Air Berlin, Germany's second-biggest carrier after Lufthansa, said yesterday that it will take over 100% of dba, the country's No. 3 airline. The contract was signed late Wednesday in Munich by dba owner Hans Rudolf Woehrl and Air Berlin CEO Joachim Hunold after several weeks of secret negotiations and is subject to approval from competition authorities. Dba acquired LTU German Airlines just two months ago ( ATWOnline, June 12) and that carrier is expected to follow its new parent under the AB umbrella.
Boeing pulled the plug on its Connexion by Boeing onboard Internet venture yesterday, bringing an end to a program that was hyped heavily when it was launched in 2000 but never generated much interest from airlines or passengers.
Qantas Group blamed an additional A$818 million ($626.2 million) in fuel costs net of hedging benefits for a 30.4% drop in net profit to A$480 million for the fiscal year ended June 30 despite an 8.6% increase in sales to A$13.64 billion. The fuel hike sent the company's costs up 11.9% to A$12.92 billion. The result was impacted further by one-off restructuring costs of A$182 million under the carrier's Sustainable Future Program and recognition of A$104 million in damages paid by Airbus related to delayed deliveries of A380s.
Emirates is set to increase services to the Asia/Pacific region from Sept. 1. Perth flights will rise from 10-times-weekly to twice-daily, Hong Kong to 17-times-weekly from twice-daily and Kuala Lumpur to nine-times-weekly from eight. The carrier said it intends to raise capacity to Bangkok, Singapore, Jakarta and Manila by year end. JetBlue Airways yesterday launched six-times-daily (five on Sunday) New York JFK-Washington Dulles service aboard Embraer 190s.
Northwest Airlines flight attendants, represented by the Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA, will not be prevented from striking by the US Bankruptcy Court, which yesterday denied a preliminary injunction request from NWA. The union said it could exercise its right to strike as early as the evening of Aug. 25 ( ATWOnline, Aug. 14). "While we are disappointed with Judge Gropper's ruling and will appeal it, we remain committed to continuing to serve our customers," NWA President and CEO Doug Steenland said.
Norwegian flew 535 million RPKs in July, up 67% on the year-ago month. Capacity rose 70% to 595 million ASKs and load factor fell 1 point to 90%. ExpressJet flew 976.5 million RPMs in July, a 13.3% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 10.6% to 1.21 billion ASMs and load factor improved 1.9 points to 80.6%.
China Southern Airlines reported a CNY784 million ($98 million) net loss for the first half of 2006, narrowed from a CNY964 million loss in the first half of 2006. "As jet fuel prices kept rising and the interest rates of US dollar-denominated loans climbed up during the period, the cost pressure that [China Southern] faced in its business operations did not ease, resulting in a net loss," the airline said.
Middle East Airlines operated an Amman-Beirut A321-200 flight carrying 149 passengers yesterday, the first commercial flight to arrive at Rafik Hariri International Airport in 36 days and signaling at least a partial lifting of Israel's air blockade of Lebanon. Royal Jordanian also operated an Amman-Beirut flight yesterday. MEA Chairman Mohammed Hout and Lebanon Transportation Minister Mohammed Safadi said Israel has agreed to allow limited flights from Jordan, according to press reports from Beirut.
Honeywell International will supply avionics and APUs to Air Deccan for the airline's fleet of 67 A320 family aircraft. Deliveries start this year and continue through 2011. The systems include the 131-9[A] APU and a full avionics suite that comprises EGPWS, ACAS II, RDR-4B weather radar, FDRs and CVRs, Quantum Line communications and navigation system and Air Data Inertial Reference System.
Bmibaby announced that its 189 pilots represented by the British Air Line Pilots Assn. voted not to strike, with just 47% voting in favor of a work stoppage. BALPA began balloting pilots earlier this month ( ATWOnline, Aug. 4). "BALPA have requested a meeting with us to attempt to find a way through the dispute and we are reflecting on that proposal," the carrier said.
Aeroflot's privatization appears back on track following the Russian government's decision this week to exclude the carrier from a list of enterprises protected from foreign control, according to press reports. The government still holds a 51% stake in the airline but is willing to part with it now that construction of a new terminal at Moscow Sheremetyevo is set to be completed next year. "This is not a sale yet; we are just making steps in this direction," an economic ministry official told Bloomberg News.
Consortium TwoOne, led by Vienna International Airport operator Flughafen Wien, said the Slovak government canceled its plans to acquire two-thirds of Bratislava Airport for a reported SKK10.5 billion ($356.5 million) following an announcement by competition authorities that they would delay their expected approval of the deal until October. "We are astonished that the Slovak government didn't act as announced," Flughafen Wien said, explaining that the government was supposed to wait for the competition authorities' ruling.
Copa Holdings, parent of Panama's Copa Airlines and Colombia's AeroRepublica, reported second-quarter net income of $22.9 million, up 51.3% over $15.1 million earned in the year-ago quarter, on a 39.4% jump in revenues to $191.5 million attributable in large part to Copa's acquisition of AeroRepublica last year that also contributed to hefty increases in traffic and capacity ( ATWOnline, March 9, 2005).
US Airways Group flew 6.08 billion consolidated RPMs in July, a 6% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 7.8% to 7.27 billion ASMs and load factor rose 1.5 points to 83.5%. Domestic RPMs decreased 7.6% to 4.85 billion against a 10% decline in capacity to 5.78 billion ASMs. International traffic rose 0.7% to 1.23 billion RPMs and capacity increased 1.9% to 1.49 billion ASMs. Air Berlin transported 1.6 million passengers in July, up 15.4% over the year-ago month. Load factor rose 1.8 points to 85.7%.
GECAS announced it will lease nine additional new 737-800s to Xiamen Airlines for delivery beginning in mid-2008. The aircraft are part of the lessor's existing order book with Boeing. The Chinese carrier signed an agreement for five of the type in February. It operates a 38-aircraft fleet comprising 737s and 757-200s.
US Dept. of Transportation delayed indefinitely its proposed rule intended to ease foreign control restrictions on domestic airlines, a move it had hoped would facilitate an open skies agreement with the EU. Congress passed amendments this summer prohibiting DOT from spending money on the effort for one year ( ATWOnline, July 21). Rep.
SkyEurope Airlines said it has appointed UBS Investment Bank and CA-IB Corporate Finance to "examine a range of financing options" that may include the flotation of new shares in order to "finance the fleet and continued network expansion." The carrier raised €60 million ($76.4 million) from an initial offering of 12.98 million shares last fall ( ATWOnline, Sept. 23, 2005).
Thomsonfly said it will purchase two 737-300s and three new dash 800s, taking delivery in the first quarter of 2007. It also said it will sell two 767-200s to Silverjet, an all-business-class startup scheduled to commence operations at London Luton in December. Silverjet will take the aircraft in March and October 2007. Thomsonfly said it will dispose of two 737-500s next spring but offered no further details. It currently operates 47 Boeing aircraft.
Traffic at the main London airports, including Heathrow and Gatwick, suffered a sixth consecutive day of disruptions yesterday, although the number of cancellations declined. The majority of flights at LHR were delayed, with the situation improving in late afternoon. British Airways operated about 90% of its full schedule, dropping three long-haul and 32 short-haul departures. It operated a full long-haul and European schedule from Gatwick with just 11 domestic flights scratched.
Qantas plans to launch a domestic airfreight subsidiary in October called Express Freighters Australia. The airline said yesterday that the new subsidiary will wet-lease 737-300 converted freighters to Australian air Express, a Qantas/Australia Post joint venture, under a 12-year contract. The dash 300s will be converted to freighters by Qantas Engineering in Avalon.
Air Deccan launched daily Hyderabad-Coimbatore-Cochin-Hyderabad service aboard an A320, daily Chennai-Vijayawada-Rajahmundry-Chennai flights aboard an ATR 72-500, a second daily ATR 72-500 Delhi-Dehradun flight and daily A320 Bangalore-Pune and Jammu-Srinagar services. In the spring it started flights from its new base at Trivandrum to Delhi via Chennai and to Mumbai via Cochin aboard A320s. WestJet will launch the following routes on Oct.
AirTran Airways announced that it reached a tentative five-year labor deal with 40 mechanics and ground service employees represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Ratification is expected within 10 days.
