News in Brief

Oct. 27, 2008

Business Buzz

¦ In a consortium with ESG Elek-tronikstem- und Logistik-GmbH, proveo has recently finalized the world’s largest telematics project at an airport ever. A total of 613 motorized GSE have been equipped with the proveo Infoman hardware at Flughafen München GmbH (FMG, the Munich airport company). The Airport Visualiser application is up and running 24/7.

¦ A recent field attenuation study conducted by the Howard Leight Acoustical Laboratory on the performance of hearing protection devices showed that individual, one-on-one training was the most significant factor in predicting good earplug performance. The study, which was conducted on more than 100 workers at eight different facilities, showed that one-third of workers achieve attenuation higher than published Noise Reduction Ratings (NRR) for their earplugs, and that another third achieve attenuation within 5 dB of those ratings. Only the remaining third had attenuation that was more than 5 dB below published NRRs.

¦ AERO Specialties has sold a package of ground support equipment to Harbour Air Services following the purchase of the FBO by an investor group including and managed by Hill Aircraft. Hill Aircraft, based at Fulton County Airport Atlanta (KFTY) since 1955, purchased an Eagle TT-12 at last year’s NBAA where they were the host for the show. Harbour Air Services has purchased an Eagle TT-8D all-wheel-drive diesel aircraft tug and a complete set of AERO Specialties multi-head tow bars and heads.

¦ Southwest Airlines announced its intent to begin service from
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) in March 2009. The carrier has not released specific service details, saying only that it will begin a modest operation at MSP with flights to Chicago Midway only. The company plans to release more details of its future service to Minneapolis-St. Paul in the coming months.

¦ Swissport International announced that it is revising its collaborations with local partners in India and the Philippines for strategic and operating reasons. Swissport is disposing of its activities in the Philippines and is parting company with its present cooperation partner in India to evaluate new collaborations. The changes will have no impact on the Swissport Group’s financial performance.

¦ Member airlines of the European Regions Airline Association (ERA) have reported passenger growth of
3.7 percent for the period January — June 2008, the lowest increase since 2001 when passenger growth for the year reached only 3.4 percent. The first half 2008 figure compares with 7.7 percent passenger growth for the same period in 2007. Revenue passenger kilometers growth also dropped from 9.7 percent for the first half of 2007 to 6.0 percent over the same period in 2008. However, with a slightly slower growth in capacity of 5.6 percent, compared to 7.5 percent in 2007, ERA airlines still reported a slight rise in average scheduled passenger load factor; 63.8 percent was reported for the first six months of 2008 compared to 63.3 percent for the same period in 2007.

¦ The operator of the world’s eighth largest airport and Germany’s largest employer, Fraport AG, has implemented Novell(R) identity and security management solutions to achieve a single point of control for thousands of identities and secure IT resources at Frankfurt Airport. Using Novell, Fraport now has a single, integrated solution for authentication, authorization, identity consolidation and rapid, role-based provisioning for 10,000 employees and partners.

Partnerships/Acquisitions/Contracts

¦ Toyota Material Handling, U.S.A. Inc. and AeroVironment Inc. have established an alliance to market AV’s PosiCharge fast charge systems. PosiCharge systems are now available through 68 authorized Toyota Industrial Equipment dealers with 190 locations throughout the United States.

¦ Menzies Aviation announced the award by BA of cargo, passenger and ramp handling contracts to its JVs in Hyderabad (HYD). The airline will commence operations to HYD, its new destination in India, from Dec. 7, 2008. This will be the second station in India where BA has chosen Menzies JVs to be its handler. Earlier BA chose Menzies JV in Bangalore (BLR) to perform its cargo handling since May this year.

¦ Japan Airlines has announced that it is revising its cargo fleet, route and frequency plan for the second half of fiscal year 2008, ending March 31, 2009. The airline is suspending its freighter-only operations between Tokyo’s Narita International Airport and New York. It is also reducing freighter flight frequency from six to five weekly flights on its Tokyo-Los Angeles route.

¦ Gulf Air and Goldair Handling signed a long-term agreement for the provision of ground handling services in Greece. The agreement refers to ramp, passenger and cargo services for Gulf Air flights. Gulf Air operates a daily flight on BAH-ATH-BAH route.

¦ Siemens has been awarded a $7.2 million design-build contract from Greenhut Construction Co. for a new in-line baggage screening system at the Pensacola Gulf Coast Regional Airport. The design-build project will apply the design guidelines rolled out by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Siemens will provide 1,436 feet (438 m) of baggage handling conveyor, 11 Siemens-patented high-speed diverters, and a screening matrix consisting of three L3 and one CT-80XL Explosive Detection Systems (EDS) and four Vertical Sort Units. Siemens will also provide eight baggage piers for carrier-specific sorting and three baggage carousels to replace existing ones.

¦ Qatar Airways has awarded a three-year contract to Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) to provide full passenger and ramp handling at Houston’s George Bush International Airport. The airline commences daily, non-stop Boeing 777-200LR services from Doha to Houston on Dec. 8, 2008, and has plans to introduce daily flights on the route. This new contract extends the working partnership between WFS and Qatar Airways, which already includes the provision of handling services for the airline in Washington Dulles and Newark in North America and Bangkok, Thailand. WFS won this latest contract through a competitive tender process.

People in the News

¦ Swissport International has appointed Nils Pries Knudsen as senior vice president Europe within its cargo services division. He assumes his new duties on Jan. 1, 2009. Knudsen is a proven specialist in the cargo and logistics sectors. He will join Swissport from SAS Cargo Group, where he is currently serving as vice president for global sales with global functional responsibility for marketing and sales.

¦ John Lee was appointed as the vice president and division manager of JBT Aerotech in August 2008 and is based in Orlando. Prior to joining JBT, he served as the president of Carrier Refrigeration, North America, a unit of United Technologies Corporation. During his 15 years at United Technologies, Lee served in a variety of leadership roles within its Carrier, Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky Aircraft business units, including more than 10 years of experience in Asia heading progressively larger operations in Singapore, Korea and China. Prior to joining United Technologies, Lee held various marketing, sales and strategic planning positions in the aerospace industry with Northrop and McDonnell Douglas Corporations.

¦ West Star Aviation Inc. announced that it has named Dave Krogman general manager of its Grand Junction, CO (GJT) 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.

¦ MN Airlines LLC dba Sun Country Airlines announced that Stanley J. Gadek was appointed as chairman of the Board and John S. Fredericksen as director. Gadek joined Sun Country in March 2008 after leaving AirTran where he served as senior VP of finance and chief financial officer for eight years. Fredericksen is currently vice president and general counsel of Sun Country Airlines. Fredericksen has served in this role since 2003. Prior to that, he held senior positions with Mesaba Airlines and was counsel for the FAA.

¦ Air Jamaica has announced the appointment of Bruce Nobles to the position of president and chief executive officer effective Oct. 13, 2008. Nobles is returning to the airline after previously serving as president and chief operating officer of Air Jamaica from June 2002 to March 2003.

¦ The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has announced the appointment of Mike Scott as federal security director (FSD) for LaGuardia Airport, New York. In his new role Scott will oversee all TSA operations at LaGuardia Airport, as well as operations at Long Island MacArthur and Westchester County airports and Manhattan heliports, all of which are in New York.

¦ Winners of the 2nd Annual Budgies World Low Cost Airline Awards were announced. The winners included AirAsia X for Best Newcomer; Virgin Blue for Best Passenger Experience; Southwest Airlines for Best Low Cost Airline - Americas; EasyJet for Best Low Cost Airline - Europe; and Berlin Schoenefeld for Best Airport.

¦ Michael O’Keeffe, senior vice president at Banyan Air Service was recently appointed as Board chairman for the National Aircraft Resale Association (NARA). Michael joined Banyan Air Service in 1996 and has served in a variety of managerial positions with Banyan, including vice president of aircraft maintenance, general manager, director of operations and now he is responsible for aircraft sales and management.

¦ Mesa Air Group Inc. announced the appointment of Paul Foley as chief operating officer Mesa Air Group. Since September 1999, Foley was president and chief executive officer of MAIR Holdings Inc., a member of its Board of Directors and on the executive and safety committees. From September 1999 until October 2002, Foley also served as president and chief executive officer of Mesaba Aviation. He was previously employed as vice president operations at Atlas Air, a global cargo operator of 747 aircraft. Prior to that, he was senior vice president operations at LSG/Sky Chefs. He also served as president of Continental Airlines’ Chelsea Catering Corporation.