Standard & Poor's today is removing Alitalia from its Italian index, citing the carrier's financial woes. Shoe and apparel manufacturer Geox will replace Alitalia in the S&P/MIB Index after the close of the European markets on Friday, S&P said yesterday. (S&P, like The DAILY, is a unit of the McGraw-Hill Companies). In a statement, the ratings agency said its S&P/MIB index committee decided to replace Alitalia “following its recent extreme price volatility and sharp decline in the adjusted market capitalization.”
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's Board of Commissioners yesterday approved a $5 million program to ease congestion at JFK, even as the authority's four airports handle record-setting traffic. The port authority's airports — JFK, Newark, Stewart and LaGuardia — handled almost 110 million passengers last year, a 5% jump from 2006. Since 2002, traffic at the airports has grown more than 35%, up from 81 million annual passengers.
Finnair believes it can maintain flat operating results in the face of rising fuel costs, at least for the first six months of the year. Pricing levels are holding to the same level as the year before and demand growth also is projected, the airline said yesterday at its annual general meeting. Fuel hedges and the weak dollar are largely allowing Finnair to withstand the recent increase of fuel prices, management says.
Europe's low-fare carriers are calling for a wholesale reform of the continent's airspace, according to the European Low Fare Airline Association . ELFAA earlier this week issued an "Airspace Manifesto" that throws down the gauntlet to European regulators. The manifesto argues that the Single European Sky airspace reform process is "gathering dust" as national air service providers, European Union member states and Eurocontrol are "dragging their heels."
Air Berlin is going to start providing mail transport for the German postal service at month’s end. The Monday-through-Friday operation using two Boeing 737-800s is a first for the German low-fare carrier. Each of the aircraft will carry up to 12,500 kg between Berlin and Frankfurt a.M. Berlin serves as a mail hub that also covers other East German cities, while Frankfurt also feeds mail to Cologne.
Air India appointed Raghu Menon, special secretary and financial advisor in India’s civil aviation ministry, chairman and managing director for the airline, ending months of speculation on speculation on who would replace Vasudevan Thulasidas upon his March 31 retirement. There were around 50 aspirants for the job in the National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL), which runs the merged national carrier.
EADS is looking to implement a Plan B for the sale of three facilities after talks with preferred bidder OHB have fallen apart. Airbus isn’t giving up on the plan to unload Augsburg, Varel and Nordenham in one package. But rather than selling the facilities to OHB, it will not likely spin them off and look for a new buyer.
Predictable and stable profitability relative to its capital expenditure requirements within an incentive-based economic regulatory framework have caused debt-watcher Fitch Ratings to affirm a stable outlook at long-term rating of AA for Airports Company South Africa Limited (ACSA). ACSA owns and operates South Africa’s three major international airports O.R. Tambo International in Johannesburg, Cape Town International, Durban International and six national airports.
Turkmenistan Airlines has ordered two Boeing 737-900ERs and one 737-300 at list prices of US$221 million. Boeing also added two 737 orders to its unidentified customer list but said one 737 order has been withdrawn. The changes raise its net 737 order list for 2008 to 184 aircraft and its total for all airplanes to 286.
Lufthansa is adding 17 new points to its network in the summer season, including eight long-haul locations. In Frankfurt, long-haul flights to Seattle, Calgary, Malabo, Luanda and Frankfurt are coming into the network. Frankfurt will then service 169 destinations with 5,600 weekly flights.
“Junkification,” or being sold as scrap — that’s the word Mexico’s Milenio Diario coined for the fate that awaits the fleet of grounded domestic carrier Aviacsa. Invertia reports silence is the only feedback pilots and other disgruntled workers are getting from management in explanation for the airline’s nosedive. But industry analysts who decline to be identified put the blame on senior executives for neglecting maintenance on the carrier’s fleet of first-generation Boeing 737-200s, all more than 20 years old.
U.S. airlines opposed to Virgin America’s request for confidential treatment of Form 41 schedules (DAILY, March 21) are requesting immediate action from the director of the Transportation Dept.’s Bureau of Statistics, arguing that quick action would prevent Virgin America from “gaming” the system.
It is time for India and Asia’s aviation industry to look at environmental issues and carbon neutral growth leading to a zero-emission industry, IATA said. “By 2010, Asia will be the largest single market for aviation. With size comes leadership responsibility. And that includes environment issues,” IATA Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said in a keynote address at the recent Greener Skies for Asia 2008 conference in Hong Kong.
Jean-Cyril Spinetta made “a timid opening” in his second round of talks with Alitalia workers’ representatives earlier this week in Rome, claims Claudio Genovesi, national secretary of the FIT-CISL union.
To attract new pilots from around the world, Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi has launched a cadet training program modeled on a similar program offered by Emirates.
Narita Airport is lobbying for a 50% expansion in its aircraft movements, arguing that the other Tokyo airport, Haneda, will hit capacity by 2012 even with the opening of a fourth runway in October 2010. In a meeting with nine local municipalities on March 25, Narita proposed to expand to up to 300,000 takeoffs and landings per year without lengthening its runways or operating times, which are fixed at 6 a.m.-11 p.m. daily.
Global ATC providers have agreed to contribute significantly more resources to the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (CANSO), which will likely give CANSO an even greater influence in international ATC issues. CANSO members approved a new strategic plan at a recent special meeting in Amsterdam. The plan, called Imagine 2010, will be backed by increased member fees and greater commercial activity by CANSO, and members also agreed to second staff to work on CANSO issues.
Germany’s Hochtief AG posted a net profit of EUR140 million (US$220.2 million) in 2007, up 58% year over year. That profit growth was fueled by Hochtief’s acquisition of Budapest Airport from BAA parent Ferrovial for US$2.4 billion (DAILY, May 14). The company also won several public-private airport partnership contracts in 2007, valued at EUR1.5 billion (US$2.3 billion).
