Credit standings most affected as the European airline industry moves toward full deregulation next spring will be those of Europe's flag carriers, shielded from competition and aided by government subsidies in the recent past and even the present, according to Standard&Poor's. The flags have tended to enjoy "more favorable credit terms than their financial positions warranted," says S&P.
Selling stock back to Northwest lifted KLM's net profit to 271 million Dutch guilders (US$162.6 million) for the first quarter of fiscal 1997, more than double the previous year's 135 million guilder (US$81 million) total. Earnings per share grew from 1.48 guilders (US$0.89) to 2.94 (US$1.76). Included in KLM's net earnings is a profit of 179 million guilders (US$107.4 million) KLM received by selling back to Northwest 3,691 non-voting preference A shares.
An increase in domestic traffic contributed to a 3.8% gain in United's July scheduled revenue passenger miles, which totaled 10.843 billion. North American RPMs rose 6.6%, while Atlantic RPMs fell 10.2%. Available seat miles rose 1%, and Atlantic ASMs fell 8.8%. North American ASMs rose 2.1%, Pacific 2.3% and Latin America 1.9%. The load factor was up 2.1 percentage points to 75.6%. For the year, RPMs were up 5.1% and ASMs 2.9%, and the load factor gained 1.5 points. July 96 July 95 7 Mths 96 7 Mths 95
FAA told Chicago officials last week that closing Meigs Field "cannot be considered to be inconsistent" with federal airport grant assurances the city agreed to when it accepted funds for improvements at the reliever airport. Louis Yates, manager of FAA's Chicago Airports District Office, told the city's acting commissioner of aviation, Hugh Murphy, that since the city will not have legal authority to occupy and operate the airport after the Sept.
Association of Flight Attendants, in response to an anonymous news release calling for a worldwide sickout by United's flight attendants, said it has no knowledge of such plans and "strongly encourages its members to report to work as scheduled." The union is in contract negotiations with United.
International Civil Aviation Organization Council President Assad Kotaite called this week for international cooperation to fight terrorism. He said ICAO "has been and continues to be the forum where international cooperation on aviation security issues has achieved successful results." Kotaite said a considerable amount of work has been accomplished within ICAO, leading to the development in 1991 of the Convention on Marking of Plastic Explosives for the Purpose of Detection.
Aerospatiale General Aviation, the Socata subsidiary that announced plans to move from Grand Prairie, Texas, has settled on southeast Florida, in the Fort Lauderdale area, as the location of its new headquarters.
British Airways' traffic increased 2.4% last month, compared with July 1995, on 7.4% more capacity. At 77%, the scheduled passenger load factor was off 3.8 percentage points from last year's record performance. BA flew 9.4 billion revenue passenger kilometers in July on 12.2 billion available seat kilometers. It carried 3.065 million passengers, down 0.1%, as a 1.5% decline in U.K. passengers carried to U.K. and European points more than offset a 2.5% gain in intercontinental traffic.
Signature Flight Support said yesterday that BBA Group, its 68% majority parent, will buy the 32% minority interest of Acadia Partners. Signature provides a wide range of aviation-related services to commercial airlines and general aviation at 36 stations throughout the U.S., including fuel, baggage- and cargo-handling, aircraft cleaning and passenger services. BBA had made recent investments to new fixed-base operations terminals at Hartford, Conn., Bradley Airport and at Las Vegas McCarren Airport.
Northwest Aerospace Training Corp. (NATCO) said it is offering Part 121 training and support programs to regional and national airlines, including services related to certification, dispatcher systems, and training and crew resource management development and implementation. NATCO said it recently concluded contracts with Mesa Air Group and Express Airlines I.
Transport Canada awarded Crown Technical Systems a contract to provide metal detection equipment for the nation's airports. ITS, parent of Crown, said the deal is "the largest single sale for walk-through metal detectors in the aviation industry." Crown will provide 132 CEIA 02PN10 metal detectors at 28 Canadian airports.
The 15th annual Quebec Aircraft Maintenance Symposium, sponsored by the Canadian Aerospace Industries, will be held Oct. 30-Nov. 1 at the Holiday Inn in Pointe-Claire-Montreal. For more information, call 514-747-4981.
InVision Technologies, which builds the only FAA-certified explosives detection system, yesterday reported a second quarter net loss of $830,000 compared with a net loss of $386,000 in the same quarter last year. Revenues rose 40% to $3.9 million. For six months, the net loss was $2 million versus $1.1 million on a 121% gain in revenues to $8.4 million. The net losses included non-cash charges related to the amortization of previously issued warrants.
Northwest and the Machinists union have exchanged contract openers for collective bargaining talks on five contracts representing mechanics, cleaners, equipment service, customer service, clerical, reservations, security and flight kitchen personnel. Actual proposals will be exchanged later this month. The Machinists union said the contracts have an Oct. 2 expiration date, when the average 11% reduction in wages and benefits snap back to preconcession levels of 1993. The union said major issues are job security, pension parity and wage/benefit increases.
LTU Lufttransport-Unternehmen GmbH is seeking renewal of its exemption to serve Daytona Beach, Fla., as an additional co-terminal point on its scheduled, combination services between Germany and the U.S. and beyond. LTU currently serves Daytona Beach with a weekly Dusseldorf-Daytona Beach- Miami-Dusseldorf flight. (Docket OST-95-251)
With final data in hand for half of 1996, Merrill Lynch analyst Byron Callan finds that while aircraft orders remain robust, cancellations are running well ahead of 1995 levels. "In the first half of 1996, we estimate that there were 98, more than double the 41 reported a year ago," Callan wrote in his monthly tabulation for investors of new orders and cancellations for Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Airbus Industrie jetliners. Of that 98, Boeing accounts for 87, mostly resulting from swaps by customers from existing aircraft type orders to new types.
Continental recorded its highest July load factor ever - 72% - as revenue passenger miles rose 4% to 3.9 billion and available seat miles 3.8% to 5.4 billion. Unlike other majors, Continental's domestic RPMs were up only marginally, 1.9%, compared with international RPMs, which rose 9.3%. "While we are delighted with the record load factor, we are even more pleased that high-yield business customers are returning to experience our new and improved product," said Gordon Bethune, president.
Delta, boosted by an 18.3% increase in domestic revenue passenger miles that included traffic generated by two weeks of Olympic Games in Atlanta, reported more traffic in July than in any month in its history - 8.650 billion RPMs. The traffic, latest in a string of records, was 11.1% higher than July 1995 and capacity rose 2.3% to 11.546 billion available seat miles for a systemwide load factor of 74.92%. July 96 July 95 7 Mths 96 7 Mths 95
Cleveland and neighboring Brook Park officials said last week they have reached a "framework settlement" agreement to end four years of litigation over expansion at Cleveland Hopkins Airport. The plan calls for construction of a 10,500-foot runway and lengthening of the existing runway to 12,000 feet. The two cities have been in conflict over several land issues, including exclusion of certain Brook Park properties from the airport layout plan, municipal boundary changes and compensation for revenue losses from Brook Park's Analex property.
Aircraft maintenance expenses make up a significantly higher percentage of the overall costs of newly certificated "up-start" airlines and commuter/regional carriers than of established major airlines, according to a study by Morten Beyer and Associates. In the 12 months ended last Sept. 30, the 10 major airlines spent an average of 10.56% of their total operating expenses on maintenance and related overhead, MBA said.
International Lease Finance Corp. posted record pretax income for the second quarter of $109.7 million, up 11% from the same period last year. For the first six months, pretax income rose 18% to $193.2 million. Second-quarter revenues were up 13% to $415.6 million and six-month revenues 17% to $786.8 million.
Continental is seeking authority to begin operating code-share services with Business Air in the U.K., beginning Sept. 16. Continental has applied for an exemption to provide scheduled combination service between Newark and Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow and wants to combine these flights with authorized service to other points.
Airport Communities Coalition (ACC) filed a complaint last week in King County Superior Court against the Puget Sound Regional Council and the Port of Seattle in an attempt to block a planned third runway at Seattle-Tacoma Airport. The suit asks the court to overturn decisions and actions by the Puget Sound council or the port, including one ordering the port to stop further actions leading to construction of a third runway or other expansion projects at Sea-Tac.
United, citing a lack of suitable aircraft, said yesterday it will launch freighter service next March instead of in the third quarter, as planned. The carrier is converting four DC-10-30s from its current fleet to freighter configuration. "Suitable aircraft were unavailable for the third quarter launch, requiring a March 1997 startup," it said. Two of the aircraft will be used for flights to Asia, and the other two will go into service later in 1997.
