Frontier Airlines knows that its customers are quite enamored with the animals pasted on the tails of its aircraft. With help from Denver International, the carrier now hopes to bring that brand recognition inside the airport.
That's all one can ask after Airbus and Boeing combined to book more than 2,000 aircraft orders last year. Prior to 2005, Boeing's best year was 1989 when it booked 1,120 including McDonnell Douglas orders, according to the Airline Monitor. Airbus's previous peak was 1998 with 556 firm orders. Last year's performance is even more striking in comparison to 2004, when the two combined to sell 622 jets. But few expect a repeat in 2006. "We probably won't get as many orders this year as last year," Boeing Chairman, President and CEO Jim McNerney said last month.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and when intentions mix with personal ambition that road can widen quickly into a 10-lane motorway. That's the way Europe's airlines see the European Union's year-old passenger rights legislation. What began as a limited effort to increase the amount of compensation in cases of overbooking morphed into something quite different: An array of new passenger rights and airline responsibilities that have left both groups angry and confused as to their respective rights and obligations in the event of a flight disruption.
FAA is projecting steady growth in the US airline industry over the next decade, topping out at 1 billion passengers in 2017. Last year a record 739 million passengers took to the skies, up from 690 million in 2004. Domestic enplanements are expected to grow 3.2% per year and international enplanements by an average of 5% annually for the remainder of the forecast period. "Aviation is in a period of robust growth," FAA Administrator Marion Blakey said at the agency's annual forecast conference in Washington yesterday.
Cyprus Airways narrowed its annual loss by 41.1% in 2005 to CYP23.2 million ($47.7 million) from a CYP39.4 million deficit in 2004 as cost reductions outpaced a slight drop in revenues. Turnover dipped 1.9% to CYP201.2 million as it shed one aircraft from its fleet. Expenses fell 4.7% to CYP229.3 million despite a CYP9.7 million rise in fuel costs.
Alitalia reported a net loss of €167.6 million ($198.7 million) in 2005, a dramatic 80.5% improvement over the €858 million it lost in 2004. Revenues increased 11.6% to €4.8 billion and passenger numbers rose 7.8% to 23.9 million. Labor costs fell 31% to €982 million as the number of employees as of Dec. 31 dropped 45.7% from the prior year to 11,174, according to press reports. Alitalia's management, unions and the Italian government are continuing to meet this week regarding the carrier's restructuring.
Northwest Airlines' first full quarter under bankruptcy protection ended Dec. 31 with a $1.31 billion loss, triple the $434 million deficit posted in the corresponding 2004 period.
An ill-timed expansion coupled with a lack of fuel hedges put an end to Austrian Airlines Group's profit hopes for 2005 as the company reported a net loss of €129.1 million ($153 million) compared to income of €43.9 million for 2004.
Aegean Airlines yesterday confirmed an order for eight A320s plus 12 options announced in December ( ATWOnline, Dec. 13). Aircraft will be powered by IAE V2500s. No delivery schedule was announced. According to Airclaims' CASE database, the carrier currently operates seven 737-400s, four dash 300s and six BAE Systems RJ100s. The new aircraft will replace part of its fleet and also be used for expansion on domestic and international services.
IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani yesterday urged governments to reject a proposal by French President Jacques Chirac to place a tax on aviation to fund Third World development. Chirac repeated his suggestion at the opening of the Ministerial Conference on Innovative Taxation to Fund Development in Paris. In a statement, Bisignani said, "Even those countries that this initiative is supposed to help are opposed to the tax.
Propelled by €663 million in gains from the sale of its stake in Amadeus and its agency reservations system Savia, Iberia reported that full-year 2005 net income jumped 98% to €395.8 million ($469.2 million) from €199.9 million earned in 2004. Excluding the special gains, however, bottom-line results would have declined sharply, as full-year EBIT slumped 35.7% to €116.4 million from €181.1 million while the carrier fell into the red for the fourth quarter, losing €6 million versus income of €49.8 million in the comparable 2004 period.
ICAO reappointed Taieb Cherif of Algeria as secretary general. His second three-year term will begin Aug. 1. The US had nominated William Voss for the position. Voss, formerly head of the terminal business service of FAA's Air Traffic Organization, currently serves as director of ICAO's Air Navigation Bureau.
B/E Aerospace was contracted by China Southern Airlines to convert six A300-600s from passenger aircraft to freighters. Deliveries will begin in the latter part of 2007. B/E's Flight Structures arm will develop the engineering and certification packages and manufacture required components while China Southern affiliate Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Co. will perform the conversions.
Delta Air Lines is not slashing capacity on its New York-Florida routes as previously reported ( ATWOnline, Feb. 28). Rather, it said it inadvertently left Comair's New York LaGuardia schedules out of its recent schedule filing, an error that was amplified when it was picked up on Wall Street, where analysts viewed it as a plus for JetBlue Airways.
Singapore Airlines will offer thrice-weekly service to Abu Dhabi starting today. Etihad Airways will start four-times-weekly Abu Dhabi-Jakarta service on March 16 aboard an A330-200. Indonesia AirAsia will introduce daily Medan-Penang and Kuala Lumpur-Surabaya services from March 10. It also plans to launch Surabaya-Balikpapan service and increase frequencies between Jakarta and Surabaya from thrice-daily to four-times-daily. It operates five 737-300s.
Malaysia Airlines warned yesterday that "on its current business assumptions, course and speed, [it] will likely fail," exhausting its cash "in April 2006" and posting a MYR1.7 billion ($472 million) loss for the year. "A real business turnaround is an imperative for MAS. The management team and our staff believe strongly in our ability to transform the business and, indeed, to go beyond expectations," MD Idris Jala said as he revealed the company's Business Turnaround Plan aimed at returning the airline to profit by 2007, with net earnings of MYR500 million in FY08.
QantasLink said it will begin operating its new Q400s on its Queensland routes today. The five 72-seat aircraft will join the carrier's 50- and 36-seat Dash 8s on services between Brisbane, Gladstone, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns.
JetBlue, which earlier forecast a full-year loss for 2006, instead should see a return to profit, according to JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker, who cited the positive impact of dramatic cutbacks by primary competitor Delta Air Lines in key north-south East Coast markets that should boost JetBlue system revenue by 5%.
Swissport finalized an agreement with Ukraine International Airlines to operate jointly the Interavia ground handling company. Swissport will hold 51% of Interavia, which was launched last year by UIA and Airline Business Handling and is the leading ground handler at UIA's Kiev hub. Swissport already works with the airline at other airports.
Iberia said sales through its website increased nearly 39% in 2005, reaching €288.6 million ($342.6 million). Domestic customers generated more than 73% of online ticket revenue, a jump of more than 33%. Sales from outside Spain rose 57.4%. At present, 31 versions of the website are available to customers in Europe, the Americas and the Middle East.
WestJet's pilots, represented by the Pro-Active Communication Team, a nonunion organization affiliated with the carrier's nonmanagement employees, ratified a three-year labor agreement yesterday by an overwhelming 96.3% margin. The airline said the contract "will allow WestJet to maintain its low cost structure while addressing a number of challenges put forth by" the pilots.
United Airlines and TACA reached a codeshare agreement giving UA passengers access to TACA's entire network and TACA customers the opportunity to connect to destinations through "several" UA hubs including Washington Dulles, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Regulatory approvals are expected by the second quarter.
