Australian Competition and Consumer Commission yesterday launched legal proceedings against Thai Airways, alleging that the carrier engaged in price-fixing on cargo carriage over a five-year period. Thai is the 11th airline targeted by ACCC in its ongoing investigation of antitrust irregularities in air cargo pricing. Six have paid penalties totaling A$41 million ($37.6 million) and four cases are pending ( ATWOnline, Sept. 4).
US Airways announced yesterday that it will cut 1,000 jobs in the first half of 2010 and implement a "realignment" of its flight network to focus on its "core network strengths," resulting in nearly all of its capacity operating to/from three hubs, one focus city and on its Northeast US shuttle service by the end of next year. US said the job cuts will include 600 airport passenger and ramp service workers, 200 pilots and 150 flight attendants. It will close crew bases at Las Vegas and New York LaGuardia on Jan. 31 and at Boston on May 2.
Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choon Seng believes the traffic downturn largely has bottomed out. Speaking to ATWOnline at this week's Star Alliance event in Newark, Chew cited "signs. . .that market demand has stabilized," adding that SIA has observed that some corporations are easing their travel policies.
American Airlines will close its Kansas City Maintenance Base next September as part of a downsizing of its maintenance and engineering "footprint" that will result in up to 700 management and union job losses.
Kingfisher Airlines suffered a INR4.19 billion ($88.8 million) loss in the fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, a 13.3% improvement from the INR4.83 billion deficit suffered in the year-ago period, according to a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange cited by numerous press reports from India. Revenue dropped 13.7% to INR11.42 billion
Royal Jordanian reported a JOD25.5 million ($35.7 million) profit through the first nine months of 2009, reversed from a JOD3.8 million loss in the year-ago period, implying third-quarter earnings of approximately JOD17.8 million ( ATWOnline, July 30). It posted a profit of some JOD200,000 in the third quarter of 2008. Operating revenue through the nine-month period fell 16% year-over-year to JOD449 million, but fuel costs plunged 50% and "operational costs" dropped 20% on a 4% cut in capacity.
Lufthansa posted a €184 million ($273.4 million) net profit in the third quarter but remained in the red through the first nine months of 2009 and yesterday issued a warning that its target of a full-year operating surplus now is at risk.
Continental Airlines yesterday signed codeshare agreements with two more Star Alliance members, ANA and Asiana Airlines. CO officially joined Star Tuesday and inked codesharing pacts with United Airlines, Lufthansa, Air Canada and bmi ( ATWOnline, Oct. 28). It said yesterday that it will start codesharing with Asiana in December and with ANA next year.
Etihad Airways will launch service from Abu Dhabi to Nagoya (via Beijing, four-times-weekly from Feb. 1 increasing to five-times-weekly on March 27) and Tokyo Narita (five-times-weekly on March 27) aboard A330s. They will be its first Japanese destinations. Air New Zealand and South African Airways reached a codeshare deal under which SAA will place its code on ANZ's daily Auckland-Perth flight and ANZ will put its code on SAA's daily Perth-Johannesburg service. Agreement also covers internal flights to principal cities.
A five-day pilot strike combined with "a lean season and lower yields" dragged India's Jet Airways to a INR4.07 billion ($86.6 million) loss in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, deepened 5.8% from the INR3.85 billion deficit reported in the year-ago period.
Science Applications International Corp. of Virginia said it was awarded a $106 million contract by US FAA "to provide program management and technical services" in support of the NextGen transition. SAIC said its involvement will include work on safety management, aeronautical communications and weather programs.
Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines enjoyed a financial turnaround in the third quarter owing to a strong recovery in the domestic market and gains on their fuel hedges. CA earned net income of CNY885.3 million ($129.5 million) in the quarter, a significant reversal from the CNY1.94 billion loss suffered in the year-ago period, on a 1.3% lift in operating revenue to CNY14.05 billion. Expenses dropped 10.6% to CNY13.45 billion and the Beijing-based airline reported a CNY554 million profit on its fuel hedges for the period.
Turkish Airlines flew 29.22 billion RPKs through the first nine months of 2009, up 14.2% from the year-ago period. Capacity rose 20.6% to 41.21 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 4 points to 70.9%. Iberia flew 4.07 billion RPKs in September, down 8.1% year-over-year, against a 6.3% cut in capacity to 5.16 billion ASKs. Load factor slipped 1.6 points to 79%. Transaero Airlines flew 2 billion RPKs in September, a 12.2% increase year-over-year, while passenger numbers climbed 4% to 595,000.
LAN Airlines reported third-quarter net income of $52.1 million, down 47.3% from an $83 million profit in the year-ago period, as both passenger and cargo yield declined owing to the recession and the swine flu scare.
Oneworld airlines operating to/from London Heathrow will be concentrated in Terminal 3 and Terminal 5 on Thursday, finalizing the alliance's biggest co-location project to date. T3 is the closest existing terminal to T5. T3 is nearing completion of an upgrade designed to bring customer facilities up to a similar standard to those offered at T5. The eight oneworld carriers operated from five different terminals in the past.
KLM cityhopper reduced the number of seats on the five F100s that will remain in its fleet to 100 from 103 or 108, allowing it to operate the aircraft with two flight attendants instead of three, a spokesperson confirmed to ATWOnline. The carrier's new E-190LRs are equipped with 100 seats as well. It will take delivery of its eighth E-190 this week and an additional nine by July 2010. It holds 11 options. The Embraer aircraft gradually are replacing the Fokker fleet. Cityhopper's F50s are set to be phased out during the winter schedule.
US FAA yesterday revoked the licenses of the two Northwest Airlines pilots who flew 150 mi. past their destination on an Oct. 21 flight from San Diego to Minneapolis-St. Paul ( ATWOnline, Oct. 27). ATC and airline officials were unable to make contact with the pilots for more than 1 hr. and the crew later told the National Transportation Safety Board that they had been using their laptop computers and were distracted.
Copa Airlines expects to make a decision whether to follow Continental Airlines into Star Alliance fairly soon, CEO Pedro Heilbron told ATWOnline on the sidelines of yesterday's Star Alliance-Continental Airlines joining event at Newark. Copa has a very close partnership with CO, a former investor in the Panamanian airline, so much so that it also left SkyTeam on Oct. 24. Heilbron said Copa has two choices: "To remain independent or join Star." Oneworld is not an option owing to the need to remain in partnership with Continental.
Continental Airlines yesterday became the 25th member of Star Alliance in Newark ceremonies attended by leaders of current and future member airlines, at which CO also unveiled a winglet-equipped 757-200ER in alliance livery. Ahead of the formal induction, the carrier entered into bilateral commercial agreements with the other 24 members and signed codesharing deals with four--United Airlines, Lufthansa, Air Canada and bmi--the first three of which are part of the Atlantic Plus Plus antitrust immunized partnership.
IATA reported that airlines experienced "further weakness in financial and market conditions during the third quarter," but noted that "the rate of deterioration did appear to stabilize." In its latest Airline Business Confidence Index released this week, the organization said an October survey of airline CFOs worldwide revealed that "confidence. . .that conditions will improve during the next 12 months rose markedly" compared to the last survey in July. "The gain. .
Vueling Airlines, which merged with Clickair in July ( ATWOnline, July 13), posted a third-quarter operating profit of €68.1 million ($102.1 million) compared to EBIT of €24.7 in the year-ago period when it was an independent carrier. Revenue rose 68.6% year-over-year to €259.2 million and operating expenses increased 48.2% to €191.1 million.
The European Commission will require oneworld partners British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia to surrender slots in order to gain clearance for their transatlantic alliance, the Financial Times reported, citing documents saying the joint venture is "likely to result in appreciable competitive harm" on seven Europe-US routes.
SITA won a five-year contract from SriLankan Airlines to implement and maintain a global IP network covering connections in 44 sites across 19 countries.
Jat Airways CEO Srdjan Radovanovic told the Associated Press that the airline will be forced to cut one-third of its staff, or around 550 people, in order to complete its reorganization. It expects to lose around €20 million ($30 million) this year and will have to transport some 1.5 million people in 2010 in order to avoid a loss, he said. Jat's winter schedule, which began Sunday and runs through March 27, will feature 163 weekly flights to 36 destinations in 25 countries. A Belgrade-Gothenburg service is set to launch on Dec. 19.
