Boeing received orders for 25 commercial transports and one BBJ in the period Feb. 1-March 1 inclusive, bringing year-to-date orders to 65, according to information on the company's website. February orders included three 737s from Alaska Airlines, three from WestJet and 16 from an unidentified customer(s) for a total of 22. Unidentified customer(s) also ordered two 747s and one 767.
Lufthansa was forced to cancel about 56 domestic and European flights Friday morning owing to heavy snowfall across Germany. Flights were delayed by up to an hour. The airline said that all long-haul flights were expected to operate on time.
Midwest Airlines partnered with rival Northwest Airlines on a loyalty program initiative that will allow members to earn and redeem miles on each other's flights. Midwest members can redeem miles on KLM flights as well.
North American Airlines' damages owed to a pilot bringing an unlawful termination suit against the carrier were lowered from $12.6 million to $3.1 million by a California judge last week. The plaintiff has until March 13 to accept the reduction or face a retrial. Appeals are possible, and another hearing is scheduled for April 26 to assess additional fees.
British Airways flew 8.1 billion RPKs in February, up 3.6% on the year-ago month, against a 3% rise in capacity to 11.38 billion ASKs. Passenger load factor inched up 0.4 point to 71.2%. Southwest Airlines reported a 17.3% increase in February RPMs to 4.69 billion. Traffic climbed 8.5% to 6.85 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 5.2 points to 68.5%. Ryanair flew 2.6 million passengers in February, an improvement of 22%. Load factor declined 1 point compared to February 2005 to 78%.
SAS Cargo said it had its best-ever result last year as it reported a pre-tax profit of SEK68 million ($8.6 million), up from SEK14 million in 2004, on revenues of SEK3.3 billion, up 17%. EBIT jumped to SEK83 million from SEK35 million. Improvement was achieved in spite of a 5.4% decline in yield.
ANA's codeshare agreement with Skynet Asia Airways ( ATWOnline, Jan. 31) will commence April 1 and calls for the placement of ANA's code on SNA flights from Tokyo Haneda to Miyazaki, Kumamoto and Nagasaki. SNA flights will be available through ANA sales and reservation systems. In addition, SNA will move from Terminal 1 at Haneda to ANA's Terminal 2, where its customers will have access to ANA's self-serve check-in and ticketing kiosks.
ICAO Council elected Roberto Kobeh Gonzalez of Mexico to complete the term of Council President Assad Kotaite, who will step down July 31 after 30 years in the post. Gonzalez, who will take over Aug. 1 and serve for one year, was elected over Philippe Rochat of Switzerland. Gonzalez has served on the Council since January 1998. Kotaite had indicated when he stood for reelection in 2004 that he would not serve his full term. Rochat, a former secretary general of ICAO, is executive director of the Air Transport Action Group.
IATA reported that the world's airlines continued their momentum into the new year as international passenger traffic rose 6.2% in January while airfreight grew 5.3%, suggesting that the world economy may be heating up after last year's second-half slowdown in FTKs. Total passenger capacity climbed 4.6% and cabin factor was 74.6%. Cargo capacity kept pace with the rise in traffic with ATKs up 5.2%. Strongest RPK growth was recorded by Middle East airlines, up 18.3% on an 11.7% rise in ASKs.
American Airlines reported a 2.7% increase in February traffic to 9.86 billion RPMs. Capacity dropped 1.2% to 13.14 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 2.8 points to 75%. Domestic RPMs increased 2.2% to 6.63 billion as capacity fell 3.5% to 8.5 billion ASMs and load factor rose 4.3 points to 78%. International traffic climbed 3.7% to 3.23 billion RPMs on a 3.4% rise in capacity to 4.65 billion ASMs. Load factor inched up 0.2 point to 69.4%. Continental Airlines said its estimated February consolidated RASM increased 8%-9% over the year-ago month.
International Aero Engines said Adria Airways, the launch customer for the V2500, signed on as the first European customer for the V2500Select aftermarket program, a combined engine upgrade and support initiative. The upgrades will be released in 2008 and retrofitted to Adria's three V2500-powered A320s. Mexicana Airlines also extended its V2500Select agreement to cover its 26 A320s and six spare engines.
Korean Air and AeroMexico announced a codeshare agreement effective March 1 allowing Korean Air passengers arriving in Los Angeles to connect to AeroMexico flights to Mexico City and Guadalajara. AeroMexico passengers will be able to connect through LAX to KAL's Seoul service. The airlines already share loyalty program reciprocity through SkyTeam.
Air Gabon International is the newly formed flag carrier of the Central African country. After the signing of a shareholder agreement between the transport minister of Gabon and Royal Air Maroc President and GM Driss Benhima, the new carrier will begin operations at the end of the first quarter with a fleet of two aircraft, probably 737-700s. It will provide services from Libreville to France, Morocco, South Africa, Malawi, Brazzaville and Angola. RAM was selected to participate following a consultation launched by the Gabonese government.
SAS Group extended its communications agreement with Telenor until 2010. The SEK350 million ($43.9 million) deal calls for the supply of all fixed and mobile telephone services to SAS in Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
Delta Air Lines and its pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn., are heading to arbitration after the parties were unable to reach an agreement Wednesday evening on a concessionary accord to help the carrier emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Delta Air Lines' denials notwithstanding, an analysis of its schedule filings reveals significant cutbacks in its Northeast-to-Florida service, according to JP Morgan's Jamie Baker. Late last week, Baker upgraded his full-year outlook for JetBlue from loss to profit owing to the Delta flight reductions ( ATWOnline, Feb. 28). But on Feb. 27, Delta vigorously denied it was cutting service and said that the inadvertent omission of Comair's services at LaGuardia had created a false impression.
Air Canada launched daily New York JFK-Calgary service Wednesday using a 93-seat Embraer 190. Emirates will operate eight-times-weekly service to Bangalore beginning Oct. 29 using both A330-200s and 777-200s. Frontier Airlines will launch twice-daily Denver-Calgary service from May 25. Flights will be operated by Horizon Air as Frontier JetExpress. Air Baltic started four weekly flights from Riga to Dusseldorf on March 1 using 737-500s.
Air Malta reported falling revenues through the first nine months of its fiscal year that shifted its operating result MTL2.3 million ($6.4 million) into the red for the period ended Dec. 31. It reported a MTL291,000 operating profit for the corresponding period in 2004. Operating revenue decreased 3.2% to MTL81.5 million. Revenues for the third fiscal quarter dropped 4.7% to MTL19.9 million. Despite a slight 0.8% reduction in costs to MTL24.5 million, operating loss widened to MTL4.6 million from a MTL3.8 million deficit in the year-ago quarter, ATWOnline calculated.
Heico Parts Group and China Aviation Import and Export Group Corp. entered into a partnership for the promotion of Heico Aerospace aircraft and engine replacement parts in China.
Air France faces a one-day strike on March 7 as five umbrella organizations of French labor unions plan to join a national demonstration against a new government policy introduced by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin aimed at relaxing employment regulations for young workers. The unions involved are CGT, CFE-CGDC, CFDT, FO and Sud aerien.
Northwest Airlines and its pilots continued to negotiate on a concessionary agreement yesterday even as a ruling by the bankruptcy court on the carrier's bid to impose a new contract was believed to be imminent. The parties originally had until Feb. 17 to reach an accord before Judge Allan Gropper was to have ruled on Northwest's request to cancel its labor agreements but were given an extension through March 1 ( ATWOnline, Feb. 27).
Burdened by the boardroom upheaval that cost CEO Toshiyuki Shinmachi his job this week, widening losses that reached ¥11 billion ($94.9 million) last quarter and several well-publicized safety-related incidents, Japan Airlines yesterday released an extended five-year, medium-term business plan designed to "win back the trust and confidence" of stakeholders and customers, create a more unified and open corporate culture and return the airline to profitability in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2007.
Pilot unions at SAS Group's Scandinavian Airlines Businesses said Wednesday they will take legal action to undo the March 1 operational transfer of the pilots into the airline units in Sweden and Denmark ( ATWOnline, Feb. 15). Pilots at Norwegian unit SAS Braathens have been employed locally since 2004, the airline said in a statement. According to AFP, the pilots allege that the action violates labor law and their collective bargaining agreement with the airline. They are seeking Sek45 million ($5.7 million) in damages.
