ROCKWELL COLLINS TO ACQUIRE AIR ROUTING
Rockwell Collins is to buy on undisclosed terms AR Group and its affiliated companies including Houston-based Air Routing International, which provides business aircraft flight departments with trip planning services, as well as online access to its flight support tools, including weather services, flight planning services, fuel arrangements, international trip handling and concierge services. The transaction is expected to close in roughly 40 days.
GOODRICH CUTS ALABAMA MAINTENANCE JOBS
Goodrich intends to cut 78 positions at its maintenance facility in Foley, Alabama to adjust to decreasing demand triggered by the economic downturn. Goodrich has a total of 800 employees in Foley, split evenly between the maintenance facility and an original equipment manufacturing site dedicated to building and assembling nacelle system components - thrust reversers, pylons, fan cowls, inlet cowls and wire harnesses - for commercial and military aircraft.
DUNLOP OPENS TYRE OPERATION IN CHINA
Dunlop Aircraft Tyres has opened a retread and distribution joint venture in Jinjiang, in China's Fujian province between Hong Kong and Shanghai. Dunlop Taikoo (Jinjiang) Aircraft Tyres, which is 28% owned by Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering and 9% by Taikoo Aircraft Engineering, has received product approval from the Chinese civil aviation authority and full repair-station approval from the European Aviation Safety Agency.
ALITALIA MRO UNIT SALE APPROVED
Administrators representing Alitalia's former maintenance company Atitech have agreed its sale to Manutenzioni Aereonautiche as well as shareholders including Alitalia investor Compagnia Aerea Italiana and Finmeccanica. Naples-based Atitech services Boeing MD-80s, Airbus A320s and Embraer regional aircraft.
NAVERUS DEAL BOOSTS GE NAVIGATION ARM
GE Aviation has acquired Washington-based Naverus, a 60-employee company that develops required navigation performance (RNP) and other performance-based navigation services. Founded in 2003 by an entrepreneur and two Alaska Airlines pilots, Naverus has deployed hundreds of RNP procedures worldwide, including to terrain-challenged airports in Tibet and New Zealand.
PRICING POWER 'STILL WEAK FOR US AIRLINES'
Passenger revenues tumbled for US airlines last month as their pricing power remained weak, with October marking the twelfth consecutive month that passenger revenue declined year over year, according to the Air Transport Association of America, which estimates a 15% drop in passenger revenues in October compared with the same month last year. ATA says 3% fewer passengers flew on US carriers last month than in October 2008. Latest cargo figures show a 3% year-on-year decline in revenue tonne kilometres in September, the fourteenth consecutive month of falling volumes.
BMI TO CULL A330S, MAY AXE 600 JOBS
Lufthansa's UK carrier BMI is to hand back two of its three Airbus A330s as it cuts its mainline fleet by nine aircraft, to 30, as part of a restructuring that could involve shedding at least 600 positions. The restructuring will involve axing loss-making routes from London Heathrow - among them Brussels, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Kiev and Aleppo - in the first quarter of 2010.
Source: Flight International
