Lufthansa, which reports complete results today, said it had an operating profit of €253 million ($312 million) for the first half ended June 30 compared to an operating profit of €33 million in the year-ago period. Net profit was €0.2 million, down from a profit of €39 million in 2004, but last year's six-month result was boosted by book profits of €292 during the first quarter from the sale of LH's stake in Amadeus. Revenues rose 2.4% in the 2005 first half to €8.5 billion.
Goodrich Corp. board of directors elected Scott Kuechle senior VP and CFO. He succeeds Rick Schmidt, who is leaving to become CFO of Spirit AeroSystems. Kuechle is a 22-year veteran of Goodrich and has served as VP and controller since 2004.
JAT Airways and Aeroflot will begin codesharing on flights between Belgrade and Moscow Oct 30. The two operate 13 weekly flights between the capitals. JAT marks its 40th anniversary of service to Moscow this week. Ryanair will drop its daily London Stansted-Klagenfurt route on Oct. 29 and the daily Frankfurt Hahn-Klagenfurt service by Oct. 31, citing poor performance.
American Airlines will resume service between St. Louis and Houston Oct. 30. The twice-daily ERJ service will be operated by American Connection partners Chautauqua Airlines and Trans States Airlines. Also, American Eagle will add daily roundtrips from St. Louis to both Cedar Rapids and Des Moines starting Oct. 1 using ERJs.
Boeing and Qualcomm said they successfully demonstrated "the simultaneous use of CDMA and GSM mobile phone technology over an onboard network inflight mobile phone" on Boeing's Connexion One 737demonstrator. Passengers were able to download a variety of applications, send and receive e-mail and use instant message functions.
AirBridge Cargo, the scheduled cargo airline of Volga-Dnepr Group, launched thrice-weekly 747 freighter flights from Amsterdam to Moscow Sheremetyevo "to provide a fast and reliable supply line for Russia's $1 billion import market for fresh flowers." Around 60%-80% of flowers imported into Russia are from the Netherlands. AirBridge Cargo also operates five weekly 747F flights from Frankfurt to Shanghai and Beijing via Moscow and Krasnoyarsk.
EVA Air will offer OnAir's two-way SMS beginning with its first 777-300ER that enters service this month. An English-language version will be followed by a Chinese version later in the year. The service will be available to passengers in all cabins and will cost $1.50 per message sent or received. It allows passengers to use the in-seat entertainment system to send messages to mobile phones and e-mail addresses and also to receive replies. The system will be installed on the entire EVA Air fleet over the next few years.
General Electric announced that Bradley Mottier, currently president of Unison Industries LLC, a wholly owned GE subsidiary, will become VP and GM of the Services business within GE Transportation, Aircraft Engines, beginning next month. Mottier, a 25 year-veteran of Unison, was appointed president in April 2002 when GE acquired the company. He will be succeeded at Unison by Christina Alvord, GM at Middle River Aircraft Systems.
United Airlines parent UAL Corp. said it largely has "completed its aircraft restructuring effort," saving it approximately $300 million annually. The contractual savings associated with the agreement-in-principle reached with the Public Debt Group, which controlled 105 United aircraft, is subject to approval by the bankruptcy court. When coupled with previous restructurings, UAL said it will result in the company reducing its fleet costs by approximately $850 million in average annual savings since entering Chapter 11.
Royal Jordanian carried 186,300 passengers in July, up 3.8% over the same month in 2004 and a record for July. VP-Commercial Hussein Dabbas said load factor rose 3.8 points to 81.6% . The airline carried approximately 984,000 passengers between January and July, up 4.2% over the year-ago period. Based on preliminary figures, it expects to carry around 192,000 passengers in August.
FLYi, parent of Independence Air, reported that its loss for the second quarter ended June 30 widened to $98.5 million from $27.1 million in the year-ago period. Current-period results are net of a $43.4 million pre-tax noncash impairment charge related to asset writedowns, while last year's results included $21.9 million in pre-tax special charges. Excluding special items from both periods, net loss widened from $14.1 million in 2004 to $55.5 million in 2005.
Boeing yesterday announced orders from EgyptAir and Turkish Airlines covering up to 20 737-800s, while the Boeing Orders website also showed new orders from AeroMexico for five and AirTran for six as well as 21 new 737 orders from "unidentified" customers. The EgyptAir order covers six firm 737-800s plus options on an equal number valued at $850 million. Turkish Airlines' order represents the firming of eight options from an order placed in 2004 for 15 737s. Boeing valued the new business at $542 million.
US Bankruptcy Court overseeing US Airways' Chapter 11 reorganization authorized the carrier to solicit votes from its creditors in favor of its Plan of Reorganization, which if approved will clear the way for the company to exit bankruptcy and merge with America West Airlines in late September/early October, the airline said yesterday. A hearing on confirmation of the reorganization plan is set for Sept. 15.
Aviareps opened a new North American branch in Toronto. It already has one in Miami. GM is Matt Bloom, who is responsible for all sales and marketing activities. He has more than 17 years of experience in the tourism industry and previously acted in leading positions for both airlines and destinations.
Lufthansa Systems announced that Airbus successfully integrated its Lido eRouteManual and electronic airport and route charts into the On-board Information System of the A380. The eRouteManual presents a worldwide data set of airport and en route aeronautical information and detailed taxi, departure and approach charts, "as well as global, seamless en route moving charts." LHS will offer it for all Airbus electronic flight bags.
Adria Airways and LOT Polish Airlines will launch service between Ljubljana and Warsaw Sept. 2. The four weekly flights will be evenly divided between the carriers, which are codesharing on the route.
Germanwings, the low-fare clone of Eurowings in which Lufthansa holds 49%, will open a new base at Hamburg this winter. The carrier will base two A319s/A320s at Hamburg and offer services to London Gatwick, Stockholm, Oslo, Krakow, Warsaw, Zagreb, Munich, Toulouse and Istanbul. It also will increase flights on its existing Hamburg-Stuttgart route to thrice-daily. Fares will start at €15 ($18.50) including taxes. It will add another domestic route from Hamburg in the near future and expects to carry around 500,000 passengers in its first year there.
Officials continue to investigate the Aug. 6 accident in which an ATR 72 fell into the sea off the coast of Palermo, killing 13 people. The charter flight was operated by Tuninter, a subsidiary of Tunisair. According to news reports, 23 people, including the pilot and copilot, survived the accident. The plane carrying vacationers had flown out of Bari bound for the Tunisian resort island of Djerba. Yesterday, rescue workers still were searching the choppy seas for three people who remain missing.
Bmi will add a third weekly Manchester-Barbados service beginning Oct. 24, Finncomm Airlines will launch a five-times-weekly service from Helsinki to Dusseldorf from Oct 30 using ERJ-145s. The route will be in codeshare with Finnair.
Continental Airlines will begin twice-weekly 737 service between George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston and Punta Cana Dec. 16 subject to government approval.
SAS Group flew 3.2 billion RPKs in July, up 5.2% over the year-ago period. Group capacity rose 1.8% to 4.4 billion RPKs and load factor improved 2.4 points to 74.1%. Flagship Scandinavian Airlines reported a 1.5% decline in RPKs to 2.4 billion while ASKs fell 5.4% to 3.1 billion, pushing load factor up 3 points to 76.9%.
Bangkok's new Suvarnabhumi Airport now is expected to be operational on a commercial basis by July. This is the second major postponement for the airport, which had been slated to open next month.
Etihad Airways opened a lounge for Diamond and Pearl Zone guests arriving at and departing from Abu Dhabi. It offers areas for conducting business or enjoying a range of audio and video entertainment or relaxation and is equipped with laptop connections, high-speed Internet access, fax and telephone facilities. Hot and cold refreshments are offered and users can access the airport's gym and shower facilities.
