Lufthansa Group, as projected in last month's earnings preview, posted record net income of €803 million ($1.05 billion) for 2006, a 77.3% increase over net income of €453 million in 2005, on a 9.9% lift in revenue to €19.85 billion, its highest-ever annual total.
Southwest Airlines is expecting 7%-8% capacity growth this year as it takes delivery of "at least" 37 737s, CEO Gary Kelly said yesterday as the LCC unveiled a series of new routes and frequency increases. New services include daily Fort Lauderdale-Providence and Houston Hobby-San Diego starting June 4, five-times-daily Denver-Oakland from June 17 and daily Baltimore/Washington-Oklahoma City beginning Aug. 4.
IATA DG Giovanni Bisignani opened this week's World Cargo Symposium in Mexico City by pointing to "concerns" raised by cargo operators' heavy investment in Asia, including imbalanced trade flows, overcapacity and China's lack of standardized business practices. He noted that rapid growth in China and surrounding markets is driving air cargo's strong expansion rate, expected to average 6% annually over the next 20 years, but said, "Asia is exporting more than it is importing. . .So the planes are full leaving Asia but half empty coming in.
CSA Czech Airlines reported a 2006 net loss of CZK397 million ($18.5 million), lower than the forecast CZK493 million loss and narrowed from a CZK496 million deficit in 2005, the Associated Press reported. CSA expects to return to the black in 2007 with a CZK42 million profit. Separately, the airline said it will lease an A310 to Air India for one year.
The pilot of the Garuda Indonesia 737-400 that crashed in Yogyakarta said a major, unexpected downdraft caused the accident, according to the president of the Garuda Pilots Assn.
Finnair yesterday made the first firm commitment for the new A350 XWB powered by the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB, signing a contract for 11 of the type along with a flexible mix of seven A330s and A340-300s.
Australian Transport Minister Mark Vaile conceded that some Qantas jobs may head offshore if the carrier's sale to Airline Partners Australia goes through following the receipt of government approval Tuesday. He also told viewers of the National Nine network that the government would not "micromanage" the new owners. Meanwhile, controversy over the government's refusal to extract job guarantees from APA continued ( ATWOnline, March 7).
Accommodations Plus International of New York signed a multiyear deal with JetBlue Airways to provide hotel accommodations and services for crewmembers. API also will furnish an integrated crew management system transferring crew information from the airline to hotel and transportation partners.
British Airways said at its Investor Day yesterday that the impact of August's terror alert, fog, baggage belt failures at London Heathrow and January's planned cabin crew strike will cost it £200 million ($385.1 million). CFO Keith Williams also revealed that the sale of BA Connect to Flybe ( ATWOnline, March 6) will cost the carrier an additional £130 million, including £96 million in cash paid to Flybe.
JetBlue Airways yesterday named Russell Chew COO effective March 19. Formerly COO at US FAA and before that MD at American Airlines, Chew had been named executive VP-operations at Hawaiian Airlines less than a month ago ( ATWOnline, Feb. 13).
GE Aviation signed a five-year OnPoint Solutions maintenance agreement with North American Airlines covering CF6-80C2s powering five 737-300ERs. Deal is valued at more than $20 million.
First Choice Airways of the UK exercised options for four 787-8s yesterday, bringing its commitment to 12 ( ATWOnline, Dec. 8, 2006) and making it the type's largest European customer. "The success of our long-haul program with our upgraded Boeing 767s has given us the confidence to order 12 Boeing 787s," First Choice MD Dermot Blastland said. It selected GEnx engines for the order, which will double the size of its long-haul fleet by 2013.
Copa Holdings, parent of Copa Airlines and AeroRepublica, said it posted record net income of $134.2 million in 2006, up 61.7% from $83 million the prior year, on a 39.9% jump in revenue to $851.2 million. "We continue to see solid economic growth in the region and we continue to see solid passenger growth," CFO Victor Vial said. Fourth-quarter net income was $41.8 million, more than double the $17.7 million earned in the year-ago quarter. Full-year operating income jumped 51.8% to $166.9 million from $109.2 million in 2005.
LAN Airlines' board approved a capital increase of 22.1 million ordinary shares this week, replacing the increase of 7.5 million shares approved in January ( ATWOnline, Jan. 4). Proceeds will help finance LAN's fleet expansion, comprising five unidentified long-haul aircraft, four freighters and 15 A320 family aircraft scheduled for delivery through 2011.
Cathay Pacific Airways continued to consolidate its position in Asia last year by purchasing low-cost rival Dragonair, firming up its relationship with Air China and posting a profit attributable to shareholders of HK$4.09 billion ($523.4 million), an increase of 24% over earnings of HK$3.3 billion in 2005. The airline said it was able to limit the impact of a 29.7% increase in fuel costs with a 19.4% rise in revenue to HK$60.78 billion, fuel surcharges, a slight lift in yield and a 1.3% drop in cost per ATK excluding fuel to HK$1.53 (excluding Dragonair).
Indonesia's air safety record was under intense scrutiny yesterday following a second fatal 737-400 accident in 10 weeks, this one involving a Garuda Indonesia aircraft that skidded off a runway upon landing in Yogyakarta and caught fire in an adjacent rice field, killing 21 of 133 passengers and one of seven crewmembers.
Continental Airlines will launch daily Newark-Mumbai flights Oct. 30 aboard two-class 777-200s. BOM will be CO's second Indian destination following Delhi. CO will launch daily Newark-Athens flights June 7 aboard 174-seat, two-class 767-200ERs. Service will be five-times-weekly in April, May, September and October and thrice-weekly from November through March. Finnair will launch daily Helsinki-Osaka service at the end of May on MD-11s and add a fourth weekly A340 flight to Nagoya from mid-June.
General Electric has ruled out a variant of the Engine Alliance GP7000 powerplant, which powers the A380, for the A350 XWB-1000. A GE spokesperson told ATWOnline yesterday that "it is not being considered." The engine, a joint venture of GE and Pratt & Whitney, is currently offered only on the A380. The XWB-1000 is to be powered by a Trent 1000 at 95,000 lb. thrust. There had been brief discussions between GE and Airbus on a possible 105,000-lb. GEnx derivative but those talks lapsed.
Bmi is reconfiguring and expanding its regional and medium-haul operations following its acquisition of British Airways franchise partner BMED and BA's sale of BA Connect to Flybe, which was finalized Monday. Tuesday bmi unveiled its plans for BMED, in which it acquired a 99% stake last month through a £30 million ($57.8 million) share subscription ( ATWOnline, Feb. 5). "To achieve this kind of growth without the acquisition and integration of BMED could take years to achieve," bmi CEO Nigel Turner said.
Air France KLM flew 14.41 billion RPKs in February, up 3.5% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 1.9% to 18.28 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 1.2 points to 78.9%. US Airways Group flew 4.51 billion RPMs in February, up 1.9% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 0.9% to 5.92 billion ASMs and load factor improved 0.7 point to 76.3%.
Singapore Technologies Aerospace and Boeing announced that ST Aero's ST Aviation Services Co. was selected to perform "certain passenger-to-freighter conversions" under the 767-300 Boeing Converted Freighter program, with ANA as its first customer. ANA launched the 767-300BCF program in 2005. SASCO will perform conversions on five firm aircraft with two options. The initial ANA commitment was for three firm and four options. SASCO is the second conversion center chosen by Boeing for the 767-300 after Aeronavali of Italy.
Sermatech International signed a 10-year, $40 million deal with Rolls-Royce to provide "a range of coating and surface treatment services" to Rolls facilities around the world. Sermatech is headquartered in Pennsylvania.
Low-cost airlines operate one of every five flights in Germany, according to a report issued this week by German air traffic authority Deutsche Flugsicherung. LCC market share rose to 19.1% in 2006 from 15.5% in 2005.
Sterling Airlines will operate twice-weekly flights from Copenhagen to Edinburgh May 15-Sept. 7 aboard a 737-500, to Biarritz May 14-Oct. 25 aboard a -500 and to Oslo Gardermoen May 15-Aug. 31 aboard a 737-700.
Garuda Indonesia 737-400 en route from Jakarta caught fire upon landing in Yogyakarta late yesterday. A local official told Reuters that "it happened when it overshot beyond the runway and burst into flames." There reportedly were 133 passengers and seven crew onboard. Indonesian Transport Minister Hatta Rajasa told local television that 76 people were rescued, according to Bloomberg News. Witnesses reported fatalities. An airport official told local radio that he "saw many bodies, dozens of bodies badly burnt near the exit," according to Fox News in Australia.
