Gulf Air ordered 16 Boeing 787s and took options for eight more, the airline said on the weekend. The carrier said it is contemplating further orders from Boeing and Airbus.
Mesa Air Group blamed a $62 million loss in the fourth quarter on an $86.9 million pre-tax judgment against the company involving a lawsuit filed by Hawaiian Airlines, along with cutting Delta turboprop flying out of JFK Airport and costs to launch Chinese regional Kunpeng Airlines and shut down the Air Midwest unit. The carrier lost $81.6 million for the year, compared with $33.9 million a year ago.
Europe set a new annual record for flights with a 5.3% increase in 2007, and further growth of more than 4% is expected for this year, Eurocontrol said yesterday.
Eurocontrol predicts that low-cost carriers will for the first time account more than 20% of all flights in Europe this year. Low-cost flights grew 25% in 2007 and, together with business aviation, account for almost all the net growth in European flights last year (see story Page 3).
The European Parliament and the Council of Ministers Friday struck a civil aviation security deal, and the new text will go before the full Parliament in March. The deal affirms an earlier compromise that the costs of aviation security will be shared among the member state governments, airports and airlines. The compromise agreement was reached late last month (DAILY, Dec. 20, 2007).
An increase in aircraft accidents last year means the airline insurance industry also will suffer a loss, according to a new report by AON U.K. The total losses for 2007 are estimated at about $1.7 billion with lead hull and liability premiums merely at $1.51 billion. That also means that last year saw the third-highest value of losses since 1996, excluding the losses linked with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. By comparison, the 2006 price tag associated with losses only amounted to $1.29 billion.
Delta has taken on two more Boeing 757s, bringing its fleet total to 15 aircraft. The aircraft, which came from American Airlines’ fleet, will be used on international routes and will go into service this summer.
Flight trials using a blend of biofuel and kerosene are set to begin next month, when Virgin Atlantic flies one of its boeing 747-400s from London Heathrow to Amsterdam Schiphol. The flight is part of a broader biofuel research effort by partners Boeing, Virgin Atlantic, General Electric and others last year. Ground trials with the biofuel have already been performed by GE. The results are promising, says a Virgin Atlantic representative.
The airline industry is petitioning government representatives in both Washington and Brazil to object a proposal to raise aircraft parking fees at Sao Paulo’s international airport (GRU) by as much as 5200%. IATA last week met with government representatives in Washington and in Brazil to protest the proposed hike in aircraft parking fees at GRU before the Brazilian aviation regulator ANAC’s Jan. 14 deadline for public comment.
Hawaiian loads fell 2.1 percentage points to 82.1% in December, as traffic failed to keep pace with demand in the month. The airline logged 637 million revenue passenger miles, up 2.2% from December 2006, and while 775.9 million available seat miles, 4.8% more than in the same month in 2006. Results for full-year 2007 were a bit better — RPMs were up 16% on 14.7% more capacity. Load factor edged up 1 point to 87.4%.
The Seabury Group has added 10 new staff members and promoted five others. The new hires come from both the aviation industry and management consulting. Seabury hired Karaca Kestelli as VP. He has experience in turnaround projects and most recently was engagement manager at McKinsey & Company. Jesko Neuenburg was hired as senior associate; he formerly was a consultant with Bain & Company.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. believes it has found one market-based mechanism to reduce congestion at the nation’s busiest airports — it is proposing changes to FAA’s on airport rates and charges that would move away from solely levying landing fees based on aircraft weight and give airports the flexibility to vary charges based on the time of day and volume of traffic.
Aer Arann plans to start service to Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Malaga and Faro May 1. The Irish airline will operate flights from both Galway and Waterford. The new destinations stem from a franchise agreement with Nex Aviation. More route additions are being planned.
Michigan-based Kalitta is asking the U.S. Transportation Dept. for two weekly fifth-freedom frequencies that would let Kalitta carry cargo between Hong Kong and Madras, India. The airline in an application to the DOT said it “currently has customers who are offering cargo to be carried between Hong Kong and Madras.” Kalitta said it would start the service as soon as it received authority from DOT and relevant Hong Kong and Indian authorities.
Lufthansa next week will launch service between Berlin and London City Airport. The airline at first will fly the route twice a day, but it hopes to receive slots to add a third frequency. The service will use Lufthansa’s Avro RJ-85s.
U.S. airlines reported a combined domestic and international load factor of 80.5%, a record for the 10-month period, the U.S. Transportation Dept. said last week. Some 646.1 million passengers were carried on domestic and international flights from January to October 2007, up 3.6% from the same period in 2006, DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported. Domestic traffic was up 3.5% and international traffic 4.5%
The entire airline industry could be purchased by a single hedge fund, says Transportation Economist Dan Akins. He says the value today of Southwest is $8.3 billion, Delta $3.2 billion, AMR 2.9 billion, UAL 2.8 billion, Northwest 2.7 billion, Continental $1.8 billion and US Airways about $1 billion. He predicts more investments in 2008 by foreign airlines in U.S. carriers, such as the recent Lufthansa stake in JetBlue because of the weak dollar, which also will give European carriers the upper hand with the new open-skies rules.
MIT Macroeconomist Olivier Blanchard says he has “no clue” whether oil prices will continue to rise. His research leads him to believe that current prices are surprisingly high, and at $90-$100 per barrel, there are many alternative energy sources worth exploiting. Futures markets do not predict much change, which he says is “a reasonable assumption.”
Mexican airport operators GAP, OMA and ASUR all reported double-digit gains in traffic for their airports in December 2007, thanks to gains in the domestic market resulting from increased operations by the country’s startups and low-cost carriers.
Defense Technology and Requirements February 12-13, 2008 National Press Club Washington, DC Register Today - it is not a coincidence that Defense Technology and Requirements is scheduled the week after the release of the President’s FY2009 budget request to Congress! Join us as we: -- Analyze technology requirements for both the ongoing war on terror and the Defense Department’s longer-term transformational initiatives. -- Address growing constraints on affordability.
