Airline News - Europe.

May 31, 2009

Aegean Airlines, Star Alliance

Greek carrier Aegean Airlines will join the Star Alliance, which includes Lufthansa, United Airlines and Air Canada, it said Tuesday. The move would give Aegean, which became Greece's largest airline by passenger numbers last year, access to many markets across the globe with large communities of Greek descendants, executives said. Aegean, which competes with former state carrier Olympic Airlines, operates a fleet of 31 aircraft covering 47 domestic and international routes. Members of the airline alliance cooperate on route scheduling and revenue sharing. The Star Alliance competes with two other alliances -- Sky Team and OneWorld, but it is the largest and fastest growing. Executives said teams from Aegean and Star Alliance will start the integration work shortly, expecting completion in about 12 months. Once complete, the Star Alliance will encompass a total of 26 carriers. May 26, 2009

Air France, Airbus

An Air France jet on its way from Brazil to Paris has disappeared from radar screens, the Paris airports authority said on Monday. Flight AF 447 had 228 people on board, Air France said. It left Rio de Janeiro on Sunday at 7 p.m. and was expected in Paris on Monday at 11:15 a.m. (0915 GMT), a spokesman for the airports authority said. Its last known location was unclear. Although later reports indicate that it was well over the Atlantic Ocean when it all contact was lost. An Air France-KLM spokeswoman in Amsterdam said there had been no radio contact with the missing plane "for a while". The people on board are 216 passengers and 12 crew members. The jet was an Airbus 330-200, airport authorities said. The Airbus A330 has had a very good safety record since its entry in service in the early 1990s. http://www.airsafe.com/events/models/a330.htm May 31, 2009

Air Southwest

Air Southwest of Plymouth, England, will add the SZ code to its flight numbers beginning May 31, allowing its flights to be available for sale in external systems. It previously used the WOW prefix. "Our website. . .will continue to be our main source of bookings, but we now see great opportunities in being able to use global sales systems. And it means we can work more closely with other airlines in the future," MD Peter Davies said. Air Southwest serves 13 destinations May 28, 2009

British Airports

The ban on liquids at British airports could be lifted within 18 months because of new X-ray scanners which can tell the difference between explosive fluids and duty-free booze. Three months of trials of the new tomography scanner have just ended at Manchester Airport and the first of the [pounds sterling]1m machines will go on sale before the end of the year. They generate extremely high resolution 3D X-ray images of passenger luggage which can be turned in all directions on screen by operators to investigate the true shape of anything suspicious. And by measuring the density of substances, they can quickly differentiate between what is harmless and what could blow up a plane. At the moment, hold baggage is checked by CT scanners, similar to those used on hospital patients, with rotating drums which take images from all angles but can only handle 350 bags an hour. May 28, 2009

British Airways

British Airways has pushed back the launch its London City-New York JFK service until October, but expects to begin ticket sales for the new Airbus A318-operated route by the end of next month. May 27, 2009

Jat Airways

Jat Airways intends to change its name, Chairman Sasa Vlaisavljevic told Vecernje Novosti. Names under consideration are Air Serbia, Serbia Airlines and Serbia Airways, the newspaper reported. May 26, 2009

Malev Hungarian Airlines

The Russian Vneshekonombank is to inject a further EUR 10m in the struggling Malev airline. It is the second time this year that the bank, which took the running of the airline in January, has put money into the carrier. In March it injected EUR 9.9m into the carrier which has been struggling since privatisation in 2007. It also provided a EUR 20m loan facility to the carrier last month which will be partly used to buy new aircraft. The new cash aid was announced by Anatoly Ballo, Malev's chairman and Vneshekonombank's deputy chairman was said the airline's problems had been made worse by the global downturn. May 26, 2009

OneWorld

Airline alliance OneWorld has produced a series of free to view videos with tips for business travellers. The videos, which last up to 90 seconds, include advice on finding your way around a foreign city, how to travel light, how to stay wired, how to reduce stress and how to save time. The series has been put together in co-operation with travel guide book Lonely Planet. www.oneworld.com May 28, 2009

S7 Airlines, OneWorld

Russian carrier S7 Airlines is to join the OneWorld alliance, and will begin integrating itself with the airline group from June. S7's accession has been "unanimously" accepted by the 10 current members of Oneworld. The Moscow-based carrier, sponsored by British Airways, is to begin an 18-month alignment process ahead of becoming a full member in 2010. May 26, 2009

Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic said yearly profits nearly doubled, but warned the weak economic environment would make it "almost impossible" for airlines to make a profit in the current year. Chief executive Steve Ridgeway echoed British Airways CEO Willie Walsh by saying a slump in passenger numbers worldwide showed no signs of abating, making the current climate the toughest the industry has faced. Ridgeway said that while passenger numbers rose last year to 5.77 million, they would now suffer a drop as Virgin cuts capacity by 7 percent. The company, controlled by Richard Branson's Virgin Group, said pre-tax profits came in at GBP68.4 million pounds (USDUSD 108 million) for the year to end-February, up from GBP34.8 million the previous year. The results reflect a rise in the number of premium or first and business class passengers using the airline as well as its fuel hedging strategy, the group said, although Ridgeway said premium traffic across the board was now being damaged. The figures come in sharp contrast to dire results by rival British Airways who said on Friday it had made a pre-tax loss of GBP401 million, and saw no encouraging signs in its outlook whatsoever. Virgin is waging a campaign against BA's attempt to secure approval for a transatlantic profit sharing tie-up with American Airlines. Ridgeway said the airline remained interested in a tie-up with bmi, if and when it is taken over by Lufthansa. May 26, 2009

Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic today (May 26) reported a sharp increase in its pre-tax profits from [pounds sterling]34.8m in 2007-2008 to [pounds sterling]68.4m in the last financial year. In the 12 months to the end of February this year, the carrier said sales were up 8.4 percent to [pounds sterling]2,579m and a passenger numbers rose to 5.77m. Virgin cited an increase in premium passengers and "prudent management decisions" on oil price hedging in a year when prices fluctuated form USD 140 per barrel to USD 38. It described the current climate as the "most volatile trading conditions in the airline's 25-year history." Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Atlantic's president, said: "The last financial year has proven to be the most volatile yet in our 25-year history. www.virginatlantic.com www.ba.com www.airfrance.com May 26, 2009

VLM Airlines, CityJet

VLM Airlines will be rebranded as CityJet although it will continue to operate under its own operating certificate, the carriers announced. Both regionals are wholly owned subsidiaries of Air France KLM. Antwerp-based VLM is the largest operator at London City. It will adopt the group's Flying Blue loyalty program and abandon its own VLM Encore program in September. May 29, 2009

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