Ferrovial Group moved closer to completing its takeover of BAA yesterday as rival Goldman Sachs pulled out after the Spanish firm purchased an additional 12.9% of the UK airports operator's shares. Goldman had been considering increasing its rival bid for BAA but announced yesterday that it no longer was interested after Ferrovial upped its stake to 28.7%.
Aerolineas Mesoamericanas of Mexico signed leases for six previously owned CRJ200s with deliveries to begin this month. ALMA is a startup Regional based in Guadalajara and will be the first Mexican carrier to operate Bombardier aircraft commercially.
Varig received just one bid at yesterday's bankruptcy auction, a BRL1.01 billion ($446.4 million) offer during the second round from a consortium of employees, well below the minimum bid for just the domestic routes, which was $700 million ( ATWOnline, May 22). The bankruptcy court judge said he would take a day to decide whether to approve the sale anyway. A $75 million deposit would be required, the Associated Press reported. The judge also may liquidate the carrier. There will not be another auction.
BAE Systems confirmed that it served upon EADS a formal notice of exercise of its put option regarding BAE's sale of its 20% stake in Airbus back to the French-German company. BAE Systems had announced May 2 it would use the put option if it could not reach agreement on the value of the stake.
US Congress will permit the Dept. of Transportation to move forward with its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that is intended to ease how the department interprets foreign control of US airlines. On Wednesday, both the Senate and House agreed to drop language from a supplemental appropriations bill that would have delayed the rule through the Sept. 30 end of the current fiscal year to permit Congress to study the issue.
JetBlue Airways will launch a six-times-daily New York JFK-Washington Dulles service beginning Aug. 17 at regular fares of $50-$145. Flights will be operated with 100-seat Embraer 190s. Hapag Lloyd Express will launch its first African service, a twice-weekly Cologne-Nador (Morocco) flight, beginning June 23.
Cathay Pacific announced yesterday that the heads of Cathay, Air China, China National Aviation Co., Swire Pacific and CITIC Pacific met in Hong Kong to "finalize details of the formal agreement" related to CX's acquisition of Dragonair, confirming this week's reports ( ATWOnline, June 8). A press conference was scheduled in Hong Kong for Friday morning local time.
El Al hopes to make Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport a connecting hub for transport to the Far East. "We already have passengers who are traveling with us from Europe and the US to Asia. We see some potential for us in this business," Chairman Israel Borovich told this website at the IATA AGM in Paris. Asian destinations currently comprise Beijing, Hong Kong and Bangkok. El Al will add two more 777s by next year and has begun installation of a new business class product, including lie-flat seats, on its long-haul fleet.
Delta Air Lines continued to expand its network yesterday with the launch of 23 new North American routes that will serve 19 states and Canada and each of DL's major hubs. Six of seven new routes from Atlanta are operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines, four of five from New York JFK are flown by Comair and six of seven from Salt Lake City are handled by SkyWest. More routes will be inaugurated throughout the month. Separately, Delta raised fuel surcharges on "most" transatlantic flights by $10 effective yesterday.
Air France-KLM said May traffic rose 6.2% over the year-ago month to 16.18 billion RPKs against a 4.3% lift in capacity to 20.45 billion ASKs. Load factor gained 1.4 points to 79.1%. The company posted a "significant increase" in unit revenue last month, "once again driven by sustained levels of premium traffic." EasyJet carried 2.9 million passengers in May, up 15.2% on the year-ago month. Load factor dipped 0.2 point to 83.9%.
Emirates will increase its Dubai-Abidjan service to five-times-weekly from four starting today. JAT Airways resumed weekly flights from Belgrade to Monastir and Tunis. It will add a twice-weekly Belgrade-Cairo service this summer. Flights will be operated with two CRJ200s leased from Adria Airways that eventually will be replaced by two purchased CRJ700s.
Air Transat ground handling subsidiary Handlex opened a base at Vancouver International last month and hired 80 new employees. Handlex already operates at Montreal Trudeau, Montreal Mirabel and Toronto International airports. Separately, Transat said it has partnered with Canadian tour operator Nolitours to offer flights from Toronto and Montreal to Madrid.
Skyways Aviation arranged the sale of a Saab 340A from the fleet of sister company Skyways Express of Sweden to Bridges Worldwide, a global provider of network solutions to freight companies. Bridges previously acquired two other Saab 340s that are being converted to full cargo configuration.
Royal Jordanian intends to make a decision before year end on the replacement of its long-haul fleet, President and CEO Samer Majali told ATWOnline during the IATA AGM in Paris. He said the initial version of the A350 "could have worked for us" but that deciding between the 787 and A350 has become problematic as "it is difficult to base an analysis on an aircraft that is not yet defined." The long-haul fleet renewal should start in 2010 and comprise 8-10 aircraft. RJ currently deploys three A310s and four A340s on its long-haul network.
Jade Cargo International will begin operations at the beginning of August, immediately after taking delivery of its first 747-400ERF. It initially will serve Amsterdam and Seoul Incheon three times a week from its hub in Shenzhen. Its second 747-400ERF is due to arrive in November. It has ordered a total of six with deliveries through January 2008. "We will rapidly expand our route network and serve intra-Asian, European and American destinations. From the start, Jade Cargo will assume a leading role in China's fast-growing air cargo market," MD Rudolf Tewes said in a statement.
JetBlue Airways broke ground yesterday on its $24.5 million crew facility at Orlando International. Scheduled for completion in 14-18 months, the JetBlue Crew Lodge will include 292 guest rooms, a 4,000-sq.-ft. assembly hall, fitness facilities and other features. The LCC already operates a training center at MCO that opened in June 2005 and a three-bay hangar facility used by LiveTV, its wholly owned subsidiary. Separately, JetBlue will launch thrice-daily New York JFK-Nashville flights aboard Embraer 190s from Aug. 31.
Cathay Pacific's acquisition of Dragonair and its routes into mainland China appeared imminent yesterday as trading in the Hong Kong-listed shares of Cathay, Air China, China National Aviation Co., CITIC Pacific and Swire Pacific was suspended for a third consecutive day, according to press reports. CITIC MD Henry Fan told reporters he expected an official announcement to come by today. Cathay already holds 17.8% of Dragonair and reportedly will pay approximately HK$8 billion ($1 billion) in cash and stock for the rest.
AirAsia will develop Kota Kinabalu and Kuching into fully operational hubs by July as part of its takeover of Malaysia Airlines' domestic network. It will have four bases in Malaysia. AirAsia also announced it will launch a daily Kuala Lumpur-Bandar Seri Begawan service from July 11. It said it will be the first low-fare carrier to fly into Brunei.
British Airways intends to resolve its pension issue before it moves forward with significant long-haul aircraft orders and does not want to take delivery of any new types ahead of its 2008 move into London Heathrow's Terminal 5, CEO Willie Walsh confirmed earlier this week at a meeting of oneworld executives ahead of the IATA AGM.
Air One is set to become a regional member of Star Alliance in the future, but the Italian carrier is aiming higher, Head of Network & Marketing Giorgio De Roni told this website at the IATA AGM. "First, I think, it makes sense that we become a regional member, then we will apply for full membership," he said. As a first step, Air One is planning to introduce more codeshare agreements with Star carriers.
Lufthansa Cargo in a significant operational change is closing its station in Fairbanks, which was used for 16 years for technical stops on flights to Japan, in favor of routing all services through Astana in Kazakhstan for refueling and crew changes. The move should reduce flying time and complexity. The station at Almaty also will be closed. From July, 40 weekly LHC flights will take off and land in Astana, making it the cargo giant's second-biggest airport.
The replacement carrier for troubled Olympic Airlines is supposed to start operating this fall, Sabre Aviation Consulting Services President Nejib Ben-Khedher told this website during this week's IATA conference in Paris.
