China Southern Airlines expects to its 2008 net loss to be worse than previously expected owing largely to its decision to retire older aircraft whose value continues to decrease in the current economic downturn. It said in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange that the impairment "will, to some extent, have a negative impact on the 2008 financial results of the company."
Brussels Airlines and Lufthansa will codeshare on flights between Brussels and Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, Hannover, Nuremberg and Stuttgart beginning March 29. The carriers intend to add Munich "at a later point." Air Nostrum will launch twice-weekly flights from Madrid to Bari on May 5 and to Palermo on June 4.
AerSale is the name of a new company that will focus on "the mid-life current technology airliner aftermarket." It was founded by Nick Finazzo and Bob Nichols, co-founders and sole shareholders of Miami-based AeroTurbine, a provider of aftermarket aircraft engines and parts that they sold to Amsterdam-based operating lessor AerCap in April 2006. AerSale will acquire aircraft 12-25 years old that are on lease or can be remarketed "with the intent to eventually disassemble such aircraft" for parts and engines.
Royal Air Maroc CEO Driss Benhima told a business conference in Casablanca last week that the carrier soon will place an order for six new aircraft. "We will sign the order deal by the end of this month," he was quoted as saying by Reuters, but declined to specify the aircraft type.
UK CAA announced its final decision on price caps at London Stansted for the next five years and confirmed that it will toughen performance targets, noting that under the new incentive scheme BAA could be forced to return up to £10 million ($13.8 million) per year if delivers "poor" service to passengers and airlines.
Austrian Airlines Group executive board members Andreas Bierwirth and Peter Malanik said Friday in Vienna that the company does "not have enough reserves to get through the crisis" that helped push it to a €429.5 million ($550.3 million) loss in 2008, a reversal from the €3.3 million profit in 2007 and the worst result in its history.
Lufthansa Group airlines flew 9.83 billion RPKs in February, a 9.8% drop from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 5.7% to 13.63 billion ASKs and load factor slipped 3.3 points to 72.1%.
US Airways said it will test the Lumexis Fiber-To-The-Screen IFE system on certain flights. The FTTS fiberoptic technology reduces system weight by up to 50% and can offer high-definition content, the companies said. Inflight Canada designed and monitored the installation of an FTTS system on a US A320 that will serve Phoenix, Atlanta and Orange County.
ALTA member airlines carried 10.6 million passengers in January, up 5.8% from the year-ago month, fueled by strong domestic and Latin American traffic that offset weaker demand to the US and Europe. RPKs rose 3.2% to 15.79 billion against a 4% increase in capacity to 21.58 billion, lowering load factor 0.5 point to 73.1%. US Airways said February consolidated passenger RASM fell 9%-11% year-over-year, although total RASM dropped just 5%-7% thanks to a la carte revenue initiatives. It flew 4.19 billion consolidated RPMs, down 9.3%, against a 9% drop in ASMs to 5.48 billion.
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary told a Dublin tourism conference this week that charging for lavatory use "is not likely to happen, but it makes for interesting and very cheap PR." He made worldwide headlines two weeks ago with his proposal to charge passengers £1 ($1.38) per use and continued last week, saying he was "serious" about the move and had discussed implementation with Boeing ( ATWOnline, March 9).
American Airlines announced a new 17-year lease at Dallas Love Field but will suspend American Eagle flights at the airport from June 11 until terminal renovations are complete in 2013. Eagle serves Chicago O'Hare from DAL."We have every intention of returning service to Love Field when the new terminal is completed," AA VP-State and Community Affairs Kevin Cox said. AA does not operate mainline flights at the airport, which is dominated by Southwest Airlines. Separately, Eagle will launch a daily Dallas/Fort Worth-Santa Fe flight on June 11.
Claiming that some airlines are "overreacting" to the current downturn with hasty reductions of their networks, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker confirmed that the carrier's winter expansion will include its first services to Australia.
Bmi Group yesterday confirmed a £99.7 million ($137.2 million) loss in 2008, reversed from a £7 million profit the prior year, and said it plans to reduce costs by an additional £45 million this year and is negotiating a pay freeze with employees.
Aegean Airlines' ambitions were checked last week when it was denied the right to purchase rival Olympic Airlines, but the carrier said it has continued on a "healthy and dynamic growth path" and finished 2008 with a €29.5 million ($37.5 million) profit, down only 18% from the €35.8 million earned the previous year.
The US National Transportation Safety Board late Wednesday issued an "urgent safety recommendation" calling for Rolls-Royce to "redesign" the Trent 800's fuel/oil heat exchanger to prevent the fuel feed system icing that is believed to have caused both the uncommanded loss of thrust on a Delta Air Lines 777-200ER last November and the dual rollback that led to the January 2008 British Airways -200ER crash landing at London Heathrow.
Malaysian government finally agreed to fund the construction of a new low-cost terminal at Kuala Lumpur International costing MYR2 billion ($541 million). The promise to build the facility, scheduled to be completed in the second half of 2011, ends an impasse between the government and AirAsia, which had threatened to build its own exclusive airport just east of the capital in order to ease congestion at the current terminal that can handle only 15 million passengers per year ( ATWOnline, Feb. 3).
American Airlines yesterday said that "early speculation" regarding Wednesday's MD-80 JT8D-200 engine failure that led to debris falling on a New York City neighborhood and an emergency landing at New York JFK is that an object was sucked into the engine and damaged fan blades, according to the Associated Press ( ATWOnline, March 12).
Air France KLM confirmed it intends to proceed with an order for approximately 100 long-haul aircraft, although the timeline has been changed slightly owing to the present economic environment. "Air France KLM's plan to launch a call for tenders for around 100 Airbus or Boeing medium-capacity long-haul aircraft, initially scheduled for 2008, is being maintained. The order could be placed by the end of the year, or maybe a little later," a spokesperson told ATWOnline. The group has both Airbus and Boeing aircraft in its long-haul fleet.
CSA Czech Airlines posted a 2008 pre-tax profit of CZK500 million ($23.6 million), compared to a CZK111 million profit in 2007. It said pre-tax earnings under IFRS came to $550,000, reversed from an $8.8 million loss on a similar basis the prior year. It said fuel and currency hedges were the difference and that absent those its fuel expense would have increased by CZK1.2 billion. However, falling demand in the second half of last year cost approximately CZK400 million in lost revenue.
Alaska Airlines and the Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA announced the ratification of a two-year contract extension (to April 2012) covering 2,830 employees. The amended deal offers a 1.5% pay increase in 2010 and 2011 and participation in a performance-based incentive plan already offered to AS's dispatch and management employees.
A340 production rate has fallen to one aircraft "or perhaps less" per month, Airbus VP-Marketing Andrew Shankland said at this week's SpeedNews Commercial Aviation Industry Suppliers Conference in Los Angeles. "The A340 is pretty much built to order," he explained, while noting it has "found a niche as a VIP airplane." He attributed slow sales to higher fuel prices, which place the four-engine jet at a disadvantage "from a purely fuel perspective" compared to twin-engine widebodies.
Lufthansa Group concluded a volatile 2008 with a €599 million ($759.8 million) net profit, down 63.8% from the hefty €1.66 billion earned in 2007, and admitted that it expects declines in passenger numbers, revenue and operating profit this year.
Shenzhen Airlines subsidiary Kunpeng Airlines is expected to replace Shandong Airlines as the operator of the first ARJ21-700, which is scheduled to obtain its domestic airworthiness certificate next year. A Shenzhen spokesperson told ATWOnline that the first -700 will be delivered to Kunpeng in the second half of 2010. It ordered 100 ARJ21s at the end of 2007. In an effort to boost ARJ21 sales, Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China Vice MD and the chief designer of China's large commercial aircraft Wu Guanghui called on Beijing to subsidize domestic carriers purchasing the ARJ21.
