ATW Daily News

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Thursday April 28, 2005

The 46th Paris Air Show will be larger than the 2003 event in terms of numbers of exhibitors and will feature both the A380 and the 777-200LR making their first air show appearances, officials confirmed at a briefing in Washington yesterday. According to Paris Air Show Chairman Louis Laport, the seven-day event (trimmed from nine days previously at the request of exhibitors) will bring together almost 1,800 exhibitors from 44 countries compared to 1,728 from 42 countries at the 45th show. Trade days are June 13-16 with the public invited June 17-19. Event organizers are investing €25 million ($32.3 million) through 2007 to improve road access and infrastructure at Le Bourget, including the new Hall 5 opening this year. The A380 is expected to fly during the show; Boeing traditionally does not participate in the flying display. Also on hand among commercial transports will be the A318, A340-600, 747-400ERF, Embraer 195 and ERJ-145 as well as the Bombardier CRJ900 and Q400 and the ATR 72-500. The Antonov 225 may put in an appearance as well. In total, "more than 200 aircraft" will be on exhibit compared with 202 in 2003. This year also will feature a much larger US defense presence, including the US military, which largely stayed away from the 2003 show in protest over French opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq.

by Perry Flint

Independence Air began offering the digEplayer personal inflight media player to customers on all flights from its hub at Washington Dulles to Las Vegas and San Diego. The players also will be available on the airline's new flights to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and San Jose that begin May 1. The carrier said it will charge $10 for the players.

Debis AirFinance confirmed that its current shareholders, DaimlerChrysler, Bayern LB, Dresdner Bank, DZ Bank and HypoVereinsbank, are in the process of selling the aircraft finance and leasing company to Cerberus Capital Management. Terms were not disclosed. Headquartered in Amsterdam, debis AirFinance has a fleet of 141 aircraft and manages a further 108 under full-service contracts for third-party owners. It provides financial and corporate services for 164 aircraft. The company employs 113 people.

Cathay Pacific Airways will launch a new freighter service to Dallas and Atlanta to help meet the growing demand in the US for exports shipped through Hong Kong, the world's busiest international air cargo hub. A 747-400F will operate three times a week from Nov. 19, stopping first in Dallas and continuing to Atlanta. With this new service, Cathay will operate 21 scheduled weekly freighter flights to six US cities.

Air Transport Assn. member airlines flew 60.35 billion RPMs in March, up 9% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 3.8% to 74.47 billion ASMs and load factor gained 3.9 points to 81%. For the three months ended March 31, RPMs rose 7.5% to 159.44 billion, ASMs increased 2.5% to 211.01 billion and load factor jumped 3.5 points to 75.6%.

Assn. of Asia Pacific Airlines released traffic results for March that show continued robust growth. The number of international passengers carried rose 13.4% to 10.7 million while RPKs increased 11.3% to 43.77 billion on a capacity hike of 7.5% to 60.1 billion ASKs. Load factor gained 2.5 points to 72.8%. International FTKs grew 3.5% to 43.7 billion in March but capacity was up 8.4%, resulting in a decline of 3.2 points to 67.5% in load factor. Year-to-date through March 31, RPKs rose 6.5% to 128.46 billion, capacity climbed 5.1% to 175.02 billion ASKs and load factor improved 0.9 point to 73.4%.

GMF AeroAsia, the maintenance arm of Garuda Indonesia, and GE Transportation Aircraft Engines signed a two-year component repair contract worth roughly $10 million over the life of the deal.

G2 SwitchWorks Corp. signed long-term commitments with American Airlines, America West, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways that designate G2 as a provider of choice for alternative GDS distribution services between themselves and key agency clients. In addition, AA, AWA, CO, DL and NWA each agreed to pre-pay distribution fees totaling up to 8 million tickets and will receive a discount on transaction fees and the opportunity to acquire a minority stake in G2, joining Northwest Venture Partners and Texas Pacific Group's TPG Ventures, which recently increased their investments in the company, G2 said.

Lufthansa Systems and PortGround GmbH signed a contract under which PortGround will use a Web-based version of Lufthansa Systems' air cargo handling system ELWIS at Leipzig/Halle and Dresden airports from June.

Lufthansa Flight Training announced that Cargolux pilots will use LFT's Web-based application for their recurrent training.

ARINC's AviNet Mail Service was selected by startup Hong Kong Express Airways to provide business communications for its ground operations.