ATW Daily News

Other News

Monday March 16, 2009

TUI Travel said it is holding "very constructive" negotiations with Boeing regarding the delivery schedule for the 23 787s it has on firm order. "We are not seeking damages from Boeing, although the delay in the program has heavily impacted our expansion plans," TUI Travel Aviation Director Christoph Mueller told ATWOnline. "The 787s are part of our strategy to introduce several new long-haul destinations which we cannot serve nonstop with our current fleet."

Manchester-based First Choice Airways, now part of Thomson Airways following the 2007 merger of TUI's travel division with First Choice Holidays, was due to receive its first 787 last month. That delivery now has been delayed to March 2011. The travel group is not demanding compensation from Boeing because "it's negative," Mueller argued. "We are in very constructive negotiations with Boeing to try to improve the situation and move the foreseen delivery schedule forwards. We are optimistic these talks will lead to a solution."

by Cathy Buyck

Shanghai Airlines Chairman Zhou Chi told a shareholders meeting last week that the 787 does not "fully meet the quality that Boeing touted earlier" and said the carrier is considering cancelling and/or postponing some or all of its nine Dreamliner orders, according to Bloomberg News.

Finnair said it will furlough about 700 pilots for at least one week each beginning in the middle of next month as part of a €30 million ($38.4 million) cost-savings program in the company's flight operations division. Length of leave will depend on aircraft type. Finnair Catering also will place employees on unpaid leave of two weeks to three months as part of a €3.9 million cost-cutting initiative (ATWOnline, Feb. 6).

Royal Air Maroc CEO Driss Benhima told a business conference in Casablanca last week that the carrier soon will place an order for six new aircraft. "We will sign the order deal by the end of this month," he was quoted as saying by Reuters, but declined to specify the aircraft type.

Boeing's first 787 moved from the final assembly hall back into the paint shop to be repainted and washed prior to handover to the flight test department. The aircraft must complete a series of "gauntlet tests" that include power, systems and engine tests, each of which must be completed before the next can be started. The tests are expected to take two months. While they are being conducted, ship ZA002 should complete ground vibration testing and the static test airframe should conclude load testing. Meanwhile, the forward fuselage for ship ZA006 was delivered to Everett last week. The main fuselage was due to be delivered Friday. Build commencement on ZA006 was due to start over the weekend. Importantly, the fuselage and wing sections for ship ZA005 are arriving without any traveled work (ATWOnline, Feb. 9).

Air Canada and GECAS completed the sale and 12-year leaseback of one 777-300ER. Deal is worth $38 million to AC.

Air Berlin CEO Joachim Hunold said during last week's ITB Berlin convention that the airline will operate 15 fewer aircraft during the upcoming summer schedule than it did last year. It currently has 125 in the fleet. He also confirmed AB's intention to investigate the possible sale of its LTU subsidiary (ATWOnline, March 11) and said a dispute with LTU's pilots is a key factor. AB offered job security through 2010, a 3.5% pay increase and enhanced retirement provisions, but the pilots union demands were "in no way economically in keeping with the times," Hunold said.

by Kurt Hofmann

Air New Zealand endorsed a government proposal to subsidize one work day over a two-week period to help national businesses through the economic downturn. CEO Rob Fyfe said ANZ would embrace the aid if it is forced to reduce capacity further and consider redundancies (ATWOnline, Feb. 27). "While Air New Zealand is holding its own at the moment, if the airline was placed in the position of having to consider further redundancies through capacity reductions, we would certainly be talking to our people affected and would be willing to top up the government's provision to utilize the nine-day fortnight proposal," Fyfe said.

Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines offered staff an opportunity to take between one week and two years unpaid leave as a way of avoiding layoffs, a spokesperson told The Straits Times.

Airports Council International-Europe said it was "alarmed" by the European Commission's proposal for a temporary freeze of the 80/20 slot rule during the upcoming summer schedule, which would allow airlines to reduce capacity while retaining historic rights to slots at coordinated EU airports (ATWOnline, March 11). "Apart from competitive aspects, this proposed suspension of the use-it-or-lose-it rule for airport slots exposes regional airports to a potential decrease in services to European hubs," DG Olivier Jankovec said. "We knew some airlines had requested this, but we are really appalled that no proper consultation with all industry stakeholders has taken place on what is a very sensitive issue with far-reaching consequences."

While legacy carriers represented by the Assn. of European Airlines support the EC proposal, both easyJet and Ryanair have called upon the European Parliament and the governments of the 27 member states to reject it. "This is bad for aviation, airports and, above all, consumers as it reverses Europe back to its old regulated ways in aviation when inefficient, monopolistic, state run airlines blocked more efficient operators from competing on a level playing field," Ryanair Deputy CEO Michael Cawley said.

Brussels Airlines and Lufthansa will codeshare on flights between Brussels and Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, Hannover, Nuremberg and Stuttgart beginning March 29. The carriers intend to add Munich "at a later point."

Air Nostrum will launch twice-weekly flights from Madrid to Bari on May 5 and to Palermo on June 4.

Lufthansa Group airlines flew 9.83 billion RPKs in February, a 9.8% drop from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 5.7% to 13.63 billion ASKs and load factor slipped 3.3 points to 72.1%.

MNG Technic won a tender issued by the Turkish airports authority for construction of a new MRO hangar at Istanbul Ataturk. The 64,000-sq.-m. facility will be built in four phases. Construction of the 16,000-sq.-m. first phase will begin "as soon as possible," MNG said. The company provides line and heavy maintenance at its IST base and line maintenance services at airports in Istanbul and Antalya.

AerSale is the name of a new company that will focus on "the mid-life current technology airliner aftermarket." It was founded by Nick Finazzo and Bob Nichols, co-founders and sole shareholders of Miami-based AeroTurbine, a provider of aftermarket aircraft engines and parts that they sold to Amsterdam-based operating lessor AerCap in April 2006. AerSale will acquire aircraft 12-25 years old that are on lease or can be remarketed "with the intent to eventually disassemble such aircraft" for parts and engines.