What a difference two years can make in the aero engine business. As the Franco-U.S. engine maker approached the 2011 Paris air show, the chill wind of uncertainty was blowing through CFM’s traditional market base with Pratt & Whitney’s PW1100G geared turbofan taking the lead in engine selections for the newly launched Airbus A320NEO.
The first phase of an airport capacity study for the major New York area airports could be completed by October, providing guidance on the potential addition or reconfiguration of runways, says Susan Baer, who is soon to retire from her position as aviation director for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Latam Airlines Group’s shareholders have approved a stock issue to raise $1 billion in new capital, to help improve the operator’s liquidity and provide additional funds for nearly $11 billion in projected capital expenditures over the next five years. The South American company’s fleet plan call for a 16% increase in the total fleet for its LAN Airlines and TAM divisions in the next five-year period.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines expects to post a positive operating margin for its fiscal 2013 despite anticipated pressure on the operator’s unit revenues. The forecast of as much as a 3% margin on earnings before taxes and interest (EBIT) will revive SAS’s financial performance to levels last seen in fiscal 2011, when it recorded a 2.9% EBIT margin. The margin for the fiscal year to Oct. 31, 2012 was negative 0.8%.
The sale of Frontier Airlines will happen soon, or not at all, says owner Republic Airways Holdings, noting that the divestiture, “if it occurs,” will be completed early in the third quarter. “We will know more in the next two to four weeks and will update you when we have something we can say publicly,” the holding company said in slides presented at the Cowen and Company Investors Conference. A non-disclosure agreement prevents Republic from releasing any additional details right now, it added.
Airlines have been in survival mode since the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008. But with signs that the world economy is entering a slow, sustained upswing, the industry is making bold moves that could lead to another order boom for widebody aircraft.
ATR has obtained 120 min. ETOPS certification for its -600 series from the European Aviation Safety Agency, widening the scope of use of the aircraft to direct links between airports located at maximum distances of four flight hours.
AltAir Fuels is moving ahead with plans to establish a biorefinery near Los Angeles after signing a three-year agreement to supply bio-jet fuel to United Airlines. The start-up will refit part of an existing petroleum refinery at an undisclosed location to produce so-called hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) jet fuel, using a process developed by Honeywell company UOP (formerly Universal Oil Products).
Major U.S. carriers reported either year-over-year declines or negligible gains in passenger unit revenue in May, dashing any expectations that significant unit revenue growth would resume after an early Easter made March particularly strong and April misleadingly weak because of the shift in holiday travel. Estimated performance for May—as measured by passenger revenue per available seat mile—included year-over-year declines of 2% at Southwest Airlines, 1.8% at American Airlines (including American Eagle Airlines) and 1% at US Airways.
Timor Leste plans to establish its own national carrier to ensure it has more connectivity with Australia and Southeast Asian nations, and help ensure there is more competition on key routes.
Anthony Foxx’s nomination to succeed Ray LaHood as U.S. Transportation Secretary has been unanimously approved by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. No date has been set for a full Senate vote, although indications from Capitol Hill suggest that Foxx—currently mayor of Charlotte, N.C.—could be a cabinet member by the end of July.
In a $4.8 trillion punctuation point to a trend it has been highlighting for several years, Boeing says airlines are increasingly focused on the middle of the market. The numbers come from the latest edition of its Current Market Outlook, Boeing’s 20-year forecast, which predicts that 35,000 aircraft will be purchased through 2032, an increase of 1,000 aircraft over last year’s $4.5 trillion prediction.
The business class with mini-suites that JetBlue Airways is planning for some of its transcontinental routes is not aimed specifically at corporate clients and will be priced at a point designed to stimulate new traffic, says Scott Laurence, the low-cost carrier’s vice president of network planning.
Air Canada expects capacity growth in 2014 to reach double digits as the carrier fully integrates five Boeing 777-300ERs and its new low-cost operation Rouge into its operation. The airline, while still expecting the roughly 2.5% growth for 2013 predicted at the beginning of the year, now expects domestic supply to improve one percentage point above previous guidance to 1.5-2.5%, and that unit costs for the year, excluding fuel and one-time items, will decline 0.5-1.5% compared to 2012.
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