Airline Business articles from October 2005

Airline Business archives from October 2005

United outlines post-bankruptcy vision.(United Air Lines Inc.)
October 1, 2005... The carrier hopes to raise $2.5-3 billion to repay its interim loan and to provide liquidity. Chief executive Glenn Tilton told employees in a message that UAL has "proposals for up to $3 billion in exit financing from four of the most...

Austral set to fly overseas.(Aerolineas Argentinas S.A.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Aerolineas Argentinas is studying the withdrawal from some major overseas routes in favour of its domestic subsidiary, Austral. Aerolineas has been the only locally designated carrier flying overseas since a drug scandal earlier this year...

Varig split to hive off debt burden.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Now that bankrupt Varig has filed its restructuring plan, it is starting to meet creditors, including Brazil's government, in a campaign to gain their approval. The key element in its blueprint for recovery is a new entity called "New Varig"...

WestJet wants more foreign cash.(WestJet Airlines Ltd.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Transport Canada and WestJet's shareholders have approved a new class of shares designed to improve WestJet's access to foreign capital. Patterned after a similar issue adopted last year by Air Canada, WestJet is dividing its common shares into...

Delta and Northwest finally succumb.
October 1, 2005... By the time the expected happened it was all but anticlimactic. Dual bankruptcy filings on 14 September within minutes of each other put nearly a quarter of US airline capacity in the protection of bankruptcy courts as Delta and Northwest gave...

Surcharges pin back fuel rises.(airline surchages)
October 1, 2005... While they may be in a more healthy state than their North American peers, airlines in Europe and Asia-Pacific are still reeling from the surge in the price of oil. Fuel prices wrought the havoc anticipated on Asia-Pacific airline bottom lines...

Domestic role for Air Pacific.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Fiji's flag carrier plans to take over one of the island group's local airlines so that it can offer online domestic feed between its international flights and Fiji's outer islands. Air Pacific has agreed to buy Sun Air, one of Fiji's two...

More outsiders look to invest in China.
October 1, 2005... Korean Air says it has signed a letter of intent with recently launched Okay Airways to buy an unspecified stake. The maximum stake foreign companies are allowed to own in local airlines under Chinese law is 25%. Okay launched services in March...

Qantas shares with JetStar.(Qantas Airways Ltd.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... In a strategy switch, Qantas Airways and its low-cost unit JetStar will share their first common route when JetStar launches trans-Tasman flights to New Zealand in December. JetStar will replace Qantas on its Melbourne and Brisbane routes to...

Pilot poaching frowned upon.(six months' notice before leaving work)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... India's government is making it harder for pilots to jump ship to other airlines by forcing them to work at least six months' notice. The move is aimed at deterring further "poaching" of cockpit crew in a market where airline fleet growth has...

Investors get a taste for SpiceJet.(MacRitchie Investments and Istithmar to invest $20 million)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Foreign funds are continuing to flow into India's fast-growing low-cost airline sector, with government investment companies from Dubai and Singapore agreeing to buy into recently launched Delhi-based SpiceJet. The carrier launched its first...

Star Flyer prepares for launch with ANA backing.(All Nippon Airways Company Ltd.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... The first new passenger airline in Japan in several years is moving steadily towards a March start after securing launch support from major carrier All Nippon Airways (ANA). Star Flyer, based in Kitakyushu in the south of the country, plans to...

Virgin Blue at centre of power struggle.(Virgin Blue Airlines Proprietary Ltd. to be acquired by Toll Holdings Ltd.)
October 1, 2005... Now, in an unusual alliance with Toll Holdings, one of Australia's two big transport companies, Branson's Virgin Group has a chance to oust Patrick as Virgin Blue's largest shareholder. Immediately after Patrick launched its takeover bid for...

Indian Airlines finally freed to grow.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... The order was approved more than three years after Indian Airlines began to seek government approval for it -- and many years after fleet modernisation and expansion studies began. Approval was announced in New Delhi by Indian prime minister...

Idris answers MAS call.(Malaysia Airline System Bhd., Idris Jala)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Another Asian airline chief has fallen victim to poor financial results brought on in part by rising fuel costs. Malaysia Airlines (MAS) managing director Ahmad Fuaad Dahlan was the second within two weeks in August, the first being Thai...

EasyJet gets its man.(Easyjet Airline PLC, Andrew Harrison)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... The word on the street was right -- UK low-cost carrier easyJet has gone outside the airline industry to recruit its new chief executive to replace the retiring Ray Webster. However Andrew Harrison, 48, named in August as the new head of the...

Leancuisine.(LSG/Sky Chefs Inc.)
October 1, 2005... Over the past few years the emphasis for the in-flight catering industry has been all about slimming, but it has nothing to do with waistlines. The sharp capacity drawbacks after September 2001, radical cuts in food provision and increasing...

Protect and survive.(airlines filing bankruptcy in United States)
October 1, 2005... On Capitol Hill they speak of a revolving door that keeps a familiar cast of characters in business whether they are in Congress, the federal agencies or the lobbyist power corridor of Washington's K Street. The issues might change, but the...

ACE job for Dunne.(Ace Aviation Service)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Brian Dunne, formerly chief financial officer at Aer Lingus, has moved from Dublin to Montreal to become executive vice-president and chief financial officer for ACE Aviation, Air Canada's holding company. Dunne took up his position in...

Olympic aid deemed illegal.(Olympic Airlines)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... The European Commission (EC) has concluded its investigation into illegal state aid to Olympic Airways and Olympic Airlines -- finding that the Greek government has supplied illegal support worth [euro]540 million ($645 million). The ruling...

Passenger rights blow as regulations stand.
October 1, 2005... Although these opinions are not binding, in practice it is rare for the court to go against them. IATA and low-cost trade body the European Low Fare Airlines Association (ELFAA) had challenged the regulations, which set out rules for assisting...

Europe rules on airport state aid.
October 1, 2005... The guidelines, which set out rules for financial support from airports and regional governments for airlines starting new routes, have been long awaited. The rapid rise of the European low-cost sector from the late 1990s led some airlines to...

EC sounds airport capacity warning.(European Commission)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... The European Commission (EC) has launched a consultation paper on airport capacity shortages, warning that by 2025 Europe's top 20 airports will be saturated for most of the day. The paper is mainly aimed at making better use of airport...

KLM kicks off all-business class service.(KLM Royal Dutch Airlines)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... From October, Privatair will operate a daily service on behalf of KLM, with a 44-seat Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) flying between Amsterdam and Houston. The Dutch carrier attributes the strong demand for the service to Houston's "central role" in...

Backtable.(United States. Department of Transportation and European Commission)
October 1, 2005... As they jetted off to Washington in early September to lay the groundwork for a new round of talks on a transatlantic open aviation area, the team of Brussels bureaucrats was in a sober mood. The party was worried that the US Department of...

Europe and USA liberalise third-country bilaterals.
October 1, 2005... When talks on a transatlantic common aviation area started in 2003 they were billed as a chance for Washington and Brussels to set a liberalisation template that others could follow. That is not quite how things have panned out. While talks...

Slidingdoors.(Thai Airways's Kanok Abhiradee awarded)
October 1, 2005... Just days after Thai Airways president Kanok Abhiradee was named winner of an airline quality monitoring website's 2005 World Airline Leadership Award, he was summarily moved aside by the board of directors, who gave management authority to one...

Airline Business on the web.
October 1, 2005... Over the past couple of months, close watchers of Airline Business will have noticed an overhaul of our online offering. In the past, the magazine's website has been a conduit for readers to renew their subscriptions, order our wide range of...

Latin American Airline Leaders Forum.
October 1, 2005... 25-27 October Miami, Florida AITAL, the International Latin American Air Transport Association, is hoping to attract some 350 delegates to its second Latin American Airlines Leaders Forum in late October to debate the current state of the...

In next month's issue of Airline Business.
October 1, 2005... Cover interview -- GOL chief executive Constantino de Oliveira Junior explains the phenomenal success of the Brazilian low-cost carrier as it begins to look for growth overseas. Network carrier survival -- Legacy airlines have to adapt...

Airline Distribution 2006.
October 1, 2005... 28-30 March 2006 Dublin, Ireland After its successful launch last year in Bangkok, Airline Business and UATP have announced that the Airline Distribution 2006 conference will take place in Dublin in March. The event explores the rapidly...

Star IT platform finally gets the green light.(Star Alliance Services GmbH contracts with Amadeus Global Travel Distribution S.A.)
October 1, 2005... The two Star carriers will use the Amadeus Altea suite to form a platform covering reservations systems, pricing calculations, ticketing, flight schedules and availability, customer databases, inventory, revenue management, departure control,...

After the storm.(many airlines filed for restructuring)
October 1, 2005... The descriptions say it all: the single greatest civil disaster in US history and the single largest blow to the nation's economy since the terror attacks of 2001. Hurricane Katrina was the force of nature that turned several hundred thousand...

Paradiseregained.(Hawaiian Airlines Inc. regained form bankruptcy)
October 1, 2005... The view from Mark Dunkerley's office is one of paradise: Hawaii's blue-tinted, distant and inviting mountains and perpetually clear skies. He is not often there to see it, though, because Dunkerley spends a major chunk of each day as president...

No easy fix to US woes.(airlines filing for bankruptcies in United States)
October 1, 2005... The news of the Chapter 11 filings by Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines came as little or no surprise. Similarly unsurprising have been the inevitable calls for consolidation of the US airline industry. There are clearly two issues that...

Capacitycrossroads.
October 1, 2005... With traffic back to the pre-2001 peak and flying hours climbing sharply surely the good times are back for the maintenance industry? Certainly business activity is strong but many questions remain. There is overcapacity in certain regions and...

Singapore firm scouts for global growth.(Singapore Technologies Aerospace Ltd.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Singapore Technologies Aerospace (ST Aero) is always on the look out for expansion opportunities around the globe. One of its main drivers is to find lower-cost platforms, says Tay Kok Khiang, president of ST Aero. "A key consideration is to...

Turningthescrew.(airlines maintenance)
October 1, 2005... When a chief financial officer casts a critical eye down his carrier's balance sheet there are several serial offenders when it comes to cost control. Excluding the excruciating pain of ever-escalating fuel prices, maintenance can be one of...

Carriers fight escalating spare parts prices.
October 1, 2005... Cathay Pacific's engineering director Derek Cridland admits that the issue of spare parts price escalation is a "hobby-horse" of his, but in the battle to reduce maintenance costs he is adamant that the automatic annual increases must go. "It...

American bucks the outsource trend.
October 1, 2005... As the US majors race wholesale towards maintenance outsourcing, there is one carrier determined to retain its huge servicing capability. "They all made a mistake by getting rid of their maintenance businesses," asserts Carmine Romano,...

Strategicdirection.
October 1, 2005... Airlines under pressure from rising fuel prices and stiff fare competition are increasingly looking to outsource maintenance. Despite engaging in aggressive internal profit improvement initiatives, most airlines still report meagre results...

upRamping.(Air Canada Technical Services expanding facilities beyond canada)
October 1, 2005... In the process of revving up for a substantial amount of maintenance work from two big new US airline contracts, Air Canada Technical Services (ACTS) is also looking at expanding its facilities well beyond Canada. "The strategy of ACTS is to...