BAA announced Friday the injection of £500 million ($828.4 million) into London Heathrow and Stansted. Money will comprise £200 million of new equity from shareholders and £300 million from BAA Airports Ltd. and FGP Topco Ltd., the holding company owned by the airport operator's three controlling shareholders. "Funding will be used to pay down debt, strengthen the group's medium-term financial ratios and facilitate its access to the capital markets," BAA said.
In an announcement that highlighted the reasons it agreed to merge with British Airways, Iberia Friday reported a €16.4 million ($24.5 million) third-quarter loss that represented a reversal from the €304 million profit earned in the year-ago period.
Troubled Japan Airlines Friday reported a net loss of ¥32.1 billion ($357 million) for its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, reversed from a ¥40.1 billion profit in the year-ago period, and announced it has applied for "certified alternative dispute resolution," an out-of-court mediation process that enables strapped Japanese companies to negotiate debt settlements with creditors.
Chinese government changed its policy regarding fuel surcharges and from Saturday is allowing individual airlines to choose the timing and amount of those surcharges instead of basing them on directives from authorities in Beijing. The government did stipulate that carriers should link surcharges on domestic routes with the domestic fuel price, meaning they can impose surcharges only when domestic fuel prices rise above CNY4,410 ($645) per ton. They can levy fuel surcharges at will on international routes.
Boeing late last week moved the first 747-8 freighter out of its Everett assembly hall for painting, with flight testing set to start in the 2010 first quarter. First aircraft is destined for launch customer Cargoloux, one of nine airlines that have ordered a combined 78 747-8Fs. Boeing has sold 105 747-8s overall, including passenger and VIP variants. The -8F at 76.3 m. is 5.6 m. longer than the 747-400 freighter. The stretch provides 16% more revenue cargo volume, translating to four additional main-deck pallets and three more lower-hold pallets.
Lufthansa Group airlines flew 15.84 billion RPKs in October, a 17.3% increase from the year-ago month owing to the addition of Austrian Airlines and bmi. Capacity was up 14.9% to 19.68 billion ASKs and load factor rose 1.7 points to 80.5%. LH Passenger Airlines flew 11.07 billion RPKs, up 0.7%, against a 1.9% cut in capacity to 13.8 billion ASKs. Load factor climbed 2.1 points to 80.2%. Iberia flew 4.17 billion RPKs in October, down 5.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 6.6% to 5.17 billion ASKs and load factor rose 1.3 points to 80.6%.
Indian airlines carried 4 million passengers in October, up 26.7% from the year-ago month. Passenger traffic through the year's first 10 months rose 3.3% year-over-year to 36 million. Market share was divided as follows: Jet Airways and JetLite 27.7%, Kingfisher Airlines 20.7%, Air India 18.6%, IndiGo 13.6%, SpiceJet 12.4%. Finnair flew 1.72 billion RPKs in October, a 12.3% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 12.9% to 2.18 billion ASKs and load factor was up 0.5 point to 78.7%.
Continental Airlines will issue $644.4 million in equipment notes to finance eight Boeing aircraft already in operation and 11 planes scheduled for delivery in January-June 2010, it said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Finnair said negotiations with Finnair Catering employees represented by the Finnish Aviation Union have failed to produce the required €5 million ($7.5 million) in savings and that 60 employees now will be made redundant in a "first stage." Afterward, "a reorganization of operations will be considered to achieve additional savings, and a review of structural solutions will be initiated," the airline said. Catering employs some 650 people. The carrier said it also is exploring solutions with its Northport ground handling subsidiary and Finnair Cargo Operations.
S7 Airlines this week dismissed rumors that surface regularly in the Russian media that it will be absorbed by Aeroflot and confirmed that it is on track to join oneworld in November 2010. "I'm sure Aeroflot would like to acquire us and our network, but we are not for sale," Credit Risk and Alliance Manager Ilya Alexandrovskiy stressed to ATWOnline at the Mexicana oneworld joining event in Mexico City. S7, which was technically bankrupt in February but since has restructured its debt, is "operational in excellent shape," Alexandrovskiy added.
RwandAir CRJ100ER struck a building at Kigali Airport after landing yesterday, killing one of the 10 passengers onboard. According to the Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network, the aircraft departed KGL bound for Entebbe but turned around 2 min. after takeoff "because of unspecified technical problems." It landed safely and taxied to its parking spot in front of an airport lounge, at which point the engines still were at "100% power," according to the RwandAir COO. The CRJ moved forward, knocking over fences and hitting the concrete wall of the building.
Boeing yesterday said it completed the side-of-body reinforcements on the first 787 Wednesday, installing new fittings at 34 stringer locations within the joint where the wing meets the fuselage, and that first flight remains on track before January.
Indian government will offer financial aid to Air India if the airline is able to realize INR20 billion ($429.8 million) in cost cuts and revenue increases by March, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told reporters yesterday. "We are talking of an equity infusion. We are broadly looking at an equity infusion linked to monthly performance parameters. We are only looking at it until March," Patel said, according to reports. "This is not the total equity infusion which is being looked at for Air India.
TAM reported third-quarter net income of BRL213.2 million ($124.2 million), reversed from a loss of BRL465.5 million in the year-ago period, citing "a strong recovery" in domestic demand and lower fuel costs. It said domestic demand surged 26% year-over-year as the country's economy improved and business passengers returned. Fuel expenses lowered 36.5%. It noted that 39% of its revenue and 40%-50% of its costs are linked to foreign currencies, meaning that the real's resurgence against the US dollar (10% improvement in the quarter) had "minimal" overall impact.
Travelport announced a new long-term, full-content GDS agreement with British Airways that will make all the carrier's fares and inventory available on both Galileo and Worldspan until April 2013. The companies said they will "work together in the coming months" to provide travel agents the ability to offer a la carte extras through the GDS.
Vietnam Airlines has signed an MOU for four A380s, VN and EADS officials told reporters in Hanoi. EADS VP Marwan Lahoud said VN is the first new A380 customer since 2006 and that the order was worth $800 million-$1.2 billion, according to Agence France Presse. VN CEO Pham Ngoc Minh told Bloomberg News that the agreement marked the start of negotiations. An Airbus spokesperson contacted by ATWOnline could not confirm the reports. VN has ordered both the 787 and A350.
British Airways and Iberia yesterday agreed to a "binding" MOU to merge under a single holding company that will be 55% controlled by BA shareholders and led by BA CEO Willie Walsh, paving the way for establishment of a third major European airline company by the end of 2010 that would have annual revenue of about €15 billion ($22.5 billion), a fleet of 419 aircraft and a route network comprising 205 destinations.
Chinese airlines are facing the prospect of canceling once-profitable domestic routes owing to increasing competition from high-speed rail. Spring Airlines, the country's most successful LCC, has stopped flying from Shanghai to both Zhengzhou and Wuhan because it was losing passengers to the train. "Currently our solution is to avoid opening short-haul routes that are shorter than 1,000 km.," a Spring spokesperson said.Sichuan Airlines will shutter its Chengdu-Chongqing service on Nov.
Sukhoi Civil Aircraft said it will miss the delivery date of the first Superjet 100 that was scheduled for the end of 2009. Aircraft is headed to launch customer Aeroflot, but Sukhoi said this week that it will "not be able to supply its new regional plane, Superjet 100, to customers before the end of 2009." No new date was announced. The Moscow Times cited industry sources who said that a certification delay was the cause of the latest delay. SU had expected delivery in December and planned to take one per month for a total of 30.
Turkish Airlines reported a TRY374 million ($253.8 million) profit in the third quarter, a 7% drop from the year-ago period but a result that the airline said recovered some of the ground lost during the first half of 2009. Third-quarter revenue rose 17% to TRY2.89 billion and THY's operating profit soared 51% to TRY454 million.
Emirates President Tim Clark elaborated on the A380 delays mentioned Wednesday by Chairman Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, telling the DPA news agency that three aircraft scheduled to arrive in November and December now will be delivered in December and January. At the end of 2010 EK will operate 15 A380s instead of the planned 20 and it expects to take 11-12 aircraft in both 2012 and 2013. Delivery of its order for 58 should be finished by 2017.
United Airlines pilot Erwin Washington was arrested Tuesday at London Heathrow and charged with "being aviation staff performing aviation function whilst exceeding the proscribed alcohol limit," according to a Scotland Yard statement. Washington was scheduled for UA Flight 949, a 767 with 124 passengers and 11 crew, to Chicago O'Hare.
Republic Airway Holdings, wooed by some $27 million in tax credits offered by the state of Wisconsin, will pack up and move its heavy maintenance and some administrative jobs from Denver to Milwaukee.
