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Following the first flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, ZA001, on December 15, which came 2 Ω years after the typeís initial rollout and following multiple delays, the milestone signalled the start of a gruelling flight-test programme to validate and certify the new technologies incorporating lightweight materials never before seen on a commercial aircraft. Boeing hopes to complete the 6,800hour, six-aircraft flight and ground test programme in eight and a half months, which would be the fastest certification completed for any clean-sheet commercial aircraft in the companyís history. One month into the flight test programme, Boeing completed initial airworthiness trails after accumulating just short of 60 hours of tests, with ZA001 involved in over 57 of the hours.
At the time of the first flight, firm orders stood at 840 from 55 customers, not including United Airlinesí recent order for 25 which had not been recorded officially. As the flight test programme moves forward, and as expected by Boeing validates the aircraft performance claims, further orders should ensue. The first new order was announced by Boeing on December 24 for 11 aircraft from one or more undisclosed customers.
The second Boeing 787, ZA 002, took to the air on December 22 for a two hour flight between Paine Field and Boeing Field. The flight reached a height of 13,000ft and a speed of 200kt. The aircraft was in the colours of All Nippon Airways. The plan was to have four aircraft flying by February and all six by April. Delivery of the first production aircraft to launch customer ANA is scheduled to take place in the last quarter of 2010.
Another milestone was reached by Boeing just over a month earlier. On November 10, the last of the original Boeing 747 family, a -400ER Freighter, was officially delivered to the Kuwaiti cargo start-up LoadAir, along with a second such aircraft for the airline. It was the 1,419th Boeing 747 built. The two aircraft were delivered the next day to the storage site in Marana, Arizona, in all-white livery to await delivery, the date of which was uncertain. The start of operations by LoadAir is now said to be early 2010. The first 747 aircraft, a Boeing 747-100, had been delivered to Pan Am on December 12, 1969. Boeing is now gearing up to start flight-testing its stretched Boeing 747-8 family, with the first delivery to be to Cargolux by the end of 2010
Boeing received orders for just a net 142 commercial aircraft in 2009 after offsetting cancellations against new orders for 263 aircraft.. The net total was its lowest since at least 2003 and just one-tenth of the 1,413 orders in 2007. It delivered 481 commercial aircraft during the year, up 28% after the serious strike in late 2008 slowed production to 375 aircraft for the year. It delivered 372 Boeing 737s and has orders for another 2,076 of the type out of a total backlog for all commercial aircraft of 3,375.
Airbus was easily able to beat Boeing in the net aircraft order figures for 2009 with a figure of 271. The gross figure was 310, made up of 228 A320-family aircraft, 78 A320,340/350s and four Airbus A380s. A priority for the company for 2010 is cost control of the A380 programme as actual production costs are significantly above expectations. It has admitted that it has ënot come to grips with this complex aircraft ëand it will remain a ëfinancial liabilityí for years to come. Currently 23 aircraft are in service and Airbus is aiming to deliver at least 20 aircraft this year.
Embraer delivered 122 commercial aircraft in 2009 compared with 162 in 2008, comprising seven -145s, 22 -170s, 11 -175s, 62 -190s and 20 -195s. In total 244 aircraft were delivered, against 204 in 2008, as deliveries of executive aircraft like the Phenom 100 and Legacy 600 aircraft nearly doubled.
After All Nippon Airways altered its order for Boeing 787-3 into Boeing 787-8s, in order to gain aircraft for earlier delivery, Boeing is assessing the market viability of the Boeing 787-3. The type would accommodate 290/300 passengers and be very suitable for routes of 2,500 to 3,000nm, which adds up to more passengers and a shorter range than the 787-8 and 787-9. There had only been two customers for the 787-3, Japan Airlines and ANA, and JAL dropped its order in favour of the 787-8 last June.
As could be expected, the US Dept. of Justice raised doubts in December over granting approval for the proposed BA/AA/Iberia, and also Finnair and Royal Jordanian, anti-trust immunity across the Atlantic. It maintained that the applicantsí claim that substantial benefits will flow from the expanded alliance but had not shown that immunity is necessary to achieve those benefits. It claimed that air fares could rise by up to 15% under the airlinesí plans and called for takeoff and landing slots to be given up at Heathrow, and to a lesser degree at Madrid, which was the reason BA and AA gave up two previous attempts in 1997 and 2001 to waive the normal competition rules.
The routes identified by the Dept. of Justice as particularly vulnerable to the dominant Oneworld alliance members are from Heathrow to Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York and Miami and Madrid to Miami, serving between them 2.5m passengers annually. The views of the Justice Dept. matched those of Virgin Atlantic, whose position at Heathrow would be affected by the grant of anti-trust immunity. BA and AA maintain that they are trying to ensure a level playing field over the Atlantic as rival alliances, Star and SkyTeam, have already been granted immunity by the US Dept. of Transportation, which will have the final say on the BA/AA application. BA is responding ërobustlyí to the Dept of Justice findings. One bright light for BA is that the Justice objections were virtually identical to its views earlier in 2009 when Continental Airlines joined the Star Alliance and the Dept of Transportation subsequently approved immunity for Star members, Air Canada, Continental, Lufthansa and United.
IATA is now forecasting that airlines will lose $5.6bn in 2010, up from a previous estimate of $3.8bn, due to increased fuel costs and pressure on yields. It was still predicting an $11bn net global loss for 2009. Passenger numbers are thought likely to rise by 4.9% in 2010 compared with the 2.28bn people flying during 2009, a 4.1% decrease on the 2008 figure. With 1,300 new aircraft due to be delivered in 2010, IATA has said that global capacity would go up 2.8%, which would put more pressure on yields. The first decade of the 21st century was likely to have brought net total losses by the worldís airlines to $49.1bn, according to IATA.
ICAO has predicted a year-over-year 3.1% decline in revenue passenger kilometre terms on airlines of its member states and was the largest drop on record for the industry, with international traffic down 3.9% and domestic 1.9%. The drop after 9/11 in 2001 had been 2.9%. All regions fell, apart from the Middle East, which had a rise of 10% during the year and domestic passenger growth was seen in the emerging markets of Asia and Latin America. North American airlines saw passengers, both international and domestic, fall 5.5% and in Europe international passengers fell 4% and domestic by 10.4%. ICAO is predicting traffic growth of 3.3% in 2010 and ëfull recoveryí of 5.5% in 2011.
OAG reported that there were 294.8m seats available in December, a 4% rise on the same month in 2008. Flight frequencies were up 1% to 2.4m flights, although were was a 2% decline in North America. Worldwide, frequencies and capacity on offer by low-cost airlines were up by 10%.
IATA welcomed the agreements made at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December as a ëstep in the right directioní for the future of aviation. Aviation emissions were not addressed specifically in the Copenhagen Accord and IATA believed that was a reflection of the ëpro-active measures the industry has taken to set challenging targets for itself, together with an aggressive strategy to achieve themí. IATA said it would work closely with ICAO, the UNís specialised agency for aviation, to prepare a global framework for managing aviationís emissions for the ICAO Assembly in September this year.
The US Air Transport Association and three airlines, American, Continental and United, have filed a suit in London against the EU over its Emission Trading Scheme claiming the scheme ëviolated the US-EU bilateral Air Transport Agreement of 2007 and the Kyoto Protocolí. The Association said it was acting ëto preserve our membersí rights to challenge implementation of the Scheme ëas applied to aviationí. The court action was launched in London as the UK is the first EU country due to implement the early stages of the scheme in 2012. IATA and ICAO also have misgivings as they are concerned that the scheme, involving carriers submitting emission reports while flying within the EU, regardless of nationally, will apply to carriers without their consent.
It has been said by the Indian government that as much as $120bn in investments could be absorbed by Indiaís aviation sector by 2020. Domestic traffic could grow to 160m by that date, based on analystís predictions, with international traffic possibly exceeding 50m operations. The Indian civil aviation market was valued at $90bn, with the sale of 1,000 aircraft between 2008 and 2020. It is estimated that India will require $30bn in airport infrastructure investments as it was also estimated that the countryís airports could handle more than 300m passengers a year by 2020
US airline passenger revenue fell 7% in November from a year earlier, according to the US Air Transport Association, the 13th consecutive year-to-year drop, fuelled primarily by the 12th consecutive month of the decline of ticket prices.
The Airbus A320 family final assembly line in China achieved its 2009 target with delivery of its 11th aircraft on December 16 to Deer Air, an airline part of the HNA Group. The first of the aircraft had been delivered to Sichuan Airlines, via Dragon Aviation Leasing, in June 2009, and now Chinese-assembled A320s and A319s are flying with four Chinese carriers.
A decision for Airbus in 2010 is whether to proceed with a re-engining for the Airbus A320 family. It is moving forward in talks with potential engine suppliers to field a more efficient turbofan for the aircraft in the face of emerging competition from the Bombardier C Series, the Chinese Comac C919, and a potential move by Boeing to upgrade the Boeing 737. Airbus wants to keep the Airbus A320 viable until its A30X replacement arrived, which is currently not planned until at least 2020.
The EU-Canada Air Transport Agreement was signed in December after having been initialled in November 2008 and politically endorsed in May 2009. As from then all EU airlines are able to operate direct flights to Canada from anywhere in Europe, and vice versa for Canadian airlines. The agreement removed all restrictions on routes, prices, or the number of weekly flights between Canada and the EU. In 2008, more than 8m people travelled between the EU and Canada and an additional 3.5m passengers are expected to make use of the opportunities of an open aviation area within the first few years.
The open skies agreement between the EU and the US was extended in December to apply to Iceland and Norway even though the countries are not EU members. Their inclusion brings to 29 the number of nations involved in second stage open skies talks with the US, with them officially participating as observers. The two sides have until November 2010 to reach an agreement or either party can withdraw traffic rights secured in the first phase, that became effective on March 30, 2008. Negotiators continue to try and resolve disagreements over issues including cabotage, foreign ownership of airlines and the environment.
The EU signed an air services pact with the West African Economic and Monetary Union in December which removed nationally restrictions in the bilateral air services agreements between the member states of each organisation and allows any EU airline to operate flights between any EU member state and any of the African members, where a bilateral agreement between the two countries exists and traffic rights are available. The African Union members involved are Benin, Burkino Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Niger, Mali, Senegal and Togo.
It is forecast that business jet demand should improve in 2010 after a turbulent time when only 615 aircraft had been delivered up to the third quarter of 2009, compared with 988 aircraft delivered up to that date in 2008, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association which tracks non-airline commercial aviation. Demand fell after five years of annual delivery increases up to 2008. The worse is considered over but General Dynamicsí Gulfstream jet division expects recovery to really come in 2011.
US airlines collected more than $2bn in ancillary fees in the third quarter of 2009, up 36.4% year-on-year., helping the seven major network carriers post their first combined operating profit margin, $338m, since the third quarter of 2007. The corresponding quarter in 2008 produced a joint loss of $1.62bn. Delta subsidiary Northwest had an operating profit of $198, Alaska Airlines $145m and United next at $130m, while American was the only carrier of the seven to report a loss in the period, $246m.
IATA figures for November showed that passenger demand rose 3.1% in November and air freight climbed 9.5% compared with a year earlier, a further sign that the global economic recovery is gaining momentum, although only small so far. It has to be noted that the figures for November 2008 came at a time of sharp falls in passenger numbers. However, passenger demand is now 6.4% higher than the low point reached in the first quarter of 2009.
Following the foiled attempt on December 25 by a Nigerian national to use explosives to destroy a Delta Airbus A330 on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, the US Transportation Security Administration mandated new security measures covering inbound flights to the US, effective January 4. The screening procedures for incoming passengers to the US, specifically mentioned that passengers from Nigeria, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia and nine other countries will be subject to full-body pat downs before boarding aircraft bound for the US, as well as a search of carry-on luggage and could involve advanced explosive detection or imaging scans. The other countries involved are Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya and Somalia. Cuba has since protested strongly to being included on the list, calling the measure a ëpolitically motivatedí plot to justify the USís 47-year-old trade embargo against the communist island. The US wants political prisoners released and improvements in human rights in Cuba before the embargo is lifted.
Ascend, the UK-based consultancy and information services provider, in its annual world airline accident survey said that 2009 was ëthe safest year everí with 23 fatal accidents, though the severity of several accidents resulted in the number of passenger and crew killed increasing ësignificantlyí on 2008 to 732 against 567, the year before. There were 30 fatal accidents in 2008 and an average of 27 for the decade from 2000 to 2009. The annual average in the 1990s had been 37.4 fatal. accidents per year. The annual average of passengers and crew killed in the 1990s was 1,128. Out of the 23 fatal accidents in 2009, only 10 had been on revenue passenger flights.
The well-respected ëFlight Internationalí airline accident survey for 2009 added that airline safety in the first 10 years of the 21st century, taken as a whole, saw the lowest accident rates in aviation history by a considerable margin. In its figures, there were 28 fatal accidents and 749 fatalities across all sectors of the global industry, which compares favourably with 34 and 583 respectively for the previous year. The Flight Safety Foundation has analysed the accident rates for Western-built jet airliners over the past 20 years and the figures make good reading. For the 1990s, there were 1.18 serious accidents per million departures and in the first decade of the 2000s the figure was down to 0.57 per million
The European Aviation Safety Agency reported that 2009 had the fewest fatal aviation accidents on record for its 31 member states, with the Air France Airbus A330 accident, with the loss of 228 passengers and crew in the South Atlantic, being the only one involving a commercial aircraft. It did say that ëthe high number of non-fatal accidents (24) in 2009 indicates that further progress in safety necessaryí. During the 1999-2008 decade, an average of five fatal and 27 non-fatal accidents occurred each year with 92 fatalities.
The number of passengers travelling by air in Brazil in 2009, as measured by the number of passengers transported per kilometre, rose 17.7% to 56.26m from 47.81m in 2008, the biggest jump seen in five years. The result reflected the countryís resilience to the global downturn in civil aviation. In the domestic market, TAM had a 45.4% stake (2008 - 50.3%) and Gol 41% (2009 - 42.4%), while smaller carriers, led by WebJet and Azul, saw their combined market share increase to about 13% from 7.3% in 2008.
The Association of European Airlines now has 36 members after admitting Air Baltic, Aegean Airlines and Montenegro Airlines at the beginning of January.
Indian airlines carried 44.5m passengers in2009, up 7.9% on 2008, helped by a fourth quarter rise of 30.5% to 12.5m.
Chinese airlines earned a collective profit of $1.08bn in 2009, a massive improvement on the loss of some $4.6bn in 2008. Passengers carried were up 19.7% to 230m. Prospects for 2010 should be helped by the upcoming Expo 2010 in Shanghai and Novemberís Asian Games in Guangzhou, apart from the improved economic climate. Chinese carrier collectively added 158 aircraft last year,40 fewer than originally planned. The total number of airliners at the end of December was 1,417. This year the plans call for 208 aircraft to be added and 17 phased out. Strict CAAC control on approving the launch of new carriers will continue.
Aer Lingus made a brief statement in early January that it was in discussion with Aer Arann regarding cooperation on their route networks. Aer Lingus operates to seven UK mainland destinations, plus Belfast and Jersey, and Aer Arann from Ireland to 11 UK mainland destinations, plus Belfast, Londonderry and Jersey. The talks were said to focus on franchise arrangements between them.
Aer Lingus is to reduce its five aircraft based at Gatwick down to three at the end of March as a result of weak demand. They will continue to operate flights to Dublin, Knock and Malaga as well as a new route to Cork, but routes being axed are to Zurich, Vienna, Munich, Nice, Tenerife, Warsaw, Vilnius, Eindhoven, Lanzarote, Bucharest and Faro. Aer Lingus had originally planned to base eight aircraft at Gatwick within a year of its launch last April. It was the carrierís first base outside Ireland but it has faced competition form EasyJet, which announced on January 8 it would add three aircraft to its Gatwick base to take its fleet there to 43.
Aer Lingus is expecting to report a small operating profit for the second half of 2009, before exceptional items, as a result of cost and capacity management actions and also better than expected yields. It was negotiating in January with staff on a restructuring plan to save Ä97m a year.
A comprehensive report commissioned by Aer Lingus, CityJet and Ryanair has shown that the effect of the Ä10 per passenger Air Travel Tax brought in by the Irish government will bring reduction in revenue of over Ä400m for airlines, airports and the Irish tourism industry per year from higher fares and will also produce an estimated loss of 2,000/3,000 jobs and 1.2m passengers travelling on the airlines in and out of Ireland, while the tax itself will bring in only Ä116m There will be further losses to the government in terms of reduced income tax, increased unemployment benefits, reduced VAT receipts and declining corporate tax.
Aeroflot had a nine month profit of $170.4m to September, up 20.7% from the previous year, thanks to its cost cutting measures.
Aeroflot Cargo was declared bankrupt several months ago but freighter services have been continuing until operations are rolled back into its parent company. Its three MD-11Fís will then re-enter Aeroflot service in March in a new cargo department.
AeroLogic, a joint venture between Lufthansa Cargo and DHL Express, announced on January 14 that after receiving two more Boeing 777F it had launched a daily service between Leipzig and Hong Kong, with four of the flights are non-stop. It has also started weekend flights from Frankfurt to Atlanta and Chicago. It now has four Boeing 777Fs.
Air Arabiaís latest venture, its new subsidiary Air Arabia Egypt, is now expected to start operations by March out of Alexandria. Air Arabia reported a $39.2m third-quarter profit in 2009, excluding special items, down 8.9% on the 2008 figures. Its other subsidiary, Air Arabia Maroc, which flies from Casablanca to mostly European destinations, hopes to begin services to West Africa this year if regulatory hurdles are overcome. Air Arabia has order 44 Airbus aircraft for delivery over the next five years.
A strategic agreement to work íinnovatively togetherí was announced on January 6 between AirAsia and Jetstar. AirAsia is Asiaís largest low-cost carrier whose unit cost is the lowest in the world. It flies to 61 domestic and international destinations with 108 routes and operates over 400 flights daily from hubs located in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. It has AirAsia X as a sister airline. Jetstar is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qantas and has partner airlines including Jetstar Asia and Valuair in Singapore and Jetstar Pacific in Vietnam.
AirAsia X is planning to launch Kuala Lumpur-Sydney flights in June of July, and also to Seoul, subject to government approval.
Air Baltic has said it is to take over the Aer Lingus route between Gatwick and Vilnius sometime in 2010. However, it would be in competition with the service from Stansted to Vilnius operated by Star 1.
Air Canada is to reinstate its seasonal daily Airbus A319 service between St Johnís, Newfoundland, and Heathrow from May 27 to September 26.
The Spanish carrier Air Comet stopped flying on December 22 and confirmed it was entering into bankruptcy proceedings after attempts to sell the struggling airline, owned by the Marsans Group, had failed. It was said to owe $24.4m in aircraft lease payments to Nordbank of Germany, which look court action in London to have the aircraft impounded. The Group sold Aerolineas Argentinas back to the Argentine government a year ago. The airline had 13 aircraft and specialised on flights to Latin America
Air Europa is looking to benefit from the bankruptcy of Air Comet and is to strengthen its presence on some of the axed routes. It had a new service launching between Madrid and Lima on February 22.
Air India took delivery of 29 aircraft in 2009 - seven Boeing 777s, eight Airbus a321s and nine Airbus a319s, plus five Boeing 737-800s for Air India Express. Arrival of the new aircraft and enhanced utilisation has helped in phasing out 11 old aircraft. By March this year, three more Boeing 777s, two Airbus A310s and eight Airbus A320s will have been returned at the end of lease or withdrawn. It has plans to reduce its fleet from 146 aircraft to 105 by March 2011. In addition, it is to retire older aircraft, mainly Airbus A320s and Boeing 747s, which have been in the fleet since at least the early nineties.
Air Jamaica and Caribbean Airlines were reported in December to have re-opened discussions to form a single Caribbean airline. The talks are part of the on-going initiative by the Jamaican government to privatise its loss-making carrier in line with strings attached to large loans being secured by the International Monetary Fund. A positive outcome is expected in 2010.
Air New Zealand launched a new Airbus A320 service across the Tasman Sea on December 12 between Sydney and Rotorua on a twice weekly basis. This was the first direct service between the two cities and a special air show was arranged at Rotorua to mark the occasion. ANZ has said that the delay in delivery of Boeing 787s has held up key expansion plans. It had been due to take delivery of the first of 16 aircraft this year but the current schedule now calls for arrival in late 2013, with no firm date known. It just hopes a competitor carrier does not launch services first on a route on which it has planned to use the type.
AirTran Airways is to establish a secondary hub in Milwaukee in April, in addition to its main hub at Atlanta, to support its expanding operations from the Wisconsin city, where it will employ more than 300 crew members.
Air Vallee, the Italian regional Do328 operator, had its AOC suspended on November 4 due to financial concerns.
Al Jaber Aviation, the Middle Eastern start-up VVIP charter carrier, has taken delivery of its first 19-seat Airbus A318 Elite, which should be ready for entry into service in mid-2010. It also has had delivered an Embraer Lineage 1000 which will enter service at Abu Dhabi in March.
Alitalia has said it is ëready to move forward in 2010í after being reformed last January as a new company from the integration of the old Alitalia and Air One, and is now offering over 2,500 weekly flights to 49 international destinations and 24 points in Italy. It aims to be profitable by 2011. It is bought by new company Compagnia Aerea Italiana , 75% owned by a group of Italian businessmen, and 25% by Air France KLM. This year it has confirmed the launch of new routes from Rome to Los Angles, Vienna and Malaga and Milan Malpensa to Miami.
Allegiant Air has bought 18 MD-82/83/87s from SAS for an undisclosed amount, which SAS says would reduce its net debt by about $27.95m. Delivery commenced in January and is scheduled to be completed by July. 13 MD-82/83s will be added to its current fleet of 46 MD80 aircraft, including 13 previously purchased from SAS. The five MD-87s will be used as a source of spare engines and other parts. Once the deliveries have been completed SAS will have 24 MD-80s remaining in its mainline fleet. The Las Vegas based airline , which specialises in serving the resort cities in Florida and elsewhere from smaller US cites had an 18.6% rise in passengers in December against the same month a year earlier.
All Nippon Airways decided in December to order another five Boeing 767-300ERs to be delivered between April this year and March 2012, to be followed by five more Boeing 777-200ERs between April 2012 and March 2014, in order to tap new passenger demand as Tokyoís Haneda Airport expands. The Boeing 767s are seen as a stop gap measure pending the arrival of its Boeing 787s. The Boeing 777s will replace ANAís three Boeing 747-400s, which it hopes to sell this year. Two of the aircraft are not in front line service and are held as back-up aircraft that stay at its maintenance centre.
ANA and Continental Airlines applied to codeshare on each otherís flights less than a week after Japan and the US concluded their open skies agreement on December 12. Continental will place its code on eight ANA domestic services and 11 international routes. The ANA code would also be placed on flights operated by other Continental partners, such as Colgan Air.
FAA has confirmed it is heightening scrutiny of American Airlines after the carrier had three landing incidents in December. On December 13 an MD-80 landing at Charlotte touched down and went off the left side of the runway. While trying to get back on the runway, the aircraftís right wingtip touched the ground. On December 22, a Boeing 737 overran a runway amid heavy rain at Kingston, Jamaica, injuring 91 passengers. The aircraft broke in three and was a write-off. It had landed in heavy rain with a 16knot tailwind and at a point some 4,100ft down the 8,900ft runway. On December 24, and MD-80 en route to Chicago, struck a wingtip landing at Austin, Texas. FAA inspectors increase their oversight in situations where there may be several incidents involving a single carrier over a short period of time and will communicate their findings to the carrier.
American Airlines and Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol is to begin codesharing on Gol domestic routes in Brazil from April 1, following the deal signed on December 10. American has flights to five gateways in Brazil, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, San Salvador, Belo Horizonte and Recife, and Gol has 21, 20,12, 11 and four domestic routes, respectively, from each of them.
Astar Air Cargo is reducing its pilot workforce by 303 to just 153 by July 1 this year. Its business has been cut heavily owing to DHLís withdrawal from the US express delivery market. Its primary work was serving as a DHL sub service provider in the US.
Austrian Airlines is rethinking its network as it restructures and to be focus on high-volume routes rather than connectivity between Western and Eastern Europe. Starting in the winter 2010/11schedule, transfer traffic between East and West will shrink in favour of more capacity and more frequencies on truck routes to Western European cities. Austrian has now decided that Vienna is a weak long-haul hub and is to operate a minimal long-haul netowrk from the Austrian capital.
Austrian Airlines is looking to sell its 22.5% stake in Ukraine International Airlines. The likely privatisation of the carrier will give AUA the opportunity to find a buyer for its shares. AUA was Ä242.4m in the red for the first nine months of 2009.
The Russian government could banish Austrian Airlines from its airspace from January 31 owing to a dispute over the carrierís nationality with Russian authorities arguing that, based on current bilateral agreements with Austria, the carrier no longer is considered a domestic airline following its acquisition by Lufthansa last September. The same problem applies to Swiss International and BMI, both Lufthansa Group members as the Russians are unhappy with the increasing presence of Lufthansa and its subsidiaries in the Russian market. IATA recognises the situation has to be addressed by negotiation of new bilateral traffic rights between the EU and Russia, which could take six months to achieve and result in more slots at EU airports for Russian airlines and more access to international markets. Austrian presently operates 48 weekly flights to and from six Russian cities.
Avianca celebrated its 90th birthday on December 5, the first airline founded in the Americas and the second in the world. Its first fight was flown by a Junkers F-13 between Barranquilla and Puerto Colombia carrying a sack of mail including 57 letters. Today, the airline has a fleet of 63 aircraft with 42 destinations served in 14 countries.
Baboo launched the first international service from Oxford on December 19 in 72 years with a weekly Bombardier Q400 fight to Genera. The carrier is hopeful that the operation will be a success with passengers enjoying facilities at Oxford designed for business aviation clients. There are plans for a connecting service in early 2010 from Geneva to New York through Babooís new codeshare deal with Alitalia, although the Oxford service is particularly aimed at ski traffic, with no ski equipment surcharge.
German charter carrier Blue Wings has had financial problems again less than a year after it briefly lost it licence on concerns over its finances. Employees only received about half of their wages in November and in January had not been paid at all in December. It is part-owned by a Russian billionaire with a 48% stake through an investment company, and last year he offered his stake in the airline to Aeroflot for Ä1. Operations were suspended on January 13 when the authorities revoked its licence and it is now looking for more finance.
BMI is to reduce its Heathrow-Dublin service from seven to four flights a day from the end of March when the summer schedule starts. The Airbus A319 based at Dublin will return to Heathrow as part of its restructuring arrangements.
Bmibaby is to operate a three times weekly service between Bournemouth and Jersey for the summer from March 29.
British Airways is confident that it has addressed all the concerns of the US and EU authorities over its anti-trust immunity application over the Atlantic with other Oneworld carriers. It believes that ëthe quickest way to robust competition and more travel choices for consumers is to ensure that all three global airline alliances can compete on at equal footingí. BA and American believe US government recommendations for them to divest flights in certain transatlantic markets to secure permission to deepen their ties are ëunworkable and unnecessaryë.
According to reports, BA is now preparing to invest in its premium transatlantic operation Open Skies, after deciding not to sell or seek external investors for its subsidiary as it has a more promising future than initially suspected. It has been suggested that BA is looking at investing up to £25m in the operation over the next 12 months. Open Skies is only a small part of BA and losses so far have not been significant compared with losses in other parts of the company. Open Skies has a new three-letter code of BOS, changed from AVI.
From January 4, British Airwaysí Open Skies twice daily operation between Paris Orly and New York go into Newark. Before then one daily flight went into New York JFK and the other into Newark.
The BA 12-day strike, in a dispute over job cuts and employee contract changes, due to begin on December 22 was cancelled after BA won a court ruling that it was unlawful because the Unite union, representing 13,000 cabin crew, had not balloted its members correctly. The ballot, which showed a 92% vote backing the walkout, had included up to 1,000 staff who had already agreed to leave the airline. The union was to hold a fresh ballot for strike action on January 22 and just the threat of strike action by early March, even if it does not take place, could further damage bookings in the meantime. Efforts were being made by both sides to try and negotiate a settlement at the Trades Union Congress in January. Future strike action, if it happens, could be for less than a straight 12 days as that period was considered excessive as that length had not been advised to the staff by the union before the December action was announced. The High Court judgment in December did include a warning against taking industrial action during times of the year when significant volumes of passengers would be affected. BA is said by analysts to be loss up to £1.5m a day at present anyway and a strike would cost it around £50 in lost revenues and refunds.
BA is to launch services from London City to Palma and Ibiza and is the first time it has offered leisure flights from the Docklands airport. Three times weekly flights will start in May using Embraer 190s and the frequency will be increased in July and August.
BA has confirmed that its pension deficit has increased to £3.7bn after an actuarial review. The airline and trustees are to work on a recovery plan, which will involve consulting with its employees and their trade unions, which must be completed by June 30. The size of the deficit could give Iberia a get-out clause if it wanted to call time on the long-planned merger with BA, although not considered a strong possibility.
BA and Iberia were making good progress towards signing a merger deal in ëmid-Februaryí, according to BAís weekly in-house newspaper at the end of December. The agreement will set out in detail the terms of the merger, including certain conditions which still have to be met before completion can take place. These include clearance from regulatory bodies, shareholder approval and reaching agreement on pensions. It is not likely that the merger will be legally completed ëuntil later in 2010í.
BA passengers in December were down 4.4% on the same month in 2008 at 2.4m, with non-premium traffic down 4.6% and premium traffic 0.7%. Figures for February and March could be affected by potential customers being concerned over the threat of future strike action by cabin crew, whether it happens or not. However, on a positive note, BA started work on a £100m upgrade and revamp of its first-class cabin in January on all aircraft offering the service, although the amount of space allocated to first-class will not change.
Brussels Airlines switched its Gatwick-Brussels flights to Heathrow from January 10 to replace the BMI flights from Heathrow axed from January 9. The Belgium airline introduced a third daily frequency between Bristol and Brussels on January 10. BMI Regional will operate the service, as both airlines are part of the Lufthansa Group, and it is timed to allow passengers to conduct a full-dayís business in Brussels without requiring an overnight stay.
Brussels Airlines is helping to establish a new airline in the Democratic republic of the Congo and operations should start in the spring. Using a working name of Korongo, the new airline will be based in Lubumbashi, the second largest city in the country, and will operate Boeing 737s. The project is supported by the Belgium and Congolese aviation authorities and the governments of the two countries. Previously, Brussels Airlines was involved with the establishment of AirDC, which now appears to be a non-starter
Business Air of Thailand, based at Bangkok, started charter operations in December using a ex-United/Skystar Boeing 767-200.
Cambodia Angkor Air, which has a capitalisation of $100m, was said by the Cambodian government to have started to make a profit by December, after having been launched last July as a joint venture between the government and Vietnam Airlines. Tourism is an important source of foreign exchange for Cambodia, which is recovering after three decades of conflict that ended in 1998.
Cathay Pacific Airlines saw its passenger total for 2009, including those for its Dragonair subsidiary, dip 1.6% to 24.6m. A good sign for the future was that its passenger total for December was up 5% to 2.2m against December 2008, with the load factor up a healthy 4.9 points to 83.9%, after a 2% drop in capacity on offer. Cargo traffic was up 20.8% for the month
Taipei-based China Airlines celebrated its 50th anniversary on December 16. The airline is now serving 84 destinations in 27 countries. It is to launch a three times weekly 276-seat Airbus A340 service non-stop between Taipei and Heathrow on March 28. This follows the grant by the UK of six-month visa-free entries for Taiwanese visitors from earlier in March. The carrier also serves Frankfurt and Vienna in Europe. It will be in competition with the other major Taiwanese carrier, Eva Air, which uses Boeing 777-300ERs for Heathrow flights to Taipei, via Bangkok, and Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong.
China Eastern Airlines has agreed to invest up to $52m into the construction of Hefei Xinqiao Airport, east of Shanghai. The city currently has one airport Hefei Luogang, which serves mostly domestic destinations.
China Eastern has completed the sale of shares which had brought in $939m in capital and which will be used to help fund the acquisition of Shanghai Airlines. The Chinese regulators approved the merger on December 30. The share issue has reduced the CEA Holdingís stake in the carrier to 50.4% from 52.7%. China Eastern agreed to buy 16 Airbus A330s in December for delivery from 2011 to 2014.
The new Chinese high-speed train was introduced on December 26 on the 968km journey between Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong Province, and the central city of Wuhan, which it covered in under three hours, a journey that previously took 10.5 hours. The new service runs up to 28 times a day each way and will be a serious competitor to air services between the two cities. China Southern Airlines, based in Guangzhou, has introduce special fares to counteract the competition and one point in its favour is that the rail stations at both ends of the line are at least an hourís drive from their respective city centres. The service now operates 14 times a day from December 17. There should be business for both forms of transport as an estimated 20m workers in the Pearl River valley delta around Guangzhou hail from inland provinces.
China Southern Airlines has been reported to have plans to buy the 65% stake in neighbouring Shenzhen Airlines, formerly held by the investor who was arrested last November, in an effort to strengthen its position in southern China. Shenzhen is one of Chinaís most profitable airlines with a profit for the first 11 months of 2009 of $73.1m, in which Air China has a 25% stake. China Southern already has a branch company at Shenzhen International Airport, that is the second-largest carrier at the airport with a 30% share of passengers.
China Southern was looking for approval to commence twice weekly Airbus A330-200 services to Male from Guangzhou from January and from Beijing to Istanbul, via Urumqi, three times a week from March, also by Airbus A330.
CityJet had a strong fourth quarter at London City and has increased its flights to Amsterdam, Dublin, Edinburgh and Paris Orly, taking its daily number from its hub to 60 between January and the end of March. It carried two million passengers last year, with 250,000 flying on its strongest route to Amsterdam.
In December, CityJet took over operating for its codeshare partner Air One, the twice daily weekday flights and Sunday service from London City to Milan Linate. With this new operation, the recently-begun codeshare with Baboo on the London-City-Geneva-Venice route, plus other codeshares, CityJet now has some 47% of all movements at London City, according to the airline.
Congo Express is the name of a new East African carrier that was due to launch in late December. It is a partnership between SA Express and a Congolese group. It will use a fleet of CRJ200 aircraft to operate domestic services from Kinshasa.
Continental Airlines shares jumped 13.7% on the New York Stock exchange at the beginning of January on news that itís pace of revenue declines slowed in December from November and its aircraft were fuller and traffic was up. US Airways, American and United stockís all rose between 8% and 11%.
Cubana is planning to retire its last IL-62M by spring 2010. It is reported to have already retired in 2009 its last two An-24s.
Delta and Northwest Airlines received a single operating certificate from the FAA on December 31 which allows Delta to put is code on Northwest flights and phase out the Northwest name with the process to be completed by the end of March. Nearly 200 pre-merger Northwest aircraft, some 80%, already have the Delta livery. Operationally, the two carriers had been kept separate while the FAA certificate was obtained. Achieving a single operating certificate required the integrating of roughly 385 manuals and 100 operating specifications, programmes and processes at both airlines. The last day of 2009 was, therefore, officially the day Northwest Airlines ended as an airline. It took its name in 1934 after starting out as Northwest Airways on October 1, 1926.
Delta has revealed that its large fleet of ageing Boeing MD-80s surprisingly retain a cost advantage over its newer Boeing 737-800s. The reason is that even with the high fuel cost of running the MD-80s they start each month at no debt to Delta, as the cost has long been written off, while the Boeing 737s cost over $350,000 a month before they start flying. It also claims that the maintenance costs on the MD-80 are lower than the newer Boeing 737-800s. Deltaís combined fleet with Northwest of 1,400 aircraft is said to meet the needs of its network at present and it has no plans to dedicate a huge capital outlay for aircraft in the near term.
EasyJet lost its Court of Appeal bid for a judicial review of a price increase at Gatwick set by the CAA. It had claimed that in 2008 the CAA raised the per-passenger fee the airport could charge airlines last year following negotiations between the CAA and BAA that excluded airlines. EasyJet carries a quarter of Gatwickís passengers and maintained that it was being overcharged by about £46m a year, and faced having to pay up to 50% more in airport charges over the coming years. All EasyJet can do now is hope to work with the CAA and the new airport operator to ëensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeatedí
EasyJet is opposed to the 600-metre extension of the runway at Belfast City and has called for a public inquiry into the controversial proposals. This followed a similar request by Flybe as both airlines can see that their rival Ryanair, who has most to gain from the increased runway length as it already serves the City airport, will be the main initial beneficiary. Other airlines may show more interest in serving Belfast City than Belfast International in the future when if a longer runway is available to take aircraft with heavier fuel loads and carry more passengers more economically to airports further afield than possible now.
EasyJet is replacing the five Boeing 737s it operates from Belfast International with five new Airbus A319s. The first arrived in time to launch flights to Amsterdam and Luton on December 9. The other four aircraft will arrive over the winter, with a sixth to operate from the end of March 2011. The Airbus aircraft carries 156 seats, seven more than the Boeings, and is one of the most environmentally efficient aircraft available.
EasyJet carried 3.4m passengers in December, a 9.3% increase compared with a year earlier. The load factor was well up by 3.1 points to 85.4%. In the 12 months to the end of December, EasyJet carried 46,077,459 passengers, up 3.4% on the 2008 figure.
Emirates launched Airbus A380 service between Dubai and Seoul on December 14 and to Paris CDG on December 29 to bring the number of destinations served to seven from Dubai, the others being Heathrow, Toronto, Sydney, Auckland and Bangkok. The Paris flight will be daily from January 17, to replace a morning Boeing 777. Emirates daily services to South Korea will be operated alternatively by an Airbus A380 and a Boeing 777. From December 27, the Airbus A380 was operating seven flights a week on the route from Dubai. Its next Airbus A380 route was to be to introduce the aircraft on four of its daily flights each week to Jeddah from February 1.
Emirates is to serve Madrid from Dubai from August 1 on a daily basis using an Airbus A330-200. Madrid will be its 25th European destination. Its freight division, SkyCargo, already serves the Spanish city of Zaragoza with a twice weekly Boeing 747 service.
Eva Air is planning a direct three times weekly Taipei-Toronto service from March using a Boeing 777-300ER. The return flights will make a brief fuel stop at Anchorage. It already serves Vancouver in Canada.
FedEx had a net income of $345m in its second fiscal quarter to November 30, a decline of 30% on the figure for a year earlier.
From January 1, Flybe has made arrangements with Virgin Atlantic for passengers on domestic flights travelling through Gatwick or Manchester to be able to check in their bags for onward Virgin flights to the Caribbean, Orlando and Las Vegas. In fact, Flybe also ffers this through check-in service to BA, Brussels Airlines and Etihad passengers.
Flybe has announced a number of new routes for launch this summer towards a total of providing some 3,738 fights a week . Birmingham is to have new services, launching between July 12-14 to Avignon ( 3 a week), Bordeaux (4), Limoges (3) and Rennes (3), Gatwick-Limoges (3 weekly from July 13), Newcastle-Limoges (weekly from May 1), Glasgow-La Rochelle (Twice weekly from June 12), Manchester-Avignon (2), Bergerac (3)and Limoges (3) are to be served via Southampton, with a weekly service between Southampton and Verona, a new destination for Flybe, due to start on May 8.
Flybe is to fly between Humberside and Malaga from May 29 to September 11 using an 118-seat Embraer 195. It is increasing its service this summer between Doncaster/Sheffield and Jersey from April to October to four flights a week, against three last year.
Flyglinjen is to start serving the Jonkoping-Stockholm Bromma route using Jetstream 41s of Eastern Airways as it does not have its own AOC. The journey time will save about one hour 45 minutes compared with travel by rail and car. The carrier has been set up by a group of five local businessmen.
Garuda Indonesia to now planning to resume flights to Frankfurt, Rome, Paris and London in 2011, after it receives the first of its Boeing 777-30ERs.
Garuda is converting $95m owed to an Indonesian bank into shares, which will give the bank a 10.6% stake in the airline, as part of plans to improve its finances prior to its planned initial public offering of shares in mid-2010. It is reportedly planning to sell a 40% stake through the share issue to raise $300m to $400m.
A chartered Georgia Airways Boeing 737-500 carrying 85 passengers operated the first direct air service between Georgia to Russia for two years on January 8, with a flight from Tbilisi to Moscow Domodedovo. Moscowís decision to allow three charter flights appeared to indicate that tensions with Georgia were easing, although no response has so far been received to the airlineís request to resume a regular scheduled service, and permission is thought to the some time away. Russia curtailed flights in August 2008 soon after its tanks crossed into Georgiaís rebel-held South Ossetia region.
Hawaiian Airlines carried more passengers, 8.34m, in 2009 than in any other year in its 80-year history.
Hong Kong Airlines, in which Hainan Airlines Group has a 45% stake, received its first of three Boeing 737-300Fs in January and it was being introduced on the Hong Kong-Hangzhou route on January 18.
Iberia was increasing its weekly flights to South America from mid-January with four new flights to Lima and three more to Buenos Aires to bring the weekly total up to 17 to the Argentine capital. As part of a codeshare with LAN Airlines, Iberia is also adding three weekly flights to Quito, Ecuador. Other changes this year will see extra capacity on offer on links to Havana and Bogota. Overall, it will be providing some 20,000 extra seats a month to the region.
Iceland Express is to serve the Reykjavik-Newark route four times a week from June 1. It is also to add twice weekly service to Winnipeg in the same month, which will allow European connecting flights via Iceland.
Indochina Airlines duly received approval from the Vietnamese CAA to resume operations on January 20 with two leased Boeing 737-800. It had suspended operations on November 1 last year and since then it has been restructuring its business to satisfy creditors. It had been using one Boeing 737-800. Its initial services were a five times daily Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City service and a daily Ho Chi Minh City-Da Nang service.
American Airlines has said its proposed $1.1bn investment in Japan Air Lines could be increased following a meeting in mid-December with the Japanese government as part of a joint bid with TPG (Texas Pacific) Capital to assist with JALís restructuring and ensure that it remained in the Oneworld alliance and did not accept assistance from Delta Air Lines and move into the SkyTeam camp. American has said that a switch to SkyTeam would cost JAL ëhundreds of millions of dollars per yearí and AA and JAL would aim for an antitrust-immunity transpacific alliance under the new US-Japan open skies accord announced on December 12.
JALís restructuring plans were given a lift in December when 75% of its 9,000 retired employees voted in a company survey in favour of accepting JALís proposal to slash their pension benefits by 30% and that was subsequently confirmed by a official vote when 67% agreed, conveniently just above the 66% majority required. By January 12, more than 91% of JALís current employees, again just above the required 90%, had agreed to proposed pension cuts of 50%, clearing a key hurdle in its push to cut its pension shortfall and qualify for a state bailout. JALís pension fund had a current deficit of $3.6bn at the end of last March.
A decision by the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corporation (ETIC), the state-backed fund established to inject capital into and buy the debt of struggling but viable firms, on whether to support JAL was expected in January or push the carrier into bankruptcy. At the same time, the chances of the government guaranteeing funding to JAL decreased after the finance minister said it would not do so. ETIC planned to keep paying for fuel and other commercial transactions to keep JAL flying if the decision is made to restructure under a similar scheme to the Chapter 11 protection in the US.
As of December 29, payment protection cover against airline failure for Japan Airlines was withdrawn by its insurance underwriters. The share price suffered badly with a 32% fall to a record low on December 30 following increasing speculation over the future viability of the airline and talk of bankruptcy. The price did recover to a 24% fall but some 400m shares changed hands during the day. During 2009 JALís stock lost two-thirds of its value. The airlineís main creditors are the state-owned Development Bank of Japan and the countryís three largest private banks.
A Japanese newspaper reported on December 31 that several government minister want Japan Airlines to withdraw completely from its international network and consolidate it with that of All Nippon Airways as part of restructuring the airline under a court-led process. However, the transport minister was against the idea of having only one international carrier and the president of JAL was also against the idea, and also against any bankruptcy talk, which he saw as affecting its image and it would lose customers.
The JAL president was also reported as eyeing an alliance with Delta and the SkyTeam alliance, rather than take up the Oneworld offer through American Airlines, although American has said it would be willing to invest in the carrier even if it goes into bankruptcy protection. The Oneworld partners showed how keen to help by raising their offer to invest by $300m to $1.4bn in early January, with the help of assistance from British Airways, Qantas and Cathay Pacific. BA, for instance offered JAL slots at Heathrow to try and keep JAL within the alliance. There had been opposition to accepting either offer from American or Delta from the business community in Japan and they do not think that anti-trust immunity would be given to a tie up by JAL and Delta is the carriers would control more than 60% of the Japan/US air travel market.
On January 3, the Japanese government said the state-owned Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) would double its loan facility to $2.15bn to keep the airline flying while its future continued to be discussed and the share value jumped 34% on the news.
The Japanese government approved on January 8, a court-led bankruptcy option proposed by the state-backed corporate turnaround body. The estimate for the date for such action was around January 19. It was said that under the reconstruction to follow some 30% of the workforce would be cut by March 2013, non-core assets sold such as hotels, and JAL would withdraw from nearly 50 routes at home and abroad. JAL had previously announced it will terminate service on 30 routes, including 13 international by June. The share price continued to fall to 67 yen by January 9, 37 yen by January 12 and 7 yen the day after, giving the airline a market value of just $208m. It had been 213 yen at the start of 2009. A new chief executive was agreed on January 12.
As bankruptcy loomed, it was becoming clear that the offers of investment by American or Delta in JAL would be declined, but one was to be chosen, in due course, to become JALís major business partner. Any financial deal with one of them in the short term would only complicate its restructuring efforts. The ETIB has proposed in its restructuring plan that it sees a tie up between JAL and Delta and a switch to the Delta-led SkyTeam alliance in April 2011. It estimated that an alliance with Delta would give JAL an annual benefit of some $186m, three times more than expanded ties with American Airlines would offer. But that would hinge on JAL and Delta obtaining anti-trust immunity across the Pacific, which American would oppose..
JAL, weighted down by some $16bn of debt, moved a step closer to bankruptcy on January 15 by drawing down $1.6bn in emergency funding. In the short term, the ETIC was to ensure that JALís business operations would be ëperformed smoothly without any interruptioní and under the plan, all debts related to JALís regular business will be protected with, for instance, aircraft leasing fees to be paid as usual. It placed its code on Vietnam Airlinesí Osaka Kansai-Hanoi services from January 13 as part of an expanded codeshare agreement and JAL suspended its existing service on the route on January 11. JAL already codeshares with Vietnam Airlines on other routes between the two countries. JAL and fellow Oneworld partner Mexicana expanded their codeshare from January 14 and JAL operated its last Mexico City flight on January 18.
The first Boeing 787 to be delivered to JAL is scheduled to arrive in early 2011 but in the meantime it is looking to promote routes between Tokyo and the US, Europe and South East Asia, afforded by the expansion of Haneda Airport due from October this year.
Jet Airways, together with its wholly owned subsidiary JetLite, remained the domestic market leader in India with a share of 25.4% in 2009 carrying 11.12m passengers. This follows the introduction of new routes out of Mumbai and Delhi to offer passengers seamless connectively to destinations across India, as well as the Gulf, North America, Europe and South East Asia. It plans to add more gateway points into its hubs. Kingfisher Airlines was in second place with 10.48m passengers for a 23.9% share.
JetBird, the Irish air taxi company, did not commence operations by the end of 2009 as planned amid reports that Embraer had cancelled the purchase orders for 100 Phenom 100s. It had been looking for funding of around Ä6m to start operations and Saudi Arabian backers had been reported as backers.
Qantasí Jetstar and Malaysiaís AirAsia are to form an alliance to cut costs, a sign that even budget airlines are feeling the downturn in the global aviation industry. The joint venture does not involve equity changes and the two airlines would remain separate businesses. AirAsia and Jetstar compete regionally with Tiger Airways, which is 49% owned by Singapore Airlines and which in December halved the size of a planned initial public offering of shares due to a lukewarm response from potential investors. Jetstar and AirAsia will explore opportunities in areas including joint procurement of aircraft and what suits their operational needs for the future, as well as the pooling of inventories. Jetstar currently has a fleet of 60 aircraft, including 48 Airbus A320 family aircraft, and has future orders and purchase rights for about 100 new aircraft.
Jetstar is to increase frequency on 11 domestic routes, adding 77 new weekly return flights from March 29, the start of the new winter schedules in Australia.
Two Australian deputy general managers of Jetstar Pacific Airlines, formerly Pacific Airlines, have been asked not to leave Vietnam while an investigation takes place into the companyís losses of $31m, allegedly due to fuel hedging for a longer period than authorised by the board. In addition, the former general manager is said to have been arrested in Hanoi for being irresponsible while in office and for his part in the airlineís losses. Qantas is in partnership with the Vietnamese government in Jetstar Pacific and has a 27% stake and has the right to increase its stake to 30% this year in the airline, which continues to operate normally.
Qantas has been working with the Australian government to resolve the situation at Jetstar Pacific but it became more serious in mid-January with the Vietnamese authorities alleging the carrier had violated safety regulations and warned that it licence could be revoked if it does not remedy the problems. These problems have included in 2008 and 2009 the issue of five maintenance-related fines against the carrier. Qantas has played down the problems and said the last independent audit last October ëconcluded there were no safety concerns and that the airline met regulatory requirementsí.
Lao Airlines has become the first export customer for the Comac ARJ21-700 narrow-body jet, with an order for two aircraft. The delivery dates have not been given. Chinaís Kunpeng Airlines is likely to be the ARJ21 launch customer later in 2010.
Lufthansa flew 55.6m passengers last year, a drop of 2.6% on the figure a year earlier, after capacity had been reduced by 1.3% over the course of the year to match the decline in demand. All regions suffered a reduction apart form the Middle East and Africa. It is looking into the possibility of introducing flights from Frankfurt and Munich to Baghdad and also Erbil, in northern Iraq. It served Baghdad between 1956 and the start of the Gulf War in 1990. Ebril is already served by Austrian Airlines from Vienna.
Lufthansa is targeting a 40% reduction in costs on its European network, with one point of reduction being the elimination of 50-seat aircraft throughout its large group as it prefers to grow its regional operations with 70/80-seat aircraft. Its regional partner Contact Air has already seen 80 job losses as ATR 42-500 flying has decreased. Other points recently publicised is that Germanwings will remain responsible for its own business and growth with the group and that it expects Austrian Airlines to make a profit in 2011.Lufthansa is to announce its first Airbus A380 destinations early in 2010. Frankfurt-New York is a must, especially, in ,Lufthansaís eyes, it is ideal for pilot training because of the flight time involved. Its first aircraft is due in early summer.
Malaysia Airlines has ordered 15 Airbus A330-300s for delivery between 2011 and 2016, with options to purchase another 10. They will complement the airlineís incoming fleet of six Airbus A380s and 35 Boeing 737-800s, all due by 2016. It has a strategy to transform from a 100% leased fleet to owning at least a third of its aircraft in its core fleet. Purchases are to be funded through a combination of a proposed rights issue of shares and borrowings. Delivery of its first Airbus A380 has now been put back to August 2011.
MCA Airlines, a scheduled airline based at Stockholm Arlanda, declared itself bankrupt on November 11 last. It had taken over charter carrier Air Express Sweden during 2009.
Mesa Air delayed filing its annual results for 2009 as it struggled to survive an ongoing contract dispute with Delta involving 34 Freedom Airlinesí Embraer 145s, and negotiate leases on close to 70 aircraft. Mesa has for two years assumed the cost of parking 39 leased aircraft dropped from contracts with Delta and US Airways and by April this fleet of parked aircraft will balloon to 65/70 when United ends its own agreements to contract 26 Bombardier CRJ200s and 10 Dash 8s. Mesa was contemplating trying to convince its lessor to take back Embraer 145s and CRJ200s on a voluntary basis or rely on the legislative powers of the US bankruptcy courts.
On January 5, the decision on the curse of action had been taken and Mesa Air Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in order to undergo financial restructuring. Its joint Hawaiian inter-island operation Go! with Mokulele Airlines was not part of the filing but Mesa subsidiary Freedom Airlines is included. Mesa continued operations unaffected, including its codeshare with Delta Connection, US Airways Express and United Express. The process will allow it to eliminate excess aircraft to better match its needs and give it the flexibility to align its business to the changing regional airline scene. Mesa has a fleet of about 130 aircraft.
The Mesa group, which had assets of $975m and liabilities of $869m as at September 2009, has said it has ample liquidity to support itself during the bankruptcy process and is confident it will emerge from protection an even stronger operation. This will come from eliminating significant costs associated with retaining, maintaining and storing excess aircraft. It does have an outstanding order for 10 Bombardier CRJ70s that are due for delivery in 2013 and the order is at risk. Bombardier is Mesaís second largest creditor, after Wells Fargo Bank, with $133m owed, but that figure will likely come down as Bombardier re-marketís some of the aircraft that Mesa plans to get rid of to, recoup some of the value.
Monarch Airlines reacted angrily to an Irish betting firm offering bets at 4 to 1 that the airline would be the next one to collapse. The odds had been slashed in the last week of December from 50-1 after it received more than 100 bets in the previous week. Monarch categorically refuted the suggestion dismissing it as a publicity stunt. It maintains it is privately owned by wealthy shareholders and has accumulated substantial assets in its 41 years of profitable trading. It has six Boeing 787s on order. Behind Monarch on the betting list was Wizz Air at 5-1 and UK airlines near the top of the list were Air Arann at 9-1 and Jet2 at 10-1. The book matter ran a similar market last year, which listed Flyglobespan and SkyEurope, both of whom failed during 2009.
Nigerian Eagle Airways, freshly re-branded from its previous existence as Virgin Nigeria, is planning to raise at least $185m over the next six months. Potential equity partners are being sought with a lot of interest said to be from the Middle East, although its consultants are also targeting potential African investors. A buyer would want a controlling stake of 51% or more, comprising Virginís 49% and some of the shares held by Nigerian institutional investors, and Virgin would, no doubt, be pleased to see an end to its involvement. If Nigerian Eagle goes down the equity path, it would look to raise a minimum of $200m. Around $50 would be used to pay back part of a $100m bond held by Nigerian bank UBA Capital, with the remainder to be used for capital projects, such as its order for Embraer aircraft or even second-hand Boeing 737-300s. It would like a fleet of 20 aircraft by 2011.
Northwest Airlines, now a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, operated its last two revenue Boeing 747-200F flights on December 19 with two separate fights from Shanghai to Los Angeles and from Osaka to Chicago, the actual last service.. Delta has parked its 10 wholly-owned Northwest 747-200Fs in long-term storage, mainly at Marana in Arizona.
Norwegian Airís entry into the domestic market in Denmark means more low-cost flights between Copenhagen and various Danish destinations, which will produce a price war with Cimber Sterling. Cimber offers many departures throughout the day, while Norwegian will focus on fewer flights with a much greater capacity per departure
GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) has been pursuing all available legal remedies against Indiaís Paramount Airways for allegedly defaulting on the payment of lease charges over the lease of three Embraer 175s. In an interesting move, an appeal to the Delhi High Court in early December allowed Paramount to continue to operate the aircraft. GECAS disagrees with the court decision and was assessing its options after the court result. Paramount maintained that it does not owe GECAS any payment and says the lessor owes it ëa refund of $2m from the maintenance reservesí.
In another court case involving Paramount Airways, the Chennai High Court ordered the airline to pay EEC Leasing $757,200 within 30 days of the court order, dated December 15, after the airline defaulted on lease payments on two Embraer 170s. ECC is a subsidiary of Embraer. In a similar case to the GECAS affair, Paramount says it wanted ECC to offset the outstanding amount against the maintenance reserves.
Paramount, the all-business-class carrier based at Chennai, and is to add 600-700 flights a month within the first quarter of 2010 to its present network of some 1,900 flights a month. It is looking at increasing its services to Delhi from daily to about 50 a week and also operate to smaller Indian cities, including more than the present three cities served in western India. It is to start international flights when it takes delivery of its first Airbus A321, the first of 10 on order, and all are due before the end of 2012. At present, it flies to 21 destinations across India using Embraer 170/175s and has a market share of 1.5%.
The owners of PB Air have decided against trying to revive the Thai carrier and have confirmed that the airline officially ended as a business on December 21, when it surrendered its licence. If it had resumed operations it would have faced competition from SGA Airlines which has secured two Saab 340s and will be operating Thai Airwaysí two ATR 72-200s. SGA has been rebranding itself as Nok-Mini, due to a business partnership with Nok Air, and associate of Thai Airways.
Australian carrier Regional Expressí(Rex) Pel-Air has won a contract from the Victoria state government to provide air services to Ambulance Victoria. The 10-year contract starts in mid-2011and Pel-Air will be taking over from the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
The Australian government is planning to relax ownership rules for Qantas, allowing it to play a larger role in consolidation of the global aviation industry. Under the new policy, the 25% ownership cap for foreign individuals and 35% cap for foreign airlines will be eliminated for a combined ceiling of 49%. Qantas must remain domiciled in Australia and have an Australian-controlled board.
The airline has welcomed the decision to remove some limits on foreign investment under the Qantas Sale Act as a positive step as it will increase Qantasís ability to compete for capital and have more flexible equity arrangements. The Act still has to be passed by the Australian parliament and an opposition spokesman has already attacked the plan as dilution of ëan Australian iconë. The two caps to be removed, specific to Qantas, have been in place since 1992 when Australia was worried that British Airways or Singapore Airlines might dominate Qantas following its privatisation. The new Qantas policy is detailed in a 246-page ëAviation White Paperí, which contained all together 158 government initiatives that will shape Australian aviation for the next 20 years.
Qantas is planning capacity increases on 19 domestic routes from March 29, including the Brisbane-Sydney route, up from 140 to 146 a week, and Adelaide-Melbourne, up from 64 to 67 a week. The Brisbane routes to Cairns and Melbourne will be served by Boeing 767s, rather all Boeing 737s.
Qantas has decided not to renew its membership in the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines later this year after being a member for four decades. It says its interests in the broader Asia-Pacific area have increased significantly in scale and now extend beyond those focused on by the AAPA. With the growth of aviation in Asia, it feels it is now more appropriate for the Qantas Group to manage ëmore relationships in the Asia-Pacific region directly or in tandem with regional partner airlinesí. The AAPA has all the major airlines in the region as members, although only one carrier from China, Air China. However, a week later in January, Air New Zealand confirmed that it had not renewed its membership, but declined to comment further on the reasons behind the decision .The AAPA has said ëthe benefits of cooperation and working together on key industry policy issues have never been more evidentí
Qantas was to launch its latest Airbus A380 on the Melbourne-Singapore-Heathrow route from January 18 on one or two flights a week on QF9, with two a week from March 29. From that date, its six Airbus A380s will operate daily between Sydney and Los Angeles, five times weekly on the Sydney-Singapore-Heathrow route, three times weekly between Melbourne-Los Angeles and twice weekly between Melbourne, Singapore and Heathrow, making a daily A380 service between Singapore and Heathrow. Over 500,000 people have now flown on Qantas Airbus A380s.
Qantas flew the first commercial Airbus A380 flight over Antarctica on the evening of December 31 as a charter service from Melbourne The 450 passengers and crew were among the first in the world to experience the first sunlight of the new year. The flight was a continuation of charter flights to the region over a number of years which has seen 84 previous flights, all of them by Boeing 747-400, operated by an Australian tour operator. The flight time was just over 11 hours with the journey to Antarctica being some four hours each way.
Qatar is to serve Barcelona daily and Copenhagen four times weekly from Doha from March. At the same time, it is to increase its Stockholm service to a daily frequency. It ordered two Boeing 777-200s and two Airbus A320s in December which will bring its fleet up to 76 aircraft
Regional Express (Rex) is to cease operating the Mackay-Townsville after lodging a compliant on December 10 with the Australian Competition Commission against QantasLink for alleged anti-competitive practices. Flights stopped on January 1, three months after it launched the service. QantasLink has 25 flights a week on the route and was alleged to have cut fares and added capacity
Rosavia, the proposed new Russian state-run carrier, has delayed its $2.5bn tender offer to acquire 65 aircraft raising doubts about its future. The airline was going to merge the aircraft of Kras Air, Domodedovo Airlines, Samara Airlines and Atlant-Soyuz Airlines into the new airline coupled with the new aircraft order. In addition, state-owned Rossiya, Orenair, Kavminvodyavia, Vladivostok Air, Dalavia and Saravia were expected to be merged into the new entity. Last March the plans were put on hold for a year but the tender for aircraft was put out last August for a decision to be announced in December.
Rwandair has received a $40m loan facility to support its development plans, which includes the arrival of two CRJ200s in December. It terminated its contract with JetLink, a Kenyan-based company, following an aircraft crash in November at Kigili. It had been leasing two 50-seater CRJs from JetLink
Ryanair announced on December 28 that it was to suspend domestic flying at its 10 Italian bases from January 23. This followed the lifting of its injunction against ENAC, the Italian CAA organisation, that require the airlines to accept various forms of ID for passengers travelling on Italian domestic flights, even if these IDs consisted of nothing more than fishing licences. The flights would only be restored by Ryanair ëif it could be certain that the safety and security of its operations will not be undermined by ENACís unlawful interferenceí. The Italian measures to be allowed by ENAC were not satisfactory, in Ryanairís eyes, when compared with ones that operate successfully on Ryanairís flights in every other EU country and Ryanair says the ID requirements are agreed by all passengers and ëthere is no justification for ENAC to interfere in Ryanairís security processí. Nine Italian cities would be involved in the closedown, plus one on Sicily and one in Sardinia. It was appealing against the ENAC action.
The Italian authorities were so upset with Ryanairís proposed action to suspend flights that it said it might sue the airline for libel in the row over security check-in documents, as Ryanairës statement was ëdefamatory and damagedí the image of Italy. They maintained that their arrangements were certified by international bodies. However, by January 7, Ryanair said in a statement that ëpassengers would still be required to show a passport or a personal national identity card when boarding domestic flightsí and after discussions with the Italian CAA other forms of identification would not, at least for now, be accepted as forms of identification. The only new form of ID to be accepted was ëdocuments issued by state authoritiesí and therefore domestic flights would continue after January 23,
According to a respected media outlet, Ryanair could be about to mount another bid for rival Aer Lingus, as the one-year ban on another takeover attempt expires in January. Two previous bids came to nothing and since then Aer Lingusís shareholders, including Ryanair with a near-30% stake, have lost a great deal of the value of their shares by not agreeing to sell . However, within a week of the story, Ryanair said that ëin the absence of any decision by the Irish government to sell its 25% stake, a third bid by Ryanair remains highly unlikelyí
In the last six weeks of 2009, Ryanair announced three new bases and many new routes between the end of March and June, as well as frequency increases on a number of existing routes. As previously mentioned, its 37th new base is at Oslo Rygge, its first base in Norway, with three based aircraft and 16 new routes, making 22 routes in total. Its 38th will be at Malaga with another four aircraft to be based from June to operate 19 new routes, making 39 in total, and its 39th base will be at Faro with six based aircraft from March to operate 14 new routes, 28 in total.
In addition to the new bases, Ryanair is to increase its based aircraft to introduce new routes and existing services at Liverpool (2 up to 8 aircraft with three new routes, making 47 in total), Bristol (1 new aircraft up to 5 and five new routes to total 39), Alicante (3 up to 9 with seven new routes to make 56), Brussels Charleroi (4 up to 12 and six new routes up to 57), Bournemouth (1 up to 2 with four new routes, up to 16) and at Dusseldorf Weeze (1 up to 8 with two new routes, up to 49).
New UK routes included in all the above new base and route expansion plans are Faro to Birmingham (from March 28) and to Derry, Kerry, Knock (all to start March 30), It is to stop serving Faro and Alicante from Shannon on March 30 and it will then have only one aircraft based at Shannon, but both Iberian cities will be served from Kerry and Knock instead from the same date, due to lower costs than at Shannon.
The start dates and frequencies for the new routes out of UK and Irish airports are - Bournemouth to Ibiza and Malta from March 30 and Fuerteventura and Valencia from April 1, Bristol to Valencia from February 25, Faro, Palma and Treviso from March 30, and Gdansk from April 1, Edinburgh to Tampere from April 1, Prestwick to Carcassonne from March 31, Liverpool to Trapani from March 30, Rimini from March 31 and Lodz from April 1. It be offering 30 routes out of Birmingham when it adds an Ibiza service three times weekly from March 30. It has carried more than 6m passengers through Birmingham since stating flights in 1993. Out of Stansted, it is to resume its daily service to Trapani from March 30. It is to axe its Durham Tees Valley routes to Barcelona and Alicante from March 28, ëfollowing an operational reviewí.
Following the demise of FlyGlobespan, Ryanair is to base a sixth Boeing 737 at Prestwick from March to serve Fuerteventura and add flights on routes previously offered by Flyglobespan to Alicante, Faro, Las Palmas, Lanzarote, Malaga, Palma and Tenerife.
Ryanair carried 4.9m passengers in December, up 12% on December 2009, and that brought the total passenger figure to 65.3m for the full year, close to its prediction a year earlier, and up 13% on 2008.
Ryanair is to operate ten new routes into Fuerteventura this summer which will see it offer53 routes to the island this summer, although it is not a base airport and therefore has no based aircraft. Apart from the Bournemouth and Prestwick services above, a Dublin service will operate from April 3. Ryanair has extended its Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and Tenerife routes to its summer 2010 schedules after the local government confirmed that its airport discount scheme will continue until at least March 2012. It will be operating 52 Canary Island routes this summer with 300 weekly flights.
In December, Ryanair, as expected, pulled out of talks with Boeing to buy 200 aircraft for delivery between 2013 and 2016 and is now to trim investment from 2011 because it was not able to purchase the aircraft on terms which would enable it to meet what it calls ëdemanding return on capital targetsí. Agreement had been reached on pricing for the aircraft but Boeing was ëunwilling to incorporate some other terms and conditions from the existing agreementí which Ryanair insisted on. Boeing has not fallen for Ryanairís demands because it did not need to agree such a deal, which would have put other airlines at a competitive disadvantage. If Ryanair does not meet its long-term earnings target if growth slows or ended after 2012, it could be forced to eventually increase average fares. It does have 112 Boeing aircraft due for delivery between 2012 and 2012, including 48 in 2010 and 37 in 2011. Ryanairís capital expenditure on aircraft will fall from Ä1.2bn in the current fiscal year to around Ä100m by March 2013.
Ryanairís Michael OíLeary has said that he has not ruled out a fresh aircraft order if Boeing improved its terms. Without an order, Ryanair is planning to return at least Ä1bn in cash to shareholders through some combination of share buybacks and distributions from 2013/2015 as it cuts capital expenditure. It expects its current cash reserves of Ä2.5bn to grow substantially by March 2013.
A decision was made in December not to ground SA Airlink after three accidents in three months, subject to resolution of immediate concerns called for by the South African CAA and following observations and recommendations over the carrierís flight operations and maintenance procedures. However, that view changed at midnight on December 22, following another incident that day involving an engine failure and an aborted take-off, which resulted in the CAA grounding SA Airlinkís 14 Jetstream 41s due to safety concerns and the airline was forced to hire other aircraft to fly its routes. The aircraft were not allowed to fly again until each had been re-certified by the CAA, and one aircraft had been returned to service by January 8. The carrierís nine BAe 146s and Embraer 135s continued to fly.
The small Chinese airlines Shandong Airlines is just one of the airlines that has seen profitable trading on the development of scheduled air services over the last year between mainland China and Taiwan. It operated its first service, as a charter, on the Qingdao-Taipei route on December 26, 2008 and then added a new route from Jinan to Taipei. The original two weekly charter flights have increased to seven scheduled flights a week and during the year Shandong operated 273 flights through Qingdao and 84 to through Jinan and carried some 47,000 passengers.
Shenzhen Airlines had net income of $73.1m through the first 11 months of 2009 and in December signed to purchase 15 Boeing 737-800s. It currently has 33 Boeing 737-800s in its fleet of more than 130 aircraft and expects to introduce 10 aircraft each year over the next few years
Singapore Airlines is to commence a five times weekly Singapore-Munich-Manchester-Singapore service from March 28, to be flown by Boeing 777-300ERs. This service will replace the current three times weekly Singapore-Manchester service. SIA also serves Frankfurt in Germany with two daily flights, one of which carries on to New York.
SIA is to introduce the Airbus A380 on a daily service between Singapore and Zurich from March 28, to replace its present 12 times weekly Boeing 777-300ER service on the route. It will be the seventh city serves by SIA Airbus A380ís and the third in Europe.
South African Airways is to offer flights on a 24-hour basis during the FIFA 2010 World Cup event to meet expected demand. There will be accommodation shortages in host cities during the tournament which is likely to mean visitors will therefore be accommodated in other areas where space is available and travel to matches. SAA currently flies about 15 hours a day. FIFAís agents for the World Cup are in negotiation with SAA for up to 20 extra aircraft to be made available to SAA. Most of the major games will end late at night and visitors will then have to be flown back to where they are staying, whether they be in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town or other areas.
Southwest Airlines has said that it has gained an increase of 1% share of the US domestic market over the past year following the implementation of ëthe largest number of new technologyí initiatives of any year in Southwestís 38-year history. Due to the challenging market, it has changed its model of being a no-frills, all domestic, point-to-point operator to take note and employ scheduling techniques that have allowed it to trim unprofitable routes and increase profitable flying. The result is that even through only four new important destinations were served in 2009, capacity on offer for the full year was down 5%. New York LaGuardia and Boston were new destinations and Boston has roved to be the ëbest market penetrationí of any market in which Southwest has ever entered service. However, it estimates that 2010 will be a year when passenger growth will be ëroughly flatí.
Spirit of Manila Airlines operated its first commercial service from Clark Diosdado Macapagal airport to Macau on November 14 followed by a service to Bahrain on December 19. It has a fleet of two MD-83s, delivered last August 1 and October 24. Clark is the former USAF base situated some 40 miles northwest of Manila. In 1991, the Americans left the base, which covered over 14 square miles. The airport is now talking to several Middle Eastern airlines, as it seeks to increase its international services..
Spring Airlines had a profit of $23.1m in 2009, a sevenfold increase over the previous year, due to ëeffective cost controlí. Passengers carried were up 46% to 4.3m, with a highly impressive load factor of 95%.
Star 1 Airlines is to increased its Stansted-Vilnius service to six flights a week from April 29. It increased the frequency from four to five weekly flights on January 2.
Syrian Air advised on December 28 that the US had rejected a request by France to lift economic sanctions on the sale of Airbus aircraft to Syria. The sanctions were brought in in 2004, after the US had accused Syria of supporting terrorism, and prohibits Syrian Air flights from entering US air space and banning the export of all US products to Syria, except food and medicines. An Airbus A320, for example, includes US-made parts. Syrian Air is now talking to Tupolev about leasing two aircraft. It does operate aging Russian aircraft, and it also has seven Airbus A320s, although at least three are grounded waiting for parts.
Subject to regulatory approval, TAM is to buy smaller Brazilian regional rival Pantanal Linhas Aereas for $7.3m, but as part of the deal it is also to assume about $40m of debt owed by Pantanal, which is in bankruptcy proceedings. In November, regulators took away about 61 of the 196 slots Pantanal has at Sao Pauloís domestic airport, Congonhas, because of frequent delays and service problems. By integrating Pantanal, which currently operates ATR-42s, TAM could eventually fly to 100 Brazilian small and mid-size cities where demand for jets of fewer than 100 seats is growing steadily. GOL currently holds the most slots at Congonhas following its purchase of Varig in 2007.
Tafa Air was commencing flights from the Albanian cities of Tirana and Prishtina from December 1, using its fleet of two Airbus A320s. Initial routes are to Berlin, Dortmund and Friedrichshafen.
The executive chairman of Thai Airways International resigned on January 5 after it was alleged he had evaded hefty excess baggage charges of at least $6,000 on more than 40 suitcases he and his wife brought to Bangkok on a flight from Tokyo. He volunteered to resign but it was not an admission of responsibility. They were said to have bypassed Thai customs controls by having their luggage delivered to the lost-and-found section at Suvarnabhumi airport. The bad publicity added to the problems at the airline, which is restructuring after the huge loss of over $600m in 2008, its first loss in 43 years, and is expected to make a small net profit for 2009. Thai has submitted a recapitalisation plan to the government, which is likely to buy new shares to maintain its 51% majority stake, and approval is awaited.
Thai Airways International is to transfer three loss-making domestic routes to its low-cost subsidiary Nok Air in March, which operates out of Chiang Mai. Nok Mini, formerly SGA Airlines, is a partner of Thailandís Nok Air and a subsidiary of Thai International.
Singapore Airlines (49%) and state investor Temasek Holdings (11%) were not proposing to divest their Tiger Airways shares during Tigerís public offering of shares to raise about $177m in January. Indigo, which owns 24% of Tiger, will reduce its stake and Ryanasia, the investment company owned by the family which founded Ryanair and has a 16% stake, will do the same if an over-allotment option is triggered. The money raised will be used by Tiger to buy Airbus A320 aircraft, as it seeks to quadruple its fleet in six years, possibly set up new airlines, as well as pay off short-term loans. In its fiscal half year ended September 30, it narrowed its loss to $6.7m from a $24.2m deficit in the year-ago period.
Tiger Airways has purchased two Airbus A320s for delivery in time to operate new services between Singapore and Hong Kong in February. The purchase of the aircraft is a milestone for the carrier because they are the first aircraft it will own and not lease, enabling it to further reduce operating costs. As it continues to grow, it looks to finance additional aircraft in a similar fashion.
Transaero Airlines, which already codeshares with Austrian Airlines and BMI, has said it would consider full membership in the Star Alliance, especially as Aeroflot is a member of SkyTeam and S7 Airlines is set to join Oneworld. It operates 24 domestic routes, half of which were launched in 2009. It had a passenger growth up 1.45m to 4.7m in the first 11 months of 2009. It launched a series of charter flights by Boeing 777 in December between Moscow Domodedevo and Mexico, with a flight time of 13 hours 50 minutes
Turkish Airlines is to introduce a service to Dacca, Bangladesh, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from Istanbul during 2010 as it continues its relentless growth. It says it is geared to grow and will be ëdoubling its long-haul capabilities in the next few yearsí. It is to add five Boeing 777-300ERS and four Airbus A330-300s to its long-haul fleet in 2010 and another 10 aircraft in 2011. It was $312m in profit for the first nine months of 2009 and the fourth-largest carrier in terms of passengers among the Association of European Airlines . It currently operates 131 aircraft on 119 international and 32 domestic routes and is planning a 2010 capacity increase in excess of 20%. It had a 24% rise in passengers in 2009 to 25.1m. The Turkish government said in January that it would invest $2bn on new aircraft purchases for the airline
US Airways had a drop of about 8% in its domestic mainline capacity on offer in 2009 although, after taking into account international services, its total mainline capacity was down about 5%. It is expecting to take a non-cash charge of about $49m related to selling 10 of its Embraer 190s to Republic Airlines and leasing back eight of them. It has not entered into any fuel hedging contracts since the third quarter of 2008.
Vietnam Airlines is to increase its fleet by 16 Airbus A321s during 2010, to add to its existing fleet of 58 aircraft at the end of 2009. By 2015, it is planning to have a fleet of 104 aircraft and 150 by 2020. It carried some 9.3m passengers in 2009, which was a rise of 15.7% on the 2008 figure. The pre-tax profit was $8.1m, down 42.1% from the $14m reported for a year earlier.
Viking Hellas, the Viking Groupís new Athens-based airline, is to launch its scheduled service programme in February, including a three times weekly service to Manchester from February 3, increasing to four flights a week in late March. The carrier received its Greek AOC last October and will also operate charter flights on behalf of European tour operators. It currently has one MD-83 and will add two Airbus A320s by the spring. Viking Group also runs Viking Airlines and plans to launch Viking Airlines UK this year.
Flights from Athens to Baghdad and Erbil in Iraq are also in the plans for new routes this year.
The US government determined in early January that the revised ownership plans for Virgin America would comply with a US federal law capping overseas investment in domestic carriers at 25%. This followed a proposed ownership change after a founding US investor decided to exit the company. The plans had been challenged by competitors such as Alaska Airlines, JetBlue and other low-cost carriers. As part of the new transaction, Virgin America will obtain an additional $68.4m in unsecured debt from its shareholders. Seven of its nine board members are American. Bransonís Virgin Group has the 25% interest in the carrier. Virgin America would like to add five or six new aircraft in 2010, 12 in 2011 and 12 in 2012
Virgin Atlantic Airlines is to add seven more services between Glasgow and Orlando during June and July following the collapse of Flyglobespan. Free National Express coach vouchers will also be available to people travelling from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Cardiff, from where Flyglobespan was to fly Florida flights, to connect with Virgin Atlantic flights from Manchester and Gatwick, subject to availability.
Virgin Atlantic Airways signed the contract on December 20 for the purchase of six 270-seat Airbus A330-300s after delays in receipt of Airbus A380s prompted the airline to find interim aircraft. The deal with AerCap involves the sale and lease back of the six aircraft, which are in addition to the four Airbus A330s it is leasing from AerCap. Deliveries of the aircraft are to be in 2011 and 2012, with the lease term of each lasting 12 years. At the same time, Virgin has cancelled six Airbus A340-600 on which delivery had been deferred three years ago. They were part of an order for 20 aircraft and the other 14 have already been delivered.
Mexican low-cost carrier Volaris is to launch services from Mexico City International following a change of government policy in authorising flights from the previously restricted airport. Flights are due to start, probably in March/April, with a daily service to Tijuana, where it is the biggest carrier. It plans to continue its operations out of Mexico Cityís alternative airport Toluca. VivaAerobus, another low-cost carrier is also to start services out of Mexico City International in the near future with flights on the Monterrey- Mexico City and Guadalajara-Mexico City routes, which has both major domestic routes.
Welcome Air, an Innsbruck-based regional carrier, has acquired a 76% stake in financially troubled Air Alps, which is also based at Innsbruck, but operates mainly out of Milan Malpensa and Rome Fiumicino in partnership with Alitalia. The new group will operate eight Do-328s and four business jets.
Wings Air, a unit of Indonesiaís Lion Air, has received the first of three ATR 72-500s to replace Boeing MD-80s on domestic regional routes, for which they are ideally suited. 12 ATR 72-500s are on order for delivery in 2010 and 2011, to optimise its competitive costs and offer competitive air fares. They will be used to develop feeder routes from remote areas to the main hubs.
World Atlantic Airlines is a new charter and leasing company awaiting its air operatorís certificate. Its first aircraft is a MD-83 based at Miami.
Commercial Airports
BAA won a partial appeal on December 21 against the Competition Commission ruling that it must sell Gatwick and Stansted airports as well as Edinburgh or Glasgow airports within two years. BAA had maintained that as one member of the Commission was an advisor to the Manchester Airports Group, which at the time of the ruling was a potential bidder for Gatwick, and his involvement may be viewed as a conflict of interest. The tribunal agreed and upheld the appeal on the grounds of apparent bias. The ruling meant it was unclear whether BAA will have to sell the other airports and the appeal tribunal said that further discussions should take place with the Commission to determine the appropriate response to the judgement and hear arguments from both sides in February as to what should happen next.
BAA profits for the first nine months of 2009 were up 16.8%, with earnings before interest and taxes of £804.6m. It sees its net debt rising to £9.1bn in 2010 from roughly £8.6bn at the end of 2009.
BAAís traffic figures for 2009 fell 4.2% in 2009 against the previous year. The December figures were only down 0.9%, and it has said the bad weather during the month caused an estimated 1.9% reduction in passenger numbers. Decemberís results took the 2009 total at BAAís UK airports to 106.9m. Heathrow was down 1.5% to 65.9m, Stansted down 10.7% to 20.0m, Southampton down 8.2% to 1.8m, Edinburgh up 0.6% to 9m, Glasgow down 11.3% to 7.2m and Aberdeen down 9.4% to 3.0m. Gatwickís result does not appear because BAA does not own it anymore.
Aberdeen Airport had two routes axed in the middle of January, the Loganair service to Cardiff and the Eastern Airways route to Oslo., both due to lack of passengers. One bright note, however, was that Thomas Cook Airlines, following the collapse of Flyglobespan, is to add charter flights this summer out of Aberdeen to Dalaman and Antalya in Turkey, and Ibiza, Palma and Reus in Spain.
The Australian MAp Airports group has sold its 35.5% stake in Bristol Airport and acquired an additional 3.9% stake in Copenhagen Airports to take its interest there to 30.8%. The Bristol sale was to Ontario Teachersí Pension Plan for £128m. The EU competition regulators approved the deal in December as ëthe transaction will not significantly impede effective completioní in Europe. It also increased its stake late last year in Brussels Airport by 3% to 39%. The Belgium government has a 25% stake. MAp was formerly known as Macquarie Airports.
Bristol Airport has made changes to its £150m expansion plans after feedback from a public consultation, including limiting its proposed increase in night flights, originally due to rise to around 12 a night ,to be capped at 10 per night. There are currently seven flights a night on average. The airport is offering to spend £10m on a series of changes to the plans, many involving transport links.
The amended plans, included in the whole application, was to go before the North Somerset Council on February 10.
With the loss of Flyglobespan, Cardiff Airport is searching for a new carrier to run regular summer flights to Florida. Flyglobespan was planning scheduled flights between Cardiff and Orlando Sanford starting in June. The service was previously operated by XL Airways, which itself went into administration in September 2008
Within a month of the closing of Coventry Airport, Coventry Council, which owns the freehold of the land, was reportedly talking to two consortiums in a bid to reopen the airport. The council is said to be committed to keeping the site as an airport as it is good for the local economy. The administrators have said they are looking at a range of options to secure the future of the site.
New talks were being held in January between Doncaster/Sheffield Airport owners, Peel Airports, and Doncaster Council over proposals to loosen restrictions on night flying at the airport. Currently, a ban exists on noisier aircraft at night, and the consultation document presented by Peel seeks to amend the number and types of aircraft that may operate at night. The airport is hoping to attract more freight operators if the restrictions can be relaxed, which could bring an estimated extra 440 airport jobs in airfreight work by 2016 and result in more revenue for the local region. The councilís planning committee was meeting in February.
Durham Tees Valley Airport is cutting staff, by up to 32 out of 175, as well as operating hours after passenger numbers collapsed by 53% last year, from 670k to 306k, due to the economic situation. The need is to ëcreate financial stabilityí and the airport will close overnight. The terminal building area will be segregated into a premium area for scheduled services and business travellers and another area which will handle charter and low-cost services.
Durham Tees Valley owners, Peel Airports, returns to court in February in an attempt to overturn a decision on its unsuccessful £12m claim for damages against Bmibaby last year. It maintains that Bmibaby was in breach of contract after it withdrew its Heathrow service from Durham Tees Valley in 2006, severing Teessideís direct link with London. The judge had dismiss the claim as he deemed the terms of the contract too vague to be enforceable, leaving the airport with a £1m legal bill.
The Edinburgh City Council is becoming concerned over the future development of Edinburgh Airport, which it says is being held up by ëred tapeí. The future ownership of the airport was thrown in fresh doubt after BAA won a partial victory against the Competition Commissionís ruling forcing BAA to sell either Edinburgh or Glasgow airport. The Appeal Tribunal had concluded ëwith the greatest reluctanceí that a claim by BAA of ëapparent biasí in the Commissionís decision was successful.
Glasgow Airport announced in late December, a £25m upgrade and expansion plan to improve facilities for passengers and traffic access to take place over the next two years. The improvements include a new runway lighting system and upgrades to the airfield taxiway as well as refurbishments to the main passenger lounge. The airport is also contributing £1m towards the cost of the M74 motorway extension, which will reduce journey times to the airport. £12m is to be spent in 2010 and £13m in 2011. The Commonwealth Games is to be held in Glasgow in 2014.
Glasgowís twice weekly service to Lahore, Pakistan, operated by PIA has been running at an average load factor of 64%, when 74% was the break-even level. Its performance has not been helped by Emirates daily service to Dubai. The route has therefore been under threat but, after a meeting between the BAA, PIA and Pakistanís consul-general for Scotland , improved efforts are to be made to better market the twice weekly service.
Hong Kong Airport opened a new terminal extension on December 17, providing 10 additional gates for narrow-bodied aircraft. The extension is to the north of Terminal 1 and was built at a cost of $129m. Passengers reach the extension via shuttle buses from Terminal 1 or 2 and it is designed to serve over 5m passengers a year. With the new satellite concourse, less than 10 flights will need to be parked at remote bays every day compared with the current 40 to 50.
The Isle of Man Airport passenger figure for 2009 was 721,000, a 5.45% drop in the 2008 figure and the airport greeted the news as being ësignificantly better than many UK airports during a period of unprecedented economic downturní.
Liverpool Airport had its first monthly increase in passengers in more than a year in November. Numbers increased by some 30,000 for a healthy 8.2% rise. KLM and Eastern Airways are new airlines that were not serving the airport last November and Ryanair has kept up its capacity with several new links, EasyJet also has a larger flight programme. However, for the full year passengers are down some 9% or 500,000 on 2008, and lower than for the last two years. It hoped to nearly reach itís 2006 total of 4.96m.
Campaigners against increased flights from London City Airport have been given to go ahead to take their legal challenge against Newham Council to the High Court for allowing a 50% increase in flights. They maintain that many residents of east London, who have to put up with increased noise and air pollution, were simply not consulted. The case will be heard later in the year.
Manchester Airportís 35-year-old air traffic control centre is closing in 2010, with 180 staff out of 220, opting to move to a new £170m centre at Prestwick controlling the northern UK airspace. Staff at Manchester Airportís control tower, monitoring airport movements, of course, remain unaffected. Once the move is completed, NATS centre at Prestwick and its equivalent at Swanwick in Hampshire, will control all UK airspace.
Manchester Airport Group had an 18% fall in profit in the first half of its current financial year to last September to £31.2m. It achieved year-on-year income growth across all its commercial sectors on a per-passenger basis, including retailing and airport parking, and achieved savings after around 100 voluntary redundancies at managerial level. The Group operates Manchester, East Midlands, Bournemouth and Humberside airports, and is owned by 10 Greater Manchester Council authorities. Its chief executive has said that the recent period has been the worst trading environment in his 22 years with the business and has warned that it could be three years before earnings return to previous levels.
Two of Mexicoís three main airport groups, with 21 airports between them, saw passenger numbers drop by 13% in 2009 as the swine flu and economic conditions affected demand. Between them they handled 34.8m passengers during the year against 40.1m in 2008. The third group with 12 airports was running 19% down on a year earlier after 11 months of 2009.
From December 17, Moscow Domodedovo Airport was operating simultaneous parallel departures from two independent runways. The newly reconstructed Runway 1 and new high-technology implemented by the airport made it possible. The runways are spaced parallel but two kilometres apart. The change will allow for increased capacity of up to 90 movements per hour and punctuality of flights will improve. Domodedevo is the largest airport in Russia and Eastern Europe and handled 20.4m passengers in 2008. At the present time, the number of airlines using the airport totals 80, 34 of them foreign, 30 Russian and 16 representing CIS States, which between them operate to and from 220 worldwide destinations.
The longest runway at New York JFK, Runway 13R-31L, is to close for four months from March for work to be carried out to widen the runway, replace its asphalt surface with concrete and update the lighting and electrical systems. At 14,572ft, the runway is the second-longest commercial landing strip in the US, with the longest at 16,000ft at Denver. It handles one-third of JFKís total air traffic, including more than half of its departures. The shutdown could increase delays, but airport and airline officials insist there will not be any major problems. In the long run, the renovations will help reduce delays, for which JFK is notorious. The average delay is more than an hour. During the repairs there will be fewer flights provided by carriers like Delta and JetBlue.
Oxford Airport is to see the return this summer of the weekly charter service to and from Jersey following the success of the 2009 operation when 93% of seats had been occupied. Flights will start on May 22 and carry on until September 11, and will be operated by CityJet/VLM using a 50-seat Fokker 50.
Objections to plans to extend the runway at Southend Airport have been submitted by Leigh Town Council because of concerns about the development, including increased noise, pollution and disruption to school pupils. The planning application does not directly affect Leigh, but the town is under the airport flight path.
Stansted wants to cash in on its ëunique spare capacityí by targeting airlines based at Heathrow to switch. Heathrow is over-full and Gatwick is full, at least for prime daytime slots, and BAA would like to see more long-haul routes out of the Essex airport, with the US a priority. It sees the plan as stopping airlines moving to the Continent, especially now it has permission to expand to handle 35m passengers a year and without further investment being needed on the infrastructure. In the past, long-haul airlines have shown little interest in serving Stansted. but BAA hopes that times have changed.