Goodrich is expanding its Aerostructures Prestwick Service Center in Scotland. The facility, originally opened in 2004, will double in size to 250,000 sq. ft. The plant provides maintenance support services for engine nacelles and thrust reversers, flight controls, quick engine change and engine buildup components.
Korean Air signed a contract with China's Sinotrans Air, a subsidiary of logistics giant Sinotrans Ltd., to form a cargo joint venture airline in China. Sinotrans is taking a 51% stake while Korean Air will own 25% and be responsible for filling the CEO and CFO positions. The balance of ownership was taken by two Korean investment companies, Hana Capital with 13% and Shinhan Capital with 11%.
Delta Air Lines this week started the $14 million second phase of terminal renovation at its biggest hub, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where it plans to expand the lobby area by 50% as part of an effort to modernize and streamline the passenger check-in process.
Bmibaby announced a further expansion at Birmingham from January. "We will be increasing our capacity by 60% year-on-year as we increase the number of 737s operating from the airport [from five] to eight," Commercial Director Steve Burns said at the Routes conference in Dubai. The LCC will introduce one aircraft at BHX in January with the additional two arriving at the start of the summer season. Separately, bmi said it will invest £2 million ($3.8 million) to introduce lie-flat seats in business class on all of its long-haul routes.
Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, parent of Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo, promoted General Counsel and Senior VP John Dietrich to Executive VP and COO, giving him oversight over all aspects of operations. Dietrich has been with Atlas since 1999 and previously worked as an attorney for United Airlines for 13 years.
Top US and Chinese aviation officials meeting yesterday in Washington stressed the need to cooperate on technology and other key areas as air services between the nations accelerate. "We try to avoid mistakes by learning from advanced aviation countries, including the US, about their experiences so as to help China's civil aviation industry achieve sound and sustainable growth," CAAC Vice Minister Yang Guoqing said at the fourth annual US-China Aviation Summit sponsored by the US Trade and Development Agency.
EgyptAir parent EgyptAir Holding placed firm orders valued at more than $160 million for six Embraer 170s with options for six more and plans to launch a Regional subsidiary to operate the aircraft. First delivery is slated for April 2007, with the 170s comprising the fleet of the new EgyptAir Express, described by its chairman, Mohamed Hassan, as "a high-profile domestic and Regional airline." No other details on the subsidiary, scheduled to launch in the 2007 second quarter, were released. The 170s will seat 76 in a single-class layout.
News from Travel Technology Update: Air Canada and ITA Software put the finishing touches on a contract under which ITA will build a new reservations management system for the carrier, replacing its old RES III system. Lise Fournel, the airline's senior vice president of e-commerce and chief information officer, said the new system will take a modular approach and include all reservations, inventory control, seat availability, check-in and airport operations systems.
Denim Air intends to widen its geographical scope, including the startup of operations in the Middle East. "The Middle East market is developing rapidly and I am convinced this offers huge potential for Denim Air," CCO Eric Hespeel said at the Routes conference in Dubai. "We are able to tailor our aircraft to our customers' needs at very short notice due to our flexibility, worldwide experience and creativity." Denim Air has been specializing in ACMI charter activity for 10 years.
SkyEurope last week launched thrice-weekly Paris Orly-Salzburg service. Flybe will launch four-times-weekly Inverness-Belfast service on Dec. 16. It said easyJet will cancel its service on the route next month.
Juneyao Airlines, a Shanghai-based startup, took delivery of its first A319. The leased aircraft has 128 seats in two classes. Juneyao, which is privately held, signed a deal in March to lease two A319s and six A320s from GECAS. It will take two A320s in January and operate routes connecting Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Taiyuan, Changsha and Sanya.
Abanco International of Illinois will partner with Midwest Airlines to offer payments for services on Midwest flights from November using Abanco's mobile data technology inflight application to process credit card transactions.
Luxair is moving its operations at Nice Cote d'Azur from Terminal 2 to the smaller and partially renovated Terminal 1 on Oct. 1. Handling services will be provided by MAP Handling.
TAM flew 1.68 billion domestic RPKs in August, up 32.5% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 25.2% to 2.28 billion ASKs and load factor rose 4.1 points to 73.7%. International traffic was up 33.9% to 604 million RPKs against a 34% rise in ASKs to 773 million, leaving load factor steady at 78.2%. The airline said its domestic market share was 51.3%, up 9.6 points year-over-year, and its international market share climbed 34 points to 54.6%. Horizon Air flew 254.6 million RPMs in August, up 7.7% from the year-ago month.
Skyways Aviation arranged the long-term ACMI lease of an F100 from Romania's Carpatair to PGA Portugalia. The aircraft, set for delivery at the end of October, will operate in Portugal through March 2007. Carpatair will provide flight crews and maintenance.
Hainan Airlines' order for 50 Embraer 190s and 50 ERJ-145s ( ATWOnline, Aug. 31) was approved by China's National Development and Reform Commission. The 190s will be built in Brazil while the ERJ-145s will be built at Embraer's Chinese JV facility with Hafei Aviation Industry Group.
Alitalia said a 4-hr. strike yesterday by 6% of flight personnel and 20% of ground workers forced the cancellation of 67 flights. Workers are protesting a management business plan proposal that one union leader claimed "heavily penalized" labor, dismissing further talks with management as "useless, hollow," according to Italian media reports. The carrier was forced to cancel 105 domestic and 74 international flights on Sept. 7 because of a 24-hr. strike called by four trade unions ( ATWOnline, Sept. 8)
OAG reported that the world's busiest route by total number of weekly flights is Barcelona-Madrid. The Spanish route edges up from second place at this time last year, bumping Sao Paulo-Rio de Janeiro to No. 2, OAG said at the Routes conference in Dubai. The third-busiest route is Melbourne-Sydney, ahead of Jakarta-Surabaya and Mumbai-Delhi. "It's interesting to note there is little movement year-on-year among the top 10 busiest routes, with Mumbai-Delhi the only new entry," OAG MD-Business Development Duncan Alexander said.
Virgin Atlantic Airways banned Apple and Dell laptop computer batteries from international flights following last month's recall of 1.8 million batteries by Dell as possible fire hazards. Virgin passengers must remove the batteries from the computer, wrap them and place them in carry-on bags, reported BBC. Passengers can use the computers sans batteries in flight if seats are equipped with electrical sockets and can transport two of the batteries in a carry-on bag. Korean Air and Qantas also have placed restrictions on laptop batteries in response to the recall.
Northwest Airlines flight attendants yesterday filed an appeal of last week's ruling by US District Judge Victor Marrero that prevents them from striking or engaging in work actions ( ATWOnline, Sept. 18). The Assn. of Flight Attendants is asking for an expedited ruling on the appeal, arguing that NWA's imposition of $195 million in annual concessions despite the flight attendants' rejection of two tentative concessionary agreements gives them the right to strike or engage in disruptive CHAOS work actions.
US Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported that a group of 21 US passenger airlines, consisting of the seven largest network, low-cost and Regional carriers based on operating revenue, reported a collective domestic operating profit margin of 7.9% in the second quarter, the largest quarterly margin for the group since 2000. BTS said yesterday that the LCCs reported a domestic operating profit margin for the quarter of 10.6%, up 5.3 points compared to the year-ago quarter.
KLM Engineering and Maintenance and Boeing Commercial Aviation Services have teamed to provide component maintenance services for Toronto-based Sunwing Airlines' 737NGs. The carrier currently operates three of the type with plans to add 10-15 more over the next five years.
Shaheen Air hopes to launch its first long-haul routes in December with a four-times weekly Karachi-Doncaster Sheffield service aboard 767s, CEO Arshad Jalil announced at the Routes conference in Dubai. The Pakistan-based carrier, 15% owned by the Pakistani government, currently operates five domestic routes and six international routes in the Gulf. It carried 500,000 passengers in 2005 and has hinted at starting Toronto service next year.
Boeing 747-400 Large Cargo Freighter, critical to the manufacturer's global strategy for building 787s, touched down at Everett, Wash., Saturday to start its flight-test program in earnest. The dash 400LCF first flew in Taipei Sept. 9 ( ATWOnline, Sept. 12) and conducted two test flights before making the ferry flight to Everett. The flight-test program is expected to last through year end, when the aircraft will begin shuttling wing boxes and fuselage sections among Boeing's 787 manufacturing bases worldwide.
