Sabre Travel Network announced the renewal of a full-content distribution agreement with Lufthansa. Sabre will be an LH "preferred GDS" and will make the carrier's inventory available without surcharge to any agency using Sabre.
Niki will start a double-daily Vienna-Frankfurt service Oct. 30 using A320s. Niki and partner Air Berlin transported about 1 million passengers from Austria to six German cities last year, and Niki had a passenger increase of 15% across its network in the first half of 2006. It added the sixth A320 Wednesday. Founder Niki Lauda told this website that he will launch new Vienna-Moscow flights for the 2007 summer schedule.
Air France-KLM Group yesterday raised its full-year forecast and said it expects to "generate a significant increase in operating income compared to last year" as it reported a net profit of €244 million ($313 million) for its fiscal first quarter ended June 30, more than double the €112 million earned in the year-ago quarter. Operating income rose 84.3% to €411 million from €223 million on an 11.9% increase in revenues to €5.8 billion. Expenses climbed 11.8% to €3.24 billion, driven by a 24.8% jump in fuel costs to €1.01 billion.
Dragonair was hit hard by fuel prices in the first half of 2006 and reported a loss of HKD43.3 million ($5.6 million), a reversal from a HKD95.2 million profit in the year-ago period. China National Aviation Co., which for now holds 43.3% of Dragonair, told Hong Kong media that fuel prices climbed 32% for the semester. Passenger revenues increased 8.5% to HKD2.97 billion on a 10.2% rise in passenger numbers to 2.6 million. Load factor improved 0.5 point to 64.6%.
Aer Lingus will report half-year profits of just under €20 million ($25.7 million), up 27% from the €15.5 million earned in the first six months of 2005, according to Irish press reports. It is forecasting a full-year profit of €92.5 million, an increase of 7.8% from the €85.8 million earned in 2005. It reportedly attributed the first-half growth partly to a 12% increase in passengers on European routes.
Investigators examining Sunday's fatal crash of a Comair CRJ200 in Lexington, Ky., revealed yesterday that the lone air traffic controller on duty was operating on just 2 hr. of sleep and was completing the second of two 8-hr. shifts in a 24-hr. period.
BAA fought back against airline calls for its breakup, saying the lack of runway capacity in southeast England and not its control of London Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports is "the biggest problem" facing UK carriers and passengers.
TUI board announced yesterday that the company's two German airlines, leisure carrier Hapagfly and low-fare scheduled airline Hapag-Lloyd Express, will merge "in order to ensure that results targets in the tourism division are met. Even though margins remain under pressure, further efficiency improvements are being realized," TUI said. "Deterioration of exogenous market conditions in both areas of business [tourism and shipping]" has resulted in "unsatisfactory results and an unsatisfactory assessment of TUI AG on the capital markets." Further details will be determined by December.
TAP Portugal said in a statement yesterday that it is pursuing "potential acquisition [or] shareholder participation" in rival Portugalia Airlines. "The process is in its initial phase and no formal commitment has yet been entered into by the interested parties," the company said. TAP is working with Espirito Santo Financial Group.
UPS pilots, represented by the Independent Pilots Assn., ratified an eight-year labor agreement covering 2,775 captains, first officers and flight engineers. The 2,623 members voting approved the deal 56.5% to 43.5%. The vote ended nearly four years of negotiations. "From the beginning of the process our pilots wanted a comprehensive contract and the union wanted a contract that could keep pace with the global expansion of UPS," IPA President Tom Nicholson said.
Hainan Airlines parent HNA Group will purchase 50 Embraer 190s and 50 ERJ-145s, the Brazilian manufacturer announced yesterday. The deal is valued at $2.7 billion at list prices and represents a huge step for the Harbin Embraer Aircraft Industry joint venture with China Aviation Industry Corp. II, which assembles the 145 and had yet to reach a deal with a mainland carrier, delivering just a dozen aircraft as of May ( ATWOnline, May 12). The 106-seat 190s will be built in Sao Jose dos Campos.
Lagging regional aircraft deliveries and sales drove down Bombardier Aerospace's earnings and revenues in the fiscal second quarter ended July 31. The aviation unit of the Canadian transportation manufacturer reported earnings before interest and taxes of $66 million for the quarter, down 13.2% from EBIT of $76 million in the year-ago period, on a 3.6% drop in revenues to $1.89 billon. Bombardier Aerospace President and COO Pierre Beaudoin attributed the falloff to fewer CRJ deliveries and lower margins on commercial aircraft sales.
US and Kuwait announced the signing of an open skies agreement yesterday in Kuwait City. Kuwait Airways has served the US since 1978 and United Airlines is planning to launch a thrice-weekly Washington Dulles-KWI service later this year.
Southwest Airlines promoted Senior VP-Ground Operations Greg Wells to senior VP-operations effective Sept. 1. VP-Station Operations Chris Wahlenmaier will add Wells' former title and Senior Director-Ground Operations Stations Teresa Laraba will become VP-Ground Operations, sharing duties with Wahlenmaier. Lufthansa Cargo Charter appointed Monika Houck head of global sales and customer relations.
Dublin Airport Authority announced yesterday details of the new €395 million ($505.7 million) Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport scheduled to begin construction in the second quarter of 2007 and open in the fall of 2009, at which point it will be capable of handling 15 million passengers annually. The three-story, 75,000-sq.-m.
Finnair's Asian traffic will grow in the latter part of this year and 2007 by 30% thanks in part to an investment in Helsinki Vantaa's Asian terminal announced Tuesday by Finavia, the country's civil aviation administration. Finnair will add thrice-weekly Delhi service in October, increasing to five-times-weekly next spring. It also will launch service to Kuala Lumpur and add frequencies on Japanese and Chinese routes. CEO Jukka Hienonen said the airline will carry 1 million passengers on Asian routes this year. He recently told ATWOnline that Seoul and Chengdu are on the radar.
Air Dolomiti will test a new business model and begin feeding Lufthansa's Munich hub with daily morning flights from 16 Italian destinations. According to Financial Times Deutschland, the Verona-based LH subsidiary must change its operations completely in order to fly from each destination in the morning. CEO Michael Kraus said the new model will raise operational costs 10%-15% but LH will benefit from more Italian business travelers. Kraus also said it could be possible to change Air Dolomiti's fleet to 100-seat jets.
On a high after posting a second-quarter profit of $305 million ( ATWOnline, July 28), US Airways yesterday announced an order for seven A321s and the conversion of existing orders for seven A319s and one A320 into an order for eight additional A321s. Engine selection was not announced. Owing to the merger of US Airways and America West, the carrier operates a mix of IAE V2500- and CFM56-powered A320 family aircraft although its A321s all are CFM56-powered, according to the Ascend CASE database.
Germanwings will increase its presence at each of its four bases for the 2007 summer schedule. It will base an additional aircraft in Stuttgart and launch services to Ankara, Athens, Ibiza, Korfu, Lamezia Terme and Malta. Cologne Bonn will see two A319s/A320s added with new routes to Corfu, Lamezia Terme, Malta, Mykonos and Rhodes. From Berlin Schoenefeld it will add Mykonos and from Hamburg it will open routes to Corfu and Split. It also will boost frequencies on existing routes from all bases.
Malaysia Airlines reported a second-quarter net loss of MYR177.1 million ($48.2 million), narrowed from a net loss of MYR277.5 million in the year-ago quarter, on a 6% rise in revenues to MYR609.6 million, according to press reports. MD and CEO Idris Jala said the company's cost-cutting program is "showing positive results," evidenced by an 18% improvement in passenger yield and a 10.5% gain in cargo yield, according to Malaysian national news agency Bernama. Jala added that MAS is "on track" to achieve profitability in 2008 but projected a full-year 2006 loss of MYR620 million.
Ryanair concluded a deal with OnAir to outfit its fleet of more than 200 737s with OnAir's onboard mobile communications solution. Subject to regulatory approval, Ryanair passengers will be able to call and send and receive text and e-mail messages using their mobile phones and PDAs. The carrier will receive a commission from OnAir on revenues generated by passengers.
Air China's first-half profit fell 22.5% to CNY458 million ($57.4 million) from the CNY591 million earned in the first six months of 2005, according to press reports. Revenues climbed 17.7% to CNY19.93 billion. CA's offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange earlier this month ( ATWOnline, Aug. 2) met with an unenthusiastic response, according to Reuters, forcing the carrier to repurchase 123 million A shares.
EADS committed Tuesday to investing €2 billion ($2.56 billion) in India over the next 15 years, funding that will go toward providing engineering and IT services and include the establishment of a massive Airbus training, maintenance and spare parts operation. Specifically, the Airbus parent will open the EADS Technology Centre India in the 2007 second quarter. Housed in the facility will be Engineering Centre Airbus India, a 100%-owned subsidiary of Airbus that will be the biggest component of EADS' Indian investment.
