IER was awarded a five-year renewal contract for maintenance of the check-in and boarding equipment at Kuwait International Airport. IER, which says it is the industry's "leading supplier of passenger and baggage processing solutions," is collaborating with Computer Data Networks, maintenance provider for SITA, and is supplying boarding pass printers, bag tag printers, barcode boarding gate readers and keyboards to the airport under a December 2005 contract.
US airlines recorded an ontime arrival rate of 78.3% in May, down from 83.7% in the year-ago month and 78.4% in April 2006. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the 20 reporting carriers cancelled 1.2% of domestic flights in May, higher than the 0.9% cancellation rate in the year-ago month and the 1.1% rate in April. Hawaiian Airlines led the way in May with a 95% ontime arrival rate while ATA Airlines reported the lowest rate at 66.1%. Frontier Airlines cancelled just 0.1% of its May flights. American Eagle had the highest cancellation rate at 3.5%.
Falling yields, low-cost competition and soaring fuel costs had a devastating effect on South African Airways' bottom line during the fiscal year ended March 31 as profits plunged 90% to ZAR65 million ($9.1 million) from ZAR648 million, the carrier said yesterday, according to press reports. SAA released certain year-end performance indicators on its Web site, but did not include final profit figures. It did say that passenger revenue rose 0.8% to ZAR13 billion against a 3.5% decline in yield as it lost market share to low-fare carriers.
Northwest Airlines cabin staff yesterday voted to switch to the Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA from the Professional Flight Attendants Assn. The US National Mediation Board said the final count was 4,439-2,668 in favor of the move. The airline was given permission by a US Bankruptcy Court last week to cancel its labor agreement following a 14-day stay ( ATWOnline, July 3).
Qantas and Mexicana signed a codeshare agreement effective Aug. 1. Qantas will codeshare on 237 Mexicana weekly services to Mexico City, Cancun, Guadalajara and San Jose del Cabo from Los Angeles and San Francisco while Mexicana will codeshare on Qantas flights from LAX to Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne and from SFO to Sydney. Separately, Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Corp. of Beijing will paint four Qantas 767-300ERs. The first aircraft will be delivered to Ameco at the end of July with three others following nose to tail.
Saab Aerotech reached a five-year, $30 million spares support agreement with Colgan Air covering nearly 500 different components installed on its fleet of 38 Saab 340 and 340B aircraft. Colgan operates flights to 52 cities as Continental Connection, United Express and US Airways Express.
Boeing delivered 97 commercial aircraft in the second quarter, with 70 737NGs comprising most of the deliveries. The manufacturer also delivered 17 777s. In the year-ago period, Boeing delivered 85 commercial aircraft comprising three 717s, 59 737NGs, four 747s, one 757, four 767s and 14 777s. For the first half of 2006 it delivered 195 aircraft, including 142 737NGs and 34 777s.
Wizz Air announced the addition of nine new routes from Romania beginning with Targu Mures-Budapest from July 14. Flights from Bucharest Baneasa to Barcelona, Budapest, Dortmund, London Luton and Rome Ciampino, Arad to Milan Bergamo and Targu Mures to Barcelona and Rome Ciampino will begin on Jan. 15. All routes will operate thrice-weekly except for Bucharest-Ciampino, which will be four-times-weekly. Wizz also will launch a thrice-weekly Gdansk-Cork service on Dec. 15. Aeroflot started a twice-weekly Moscow-Yuzhno Sakhalinsk flight aboard a 767-300ER.
Las Vegas-based Primaris Airlines, as expected, postponed plans to order 20 787-8s and 20 737-800s. The original commitment was placed in October 2004 ( ATWOnline, Oct. 22, 2004), but as 787 sales have picked up, Primaris backers have come under pressure to firm up the order. Boeing requested a deposit to hold the slots, which had slipped during the past year but were understood to be for the 2009-10 timeframe. They now will be available to other customers.
Irish Transport Minister Martin Cullen yesterday outlined privatization plans for Aer Lingus to Ireland's parliament, confirming the government's April decision to sell off most of its stake in the carrier by the end of September.
US Dept. of Transportation proposed Wednesday to revoke antitrust immunity from tariff-coordination meetings organized by IATA to set passenger fares and cargo rates for flights from the US to Europe and Australia.
Algeria and Canada concluded their first bilateral air accord, allowing access to airlines from both countries, according to the Arab Air Carrier Assn. Codeshare services also are permitted. Air Algerie announced plans to operate up to two weekly flights to Montreal, while Air Canada intends to codeshare on flights to Algeria via Europe with existing partners.
The European Commission adopted two regulations concerning the interoperability of European air traffic management systems aimed at establishing the long-awaited Single Sky. The "coordination and transfer" regulation establishes the requirements for automatic systems for the exchange of flight data that notify, coordinate and transfer flights between ATC units.
British Airways flew 10.4 billion RPKs in June, up 6.6% from the year-ago month, against a 3.1% increase in capacity to 12.73 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 2.7 points to 81.6%. The traffic gain comprised an 11.7% rise in premium and 5.7% growth in nonpremium traffic.
The European Parliament gave its resounding approval Tuesday to new fuel taxes, the ending of airlines' Value Added Tax exemption and a closed emissions trading scheme, urging the EU to "take a leadership position in global aviation in order to reduce the climate change impact of aviation."
Ryanair ordered an additional 10 winglet-equipped 737-800s Monday with deliveries to take place in the first half of 2008. The order, valued at $705 million at list prices, previously was attributed on Boeing's website to an unidentified customer. Ryanair operates 107 dash 800s and will take an additional 142 of the type over the next six years. Separately, Ryanair flew 3.7 million passengers in June, a 23% increase over the year-ago month. Load factor remained constant at 87%.
BAE Systems said yesterday it is ordering an independent audit of Airbus, a move that likely will delay EADS' planned buyout of BAE's 20% stake in the aircraft manufacturer.
Cathay Pacific Airways applied to the Hong Kong SAR government for rights to resume passenger flights to Shanghai, add additional flights to Beijing and increase cargo operations to China in the fourth quarter. The move comes as a result of a recent agreement between Chinese and Hong Kong authorities that expands air services, giving Cathay the opportunity to return to Shanghai after 16 years. Shanghai accounts for 35% of the passenger traffic and 68% of the cargo market between China and Hong Kong.
Loftleidir Icelandic, the charter and ACMI-marketing subsidiary of Icelandair Group, acquired a 55% holding in Latvian charter operator Latcharter Airlines and committed to acquire the remaining shares in the future. The move comes as a result of continuing cooperation between the companies and is part of Loftleidir's strategy to strengthen its position in the Baltic and CIS region as well as adding Airbus aircraft into its worldwide ACMI product line. Latcharter was established in 1992.
Emirates, Airbus's most influential airline customer, expressed disappointment at the resignation of Airbus CEO Gustav Humbert ( ATWOnline, July 3). According to Emirates President Tim Clark, "Gustav was a safe pair of hands. But in the political labyrinth that EADS/Airbus sits, I suspect he had little chance of survival." Clark also said Humbert was handed a "poison chalice" with the A380 and A350 problems.
Air Luxor of Portugal was sold by its parent Mirpuri Group to Longstock Financial Group. Value of the sale was not announced. Air Luxor and its associated companies had revenues of €150 million ($192 million) in 2005. It operates two A320s from Lisbon to Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and Sao Tome and Principe.
Air France launched a trial with RFID tags to label and track passenger baggage on flights between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol. KLM joins the trial on July 10 at two baggage drop-off points in Schiphol's Departure Hall 2. The tags will be used for all baggage dropped at those points regardless of destination. Later this year, all drop-off points in DH2 will be equipped to handle RFID tags. KLM developed RFID together with Schiphol, which is responsible for facilitation.
Continental Airlines said it received $156 million from its recent sale of 7.5 million shares of Class A common stock of Copa Holdings, parent of Copa Airlines ( ATWOnline, June 30). Continental will contribute $75 million to its pension plans, bringing its 2006 contribution to $172 million. It still holds 4.4 million shares in Copa.
Tunisair ordered one A319ER from Airbus and announced that it will convert three of its in-service A319s into Extended Range versions. It plans to use the type on its Middle East and African routes configured with 16 business class and 90 economy seats. They will be powered by CFM-56-5B6s. Tunisair operates 12 A320 family aircraft and three A300-600s.
