Austrian low-fare airline Niki is planning to add A319s to its fleet of four A320s and one A321 in order to access new markets. "Currently we take delivery of our new A320s to phase out leased aircraft. With the A319 from 2007, we can operate nonstop services from Vienna to Barcelona, increase frequencies to Palma and look for new markets in Italy like Milan and also to Amsterdam," founder and majority owner Niki Lauda told ATWOnline. The carrier has two A320-200s on order.
Sabre Travel Network signed a "long-term" agreement to provide GDS services to Priceline.com, another erosion of Worldspan's position as the online technology leader. Priceline president and chief executive Jeffery Boyd said a principle reason for the deal is that it "provides us with redundancy in case of technical problems at Worldspan."
IATA DG cautions on aircraft orders as Asian Aerospace gets underway SIA downplays likelihood of major order this week Hello-Goodbye for Asian Aerospace in Singapore
Airbus confirmed that an A380 suffered wing damage during a stress test last week, according to press reports. The rupture between two engines occurred when the aircraft was going from 1.45 to 1.5 times its limit load. The airframer said it still expects to deliver the first A380 on schedule at the end of 2006.
Gulf Air announced that approximately $900 million in funding for the "first phase of its fleet upgrade" is scheduled to be in place by May. The carrier's shareholders, the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Sultanate of Oman, agreed to a recapitalization at a board meeting in Oman earlier this month ( ATWOnline, Feb. 8).
DBA, days after announcing that it doubled its capital through the sale of a 25.1% stake to investor Lutz Helmig ( ATWOnline, Feb. 14), acquired a 60% share of charter carrier LTU Friday through majority owner Hans Rudolf Woehrl's Intro Verwaltungs investment group, creating a low-cost alliance it hopes can compete with Lufthansa.
Iberia flew 3.9 billion RPKs in January, up 3.1% over the year-ago month, on a 0.4% rise in capacity to 5.4 billion ASKs. Load factor improved 1.9 points to 73.2%. Number of passengers grew 3.6% to 1.96 million, of which 1.05 million flew on the domestic network. Norwegian reported a 101% increase in January traffic to 226 million RPKs. Capacity climbed 76% to 313 million ASKs and load factor rose 8 points to 72%. The carrier expected a yield of NOK0.72 (10.7 cents), a decrease of 8% from the year-ago month.
Kenya Airways unveiled its new website, which features a state-of-the-art online booking engine developed by E-Travel. The carrier is offering a 10% discount on tickets purchased on the site. It said it carried more than 2 million passengers in 2005 and recorded turnover in excess of KES42 billion ($583.5 million). It plans to launch service to Paris and Freetown "in the near future."
Air France-KLM announced the signing of a protocol agreement finalizing implementation of a European Works Council to "inform and consult workers about all matters concerning the Group as well as issues of a transnational character." The joint body, established to conform with European law, will supersede those of the individual airlines but will not replace staff representative bodies from each company and in each country. The council will comprise 37 members appointed or elected for a period of four years.
In observance of the Presidents' Day holiday in the US, the next edition of Daily News will appear on Wednesday, Feb. 22. However, ATWOnline will report the latest news from Asian Aerospace in Singapore on Tuesday, Feb. 21.
Cenco International will supply a new flagship testing facility in Arnstadt, Germany, to N3 Engine Overhaul Services, a joint venture between Lufthansa Technik and Rolls-Royce. The facility will provide technical support for Trent 500, 700 and 900 engines.
Reed Exhibitions' plan to move Asian Aerospace to Hong Kong International Airport in 2007 also calls for a shorter show, with the elimination of public days ( ATWOnline, Feb. 14). The newly named Asian Aerospace International Expo and Congress will take place Sept. 3-6, 2007, at the AsiaWorld-Expo complex at HKIA. A three-day "major international aerospace congress" will be held in conjunction with the event. This year's edition of Asian Aerospace, running Feb. 21-26, takes place at its traditional location and venue, the Changi Exhibition Center in Singapore.
Thai Airways released details of its fiscal first quarter performance Friday, confirming it earned a net profit of THB3.81 billion ($96.7 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31 ( ATWOnline, Feb. 15), a 33.4% decrease from the THB5.72 billion earned in the year-ago quarter.
US Dept. of Transportation released its expected ruling Friday eliminating the prohibition on airlines that own, control or operate computer reservations systems from denying access "to two or more carriers whose flights share a single designator code and discriminating against any carrier because the carrier uses the same designator code as another carrier." DOT said its rationale hinged on changes in the industry. It said the rise in Internet distribution is "reducing the [GDS] market power over airlines" and US carriers have divested their GDS ownership interests.
American Eagle will begin daily New York JFK-Baltimore/Washington service from April 3 aboard 37-seat ERJs. Jet2.com will launch Belfast-Tenerife service next winter. It also will increase its Belfast-Blackpool service to daily throughout the summer. Virgin Express is upping frequency for its new Brussels-Palermo route from two to three times weekly. Service will commence March 29.
Star Alliance member carriers at Paris CDG Terminal 1 have begun moving into new check-in Hall 4, the alliance announced last week. Thai Airways and bmi already are using the new Star Alliance facilities and Adria Airways, ANA, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa and SAS Scandinavian Airlines will relocate by the end of the month. There are 24 check-in desks currently available. Singapore Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways and Varig will start making use of the new facilities in 2008 once additional areas of the terminal are refurbished.
Cirrus Airlines of Germany joined the European Regions Airline Assn. Cayman Airways and Cielos Airlines, the latter a cargo carrier from Peru, joined the Latin American Airline Assn.
Lufthansa Technik signed a contract to deliver its Total Component Support service for seven CRJ200s operated by Danish Regional Cimber Air over a two-year time period and also signed a TCS deal covering a CRJ900 for Spain's Air Nostrum.
US Rep. Harold Rogers (D-Ky.), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on homeland security, said Thursday that the US Transportation Security Administration's request to raise passenger security fees by $1.4 billion this year and ask airlines to pay retroactive security costs of about $300 million has little chance of passing. "The budget contains the perennial gimmick of raising aviation security fees even though Congress and the airlines have rejected this before," Rogers said. "It may very difficult to adopt this proposal this year."
Gol announced the expansion of its Gollog cargo operation to Rosario, Cordoba, Montevideo and Asuncion. Gollog is a pre-paid, online freight service the carrier unveiled earlier this month ( ATWOnline, Feb. 6). It already was available on Gol flights to 38 Brazilian destinations and Buenos Aires.
SkyEurope Airlines denied forcefully last week any assertion that it is decreasing its service to the Polish market, announcing it will base four of the six new 737-700s it will add this year at Krakow Balice. Rival Wizz Air said it would offer free tickets to SkyEurope passengers left "stranded" by the Slovakian carrier's decision to cancel service from Warsaw to London Stansted and Bratislava and to postpone two additional flights from Poland ( ATWOnline, Feb.
