Business Buzz
¦ Menzies Aviation announced that it has been awarded the ground handling and cabin cleaning contract for Qantas Airways in Los Angeles (LAX). Qantas Airways, which has the highest number of flights of all international carriers in LAX, awarded Menzies Aviation a three-year contract for ground handling and cabin cleaning services.
¦ ASIG® announced that its Denver International Airport (DEN) fuel facility operation received the Bronze Achiever Award from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The Bronze Achiever Award recognizes facilities that have made significant achievements in improving the environment of Colorado. ASIG maintains and operates the DEN fuel system on behalf of a 22-member airline consortium serving the airport.
¦ Fraport AG announced October
traffic figures. From January to October 2008, FRA recorded a 0.6 percent increase in airfreight tonnage to 1,732,053 metric tons, while passenger figures slipped by
0.4 percent to 45,801,555 and aircraft movements sank by 0.8 percent to 410,795. For the entire year of 2008, Fraport is expecting passenger traffic to drop between 1.0 and 1.5 percent. However, Fraport expects the particularly attractive intercontinental segment to continue growing by about 1 percent. Groupwide, Fraport also sees about a 1 percent gain in passenger figures for the entire year.
¦ Menzies Aviation announced that its subsidiary company, Menzies Aviation Denmark ApS, has petitioned for bankruptcy. Menzies’ lead customer in Copenhagen was Sterling Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy Oct. 29. Menzies handled 40 flights per day on behalf of Sterling and without the continued business, Menzies said it was unable to operate a viable business.
¦ SITA announced that its BagManager system is now being used by 44 international and domestic airlines at Terminal 4 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, providing tracking and reconciliation for more than five million checked bags each year. Baggage reconciliation is an automated system providing a positive match between passengers and their bags, which ensures that both travel together on the same aircraft.
¦ FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. and the world’s largest express transportation company, announced an updated schedule of operations for its new Asia-Pacific Hub at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, in southern China. Now in the testing phase, the new Asia-Pacific Hub is expected to be fully operational the first half of 2009. The new hub features its own ramp control tower —a first for an international air express cargo company facility in China.
¦ JLG Industries Inc., along with its parent company, Oshkosh Corporation, broke ground for a new manufacturing facility in Tianjin, China. The new facility will produce JLG® access equipment specifically for the Asian market. The company opened an office in Beijing in 2002 to enhance responsiveness for its Chinese customers in the shipyard, construction, airport, hotel, industrial and maintenance industries.
¦ Cavotec MSL announced it has completed a two-week series of intensive trials of its patented PCAir aircraft cooling system with Airbus at the group’s production plant in Toulouse, France. The PCAir system cooled Airbus’ largest wide body aircraft, the A380, in less than 30 minutes. The PCAir system is scheduled to go on sale during the second half of 2009.
Partnerships/Acquisitions/Contracts
¦ National Aviation Services announced that it has been appointed both ground handling agent as well as general cargo sales agents for Delta Air Lines in Kuwait. According to this agreement, NAS will provide Delta Air Lines with passenger services, line maintenance, cargo services, security services and ramp handling in addition to serving as a general sales agent for cargo at the Kuwait International Airport.
¦ Swissport International announced it has secured a commission to take over security for Delta Air Lines at Kiev Airport. The new services will be provided from Dec. 1.
¦ JBT Corporation announced that JBT AeroTech has initiated new service and maintenance operations at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The contract has a three-year term and is expected to generate in excess of $5 million in revenue over the life of the contract. The scope of the contract includes operating and maintaining the new baggage handling system for Terminal 2, monitoring and maintaining all of the gate systems across Terminals 1 and 2, and implementing a customized computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to provide improved maintenance efficiency and reliability.
¦ After intensive negotiations with the liquidator and creditor banks, the special-vehicle manufacturer SCHOPF announced it would take over the business activities of the insolvent Rofan GmbH in terms of an asset deal. As of Nov. 1, 2008, the personnel and business assets were incorporated in the new company, SCHOPF ROFAN GmbH, based in Ostfildern. Rofan is a manufacturer of small tractors for handling luggage and freight at airports as well as for operation in industrial and logistical facilities.
¦ Checkport, Swissport International’s aviation security subsidiary, has been contracted by Airports Company South Africa for passenger screening activities at Johannesburg Airport from Nov. 1 to perform thorough screening of persons and goods to ensure that optimum security is consistently maintained. As well as its new Johannesburg duties, Checkport already provides various services at nine other South African airports.
¦ A deal has recently been agreed upon between Kilfrost and Flybe. Flybe is the first airline in the world to use Kilfrost’s new deicing fluid DFsustain, which the company estimates, based on previous year’s usage, has the potential to further significantly reduce the airline’s carbon footprint by about 125 tons. Developed using a corn sugar-based glycol called Susterra® Propanediol, created by DuPont Tate and Lyle Bio Products, DFsustain eschews more traditional crude-oil derived glycol for a completely sustainable source and has the potential to use up to 40-percent less energy in manufacturing than more traditional fluids.
¦ Swissport Fueling Services reported a commission from Southwest Airlines for the carrier’s Chicago Midway hub: Swissport now conducts into-plane fueling for 17 airlines at Dallas/Fort Worth, the world’s third-biggest airport and the fifth-most-important in the USA in fueling terms. Swissport is now fueling more than 2000 aircraft a month under the new commission, which commenced Nov. 1.
¦ Global engineering group, Cavotec MSL Holdings Ltd., is pleased to announce the acquisition of Meyerinck Group, based in Fernwald, Germany. The transaction became effective Nov. 1, 2008. Meyerinck designs and manufactures advanced refueling and loading systems for the supply of aircraft fuel, and chemical and petrochemical liquids.
¦ Swissport International has been awarded a seven-year license to perform passenger ground handling at Luxembourg Airport. The new operation is timetabled to begin during the first quarter of 2009. Swissport has been awarded a license by Luxembourg’s ministry of transport which will enable the world’s leading ground handler to offer the full range of passenger and ramp services at Luxembourg Airport.
People in the News
¦ Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation announced that Kevin Gordon has been promoted to the position of director of maintenance, reporting directly to managing director of maintenance Ed Baranowski. In his new position, Kevin will be responsible for maintenance control, planning; heavy maintenance; technical stores; powerplant operations, and production control at the Philadelphia, Norfolk and Milwaukee maintenance facilities.
¦ ASIG® announced that Sami Teittinen has been named chief financial officer of ASIG. His appointment is effective Dec. 1, 2008. Teittinen joined ASIG in 2002
and most recently served as vice president, finance.
¦ Menzies Aviation announced that Neal A. Moran has joined its American business in the role of VP cargo. Moran will report to John Redmond, SVP Americas, and will be responsible for all the cargo operations in the Americas region — comprising 21 warehouses at 10 airports across the USA and Canada.
¦ The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has named Larry Austin as the federal security director for Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
¦ Aviapartner announced it has appointed Laurent Levaux at the top of the Aviapartner group. As CEO, Laurent Levaux is taking over the daily leadership of the whole Aviapartner network. Since 2003, Laurent Levaux was CEO of ABX LOGISTICS, which recently merged with the Danish group DSV and is one of the world’s top 15 freight forwarders (international transport by air, road and sea).
¦ West Star Aviation Inc. announced it has named Dave Krogman general manager of its Grand Junction, Colo., facility. Krogman will replace Rick Brainard, who vacated the position to become West Star Aviation’s new vice president of sales. Krogman will oversee all day-to-day operational activities at the full-service aircraft maintenance facility and FBO.
¦ Doug Herring, president and CEO of American Beacon Advisors up until its recent sale, has been named vice president — operations finance and strategic planning at American Airlines. He will be responsible for the financial activities related to American’s Operations function, as well as oversee the group’s strategic planning activities.
By the Numbers86 Boeing 717, 52 Boeing 737
All ground equipment is owned.
About 10 to 15 years depending on the equipment
in 2009 / 0
