Deutsche Lufthansa is planning a euro-benchmark medium- to long-term bond issue at the end of April on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Value was not disclosed. Joint bookrunners for the transaction are Deutsche Bank, Helaba, Morgan Stanley and UBS.
Mesa Air Group is eyeing China as fertile ground for new growth, Chairman and CEO Jonathan Ornstein said Friday at a meeting for financial analysts in Los Cabos, Mexico.
Triumph Group of Pennsylvania announced it completed an agreement to purchase the assets of Excel Manufacturing, which makes aircraft structural components.
South African Airways became the first African carrier to join an alliance when it officially was inducted into Star Alliance at ceremonies in Johannesburg yesterday. It is the alliance's 18th member (Swiss International Air Lines joined April 7) and increases the Star network to more than 15,500 daily flights serving 842 destinations in 152 countries. SAA offers access to 21 destinations in Africa and transatlantic service to South Africa. "Membership of this alliance places us amongst the top airlines in the world," CEO Khaya Ngqula said.
The factions within Airbus that are pushing for a redesign of the A350 gained another ally in Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choon Seng. Last month, ILFC Chairman and CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy, whose company ordered 12 A350s in November, stunned the aviation world when he called on Airbus to abandon its A350 design ( ATWOnline, March 30), based in large part on the A330, and build an all-new aircraft with a new fuselage and wing to compete with the clean-sheet 787.
Air France-KLM flew 15.94 billion RPKs in March, a 6.6% rise over the year-ago month. Capacity increased 7.5% to 20.06 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 0.7 point to 79.4%. Delta Air Lines' system traffic fell 6.1% last month to 10.07 billion RPMs. Capacity dropped 6.7% to 12.51 billion ASMs and load factor rose 0.5 point to 80.5%. Domestic traffic decreased 10.7% to 7.52 billion RPMs against a 12.4% fall in capacity to 9.28 billion ASMs as load factor rose 1.5 points to 81.1%.
Sabre Airline Solutions signed deals worth $2.5 million with Alitalia to provide it with revenue integrity products, as well as its consulting team, to stem what Sabre said is "millions of dollars of revenue leakage each year." The carrier also extended and upgraded its use of the Sabre AirMax revenue management system.
Avient Solutions said its Avient Gate Agent entered operation at London Heathrow and is used by British Airways, SAS, Virgin Atlantic Airways and United Airlines. Gate Agent is part of Avient's Passenger Management solution that includes FIDS and Check-in Agent.
Munich Airport claimed that IATA used partial and misleading data to buttress its claim that Munich is among Europe's costliest airports in its call for tougher regulation of airport charges issued Friday ( ATWOnline, April 10).
Avion Group said its subsidiary company, Excel Airways Group, reached agreement to acquire 100% of the share capital of tour operator Kosmar Villa Holidays dba Kosmar Holidays effective May 2. Price was not disclosed. Avion said the purchase "will strengthen the Tour Operating Division of Excel Airways Group plc, which includes Excel Holidays, Freedom Flights, Travel City Direct, Aspire Holidays and the online portal XL.com." For the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2005, Kosmar Holidays had turnover of £80.7 million ($140.6 million).
China Eastern Airlines posted a loss of CNY467.3 million ($58.3 million) in 2005, a reversal from the CNY320.7 million profit reported in 2004, according to press reports. Revenues rose 28.3% to CNY27.45 billion. EVA Airways earned TWD1.33 billion ($41.1 million) last year, a 59% plunge from a TWD3.24 billion profit in 2004, according to a company statement cited by press reports. Pre-tax earnings fell 69% to TWD1.14 billion.
A joint statement released yesterday by Cathay Pacific Airways and Air China and investors Swire Pacific, China National Aviation Co. and CITIC Pacific confirmed reports that "discussions are taking place about operational cooperation" between CX and Air China and "realignment of shareholdings" in the two airlines and Dragonair, the Hong Kong carrier owned jointly by CNAC (43.3%), CITIC (28.5%), Cathay (17.8%) and Swire (7.7%).
Irish Aviation Authority, LFV Group (Sweden) and Naviair (Denmark) signed a contract with Thales ATM marking "the initiation of a purchasing agreement known as COOPANS." Each of the air navigation service providers previously procured under separate contracts Thales' Eurocat ATM System. Under the COOPANS agreement, the ANSPs jointly will procure upgrades to their existing common ATM systems.
Royal Jordanian will increase service to the US from Amman starting next month. It will launch twice-weekly service to Detroit while flights to New York JFK rise to five weekly from four and service to Chicago O'Hare goes to six weekly from three. All flights are aboard A340s. ATA Airlines launched twice-daily Houston Hobby-New York LaGuardia service aboard 737s. It is the only nonstop service offered between the airports. Martinair started a weekly Amsterdam-Barbados service on March 29.
Boeing is expected to sign contracts shortly with Chinese airlines for 80 737s. The deal is the second part of an order announced late last year for 70 737s ( ATWOnline, Nov. 22, 2005). Hainan Airlines will take 15, China Southern Airlines 10, Xiaman Airlines five and Shandong Airlines six, with the balance taken by Air China, China Eastern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines. Airbus secured a similar commitment for 150 A320s last year but apparently signed a contract with CAAC, listing the orders as part of the year's record-breaking sales.
IATA and the Chinese government agreed to open an additional route, Y-1, between China and Europe, designed to reduce flight time by 30 min. The route is expected to open to commercial traffic Thursday and initially could benefit up to 110 weekly flights, saving airlines $30 million in fuel costs, according to IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani. It also is expected to conserve 27,000 tonnes of fuel and eliminate 84,800 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
Large European airports are out-of-control monopolies and need to be regulated by newly created national authorities "with teeth," IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said Friday at a meeting between the European Commission and 11 aviation organizations to discuss airport policy.
Germanwings starts weekly services from Cologne to Pristina and Tirana from June. Air New Zealand will become the only round-the-world airline with its new service to London via Hong Kong that commences on Oct. 28. ANZ already operates a daily flight to London via Los Angeles. It will fly the new route with newly refurbished 747-400s.
Singapore Technologies Aerospace and China Eastern Airlines said their airframe MRO joint venture, Shanghai Technologies Aerospace Co., received FAA certification. The announcement was made as the partners celebrated STARCO's first year of operation. The facility, which is operated and managed as part of ST Aero's MRO network, is located at Shanghai Hongqiao. It has two hangars that can accommodate two widebody and two narrowbody aircraft simultaneously.
Swiss International Air Lines was formally inducted into the Star Alliance in ceremonies in Zurich Friday as the 17th member. "With Swiss, our alliance has gained a high-quality airline with a strong brand. We now provide more choice to our customers, especially on key European and intercontinental business routes," said Star CEO Jaan Albrecht. Swiss CEO Christoph Franz called joining Star "a major milestone. .
Boeing holds a healthy lead over Airbus in terms of new orders for March and the first quarter of 2006, while Airbus delivered more aircraft in the quarter. Airbus booked orders for 19 aircraft in March comprising three A320 family aircraft, four A330s, three 340-300s and nine A350-900s. Finnair was responsible for the majority of the sales, including the A350s and A340s. In March 2005, Airbus booked orders for 80 aircraft of which all but two were narrowbodies.
Avexus announced that Kitty Hawk Aircargo will implement its Asset Management & Operations and Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul hosted solutions for fleet MRO management and planning.
Lufthansa Technik signed a contract with Mexmil giving the Santa Ana-based firm a license to market and produce LHT's AcousticPlus "enhanced cabin acoustic insulation system." Bombardier Aerospace appointed Taikoo Aircraft Engineering of Jinan as its first authorized heavy maintenance facility in the Asia/Pacific region. Taikoo is authorized to perform C checks and other heavy MRO on all CRJs.
BAA once again rejected a takeover bid by Grupo Ferrovial. The Spanish construction and services conglomerate, along with a consortium including Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec and GIC Special Investments, offered on Friday the same 810 pence per share that BAA rejected last month ( ATWOnline, March 20). The "hostile" offer valued BAA at £8.75 billion ($15.3 billion).
