SAS Group returned to profit in 2005 after four years of red ink, reporting net income of SEK255 million ($32.9 million) compared to a SEK1.77 billion loss in 2004. The group was profitable on an operating basis for the first time since 2002. CEO Jorgen Lindegaard attributed the positive results to "the biggest change in the group's history, Turnaround 2005," which has led to savings of SEK14 billion since 2002.
Iberia ratified the labor deal reached last week with unions representing some 18,500 ground staff ( ATWOnline, Feb. 3). The contract runs through Dec. 31. Air New Zealand said it will decide Feb. 13 whether to outsource its aircraft cleaning in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The proposal would save "at least" NZ$1.5 million ($1 million) annually and affect 122 jobs.
Thales signed a deal with LAN Airlines for retrofit and line-fit installations of its TopSeries i-4000 video and audio on-demand system for 18 767s and four A340s, with options for three additional 767s. Delivery will begin next month.
Calgary-based WestJet returned to the black for the fourth quarter and full year 2005, earning C$1 million ($0.87 million) and C$24 million respectively against losses of C$46.3 million and C$17.2 million in the comparable 2004 periods. "WestJet achieved a significant turnaround during the last quarter. . .even though net income remained disappointing," President and CEO Clive Beddoe said during a webcast. "We remained profitable during a period when jet fuel prices escalated to unprecedented levels following one of the most violent hurricane seasons in history."
Ryanair will operate thrice-weekly Bournemouth-Pisa service beginning June 8. Etihad Airways will launch service to Islamabad, Peshawar and Manila on Feb. 13 and to Lahore on Feb. 20.
Jet Airways is expected to issue a secondary stock offering in both the Indian and international markets to fund its $500 million acquisition of Sahara Airlines ( ATWOnline, Jan. 20) and aircraft purchases. Jet advised Indian authorities it will hold an extraordinary general meeting Feb. 28 to address the issue.
Luxair SA said its scheduled airline is in a "fragile situation" and is expected to lose approximately €12 million ($14.4 million) in 2005. The company began reducing the carrier's schedule in October and has pared the number of annual flights by 1.7%. During the year the number of scheduled passengers dropped 1.6% to 808,863 and load factor climbed 0.7 point to 51.5%. Its Luxair Tour Operating and Cargo Handling subsidiaries are expected to turn a profit for 2005.
Grupo Ferrovial, a Spanish construction and services conglomerate whose portfolio of companies includes Swissport, said yesterday it is considering acquiring BAA, the world's largest operator of airports including London Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.
Japan Airlines and oneworld exchanged an MOU as a first step in the airline's effort to join the global alliance. The MOU was signed in Vancouver a little more than three months after JAL indicated its intention to join ( ATWOnline, Oct. 26, 2005) and "sets out a framework" for the remainder of the process. It is expected that JAL, sponsored by American Airlines, will be a full member within a year, expanding oneworld's network by 68 destinations or approximately 10%.
Icelandair selected the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 to power its 787s. It placed an order for two firm aircraft and five options in February 2005 for delivery in 2010. The engine order is worth up to $650 million at list prices and includes a lifetime maintenance agreement. The Trent 1000 will run for the first time this month and is scheduled for its first flight on the Rolls-Royce flying testbed in the first quarter of next year.
Lufthansa denied rumors that it has plans to take over troubled German leisure airline LTU and transform it into a long-haul, low-cost carrier based in Dusseldorf. "That really does not fit into our concept. Lufthansa has enough capacity available, also on long-haul routes," a spokesperson told this website. LTU, which has struggled financially over the past few years, is 40% owned by Rewe, which said the airline is no longer part of its core business. It operates nine A320s, four A321s and 11 A330-200s/-300s and flies to 81 destinations.
Airbus received orders for 19 aircraft in January comprising one A319, nine A320s, five A321s, two A350-800s and two A350-900s. The orders for the A320s and A321s were placed by the same unidentified customer. ILFC ordered the A350s and the A319 order came from a private customer. Figures were down 50% on the year-ago month, when it booked orders for 38 jets--18 A320 family aircraft, four A330-200s, six A330-300s and 10 A340-600s.
British Airways reported a 3.3% January system traffic increase to 9.12 billion RPKs, a 3% capacity increase to 12.57 billion ASKs and a 0.2-point rise in passenger load factor to 72.5%. Delta Air Lines reported a systemwide 4.5% decline in January traffic to 8.57 billion RPMs. Capacity decreased 6.8% to 11.68 billion ASMs and load factor rose 1.7 points to 73.4%. Domestic RPMs dropped 7.3% to 6.43 billion as capacity fell 10.8% to 8.76 billion ASMs and load factor rose 2.7 points to 73.3%.
Lufthansa Systems' joint venture with Garuda Indonesia successfully implemented e-ticketing for the Indonesian carrier. Next steps are introduction of LHS solutions for pricing and network planning. Navitaire, a unit of Accenture, said AirTran Airways signed a business process agreement for its Open Skies hosted reservation system, renewing services provided under an existing five-year deal.
The sale of Thailand's Shin Corp., which owns 50% of Thai AirAsia, to an investment group led by Singapore's Temasek Holdings sent shockwaves through Kuala Lumpur-based AirAsia. Thai AirAsia was a joint venture between AirAsia (49%) and Shin, the telecom giant founded by Thailand's controversial Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, with 50%. The remaining 1% of the discount airline is owned by Thai AirAsia CEO Tasapon Bijleveld.
Taiwanese government is facing increased pressure to agree to regular direct charter flights between China and Taiwan as the annual Spring Festival comes to a close. This year 27,000 passengers flew on 72 direct charter flights from Jan. 20 to Feb. 7 in conjunction with the Chinese New Year. Last year 10,000 passengers flew on 48 flights. According to China Daily, Pu Zhaozhou, General Administration of Civil Aviation of China director-Office of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Affairs, called regular charter flights the first step toward open skies.
Bratislava-based SkyEurope nearly doubled its revenue and reduced unit costs by more than 10% in its first fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31 but saw little improvement on its bottom line, which showed a €12 million ($14.4 million) loss that was just 0.5% better than the €12.1 million deficit in the year-ago quarter. Operating revenues climbed 42.5% to €26.2 million against a 23.8% rise in expenses. Totals were not provided, but the carrier said it spent €12.3 million on aircraft and traffic servicing and €11.9 million on fuel, the latter an increase of 29%.
Air France-KLM reported systemwide traffic of 15.74 billion RPKs in January, a 9.5% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity grew 8.1% to 19.92 billion ASKs and load factor rose 1 point to 79%. EasyJet reported 2.3 million earned seats flown in January, up 11.2% from the same month a year earlier. Load factor dropped 2.3 points to 74.2%. "Our total revenue performance this month was in line with our expectations, and our guidance for the year to September 2006 remains unchanged," CEO Andrew Harrison said in a statement.
Gulf Air's remaining shareholders, the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Sultanate of Oman, have agreed to a recapitalization of the airline that will permit fleet renewal following the withdrawal of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi as an investor ( ATWOnline, Sept. 14, 2005). The announcement was made in Oman yesterday by Gulf Air President and Chief Executive James Hogan at the conclusion of a board of directors meeting.
European Low Fares Airline Assn. called on the European Commission to take a hard line against what it calls "the latest abuse" of the Public Service Obligation system by Italian authorities. "PSOs are being imposed on commercially viable routes between Sardinia and mainland Italy and this makes a mockery of the whole PSO system. Some of these routes are currently served by ELFAA members and consumers therefore have easy access to affordable air travel," stated ELFAA Secretary General Jan Skeels.
KLM will become a Worldspan Interchange participating carrier to "help [it] achieve the industry goal of 100% e-ticketing in 2007." According to the GDS, Worldspan Interchange is "a breakthrough e-ticket message communications hub with an advanced Editfact message translation process."
Emirates will launch a second daily service to Perth. It will operate the flight four times weekly from March 2 aboard A340-300s, increasing to daily Sept. 2 aboard 777-200s. It has been operating a single daily flight on the route since May 2003. Separately, Emirates SkyCargo launched eight-times-weekly service to Thiruvananthapuram on Feb. 1 using belly capacity of passenger A330-200s and 777-200s. It also will increase service to Cochin from five-times-weekly to daily and to Chennai from four-times-weekly to eight.
Although United Airlines cut its annual budget by $7 billion through its three-year Chapter 11 reorganization, its unit costs do not appear to be significantly lower than those of its network competitors with the exception of Northwest Airlines. Furthermore, on a stage-length-adjusted basis excluding fuel, UA still has among the highest unit costs in the industry. This information is contained in an 8K filed yesterday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in which a presentation to the JP Morgan High Yield Conference is included.
Air Travel Price Index increased 6.4% in the third quarter of 2005 compared to the year-ago quarter, according to the US Dept. of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics. It marks the largest year-over-year increase in four years and is the highest index level (109.2) since the second quarter of 2001.
