China Eastern Airlines' effort to reach financial breakeven by 2010 and a 2011 profit will include the forced retirement of 160 mid-level executives, who will be replaced by lower-salaried employees from both inside and outside the company.
ILFC, which last month admitted that it needed "additional support" owing to its lack of access to financing as a unit of American International Group, reportedly is close to reaching agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to obtain a $5 billion line of credit that will help facilitate its sale.
China Southern Airlines yesterday became the first Chinese carrier to offer mobile check-in, another innovative step for the airline that sold the country's first e-ticket in 2000 and introduced the first common-use self-service kiosk in 2005 and the country's first online check-in option in 2006.
Air France KLM said it suffered a "significant deterioration" in March unit revenue. The group flew 16.02 billion RPKs during the month, down 9.4% year-over-year, against a 2.9% fall in capacity to 21.21 billion ASKs. Load factor dropped 5.5 points to 75.5%. United Airlines flew 9.58 consolidated RPMs in March, a 13.6% drop year-over-year. Capacity fell 9.9% to 12.18 billion ASMs and load factor was down 3.3 points to 78.7%.
Brussels Airlines reported a €12.2 million ($16.3 million) net loss for last year, a reversal from the €23.1 million profit earned in 2007, owing largely to mark-to-market fuel hedging losses.
European Commission yesterday released its updated "blacklist" of airlines banned from operating into the EU. Added to the list last released in November were Motor Sich Airlines of Ukraine, Thailand's One-Two-Go Airlines, six carriers from Kazakhstan and all airlines certified in Benin. Regarding carriers and countries already listed, it said a February visit to Indonesia "showed considerable improvements" and that there has been "good progress" regarding the "safety situation" in Angola ( ATWOnline, Nov.
Rolls-Royce signed a contract with Saudi Arabian Airlines for provision of Trent 700EPs to power up to 12 (eight firm and four option) A330s ordered at last year's Farnborough Airshow ( ATWOnline, July 15), with deliveries beginning in 2010. Contract is valued at up to $900 million at list prices and includes a long-term TotalCare services agreement. SV already operates 14 Rolls-powered 747-100s -200s, -SPs and -300s, but this marks the first time it has selected the Trent.
TNT said its Express unit's international air volumes were down 23% year-over-year in the first quarter but overall international volumes "stabilized" as the quarter went on. Despite steep declines in the early part of the quarter, later leveling-out led the express giant to predict yesterday that it will report "positive" operating income when it releases its results on May 4.
SAS Group said its rights issue authorized last month ended up oversubscribed by 23.3%, ensuring that the company will receive some SEK6 billion ($734.8 million) in proceeds before transaction costs ( ATWOnline, March 17). "We are pleased that our shareholders, as well as new investors, have shown their confidence in and support for SAS and our new strategy, Core SAS," President and CEO Mats Jansson said ( ATWOnline, March 27).
OpenSkies completed its merger with L'Avion, the French all-business-class airline it acquired last summer ( ATWOnline, July 3, 2008). The merged carrier's operating certificate now will be located in France, resulting in a headquarters relocation to Paris Orly. EC's Dale Moss will remain MD and former L'Avion CEO Marc Rochet will be executive VP.
Alaska Airlines flew 1.56 billion RPMs in March, down 8.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 9% to 1.91 billion ASMs and load factor was up 0.8 point to 81.6%. Allegiant Air flew 468.5 million RPMs in March, up 19.1% year-over-year. Capacity rose 17.3% to 507.9 million ASMs and load factor lifted 1.5 points to 92.3%.
GKN Aerospace broke ground yesterday on a manufacturing facility at Bristol. The new site, known as Filton-West, will be under the management of the recently acquired GKN Aerospace (the former Airbus Filton facility) and will house an automated composites manufacturing operation that will incorporate production techniques "that represent the future of composites manufacture in aviation," GKN said. Starting in January the plant will manufacture wing spars and trailing edge assemblies for the A350.
Rockwell Collins reached agreements to install its dPAVES inflight entertainment system with CanJet Airlines (two 737-800s), Air Europa (12 737s plus 13 options) and Air Arabia (49 A320s).
Southwest Airlines will launch its New York LaGuardia service on June 28 with five daily flights to Chicago Midway and thrice-daily service to Baltimore, the LCC announced yesterday ( ATWOnline, Dec. 3, 2008).
Qantas Executive GM John Borghetti announced his resignation effective May 4, completing the management shakeup that included the elimination of 90 senior positions last month ( ATWOnline, March 26). Borghetti had been a contender for the Qantas Group CEO position along with former CFO Peter Gregg. The job eventually went to former Jetstar Airways CEO Alan Joyce and Gregg resigned last summer ( ATWOnline, Aug. 20, 2008).
Aviation Global Deal Group, a partnership of Air France KLM, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways and UK airports operator BAA that supports the inclusion of aviation emissions under a single global policy, presented a draft policy framework to UN climate change negotiators in Bonn. The framework is "ambitious, equitable and effective," AGD said. It maintained its position that regulation should be global rather than regional and suggested that a worldwide target be established for the sector in order to ensure aviation plays its due part.
Finmeccanica subsidiary Alenia Aeronautica completed the acquisition of a 25%-plus-one-share stake in Sukhoi Civil Aircraft. Price was not disclosed. Alenia is a partner in the development of the Superjet 100. It said the aircraft has received 98 orders and is due to be certified and delivered to launch customer Aeroflot by year end.
An American Airlines MD-82 inflight engine fire in September 2007 was "probably due to an unapproved and improper procedure used by mechanics to manually start one of the engines," the US National Transportation Safety Board said in a report issued yesterday, adding that "the fire was prolonged and the safety of the aircraft further jeopardized by how the flight crew handled the emergency."
Despite the global recession, flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith believes now is the perfect time to launch the airline: "There are 2 billion people within 4 hr. flying time out of Dubai who are still underserved. The market share of LCCs in our region is just about 2%," he told ATWOnline.
The US Dept. of Transportation yesterday approved Continental Airlines' entry into Star Alliance, granting tentative antitrust immunity to the carrier and certain Star partners and to CO's proposed transatlantic joint venture with Air Canada, Lufthansa and United Airlines.
Mesa Air Group agreed to sell its stake in Kunpeng Airlines, its regional joint venture with Shenzhen Airlines. Mesa said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it will sell its share to Shenzhen or its nominee and terminate the lease of five CRJ200s to Kunpeng for $4.5 million, minus $900,000 in returned security deposits. Mesa announced its intention to end its 44% participation in the JV last summer and said it expects the aircraft to be returned this month ( ATWOnline, Aug. 20, 2008).
