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Wednesday November 11, 2009

Malev Hungarian Airlines expects a final decision about its future ownership by the end of this month. The troubled carrier is in talks with the government, which is considering reinvesting in Malev and helping it restructure, Deputy CEO and CCO Karim Makhlouf told ATWOnline at this week's oneworld event in Mexico City. He said the government likely will acquire at least 51%. The airline currently is 99.5% owned by the AirBridge consortium, which is backed by Russia's Vneshekonombank. It was privatized in 2006.

Meanwhile, management is doing everything possible to stabilize Malev, Makhlouf said. Its current fleet of 30 aircraft will be reduced to 20 for the winter season, with most of the remainder parked, and 30% of its 1,500 employees will be laid off. The fleet will rise back to 28 aircraft for the summer 2010 schedule. "Our plan is to increase the MA fleet by three steps, up to 40 aircraft, by 2012," he said. It plans to double its Q400 fleet to eight in the near future and remains committed to its letter of intent for 30 Sukhoi Superjet 100s. "We will focus on extending our network in Eastern Europe, with the first enhancements on these routes starting in January."

He said Malev made a mistake in not focusing on Eastern Europe in the past and has failed to derive maximum benefit from its oneworld partnerships. It is looking to strengthen ties with Iberia, Finnair and British Airways. "We also want to take advantage of the restructuring of Austrian Airlines and CSA Czech Airlines. We believe we can react faster [in certain markets]," he said. Utilization is another key, and he said capacity additions will come largely through more efficient use of aircraft. Malev has suffered from load factors as low as 63% in the past and also from a poor image, inefficiencies and carrying too many employees.

by Kurt Hofmann

Shenzhen Airlines plans to sell a partial stake in its Kunpeng Airlines subsidiary to the Henan government in order to raise funding for the troubled regional carrier. "We are still negotiating with the Henan provincial government on how much of a stake to sell and at what price to sell," a Shenzhen spokesperson told ATWOnline. Kungpeng may change its name to Henan Airlines as part of the deal. Similarly, Hainan Airlines sold a 20% share in Grand China Express to Tianjin authorities, then relaunched the rebranded Tianjin Airlines in June (ATWOnline, June 15). Kunpeng was launched by Shenzhen and Mesa Air Group in October 2007. It originally was based in Xi'an but moved to Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, in August 2008. It has been operating at a loss since launch, and Mesa concluded the sale of its 49% stake to Shenzhen in the spring (ATWOnline, April 8).

Seeking help from local governments is a growing trend in Chinese commercial aviation. Hainan signed a framework agreement with the Yunnan provincial government in June 2008 to launch Yunnan Airlines from the assets of Lucky Air, which received a CNY290 million capital injection from the government in June 2009 (ATWOnline, June 3). The government also injected funds into China Eastern Airlines' Yunnan branch company (ATWOnline, June 2). But industry analysts have pointed out that local funding will alleviate the airlines' financial pressure only in the short term and could aggravate domestic capacity further.

by Katie Cantle

Malaysia Airlines will announce at a press conference today that it has transitioned to the SITA Reservations platform, part of a 10-year, $130 million contract under which SITA will install/manage a variety of MAS IT systems. The changeover to the SITA reservation system took 13 hr. on Nov. 1 and involved the transfer of almost 1.5 million PNRs. MAS CEO Azmil Zahruddin said, "Upgrading to a new reservations platform is the equivalent of a heart transplant for an airline. Over 3,000 reservations and ticketing staff have been fully trained in preparation for this change."

The SITA Reservations suite of products includes reservations, inventory and distribution with codeshare, automated schedule and reaccommodation management. SITA CEO Francesco Violante said that the "successful [MAS] cutover to SITA Reservations sets a new industry benchmark for how such a complex project can be delivered with minimal disruption. . .The most striking statistic of all is that only 67 PNRs needed to be reworked during the cutover. . . just 0.007%." Under SITA's contract with MAS, it also has implemented an upgraded departure control system to allow the airline to offer self-service options to passengers including kiosk and Web check-in.

Ryanair will shutter its Basel operation on Dec. 2 and cancel its 18 weekly flights to Alicante, Cagliari, London Stansted, Marseille, Porto and Stockholm Skavsta. It said the airport "refused to lower its high airport charges to reflect the lower fares being paid by passengers in the current recession." Ryanair offered to add 13 more weekly flights to the airport in exchange for lower charges but Basel refused, according to the LCC.

Hawaiian Airlines said dispatchers represented by the Transport Workers Union ratified a new four-year labor agreement providing "increased pay and benefits as well as profit sharing" to the employees and "operational improvements" to HA.

ANA yesterday unveiled a series of long-haul service enhancements dubbed Inspiration of Japan that will be available beginning next February on 777-300ERs flying from Tokyo Narita to North America and Europe. First class will feature 1-2-1 seating with privacy partitions, 23-in. LCD screens, new decor and bedding, "refined" a la carte menus and touchscreen ordering starting in April. ANA's first class lounge at NRT will be upgraded in February and passengers will have access to a single check-in point (personal, luggage and security) by fall. Cabin upgrades will be available from Feb. 20 on flights to New York JFK and to Frankfurt and London Heathrow by the March 31 end of the fiscal year. Other routes will come online afterward.

The upgraded business cabin will feature staggered 1-2-1 seating, 17-in. LCD screens, lie-flat seats with aisle access and on-demand a la carte catering. Both premium cabins will feature warm-water bidets. New premium economy seats will have 42 in. pitch and will be arranged in a 2-4-2 configuration. They will feature large, movable dividers, 12-in. screens and noise-canceling headphones. Economy seating will be 2-4-3. Seats will have 34 in. pitch with 10.6-in. monitors. Power outlets, USB ports and new bedding will be available across both economy classes.

Air Canada and Jazz flew 3.85 billion RPMs in October, a 1.3% decrease from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 0.5% to 4.84 billion ASMs and load factor dipped 0.6 point to 79.6%.

JetBlue Airways flew 2.02 billion RPMs in October, up 7.2% year-over-year, while capacity rose 7.1% to 2.5 billion ASMs. Load factor was up 0.1 point to 80.8%.

Hawaiian Airlines flew 680.7 million RPMs in October, a 5.7% increase year-over-year, and capacity rose 2.6% to 797.7 million ASMs. Load factor climbed 2.4 points to 85.3%.

Pinnacle Airlines flew 386.9 million RPMs in October, down 9% year-over-year, against a 10.5% cut in capacity to 485.9 million ASMs. Load factor rose 1.3 points to 79.6%.