Monthly Archives: March 2012

Volotea starts charter operations

Volotea (Barcelona and Venice) on March 28 operated a football charter flight from Valencia to Amsterdam
and back. The Valencia team was flown to Amsterdam for the UEFA football (soccer) match. The new airline is still planning to start scheduled flights from Venice on April 5.

Philippines to open a new route to Bali on April 28

Philippines (Philippine Airlines) (Manila) will open up a new route from the Manila hub to Denpasar (Bali) on April 28. The twice-weekly route will be operated with Airbus A320s.

PAL Slide Show: CLICK HERE

Air India’s Financial Restructuring Plan is approved by a consortium of banks

Air India’s (Mumbai) financial Restructuring Plan has been approved by a consortium of banks.

Read the full report by The Economic Times: CLICK HERE

In other news, the employees of Air India have called off any strike actions after their salary issues were resolved.

All AG images are available as framable prints or aviation gifts. Click on the Aviation Gifts tab at the top.

Air India Slide Show: CLICK HERE

Lufthansa to sell its 15.8% stake in JetBlue Airways

Lufthansa (Frankfurt) will issue a corporate bond exchangeable into shares of JetBlue Airways, a transaction that could see Lufthansa’s stake in JetBlue decline to zero.

The group issued the following statement:

“Lufthansa Malta Blues LP announces its intention to offer notes due 2017 exchangeable into shares of common stock of JetBlue Airways Corporation at the option of the note holders. The notes will be guaranteed by Deutsche Lufthansa AG and are to be offered and sold to qualified institutional buyers that are also qualified purchasers in an institutional private placement without registration pursuant to Rule 144A under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”).

The notes wil be exchangeable into up to 46.7 million shares of JetBlue common stock. Lufthansa has an option to give investors exercising their exchange rights cash instead of JetBlue shares. The coupon and exchange premium will be set at pricing, which is expected on March 29, 2012. Settlement of the issue is expected to take place on or around 5 April 2012. The proceeds from the offering are to be used for general corporate purposes.”

Read the analysis by Market Watch: CLICK HERE

Top Copyright Photo: Rolf Wallner.

Lufthansa Slide Show: CLICK HERE

JetBlue Slide Show: CLICK HERE

Bottom Copyright Photo: Brian McDonough.

Boeing delivers the first 737-800 to AeroSvit Ukrainian Airlines

AeroSvit Ukrainian Airlines (Kiev) on March 27 accepted its first Boeing 737-800. 737-84R UR-AAN (msn 38119) has now joined the colorful fleet.

Image: Boeing.

AeroSvit Slide Show: CLICK HERE

Aeroflot opens up new domestic and international summer routes

Aeroflot Russian Airlines (Moscow) on March 25 introduced its summer schedule. The airline launched services to new destinations as Guangzhou (China)- three flights a week, Krakow (Poland) – four weekly flights, Stuttgart (Germany), Vilnius (Lithuania), Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Odessa, and Kharkov (Ukraine) – daily flights. One flight a day will also be flown from Moscow to the Russian cities of Nizhnekamsk, Novy Urengoy, Orenburg, and Tomsk.

Hot New Photos Slide Show: CLICK HERE

British Airways increases the number of flights from London’s City Airport

British Airways (London) meanwhile is expanding its aircraft fleet and route network at London City Airport where it is now officially the largest operator with the highest number of routes and customers.

Subsidiary BA CityFlyer will take delivery of another Embraer 190 in the late summer, bringing the total fleet size to 14 aircraft.

It will be used for new year-round flights to Venice in September and to increase frequency to the key business destinations of Frankfurt from March and Glasgow from September.

The news comes as BA CityFlyer is about to start brand new services from the Docklands airport to Mahon in Menorca, Quimper in Britanny and Angers in the Loire Valley in France from May.

A total of 22 destinations in the UK, Europe and the USA will be served by British Airways and BA CityFlyer from London City Airport.

BA CityFlyer Slide Show: CLICK HERE

The BMI takeover is approved by the European Commission with conditions

British Airways (London) and the IAG have won their fight against Virgin Atlantic Airways (London) for the acquisition of BMI (East Midlands) and the valuable slots at London’s Heathrow Airport. The takeover of BMI from Lufthansa (Frankfurt) has been approved by the European Commission with conditions – British Airways will have to give up 14 slot pairs at London (Heathrow). However this is somewhat mute of an issue since BA will gain an additional 42 slot pairs with the BMI acquisition. Bottom line: Virgin Atlantic loses this battle with BA and the BMI brand will quickly be replaced with the BA livery. BA/IAG is expected to close on the deal around April 20. Goodbye BMI. LHR will certainly become a BA fortress hub.

Subsidiary bmibaby will not be part of this deal.

Read the full story from The Guardian: CLICK HERE

The BBC asks the question of whether BA/IAG gave up enough for BMI: CLICK HERE

BMI Slide Show: CLICK HERE

British Airways Slide Show: CLICK HERE

Virgin Atlantic Slide Show: CLICK HERE

US Airways’ flight attendants reject the new contract

US Airways’ (Phoenix) flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), have voted to not ratify a proposed five-year collective bargaining agreement. US Airways and AFA reached a tentative agreement on January 27, 2012 that would cover the airline’s 6,700 flight attendants who are based in its three hub cities of Charlotte, N.C., Philadelphia and Phoenix and its Washington, D.C. focus city.

US Airways stated it will now consult with the NMB and AFA leadership to determine the best steps going forward to one day reach a ratified agreement.

US Airways Slide Show: CLICK HERE

UNI Air introduces a new livery today

UNI Air (Taipei), the domestic and regional subsidiary of EVA Air (Taipei), today (March 30) introduced a new livery on this McDonnell Douglas MD-90-30 B-17920 (msn 53574).

Parent EVA Air is intending to acquire six additional Airbus A321s to its existing order in order to replace the 11 UNI Air MD-90s. The MD-90s will be phased out between 2014 and 2016 according to Flightglobal.

Copyright Photo: Manuel Negrerie. B-17920 is rolled out of the hangar at Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) today in the new EVA Air-like look.