SN Brussels Airlines' net profit rose 66.7% to €1 million ($1.3 million) in 2004 from €0.6 million in 2003. The company had forecast a €2.5 million profit for the year. "Given the dramatic increase in fuel prices and the highly competitive market environment, these results are encouraging," CEO Peter Davies said. "Although this is slightly below budget, we have created now a solid base for the further development of SN Brussels Airlines commercially, financially as well as operationally." Revenue for the year increased 12.2% to €656 million.
Reduced Vertical Separation Minima were implemented over four states in the Caucasus area last week, ICAO announced. They are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and the high seas portion of the Russian Federation Rostov Flight Information Region.
European Commission and the relevant regulatory authorities in the US cleared the proposed joint takeover bid for Amadeus by current airline shareholders Air France, Iberia and Lufthansa and Amadelux, which was formed by two venture capital funds, BC Partners and Cinven. Amadeus is owned 23% by AF, 18% by Iberia and 5% by Lufthansa. The airlines and private equity funds have formed a takeover vehicle, WAM Acquisition, to bid for the whole of Amadeus, which they valued at around €4.3 billion ($5.67 billion).
Transport group Patrick Corp. is expected to review Virgin Blue's growth strategy in an attempt to rebuild earnings after securing control of the airline in a hostile takeover campaign.
Rockwell Collins was selected by Air Berlin to provide avionics for its fleet of 70 A320s. The agreement includes an option for an additional 40 aircraft. Deliveries are expected to begin in September.
Lufthansa will base 16 long-haul aircraft, including three A340-600s, at its fast-growing Munich hub this summer and projects it will handle 19 million passengers there in 2005, 1 million more than in 2004. "Our target is to base 30 long-haul aircraft in Munich by 2010," Lufthansa Group representative and Head of Hub Management-Munich Karl Ulrich Garnadt told ATWOnline. However, the carrier is running out of capacity at Terminal 2 in Munich. According to Garnadt, if LH continues its annual 7% growth rate, it will reach the capacity level at the airport by 2009 at the latest.
State-controlled CSA Czech Airlines is considering an IPO, Chairman Jaroslav Tvrdik told the magazine business weekly Euro. "I can imagine that the nearest general meeting will decide to go in this direction," he was quoted as saying. He added that the selloff will not occur until CSA covers accumulated losses and finishes a financial restructuring, which would seem to indicate that an IPO would not occur before 2006. VP-Financial Petr Juza told this website earlier that CSA is a potential subject of privatization ( ATWOnline, Feb. 23).
Goodrich Corp. signed a multiyear wheel and brake agreement with LOT Polish Airlines covering its fleet of ERJ-145s. The accord includes heat sink refurbishment and exchange support, all of which will be performed at Goodrich's Hatfield, UK, service center. In addition, the carrier will receive a main wheel and brake upgrade with Goodrich's Duracarb carbon heat sink material.
Navitaire's Open Skies host reservation service was selected by Thomas Cook UK to power the company's new online reservation system, which will offer seats on its low-cost charter carrier Thomas Cook Airlines.
The Airlines Reporting Corp. delayed the date for the elimination of the travel agent coupon to May 9. It said the delay will give ARC-accredited travel agencies and corporate travel departments an extra month to become more familiar with enhancements to the ARC Document Retrieval Service that will be rolled out in early April.
TAT Industries, the maintenance arm of TAT Group, is in final negotiations to buy Sabena Technics, ATWOnline has learned. "Discussions are ongoing," Sabena Technics MD Jack Waldeyer confirmed to this website. "The administrator [for bankrupt Sabena Group] is hopeful to conclude the negotiations by the end of April."
Swiss International Air Lines will add four more cities to its network this summer, bringing its total to 74 consisting of 47 points in Europe and 27 intercontinental destinations. The carrier will launch several new flights from EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, including four weekly services to Valencia and five to Mallorca. Two or three weekly seasonal services will be offered between June and September to Ajaccio, Olbia and Naples. Swiss will add a fourth daily frequency to London City Airport, but service to Birmingham will be withdrawn.
JAT Airways mechanics launched a new strike over pay Thursday, the third to hit the company in six months. The work action halted JAT's international and domestic flights, Reuters reported. Pilots and aircraft engineers will hold meetings to decide whether to join the strike. The protest began after the government, which appointed an interim administrator a month ago and launched a restructuring of the airline, failed to pay three months of wages to its workers. The board now is looking into ways of restoring traffic, which may include hiring aircraft from other airlines.
Embraer reported net income of $83 million for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, up 22.2% over net income of $67.9 million in the prior-year period. For the full year, the company posted record net income of $380.2 million compared to net income of $136 million in the previous year. "The driving force behind these positive results was the entry into service of the Embraer 170" in March 2004, Embraer said.
Southwest Airlines will add several new flights from Chicago Midway this summer. Beginning May 4, the carrier will launch one more daily nonstop flight to San Jose and one additional daily nonstop to Tampa Bay for a total of seven. Also, it will begin a daily nonstop flight to Austin and New Orleans May 31. On the same day, it will launch two additional flights to Philadelphia for a total of seven and a second daily nonstop to Albuquerque.
Northwest Airlines, which last week cut its domestic capacity forecast from an increase of 2%-3% to flat year-over-year owing to high fuel prices, overcapacity and fare restructuring by other carriers ( ATWOnline, March 15), said it plans to remove 30 aircraft from its fleet and cut up to 930 jobs this year. According to the Air Line Pilots Assn., NWA will remove 24 DC-9s from service in addition to the six DC-9s it previously said it would park.
British Airways' outgoing CEO, Rod Eddington, will become an adviser to the UK's Dept. of Transport and the Treasury on the country's long-term transport needs and priorities. The unpaid post will be for 12 months and starts in July. "My energy of work for BA will be undiminished and will not conflict with my new role with the government," Eddington said in a statement. He announced earlier this month that he will leave BA in September and move back to Australia in January ( ATWOnline, March 9).
SAS said the Borgarting Court of Appeal confirmed a ruling by Asker and Baerum District Court that exonerates SAS/SAS Ground Services, which had been named in a lawsuit brought by the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions and the Norwegian Confederation of Vocational Unions following the takeover of Braathens' ground handling operations by SAS/SGS in autumn 2002. In its ruling, the Court of Appeal found that there were no unfair redundancies and the takeover was not deemed a transfer of ownership of a business, which supports SAS's own assessment and actions.
US Airways will launch new daily seasonal flights from Philadelphia to both Barcelona and Venice using 199-seat 767s as part of its summer 2005 schedule. Venice service will begin May 9 while service to Barcelona will start May 16. Additionally, daily A319 flights to Bermuda from Boston, Charlotte and New York LaGuardia will be launched, as well as a second daily Philadelphia-Bermuda flight. A seasonal Orlando-Bermuda Saturday service will resume in June and service to Glasgow, Dublin and Shannon will resume in May.
Continental Airlines late last week warned in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it expects to post a loss in the first quarter and a "significant loss" for full-year 2005.
Although its employees have accepted significant pay and benefit cuts as part of UAL Corp.'s restructuring, top executives at the bankrupt United Airlines parent received bonuses totaling roughly $1.3 million in 2004. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Chairman, President and CEO Glenn Tilton received a bonus of $366,393, and also received a salary of $756,832 last year. However, he has agreed to several salary reductions recently and this year he will receive an annual salary of just $605,625.
All Nippon Airways, which serves nine cities in China with 92 frequencies per week, wants to start flights to Guangzhou as soon as possible. "After that, we want to extend our network to the inner cities of the Chinese mainland," Executive VP-International Relations Katsuhiko Kitabayashi told ATWOnline at the Star Alliance meeting in Lisbon earlier this week. ANA, which is looking to increase its Asian network, wants to begin flights next to Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and points in India, as well as to destinations in eastern Russia like Khabarovsk.
FAA continues to be "cautiously optimistic" in its aviation forecast released yesterday, noting that the number of passengers carried by US airlines rose to 688 million in 2004 from 642 million in 2003. The agency is projecting that the demand for capacity will make "a complete return by the end of the year." By 2015, some 1 billion passengers will take to the skies in the US, it predicted.
