On May 4, Air Canada withdrew its Tango fare for travel within Canada and between Canada and Florida from the GDSs and from its own dedicated travel agency Web site, aircanada.com/agents. In response, Sabre began "de-preferencing" Air Canada's displays in its GDS to ensure that flights by carriers that provide full content are displayed before Air Canada flights. Galileo said it would no longer return Air Canada results in low-fare shopping inquiries unless they are specifically requested.
Sabre Travel Network president John Stow spelled out some of the key elements of his company's new deals at the recent TravelCom conference in New York: full content; parity with other vendors; the flexibility for agents to select their product platform; the ability to use agency incentives when and where they are appropriate, and protection from certain airline service fees.
With delays creeping back up again and Europe edging ever closer to what Eurocontrol DG Victor Aguado describes as a "capacity wall," the approaching summer peak is expected to put pressure on the region's increasingly congested airport infrastructure.
Although after all that has transpired over the past six years it may be difficult to recall, there have been times in the not-too-distant past when the primary news interest in airlines was not on which ones would or would not survive. Throughout much of the deregulated period, far more attention was paid to answering the question of whether airline safety had deteriorated compared to the previous era. It hadn't, although it was also clear that deregulation put some stress on the system that was not there before.
Forecasts for airline traffic among the nations of Central and Eastern Europe are good. Actually, they are very good, with Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania featuring in IATA's worldwide list of the top 10 countries with the highest average annual growth rates in passenger traffic for 2005-09. Poland leads the group with an AAGR of 11.2% while the Czech Republic is third at 9.5%. This compares with an overall industry AAGR of 5.6% for international passenger traffic between 2005 and 2009, and 5.1% within Europe.
The March sky was steel gray and snow swirled in the bitter wind outside Bombardier's Montreal CRJ production plant, but the mood inside the hangar was warm and festive as company officials prepared to celebrate the delivery of their 250th CRJ700.
Aeroflot reported a 4.7% year-over-year decline in annual profit to RUB6.03 billion ($220.3 million), according to a company statement cited by press reports. Revenues for 2005 increased 11.5% to RUB62.85 billion. The airline carried 6.7 million passengers, 2.3% fewer than in 2004. Aeroflot also posted a Reuters story on its website saying that Russia's State Property Agency intends to transfer all of its stakes in Russian airlines to Aeroflot, which would boost its share to at least 75%. The government now holds a 51% share in the flag carrier.
Spirit Airlines will launch twice-daily Detroit Metro-Boston service aboard A319s Aug. 15. The carrier added its 16th A319 Thursday. It will take nine additional A319s this year and will operate an all-Airbus fleet by fall. Wizz Air will launch thrice-weekly Katowice-Lubeck service on Sept. 18. Hawaiian Airlines will add a third weekly Honolulu-Pago Pago flight from June 14 to Aug. 23.
Transaero said last week that it aims to raise $250 million by floating 15%-18% of its stock in an IPO in Russia in 2007. According to Reuters, the plan has received the backing of the airline's board of directors. A general meeting of shareholders will vet the issue on May 27.
LOT Polish Airlines signed a deal with BRE Leasing for the purchase of four Embraer 175s that will be owned by Polish leasing company PLL LOT and leased to the airline for seven years with an option for five more. The carrier also took delivery of its seventh 767-300, a leased plane owned by ILFC, to be operated by LOT until February 2009 on transatlantic flights.
Cirrus Airlines inked an agreement with AD Aerospace for installation of the FlightVu Cockpit Door Monitoring System, a video security system, on its 737-500s.
CommutAir, which operates as Continental Connection out of Plattsburgh, NY, signed an agreement with Continental Airlines to increase service from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. It will expand its fleet by up to 16 turboprops. Spokesperson Joel Raymond told ATWOnline that the Regional is looking at Q Series aircraft from Bombardier as well as Saab 340s. No final decision has been made on the type, but Raymond said the carrier expects to be operating the new aircraft by late 2006 or early 2007. "It's very exciting for us," he said.
AerCap Group said it completed a $346 million credit facility with a consortium of banks led by Calyon. The facility was raised from $275 million owing to strong market demand. AerCap will use the five-year facility to finance a portion of the acquisition and planned expansion of its newly acquired subsidiary AeroTurbine. Separately, AerCap announced the completion of a $1 billion, six-year warehouse credit facility with UBS. It will use the facility "to finance aircraft acquisitions to substantially expand its portfolio over the coming years."
GECAS President and CEO Henry Hubschman has a gut feeling that Airbus will unveil a significantly redone A350 by the Farnborough Air Show in mid-July ( ATWOnline, April 26). Speaking to media in Washington Friday, Hubschman said, "I don't know what they are going to do, but my tummy says they are going to make changes." He also noted that although GECAS has signed an MOU for 10 A350s, it has not finalized the order.
Amadeus announced the availability of FareAnalyzer, an "airfare display innovation in the Amadeus e-Travel Management online booking solution that lets travelers evaluate a large number of air itinerary options based on multiple criteria such as price, trip duration, departure time, connections, etc."
Alaska Airlines flight attendants ratified a new four-year labor contract that the Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA said "provides a more generous profit-sharing program." No other details of the deal were released. Parent Alaska Air Group also announced the conversion of $150 million in outstanding convertible notes due in 2023 into Alaska Air common stock. "With this transaction, we have converted $150 million of debt into equity," CFO Brad Tilden said.
Thai Airways and Bangkok Airways signed an MOU to develop coordination further on their respective networks. Thai signed a similar agreement with Laos Airlines in early April.
Affected by its lack of fuel hedging contracts, Norwegian posted a net loss of NOK43.1 million ($6.9 million) for the quarter ended March 31 compared to a net loss of NOK34.3 million in the year-ago period. The jet fuel bill more than doubled from NOK56.7 million to NOK123.3 million and now represents 21% of the carrier's total operating costs against only 15% in the year-ago quarter.
Iberia, at long last, confirmed it will launch a low-cost airline to compete with the ever-growing herd of LCCs operating to and within Spain. The still nameless no-frills carrier will be based at Barcelona International Airport and is due to launch in October with five aircraft. The aim is to increase this number to 30 by the end of 2008, when a listing will be considered.
Amadeus signed a partnership with DOB Systems, a provider of market intelligence solutions to the airline industry, under which DOB products will be integrated into the Amadeus offering in order to deliver a portfolio of data analysis solutions.
Pinnacle Airlines said it surpassed the operating performance levels outlined in its services agreement with Northwest Airlines during the first quarter and posted a profit of $13.3 million, 43% lower than a $23.3 million profit in the year-ago quarter that was boosted by an $18 million pre-tax gain related to the repurchase of a note payable to NWA. Pinnacle's operating revenues rose 6.3% to $207.1 million against a 6.2% climb in expenses to $185.6 million and operating profit improved 7.3% to $21.5 million.
Lufthansa Technik launched Total Material Operations support service offering integrated supply of components, spare parts and consumables for airline networks.
China Airlines played down suggestions that it is to become the launch customer for the 747-8 Intercontinental passenger version. According to Taiwan's Economic Times, the carrier will place a $2.5 billion order in June for 10 dash 8s. However, an airline spokesperson cautioned that "we are still evaluating options." Boeing is keen to secure orders for the passenger version of the 747-8, which was launched late last year by Cargolux and Nippon Cargo.
