Air Transport World

Austrian Airlines Group will cut a further 50 jobs as part of its €260 million ($337.8 million) restructuring program to slash 150 administrative positions announced at the end of last year, Austrian CEO Jaan Albrecht told ATW.

News from Travel Technology Update: Amadeus entered the airline passenger loyalty arena with the acquisition of Hitit Loyalty, a division of Istanbul, Turkey-based Hitit Computer Services.

Ryanair has opened bases at Eindhoven, Krakow and Zadar, bringing its total European network to 54 bases.

Turkish Airlines will add three additional full flight simulators at its Flight Training Center in Istanbul Ataturk, which “includes one Airbus A320, one Boeing 777-300ER and one 737NG simulator,” CEO Temel Kotil told ATW recently.

SAS Scandinavian Airlines has signed a letter of intent to wet lease four new ATR 72-600 aircraft for 36 months from Danish carrier Jet Time.

Ultra Electronics Airport Systems was selected to supply a suite of operations and information systems to Tocumen International Airport.

MRO News

Emirates will become a direct competitor to US and European airlines in the transatlantic market by launching daily Milan Malpensa-New York JFK flights from Oct. 1.

Lufthansa head of product management and airport passenger services, Joachim Schneider, is urging cabin suppliers to work more closely to provide greater integration.

Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic Airways formally filed an antitrust immunity application with the US Dept. of Transportation (DOT) for their joint venture (JV).

Airbus is demonstrating a mock-up of its wider A320 economy aisle seats at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg in the hope of attracting a launch customer for the seating variant.

United Parcel Service (UPS) has appealed the European Commission’s rejection of its €5.16 billion ($6.7 billion) bid to acquire TNT Express.

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways has reported its strongest passenger and cargo results for a first quarter.

Just one month after taking ownership of Stansted Airport, Manchester Airports Group (MAG) has announced its first new airline customer.

Virgin Atlantic’s UK domestic operation, Little Red, has begun services between London Heathrow and Edinburgh.

Airbus started construction Monday on an A320 family manufacturing facility in Mobile, Ala., where it plans to begin assembling narrowbodies in 2015 for delivery starting in 2016.

Samoa Air, a scheduled and charter airline connecting the Islands of Samoa, has begun charging passengers fares based on their weight.

Global passenger numbers for February indicate that demand is accelerating on the back of stronger business confidence, particularly in emerging regions, according to IATA.

Airline Routes

Briefs from the April 8, 2013 issue of ATW's Skypaths

Boeing conducted a second 787 test flight related to the certification of its fix for the aircraft’s lithium ion batteries.

FAA said it will delay the closures of 149 US federal contract air traffic control towers from April 7 until June 15 to “allow the agency to attempt to resolve multiple legal challenges to the closure decisions.”

Indonesia’s Mandala Airlines is planning to buy 18 Airbus A320 aircraft, according to several Jakarta media reports quoting major shareholder PT Saratoga Investama Sedaya.

The Russian government will split 25.5% of shares in Sibir Airlines, which flies under the S7 Airlines brand.

Hainan Airlines plans to slow down its domestic acquisition pace to focus more on internal integration as global economic uncertainties increase and domestic economic growth slows.