Continental's third quarter profits rose 31.7% to $137 million due to record traffic and loads despite higher fuel prices. "It was a super quarter in what promises to be a banner year," said CEO Gordon Bethune, highlighting the carrier's on-time performance in challenging summer weather conditions. The airline, easily beating analyst expectations, also met its goal of a 10% operating margin for the second time this year, reporting a 9.7% margin. Revenue swelled 15.8% to $2.6 billion from $2.3 billion, and yields grew 8.8% to 12.98 cents.
Northwest and Continental have forged an interline electronic ticket network, knocking down another barrier to e-ticketing. The inability to transfer e-tickets from one carrier to another traditionally has been a hurdle to customer acceptance of booking with e-tickets. The interline technology lets customers use e-tickets when their itineraries include travel on both carriers and allows both airlines to accept e-ticketed customers traveling on changed itineraries involving the other carrier with no need to convert to a paper ticket.
AAR Corp. announced the sale of its ownership position in Aerospan.com to SITA, its partner in the e-marketplace joint venture, announced in February. AAR will continue to use the service and will retain a small stake in the venture.
CanJet last week won a cease-and-desist order from the Competition Bureau against Air Canada alleging the larger carrier committed anti-competitive acts. Air Canada said it intends to appeal the order on legal grounds. The competition commissioner said that Air Canada has engaged in conduct that could constitute anti-competitive acts and it reduced its fares to target CanJet on five routes -- Halifax-Ottawa, Halifax-Montreal, Halifax-St. John's, Toronto-Windsor and Ottawa-Windsor.
TWA's yield management department has seen a 100% employee turnover in the last 18 months. Roughly 40% of the staff was terminated, with the remaining majority resigning or moving to other departments. TWA has since redefined job functions and is fully staffed with one of the "most talented yield management teams in the entire industry," said Managing Director David Minnelli.
Frontier Airlines' dispatchers voted Oct. 6 to approve their first agreement represented by the Transport Workers of America AFL-CIO, with 77% of the employees voting in favor of ratification.
US Airways Express will add a fourth regional jet at Columbus, S.C., on Dec. 2, replacing one of its three turboprops operating to Washington National. Service will be with the 50-seat Embraer RJ operated by US Airways Express carrier Mesa Airlines. It will on that day initiate new nonstop Newburgh, N.Y.-Baltimore service with two roundtrips daily operated by Trans States Airlines using 30-seat Jetstream 41 jet prop aircraft. It will introduce new nonstop Richmond-Newark service operated by Trans States which will offer three roundtrips each business day. On Dec.
EasyJet is repainting its Boeing 737 fleet, replacing its telephone number with "EasyJet.com -- the web's favorite airline." The carrier became famous for using its fleet to advertise its reservations number, but with roughly 75% of all seats sold online, all aircraft will feature the web address by yearend.
General Accounting Office aviation experts led by Associate Director for Transportation Issues Gerald Dillingham will have a busy fall, having just received requests for three new reports. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked GAO for a survey of industry and government initiatives aimed at addressing congestion and delays and their likely effectiveness. The Spring-Summer Plan report will involve DOT's various efforts and investment in air traffic control technology intended to improve capacity.
Delta's shares continued to trade near their 52-week low last week, frustrating carrier executives. "We have been undervalued for no discernable reason," Senior VP-Network Management Mark Drusch told The DAILY. Despite high fuel prices, all of Delta's hubs are performing well, with Salt Lake City reporting a "phenomenal" summer. "It's disappointing that the stock isn't higher because there is nothing wrong with the airline," he said.
Carrier Profile - Air France IATA Reported Operations, Fleet and Employment International Domestic All Services Services Services Worldwide IATA RPK Carrier Ranking 3 18 8 Carrier RPK Distribution 89.0% 11.0% 1999 Systemwide Operating Statistics Scheduled Services International Domestic Total
Spanish state holding company SEPI plans to give a financial boost to struggling Aerolineas Argentinas after reaching a deal with the Argentine government Friday. According to Reuters, SEPI will invest a total of $650 million into the airline. The total amount includes $208 million it contributed to the carrier in July when Aerolineas almost collapsed into bankruptcy. SEPI also will guarantee jobs to the employees' workers.
Alaska Airlines said it is turning its Mileage Plan frequent flyer program into a business unit with its own profit-and-loss statement. Gregg Saretsky, senior VP-marketing, said the plan generates more than $80 million a year in revenue and directly employs about 200 people. Airlines traditionally have kept their frequent flyer program revenue secret, since it is a highly competitive sub-element of the airline business. The carrier's Mileage Plan members are included in about 50% of passenger traffic, Saretsky said.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) has selected the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 series engines to power its 25 Airbus A3XX aircraft. SIA said last month that its US$8.6 billion A3XX order includes the cost of installed engines and spares but not spare engines. The cost of the Trent 900 series spare engines will add another US$245 million to the price tag. The engine order applies only to the firm order for 10 aircraft.
U.S. major airlines report third quarter earnings this week, with industry operating profits expected to fall 11% to $2.0 billion, according to PaineWebber. While the second quarter featured strong demand that offset high fuel prices, during the third quarter "revenue growth moderated slightly and oil prices didn't," said analyst Sam Buttrick. He estimates that system unit revenue will grow 6.6%, one of the best quarters in the past 10 years.
A Tata-led consortium will seriously bid for the 40% Air-India share that is up for sale, according to Ratan Tata, head of the group. He said talks are on, keeping "geo-political considerations" in view, with some foreign airlines, mainly Singapore Airlines, to join the consortium. "This is an exciting moment for us...I wish J.R. Tata (who founded Air-India) were with us," Tata said last week in New Delhi.
U.S. majors airlines reported a year-over-year increase in system traffic growth of 4.3% in September, outpacing a 3.1% capacity gain. Load factor increased 0.8 percentage points to 69.9%, lower than August's jump of 1.8 percentage points. "We still think, however, it was a pretty impressive performance," said Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown analyst Susan Donofrio. Domestic traffic increased 2.7%, ahead of 1.8% capacity growth. Load factor was nearly flat at 66.5%. September's international traffic rose 8.0%, as capacity grew 6.4%.
The Ansett Group wants to buy the remaining 80% of shares of Australian regional Hazelton Airlines. Ansett bought 20% of the shares on Friday and now wants the remainder.
Cargolux appointed Ian Morgan VP-North America and Mexico. Dallas Airmotive promoted Phil Wrenn to senior manager-international sales and appointed Chris Hicks international sales manager, Eugene Penning Honeywell TFE731 sales manager and Jeff Dunn JT15D/TFE731 regional engine manager for the Midwestern region.
Manufacturers will deliver 6,800 new business jets valued at $90 billion from 2001 through 2011, according to the annual Business Aviation Market Outlook forecast pioneered by AlliedSignal and now updated under the Honeywell banner following the merger of those two companies last year. The ninth annual forecast, unveiled at last week's National Business Aviation Association convention in New Orleans, mirrors the year-earlier version, which called for delivery of 6,800 aircraft with a value of $89 billion from 2000 through 2010.
