Monthly Archives: September 2011

airBaltic files for bankruptcy protection

airBaltic (AirBaltic.com) Boeing 757-256 WL YL-BDB (msn 26251) LGW (Richard Vandervord), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.

airBaltic (Riga) yesterday (September 21) filed for bankruptcy and the struggling carrier reorganizes. Operations will continue.

The company issued the following statement:

“Latvian national airline airBaltic on September 21 is filing for legal protection to continue operations in its network of airports served in Europe, Middle East, and Russia/CIS.

For the past six months, the management of airBaltic has informed about the necessity of a capital increase. Baltic Aviation Systems (BAS), the private shareholder of airBaltic, has declared its willingness to cover the capital increase fully, or proportionally together with the government of Latvia. The government of Latvia as a minority shareholder in the airline has neglectfully and repeatedly delayed any decisions regarding the capital increase. In order to come out of a stalemate, the private shareholder BAS agreed to all government conditions on September 16. On September 20, the government again did not take a decision to participate in the capital increase of the airline, or to allow BAS to increase the capital unilaterally, but suddenly and surprisingly announced potential sale of its shares in the airline.

According to the procedure of legal protection in Latvia, the Board of airBaltic has submitted to the court a plan for continued operations, to be approved by the court. As a consequence, the Latvian government as shareholder will not be able to block any decisions in the airline. As part of the legal protection procedure, an Administrator is nominated, to be approved by the court and to be responsible for the legal protection plan that all parties have to follow, including the shareholders, the management, and the Supervisory Board. The management of airBaltic will not change during the period of legal protection, and all the creditors of the carrier will receive the outstanding debts.

The Board of airBaltic will continue operations of the airline. Should the airline be forced to make any cancellations, we will inform our passengers by separate notice as early as possible. We apologize to our passengers for any potential future inconvenience!

The Board of airBaltic is currently in negotiations with all the stakeholders of the airline. All of them, except the government of Latvia, are ready to support the airline in the future. The legal protection plan, approved by the court, must be obeyed and will help to overcome the blockage created by the government of Latvia as a minority shareholder.”

airBaltic Slide Show: CLICK HERE

Chile’s antitrust court approves the LAN and TAM merger, with conditions

LAN Airlines (Chile) Airbus A318-121 CC-CVB (msn 3030) (80 Anos) SCL (Alvaro Romero), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.

LAN Airlines S.A. (Santiago) and TAM S.A. (TAM Linhas Aereas) (Sao Paulo) yesterday (September 21) announced that Chile’s antitrust court, Tribunal de Defensa de la Libre Competencia (TDLC), approved the merger between LAN and TAM. This represents one more step in the process which both companies have followed to complete the transaction.

Currently, LAN Airlines and its affiliates operate 125 passenger aircraft while LAN Cargo and its respective affiliates have a fleet of 14 dedicated freighters.

TAM, including Pantanal, operates direct flights to 45 cities in Brazil and 18 cities in South America, the United States and Europe. Through agreements with companies in Brazil and abroad, TAM’s network encompasses a further 92 airports in Brazil and 92 international destinations, including Asia. The company was founded in 1976 and currently operates 153 aircraft.

The antitrust court’s resolution is complex and considers a series of mitigating measures. Therefore, both companies are currently analyzing in depth the implications and impact of the measures imposed by the court.

On August 13, 2010, LAN signed a non-binding agreement with TAM to merge and to also form the LATAM Airlines Group.

LAN Slide Show: CLICK HERE

SkyWest Airlines to operate new winter service to Mammoth Lakes from Orange County and San Diego

United Express-SkyWest Airlines (USA) Bombardier CRJ700 (CL-600-2C10) N795SK (msn 10299) SEA (Bruce Drum), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.

SkyWest Airlines (United Express) (St. George, UT) will operate the flights using 66-seat Bombardier CRJ700 regional jets which include six first-class and 60 economy seats per plane. The first flights of the season are scheduled to depart Thursday, December 15, 2011 from San Francisco and San Diego and Friday, December 16, 2011 from Orange County to the ski resort city of Mammoth Lakes, CA.

United is also expanding service from San Francisco International Airport to Mammoth Lakes with a second flight operating from Friday through Monday.

The new flights will depart daily throughout the winter from San Diego and four days per week from Orange County (Friday – Monday). In addition, air service to and from San Francisco now includes additional Friday – Monday flight service to complement the daily flight service already in existence.

Mammoth Yosemite Airport is located 15 minutes from Mammoth Lakes, home of the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area.

United Express-SkyWest Slide Show: CLICK HERE

SkyWest routes operated for United Express:

Tom Cooper is back in the airline business – Sun Air International

Sun Air International (3rd) (Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood) is the latest airline venture of Thomas L. Cooper.

Gulfstream International Airlines was established by Tom Cooper in Miami in October 1988 and started operations on December 1, 1990. Cooper was a former Boeing 727 captain for Eastern Airlines who flew during the pilots’ strike in 1989. Initially Gulfstream operated as an on-demand air taxi between Miami, Florida and Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, but the company was relocated to the Bahamas when the political climate in Haiti forced the operation to halt.

On November 4, 2010, Gulfstream International Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In May 2011 Victory Park Capital acquired Gulfstream when it acquired the assets of Gulfstream International Group. Victory Park also purchased 21 former Gulfstream Beechcraft 1900D aircraft from Raytheon Aircraft Credit Corporation.

Cooper ended his relationship with Gulfstream in 2006.

On July 26, 2011 Cooper acquired two aircraft from Gulfstream Connection in order to restart scheduled passenger flights as Sun Air International. The new airline is planning to operate from West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood and Miami to Chub Cay, Great Harbour Cay, Treasure Cay and Marsh Harbour. It hopes to start operations in October.

This is the third company in Florida to use the “Sun Air” name. The last one was Sun Air (2nd) which operated one Embraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirante for only one flight on March 17, 1981!

Read the full report from The Nassau Guardian: CLICK HERE

Frontier Airlines to drop service to Manistee on March 8

Frontier Airlines (2nd)-Chautauqua Airlines Embraer ERJ 145LR (EMB-145LR) N270SK (msn 145304) PHL (Tony Storck) “Ginger”, originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.

Frontier Airlines (2nd) (Denver) will drop Manistee, MI and the Milwaukee-Manistee route on March 8, 2012. Frontier launched the new route in April and is operated with Chautauqua Airlines Embraer ERJ 145 regional jets.

Read the full report from Mlive.com: CLICK HERE

Republic-Chautauqua Slide Show: CLICK HERE

Atlas Air cancels three early-built Boeing 747-800F freighters

Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. (New York) has announced it has exercised its termination rights for three early build Boeing 747-800F freighter aircraft for subsidiary Atlas Air (New York). The three aircraft were part of an order of 12 747-8Fs announced in September 2006.

Atlas Air now expects to receive three 747-8Fs in 2011, four in 2012, and two in 2013. The first five of these aircraft have been placed under long-term ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance) contracts, as previously announced.

Atlas Air notified Boeing that it has exercised its contractual termination rights with respect to three early production 747-800F freighters after lengthy delays and performance considerations. These three early production freighters were previously scheduled to be Atlas Air’s first deliveries in 2011. Subsequently, Boeing rescheduled these aircraft to early 2012 and three more recently built, better-performing 747-800F freighters were moved to the 2011 delivery positions.

Atlas Air expects to receive its first 747-800F from Boeing in October, followed by two in November and two in the first half of 2012. The first three aircraft will enter ACMI service with British Airways and the second two with Panalpina.

By year-end 2013, Atlas Air’s cargo operations are expected to include nine 747-800Fs and 24 747-400F freighters. It also expects to have two passenger 747-400s and three passenger 767-300s providing charter service to the U.S. military and other customers.

In addition, Atlas Air expects to operate at least 11 customer-owned aircraft in its CMI (crew, maintenance and insurance) operations. These operations include four 747 Large Cargo Freighters for Boeing, five 767 freighters for DHL Express, and two additional 747-400 passenger aircraft for SonAir.

As previously disclosed, Atlas Air’s five remaining older-generation 747-200F cargo aircraft are expected to be retired by mid-2012, with more-efficient 747-400F aircraft providing continuing service. The Company also expects to return two 747-400BCFs to their lessors at the end of their lease terms in early 2014 and early 2015, respectively. These two aircraft were leased as bridge capacity due to the delay in the delivery of the first 747-8ooFs.

Atlas Air Slide Show: CLICK HERE

Thai Airways considers going ahead with a new LCC without Tiger Airways

Thai Airways International Boeing 747-4D7 HS-TGG (msn 33771) HKT (Wim Callaert), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.

Thai Airways International (Bangkok) is now consider going alone with plans to introduce a new low-cost carrier according to this article by Flightglobal.

Previously the airline partnered with Tiger Airways with the proposal to start Thai Tiger Airways in the first quarter of 2012. However this proposal remains mired in the formative stages.

Read the full article: CLICK HERE

Did Qatar Airways cause the delay of the first new Boeing 747-800F freighter?

Cargolux Airlines International (Luxembourg) was due to take delivery today of the first new Boeing 747-800F freighter. Boeing was planning a special ceremony in Everett to celebrate the first delivery but it had to be canceled as we previously reported because Cargolux sent the manufacturer a letter on Friday, one day after Qatar Airways joined the Cargolux board of directors, reflecting their new partial ownership of the cargo carrier. Qatar Airways has been pressing Boeing for compensation due to the delays in the 787 program. Did Qatar cause this delay? Both sides are blaming “contract issues” for the delay.

Read the full story from Reuters: CLICK HERE

Bombardier to cut the CRJ production rate

Bombardier (Toronto) is planning to cut its CRJ production rate starting in January 2012 due to a slump in demand.

Read the full story from The Globe and Mail: CLICK HERE

Virgin America to add seasonal service to Palm Springs

Virgin America (San Francisco) will add seasonal service to Palm Springs, CA from SFO starting on December 15. The aircraft will also be a through service to New York.