Frontier Airlines unveiled a new website this week that it intends to be the "primary driver" of ticket sales. "Our goal with the new site is to increase our Web bookings by over 40% in the next year, which would reflect a significant savings for us in terms of distribution costs," President and CEO Jeff Potter said.
East Star Airlines, a Chinese startup based in Wuhan, operated its first revenue flight Monday from Wuhan to Shenzhen aboard a leased A319. East Star is slated to take delivery of 10 leased A320 family aircraft and also has firm orders for 10 purchased A320s to be delivered in 2009-10 ( ATWOnline, Nov. 29, 2005).. Its initial network will comprise Wuhan, Shenzhen, Haikou and Guangzhou.
Istanbul Ataturk International Airport was closed temporarily yesterday afternoon after a large fire broke out in a cargo facility around 3:15 p.m. local time. The fire did not reach or damage the passenger terminal, which is located about 1,000 m. away, and authorities said it had been contained some hours later. All aircraft were moved away from the area successfully, according to Airport Director Irfan Balta, who said the fire caused "great financial damage." Parts of the cargo building collapsed, the Associated Press reported.
US National Transportation Safety Board said it is sending a team to Bangalore to assist in the investigation of a reported left wing fuel tank explosion on a Transmile Airlines 727-200. According to NTSB, the incident occurred on May 4 and involved a Malaysia-registered aircraft during a ground repositioning. There were no passengers onboard and no injuries were reported.
El Al Israel Airlines posted a first-quarter net loss of $12.4 million, a 33% improvement over a net loss of $18.5 million in the year-ago period. The carrier said "the drastic increase in fuel costs" prevented it from recording a quarterly profit on the heels of its highest-ever full-year profit of $64.1 million in 2005. It added that the winter quarter is usually its weakest and that prospects for the rest of 2006 remain strong.
Regional jet manufacturers Bombardier and Embraer have made their intentions clear: Both will continue to focus primarily on marketing and development of aircraft in the 60/100-seat range.
Aeroports de Paris' IPO should take place before summer, French Finance Minister Thierry Breton confirmed yesterday. "The company is ready. It is opportune to give it the necessary means to support its expansion. It needs a capital increase to pursue its development," Breton told France 2 television. A decree authorizing the government to privatize a minority stake in the airport operator was published in the Tuesday edition of France's official journal.
Menzies Aviation completed its acquisition of Aeroground Inc., a San Francisco-based air cargo service provider. Menzies will create new operations at New York JFK, Chicago O'Hare, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Vancouver and Calgary while expanding services at Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Ore., and SFO.
Continental Airlines yesterday launched daily Newark-Copenhagen service aboard 757-200s. It plans to operate the route five-times-weekly during winter months and resume daily service in spring 2007. FlyBE launched a thrice-weekly Southampton-Angers service. It will commence thrice-weekly flights from SOU to Cherbourg today and to Avignon Thursday.
Lufthansa Technik signed an agreement with Bombardier to provide a Total Support Program for operators of 50/90-seat CRJs. LHT will offer support packages for APUs, landing gears, wheels, tires, brakes and rotables. Operators also have the option for a repair and overhaul program on CF34 engines from Lufthansa Technik Aero Alzey.
Although the Italian government reduced its stake in Alitalia below 50% in its recent recapitalization ( ATWOnline, Nov. 14, 2005), new Transport Minister Alessandro Bianchi felt justified in calling for a change in management at the struggling flag carrier, which reported a widened €156.6 million ($200 million) first-quarter loss last week that it attributed largely to the impact of protests by Alitalia Servizi workers.
Deccan Aviation, parent of LCC Air Deccan, struggled to attract investors for its IPO as India's stock market sputtered last week and has extended its deadline to Friday. Deccan issued the IPO on May 18, the same day India's stock market plunged in what many in the country are calling an unprecedented crash. The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index, known as Sensex, ended last week down more than 1,300 points, an 11% drop from the previous Friday's closing, sending shockwaves through the Indian economy.
BAA may be opposed to a takeover by Spain's Ferrovial Group but the European Commission will not stand in the way. The EC yesterday approved Ferrovial's potential acquisition of the UK airports operator, saying "the proposed transaction would not significantly impede effective competition." Ferrovial made an unsolicited £8.75 billion ($16.41 billion) takeover bid for BAA, which controls London Heathrow and six other UK airports and has management contracts at airports in other countries.
Northwest Airlines' 5,600 ramp service employees and stock clerks will see their hourly base wage rates reduced by 11.5% if they ratify a tentative five-year agreement reached between the airline and negotiators for the International Assn. of Machinists last week ( ATWOnline, May 22).
Aviation Refinancing Transaction awarded GA Telesis a five-year servicing contract to manage and remarket more than 50 Boeing aircraft and approximately 70 spare engines.
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary will stand naked "in Warsaw's busiest street" if LOT Polish Airlines abolishes its fuel surcharge this month, the Irish carrier announced yesterday. A LOT spokesperson told Polish television last week that Ryanair would be willing to "walk naked down the street in front of TV cameras" in order to draw attention to the Polish airline's surcharges, Ryanair said. "We have no problem placing this wager with LOT because everyone knows that there is no chance whatsoever of LOT ever removing its fuel surcharges," Head of Communications Peter Sherrard said.
Indian Airlines signed an MOU with India's ICICI Bank for funding of the pre-delivery payments required for aircraft acquisition. Indian finalized a $2 billion deal for 43 A320 family aircraft in February ( ATWOnline, Feb. 22). Funding will come from a syndicated external commercial borrowing of $152 million spread from June 2006 to January 2010.
Air Transport Assn. warned of big crowds at US airports as the country observes Memorial Day Monday. ATA said US airlines will transport 21 million passengers from May 22 through May 31, or 2.1 million per day. It added that the passenger numbers are up 1.9% from the same week last year and advised travelers to arrive at airports 90 min. prior to departure for domestic flights and 120 min. prior to international departures and to be prepared for heavy traffic at security checkpoints.
Air Malta last week introduced a voluntary redundancy system "following extensive consultation and negotiations with the four unions representing Air Malta's employees." The option will be available for four months and is open to workers with at least seven years at the airline. Details were released on its website. The deal is part of the 2004 Rescue Plan agreement that the carrier said "has paved the way for a restructuring exercise without the airline engaging itself in forced redundancies."
SkyWest Airlines flew 1.27 billion RPMs in April, a 112.8% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 101.7% to 1.64 billion ASMs and load factor increased 4.1 points to 77.6%. Separately, SkyWest renewed its multiyear deal with ARINC for data link services, including GlobaLink/VHF service enhanced with high-capacity VDL Mode2 protocol.
Air Canada Technical Services signed a $2.8 million MRO agreement with S7 Airlines covering 10 newly leased A319s. ACTS will perform C1 and C4 airframe maintenance checks as well as "major" required and requested modifications prior to the aircrafts' entry into service. Work will be performed in Montreal and Winnipeg and will be completed by the end of August.
Indian startup Kingfisher Airlines has been a marketing success since launching in May 2005, but the growing pains are evident in the carrier's bottom line, which was INR1.9 billion ($41.8 million) in the red after one year of operations, it told The Hindu's Business Line.
