners yesterday said it has acquired 49% of Indonesia's Mandala Airlines from PT Cardig International Aviation, which purchased the carrier in April and will retain a 51% holding. "The parties recently received the necessary regulatory approvals and closed the investment," said Phoenix-based private equity firm Indigo in a statement. Indigo, which was founded by former America West Chairman and CEO William Franke, also holds 24% of Tiger Airways. Mandala, established in 1969, operates a fleet of 12 aircraft serving 23 domestic destinations in Indonesia.
Airlines continued flying between the EU and US despite the lack of a new agreement on exchange of PNR data as the European Commission said it hopes to resolve the issue "as soon as possible."
Boeing yesterday named Larry Dickenson to lead its Commercial Airplanes sales team as VP-sales reporting to Scott Carson, whom he is replacing after Carson was named to succeed Alan Mulally as president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes early last month. Dickenson, 63, has headed the manufacturer's Asia/Pacific sales team for 20 years. No replacement has been named yet. "Larry has been a proven leader in building and maintaining strong relationships with our customers," Carson said.
Key customers were to be notified over the weekend of the full extent of the latest delivery delay for the A380. Two customers told ATWOnline that "we expect to have something to say Tuesday." On Sept. 21, EADS confirmed that the program faced further delays due to complex wiring issues. The board of EADS met in Amsterdam Friday to consider what is reported to be a far-reaching restructure of Airbus with transfer of more A380 assembly work to Toulouse and in the longer term more outsourcing of work beyond Europe.
British Airways revealed Friday that the actuarial deficit in its main pension scheme reached about £2.1 billion ($3.95 billion), more than double the £928 million deficit at the last valuation in early 2003. The new figure follows an actuarial review carried out earlier this year and is higher than previously estimated. "The deficit is massive and we must deal with it," Chief Executive Willie Walsh said. "I believe our proposal is a fair solution which addresses the funding problem and shares the cost of securing the future of our pensions and BA."
UAL Corp., parent of United Airlines, on Friday said it has extended Chairman, President and CEO Glenn Tilton's contract through 2011, replacing a previous agreement that would have expired on Sept. 1, 2007. The UAL board also approved a new four-year deal for Executive VP and COO Pete McDonald and promoted Senior VP-Worldwide Sales and Alliances Graham Atkinson to the position of executive VP and chief customer officer. VP-North America Sales Jeff Foland was named to succeed Atkinson.
Ryanair on Friday raised its full-year net profit guidance to approximately €335 million ($426 million) and said it firmed options on 32 737-800s valued at $2.25 billion, bringing its total number of firm orders for 737-800s to 281. Deliveries are scheduled between September 2008 and June 2009. Ryanair said the price it is paying for the jets will give it "the lowest per seat operating cost of any European airline."
Delta Air Lines said it lost $11 million in August, which compared to a loss of $158 million in August 2005. The information was contained in its monthly operating report to the bankruptcy court. It said mainline nonfuel CASM was 6.66 cents, down 7.6% from August 2005, while consolidated passenger RASM climbed 12.8% to 10.64 cents. At the end of the month it had $3.9 billion in cash, of which $3 billion was unrestricted. Executive VP and CFO Edward Bastian called the results encouraging and said the carrier "is on track with our restructuring plan."
Worldspan and Delta Air Lines completed a new long-term distribution agreement affirming "Worldspan's Super Access Product as a preferred distribution program for the airline through June 2013."
