Norwegian reported a 2007 net profit of NOK84.6 million ($15.4 million), reversed from a NOK22 million loss the prior year, as expansion and the acquisition of FlyNordic boosted its bottom line ( ATWOnline, July 3, 2007). Full-year operating revenue climbed 43.7% to NOK4.23 billion against a 35.8% increase in operating expenses to NOK3.72 billion.
A year in which Air Arabia signaled its ambition with an IPO and a significant aircraft order ended with a AED376 million ($102.4 million) net profit, more than three times the AED101 million profit reported in 2006. Revenue rose 71.3% to AED1.28 billion and passenger numbers climbed 53.2% to 2.7 million.
Belavia Belarusian Airlines CRJ100ER flipped over and caught fire at Yerevan Zvartnots International yesterday. There were no fatalities but at least four passengers were hospitalized with burns. The BBC and Associated Press reported that Armenian civil aviation head Artyom Movsesyan said the aircraft's wing touched the ground on takeoff, causing it to flip over and burn. "Nearly everyone onboard received burns of various degrees," an aviation authority spokesperson said, according to several press reports.
"Ever-higher" fuel costs, striking employees, steeper taxes and what Air France KLM described as a "negative impact from the revaluation of derivative instruments" weighed heavily on the company's profit in the fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31, although its operating result remained robust.
AirAsia X yesterday confirmed the sale of 10% stakes to Bahrain-based Manara Consortium and Japan's Orix Corp. for a combined MYR250 million ($77.2 million) cash consideration ( ATWOnline, Feb. 14). Each investor will receive approximately 16.7 million newly issued shares of common stock. Orix also holds a stake in Japanese LCC Skymark Airlines.
IER said Billund Airport contracted it to install 12 of its 918 common-use self-service kiosks, four of which will be equipped with an active eyecatcher to display airport information. Billund also chose IER's IMS to supervise kiosk operations independently. Kiosks are slated to be operational next month.
Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair flew 7.79 billion RPKs in January, up 17.8% on the year-ago month. Capacity rose 10.2% to 9.47 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 5.3 points to 82.3%. Hawaiian Airlines flew 651.7 million RPMs in January, up 4.6% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 5.8% to 784.7 million ASMs and load factor slipped 0.9 point to 83.1%.
JADE won US FAA STC authority under the Singapore-US Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement for cabin interior reconfiguration modification on Singapore Airlines 747s. SIA, SIA Engineering and Singapore Jamco participated in JADE's application. This is the first STC granted under the Singapore-US BASA.
Emirates will partner with Dubai International, London Heathrow and Hong Kong International to trial RFID baggage handling technology. EK will tag approximately 500,000 bags with RFID chips during the six-month test. Senior VP-Airport Services Dan Griffith said that "previous RFID trials by other parties on a smaller scale have shown that the technology almost eliminates scanner 'misreads,' significantly improving the efficiency of the baggage system and customer experience. We are now applying this on a much larger scale at three major airport hubs. .
European Court of Justice yesterday upheld a 2005 European Commission ruling that Greece failed properly to recover illegal state aid provided to Olympic Airways and its successor Olympic Airlines ( ATWOnline, Oct. 19, 2006).
Asiana Airlines will invest KRW23 billion ($24.3 million) in startup Busan International Air and become the managing shareholder of the new carrier with a 46% stake, it announced yesterday. Now capitalized to the tune of KRW50 billion, BIA will "focus on offering customers low fares but with the quality service and safety assurance that is synonymous with Asiana Airlines," the latter said. An Asiana "taskforce" will begin working on launching service. No further details were released.
SAS Group became the principal shareholder in GO, a Norwegian company launched last May that sells travel through the SAS, Avis Budget Group and gonow.no websites. SAS bought out Reitan Group, which will maintain its distribution agreement with GO.
Massachusetts Port Authority announced a new financial incentive package called the International Air Service Incentive Program designed to help Boston Logan "compete more aggressively for international airline service." It will apply to new nonstop international flights to Asia, Central America, South America, Africa, the Middle East and Mexico City and is intended to "minimize the initial business risk of the air carrier." Massport said ASIP "is not designed to subsidize a service that is not likely to be self-sufficient." BOS currently offers flights to 32 international destinations.
Mesa Air Group, which provides regional lift for Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and US Airways and operates independently as Mesa Airlines and go!, reported a $4.2 million loss in the fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 31, reversed from an $8 million profit in the year-ago period. "We are certainly disappointed with the results," Chairman and CEO Jonathan Ornstein said. "We are confident in our plans, however, to shrink our less-profitable 50-seat fleet and grow with our larger, more profitable regional jets.
Iberia is in and Grupo Marsans is out as the sale of SAS Group subsidiary Spanair took a dramatic turn yesterday. Marsans presented a formal offer in December but yesterday withdrew its interest, with a spokesperson telling Thomson Financial that the tourism conglomerate that counts Aerolineas Argentinas among its subsidiares "feels a bit betrayed" by SAS's decision not to keep the bidding private.
Bmi will lease two 757-200s to expand its medium-haul network further from London Heathrow. In December, Chairman Michael Bishop told ATWOnline that bmi was looking for additional capacity, possibly 757s or 767-200s, to support growth on several former BMED routes that were performing well ( ATWOnline, Dec. 24, 2007). The aircraft have been wet-leased from Astraeus for two years with an option to extend.
AirAsia X will sell 10% stakes to private equity funds in Japan (Orix Group) and Bahrain (Perigon Capital) for a combined $75 million, an official told Agence France Press, in order to raise money for the purchase of 25 A330-300s. Virgin Group acquired a 20% stake in the startup last summer ( ATWOnline, Aug. 13, 2007). The AirAsia X official was quoted by AFP but declined to be named.
China Eastern Airlines continues to press on in its effort to reach a deal with Singapore Airlines and plans to cooperate with SIA parent Temasek to fashion terms that will be acceptable to minority shareholders, who vetoed the sale of a 24% stake last month.
JetBlue Airways announced an expansion of its Southern California service that will include its first flights to Los Angeles International and the West Coast debut of the E-190. Thrice-daily New York JFK-LAX and daily Boston-LAX will begin May 21. From Long Beach it will start daily flights to Austin on May 1 and service to San Jose (thrice-daily) and Seattle (twice-daily) on May 21, all operated by a mix of A320s and E-190s. Twice-daily Burbank-Washington Dulles, daily Burbank-Las Vegas and daily San Diego-Seattle all begin May 21.
Ryanair will take its Internet and call center booking system offline from 10 p.m. Feb. 22 until 11 p.m. Feb. 25. The LCC said the move is necessary to "change over to a new flight booking system," which it is doing in order to comply with a UK Office of Fair Trading mandate that requires all taxes and fees to be included in an advertised ticket price. The carrier reportedly missed a Jan. 31 deadline and received an extension to the end of February.
Atlantic Airways of Faroe Islands signed a contract for one firm A319 scheduled to deliver in 2011 plus one option. It currently flies BAe 146s. KLM took delivery of its first 777-300ER as part of a November order for two -300ERs and three 737-700s. It will deploy the aircraft in a two-class configuration on routes to Dubai, Sao Paulo Guarulhos, New York JFK and Manila. KLM has aligned the configuration and specification of its 777-300ER with Air France, which has operated the type since May 2004. KLM currently operates 15 777-200ERs.
Synergy Aerospace, the Colombia-based conglomerate that is the parent of Avianca, SAM, Brazil's OceanAir and Ecuador's VIP, signed an MOU with Airbus for the purchase of 10 A350 XWB-800s plus 10 options, the manufacturer announced.
WestJet demonstrated its ability to manage costs and capacity in both the final quarter of 2007 and the full year, reporting record net earnings in both periods. Its full-year profit of C$192.8 million ($192.7 million) represented a 68.2% improvement over the C$114.7 million reported in 2006. Fourth-quarter net earnings of C$75.4 million were nearly triple the C$26.7 million earned in the year-ago period, though they were boosted by a $33.7 million gain related to a reduction in Canada's corporate tax rate.
Boeing CFO James Bell told an investors conference in Miami Beach that US airlines constitute just 11% of Boeing's $255 billion backlog and that orders will be required "to avoid an unmanageable fleet replacement period post-2012 that approaches about 1,000 aircraft," the Chicago Tribune reported. He said the manufacturer is "trying to reserve some spots" in its production line this year.
