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Tuesday November 24, 2009

Eurofly and Meridiana will merge into Meridiana Fly, the Italian carriers confirmed last week. Meridiana already owns 60.7% of Eurofly. The new airline will focus on medium- and long-haul services while "peak" summer and winter short-haul and charter operations will be handled by a newly incorporated company called Meridiana Express that will be part of Meridiana Fly. Deadline for the integration is Jan. 31. "The business combination is the final stage of a business process which commenced in 2007 [with the aim of achieving] significant commercial synergies and quality improvement of services provided," Meridiana said in a statement.

Eurofly reported a net loss of €23.3 million ($34.3 million) in the 2009 first half, widened from a €14.9 million deficit in the year-ago period. Operating revenue fell 12.2% year-over-year to €143 million. Combined passengers carried in scheduled and charter services declined 23% year-over-year in the first six months to 715,959. It currently operates nine A320s and three A330s. Meridiana operates 18 MD-82s and four A319s.

US FAA yesterday issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to require "scheduled airlines to either retrofit their existing fleet with ice-detection equipment or make sure the ice protection system activates at the proper time," the agency said in a statement. For aircraft with an ice-detection system, FAA is proposing to mandate that the system "alert the crew each time they should activate the ice protection system. The system would either turn on automatically or pilots would manually activate it." Systems would be required to be activated "at the first sign of icing when at cruising altitude," FAA said. Administrator Randy Babbitt added, "We want to make sure all classes of aircraft in scheduled service remain safe when they encounter icing."

The agency estimates that on average the rule would cost airlines $5.5 million to implement. Public comments on the NPRM will be accepted through Feb. 22. Airlines would have two years after the final rule is effective to comply. FAA noted that the rule would apply mostly to in-service aircraft with a takeoff weight less than 60,000 lb. "because most larger airplanes already have equipment that meets the requirements. . .The rule technically affects 1,866 airplanes, but all turbojet airliners and many turboprops covered under the rule already have equipment that satisfies the requirements and the FAA believes others will be retired before the projected compliance date in 2012."

Air Berlin said it is seeking to recruit 700 flight attendants and 120 pilots. The new employees would be based in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Munster/Osnabruck, Nuremberg, Paderborn-Lippstadt and Stuttgart in Germany as well as Basel/Muhlhausen and Zurich in Switzerland, AB said. It currently operates 129 aircraft. It has retired all of its 737 Classics and plans to ground two 757s and one 767-300ER by the end of January. It is expecting to take delivery of 26 aircraft in 2010.

Seperately, AB said it became the first airline to receive approval from German aviation regulator LBA to deploy GLS technology on its flights.

Lufthansa said its first A380 delivery will be delayed again by several weeks and it now is expected in early summer next year instead of spring, a spokesperson told ATWOnline.

Blue Wings 48% shareholder Alexander Lebedev is preparing to transfer his stake to Aeroflot, German daily Handelsblatt reported, adding that he hopes to generate €100million ($148.6 million) from the sale of his shares.

Malev Hungarian Airlines will re-launch daily Budapest-Serbia service Dec. 14 aboard 72-seat Q400s after a 17-year hiatus. It suspended operations to Belgrade in 1992 owing to the outbreak of the Yugoslav wars.

Jet Airways increased 13-times-weekly Delhi-Kathmandu to twice-daily and will launch daily Mumbai-Kathmandu flights Dec. 2 aboard a 737.

Etihad Airways launched four-times-weekly Abu Dhabi-Hyderabad service aboard an A320, increasing to daily from the start of 2010.

Qatar Airways launched four-times-weekly service from Doha to Amritsar and Goa and will start Doha-Melbourne service Dec. 6.

Cabot Aviation was appointed by Cyprus Airways to sell four A320s.

Honeywell said Air New Zealand extended by seven years two of its wheels and brakes service agreements for 737 Classics and 767-300s. Financial details were not disclosed.

Oxford Aviation Academy signed a five-year agreement with Icelandair for provision of simulator training for 757s and 767s as well as Dash 8-100/-300 training for Air Iceland.

AeroMechanical Services and L-3 Communications reached an agreement under which L-3 will sell AMS's real-time data communications and Internet data delivery systems for aircraft. AMS will be the exclusive provider to L-3 of Iridium satellite-based real-time data communications and Internet data delivery technology under the brand name FLYHT.