On Wednesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane approved the plan of American Airlines parent company: AMR Corp to merge with US Airways. The merger still needs regulatory approval. American Airlines must also construct a formal restructuring plan that incorporates the merger. If the courts and creditors approve this plan, then the airline can emerge from the bankruptcy status it has held since November, 2011. American was the last of the major US legacy airlines to go through the Chapter 11 process. They filed for bankruptcy citing untenable labor costs after years of fruitless negotiations with…
Airline News (Friday)
Category Archives for Airline News (Friday).
US & American begin “integration”
On Feb 14 US Airways and American Airlines announced their intentions to merge by October, 2013. I am not a huge fan of this merger. I don’t like the concentration of airlines in the USA, am not convinced that the merger will quickly fix some key AA issues and wonder what the result of merging two mediocre airlines. (I am not a huge fan of either carrier). This week, the two airlines appeared before the US Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights for over two hours. It was noted that…
Bosnian Airline back from brink
The national carrier of Bosnia and Herzegovina B&H Airlines was grounded last week for a 4.7 million US dollar debt owed to Austria’s Hypo Alpe Adria Bank. The airline began flying again on Wednesday 13th March after the bank unblocked the carrier’s accounts. This came after the Bosnia and and Herzegovina Federation’s Ministry for Transport and Communications provided government funds of $550,000 and promised to sell two ATR 72 aircraft. Most passengers were rerouted onto Croatia Airlines and Jat Airways during the grounding. In June last year, Turkish Airlines pulled out of a joint venture…
Bahrain Air
Bahrain Air held an Extraordinary General Meeting this week at which shareholders immediately suspended operations and declared bankruptcy. The carrier claimed that the kingdom’s political situation over the last two years had caused significant disruption to its operations with no compensation. The question of course is “does the kingdom with 1.3 million citizens need two airlines, particularly when Gulf Air the main carrier has lost money and three CEOs!” Bahrain air founded in 2008 has found the answer.
American -US Merger
While, I know its pretty much inevitable, I am not a fan of this $11 billion merger. We know that: Merger will be completed by October, 2013 American will be the world’s biggest airline It will have two per cent more air traffic than United Airlines AA will have 6,700 flights to 336 locations in 56 countries The airline will have 1000 planes The new workforce will be close to 100,000 AMR creditors will own 72% of the combined airline and US Airways the other 28% of the ownership The American Airlines name will…
Poorly Maintained Red Wings Wingless
Red Wings was founded in 1999 as VARZ-400. It aimed to be a discount airline. It became Airlines 400 in 2001 and then adopted their current name Red Wings in 2007. The airline owned ten Tupolev TI 204-100B, passenger jets capable of flying 210 passengers. On December 29, 2012, one of their planes crashed in Moscow overshooting the runway and ending up on a highway. killing five crew. Faulty brakes were found to be the cause. This was the second overshoot for the carrier. The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsiya held a series of unscheduled operational and maintenance inspections of Red…
Olt Express Halts
In December 2012, after losing two international contracts, OLT Express Germany announced major cuts to its network, staffing and fleet as part of a reorganisation. It ceased all operations on 27 January 2013 after talks with its Dutch owner Panta Holdings about a reorganisation plan failed. The company filed for bankruptcy on January 29. Panta Holdings also owns Denim Airways and the leasing company Mass Lease. OLT Express was founded in 1958. It took over part of the insolvent Cirrus Airlines last year. Bremen, Germany was its main base with flights to Dresden, Saarbrücken, Münster / Osnabrück and Karlsruhe / Baden-Baden – and a…
American Airlines New Livery
American Airlines has been using the same logo and aircraft livery for more than 40 years. The AA symbol, for example, complete with eagle,was created by Massimo Vignelli in 1967. Last week they announced a complete revamp. The new image was created by FutureBrand with input from AA customers and employees. The AA Logo on the tail is gone There is a new stylised red and blue tail which American’s Chief Commercial Officer describes: “Our core colors — red, white and blue – have been updated to reflect a more vibrant and welcoming spirit. The new tail, with…
The 28 airlines I have flown- that have gone
I was shocked to discover that of the 82 airlines I have flown, 28 are no longer in business! Who are they and what happened? Air Australia (2012) undercapitalised and badly planned, meant this carrier flew for only 3 months Aloha Airlines (2008) September 11, a contracting Japanese economy, intense competition between four airlines across Hawaii all impacted on Aloha Ansett (2001) I flew this airline 50 times before their Air New Zealand owners shut them down Australian Airlines (1993 and 2006) merged into Qantas, revived as a leisure brand and then scrapped in favour of…
Ranking all the Airlines I have flown
I have flown 82 airlines. 28 of them are no longer in business. This is a ranking of all the 54 airlines that I have ever flown that are still in the air with my score out of 100. I rate each flight I take for every factor from Booking to Check-in to deplaning. and keep a tally of my rating using Flightmemory.com. The scores averaged out provide a ranking of flights, airlines and airports. Top Airlines 1. Qatar Airlines – 100% 2. Emirates – 100% 3. Cathay Pacific – 96% 3. Air New Zealand –…
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