Airlines & Lessors

Lufthansa Group subsidiary Austrian Airlines is considering the Boeing 777 as its center of competence.

A Piedmont Airlines Bombardier Dash 8-100 turboprop landed early Saturday at Newark International Airport without its landing gear deployed, causing sparks on the runway.

LOT Polish Airlines has taken delivery of its third Boeing 787, paving the way for the type to re-enter service with the Polish carrier June 5.

Russia’s Ministry of Transport said Uzbekistan authorities have complied with its requirement to convert money received by Russian airlines for tickets sold in Uzbekistan through Jan. 1 before the April 15 deadline.

Etihad Airways has struck a deal to acquire Abu Dhabi Airport Services, Abu Dhabi Cargo Co. and Abu Dhabi In-Flight Catering.

The 10 largest US scheduled passenger airlines reported a net loss of $145 million in the fourth quarter of 2012, an improvement over the net loss of $602 million in the 2011 fourth quarter.

IATA reported that international premium traffic for March was up 4.4% year-over-year, showing some signs of improvement in the growth trend.

African low-cost carrier Fastjet has postponed its South African launch, which was originally planned for the end of May, until the beginning of July.

Bogota-based AviancaTaca Holdings reported a first-quarter net income of $75.3 million, more than doubled from $34.9 million in the year-ago period.

KLM is to take delivery of two Boeing 777-300ERs in spring 2015, one from Boeing and another from Air Lease, taking its total 777-300ER fleet to 10 aircraft.

Chinese carriers reported a collective net income of CNY 1.4 billion in April, down 28.3% compared with a net profit of CNY 1.953 billion for the same month last year.

Singapore Airlines Group (SIA) earned net income of S$379 million ($303.4 million) for its 2012-2013 fiscal year ended March 31, up 12.8% over a net profit of S$336 million in the prior fiscal year.

Download report abstract below.

Rate Rate Airline March 2013 March 2012 Southwest 0.23 0.29 Alaska 0.24 0.32 AirTran 0.33 0.55 Virgin America 0.39 1.14 JetBlue 0.40 0.66 Delta 0.46 0

Hawaiian 91.0 92.5 Virgin America 87.3 74.9 Alaska 85.5 85.4

Airline Traffic

Kuwait Airways chairman Sami al-Nasef said the airline has “signed a letter of acceptance with Airbus” to purchase 25 aircraft, according to reports from Kuwait City.

AirAsia India has appointed Mittu Chandilya as the CEO of the new startup low-cost carrier (LCC), effective June 1.

The European Commission has given LOT Polish Airlines tentative approval for its PLN400 million ($123.5 million) rescue bailout.

Air Baltic said it slimmed its first-quarter net loss by LVL6.7 million ($12.3 million), representing a 41% improvement, although it did not specify the actual loss figure.

Lufthansa Flight Training (LFT) is feeling the effects of the European aviation downturn and reduced pilot demand.

Russia’s Transaero Airline reported 2012 full-year net profit RUB902 million ($28.7 million), down 51% compared to the year-ago period.