JetBlue Airways' inability to control costs and misplaced capacity increases cost it dearly in the final quarter of 2005 as it suffered a net loss of $42.4 million--by far its worst quarterly performance since it started service in February 2000. JetBlue earned $1.5 million in the year-ago quarter. The surprising 2005 result plunged the carrier into the red for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31. It posted a $20.3 million annual loss compared to a $46.2 million profit in 2004. In addition, it is forecasting a loss in both the current quarter and for full-year 2006.
El Al will launch twice-weekly Miami-Tel Aviv service on March 28 using two-class 767s. It replaces a twice-weekly direct service. Separately, El Al will introduce an onboard calling service on its 767s through the Iridium satellite network for $1.60 per min. Gilat Satcom through its GayaCom subsidiary is supplying the Iridium terminals and calling card services.
Boeing yesterday raised its earnings outlook for 2006-07 on the back of strong sales and earnings momentum as it reported that fourth-quarter net income more than doubled to $460 million from $186 million in the year-ago period. The result propelled full-year income up 37% to $2.57 billion from $1.87 billion in 2004. "Boeing made great progress in '05, which has given us a solid foundation for even better performance in 2006 and beyond," said Chairman, President and CEO Jim McNerney during a webcast.
Norwegian will launch daily Oslo-Munich service from May 2. Alpine Air began operating a new cargo route between Honolulu and Lihue Saturday. Its contract runs through June 26, 2008. American Eagle will launch twice-daily Dallas/Ft. Worth-Charleston service aboard ERJ-145s from April 3.
Carmen Systems AB said Continental Airlines signed a five-year agreement for the use of Carmen's preferential bidding system for scheduling its 4,000 pilots.
Amadeus IT Group is the new name for Amadeus Global Distribution. The name change reflects that the company's IT portfolio "goes far beyond distribution."
SITA concluded a $6 million contract to provide a reservation system, online booking, Aircom and flight operations applications to startup TransCaribbean Airways, which plans to operate scheduled flights linking the Netherlands Antilles with Europe and the US.
Lufthansa Systems and Airbus reached agreement to offer the LHS eRouteManual across the Airbus fly-by-wire product line in new aircraft and as a retrofit. It already is offered as a Class III Electronic Flight Bag solution on the A380. The eRouteManual charts include taxiway displays for airports, approach and takeoff charts and a seamless worldwide en route chart. When provided as a retrofit solution for aircraft already in service, the product is being offered as a Class I or Class II EFB. Class III EFBs with fully integrated systems are available for all new aircraft.
Iberia said the number of business class travelers on its long-haul flights has increased 20% since the introduction of its Business Plus service last May. The seating class is available on 70% of Iberia's A340s and the remaining 30% will be equipped by spring. The carrier also said it plans to improve its short- and medium-haul business class service concurrent with a redesign of those fleets' interiors.
Bombardier signed a contract with Regco Holdings of Toronto for 10 Q400 70-seat turboprops, with options for an additional 10. The deal is valued at an estimated $250 million for the firm orders and brings the number of Q400 orders to 175.
Smiths Aerospace and Aviall Services announced an agreement under which Aviall will become a global distributor of Smiths Aerospace systems spare parts after a transition phase of several months. "Aviall will use its core competencies of inventory forecasting and management, product fulfillment, quality management and sales and marketing to ensure Smiths' commercial aftermarket customers' requirements are met," the companies said in a statement. The 10-year agreement is expected to be valued at up to $2 billion in sales.
Swissport and Ryanair announced a six-year agreement under which Swissport will handle more than 54,000 flights per year at London Stansted, including those presently handled by Stansted Ground Operations. The deal becomes effective Feb. 20. Under the new agreement, Swissport will provide full passenger, ramp and ticketing services for all operations. The accord also will see some 120 current SGO employees transfer to Swissport.
Air Tran will offer service from White Plains, N.Y., to Atlanta (twice daily), Orlando (daily) and West Palm Beach (daily) beginning April 4 aboard 717s. Frequency to Atlanta will increase to thrice-daily May 9. Separately, AirTran launched a new cargo website yesterday enabling customers to track shipments 24 hr. a day, among other features. It also announced a partnership with Kayak.com to distribute fares and ticket availability through that search engine. Kayak.com was created by Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia.
Airline of the Year Cathay Pacific Airways Sixty years ago this September, Roy Farrell and Syd de Kantzow, the one an American, the other an Australian, created an airline in Hong Kong. Pilots both, they had become acquainted during World War II while flying the famous "Hump Route" between India and China. Perhaps after surviving that experience, the thought of trying to make a living by transporting people and cargo for money didn't seem so crazy.
After a year in which Airbus and Boeing booked more than 2,000 new firm orders, is it possible that they will do even better in 2006? The history of recent past cycles suggests the answer may be yes, as hard as that is to believe. The outlook should become clearer when the global aerospace community meets at the Changi Exhibition Center Feb. 21-26 for the biennial Singapore show.
This month, Vueling Airlines and JetBlue Airways are trialing an exchange program whereby cabin staff from the Barcelona-based low-cost carrier are heading to New York to fly with JetBlue and some of the latter's attendants are coming to Spain to fly with Vueling.
Blacklists are not a safety tool favored by the airline industry, which believes they are punitive and do nothing directly to improve safety. But with an increasing number of countries now making public their own national listings, the European Parliament has approved plans for introduction of a Europewide blacklist of airlines that do not meet a common set of safety requirements.
JetBlue Airways and TAP Portugal appear to have little in common with one another. The former is a newcomer, just turned six, built from the ground up as a low-cost airline. TAP fits all the descriptions of a legacy carrier, born at the end of World War II and forced today to confront an environment vastly different from the one for which it was created. Yet both share a similar ability to find successin JetBlue's case virtually from startup, while for TAP it is more a case of renewal.
With this issue, ATW continues for a 32nd year one of our proudest traditions: The presentation of our Annual Achievement Awards. In an industry that sets its internal bar very high, the seven winners each have accomplished things that the editors of ATW view as extraordinary.
For students of China's rapidly growing but often puzzling airline industry, at least two developments during 2005 needed no explanation. The landslide victory in early December of the pro-reunification Party in Taiwan's municipal elections sent a clear message that reunification will be a key issue in the country's 2008 presidential election, paving the way for unrestricted direct flights between Taiwan and China.
If China is to become the world's largest aviation market by 2020, it will have to move mountains of earth to provide enough runways. The country has just 196 certified airports for transport aircraft and 329 "GA Temporary Landing Points" to serve a population of just over 1.3 billion. By comparison, the US with 270 million people has 14,807 airports, while Australia with just over 20 million has 444 and tiny Iceland has 100.
Sabre Travel Network signed a "long-term" agreement to provide GDS services to Priceline.com, another erosion of Worldspan's position as the online technology leader. Priceline president and chief executive Jeffery Boyd said a principle reason for the deal is that it "provides us with redundancy in case of technical problems at Worldspan."
When 18-year-old Shawn "Napster" Fanning invented the software that turned the music industry on its head, he also engendered a vast community of young file-swappers. There are 250 million registered users of "peer-to-peer computing" networks worldwide. According to Big Champagne, a market research company that measures consumption of digital media, more music is now acquired online than on CD. The phenomenon is spreading to other forms of entertainment as well.
Aeroxchange named Jim Taylor CFO. All Nippon Airways appointed Damion Martin to head all non-Japanese PR. Assn. of European Airlines selected Wolfgang Mayrhuber, CEO and chairman of the executive board of Lufthansa, as chairman for 2006. ATA Airlines Holdings announced that Subodh Karnick becomes COO, Senior VP John Graber adds GM-military & charter operations to his responsibilities and Doug Yakola becomes CFO. Aviapartner tapped Rob Kuijpers as nonexecutive chairman and Andrew Burnett as business development mgr.
