Shenzhen Airlines yesterday said it signed a purchase agreement with Airbus for 10 A320s and announced that it had an operating profit of CNY520 million ($79 million) in the first half, crediting strong domestic market demand growth and its merger with Air China for the result.
Japan Airlines continues to pare down its portfolio of subsidiaries as it refocuses on its core activities in advance of submitting its official reorganization plan in court by the end of this month. Yesterday it announced it will sell 90% of its stakes in JAL Sky Kansai Co., JAL Ground Service Kansai Co. and JAL Ground Support Kansai Co. to Konoike Transport Co. by way of a stock transfer agreement.
Finnair reported a second-quarter net loss of €27.8 million ($37 million), widened slightly from a €23.3 million deficit in the year-ago-period. “Strengthening demand, recovering load factors and clearly improved unit revenues have restored profitability to a positive course," President and CEO Mika Vehvilainen said. "It is clear that we cannot be satisfied with a loss-making result, but the trend in profitability is heartening."
Air Arabia Group reported a consolidated second quarter net profit of AED49.5 million ($13.5 million), down 44.8% from the AED89.7 million it earned in the year-ago period.
Gol reported a second quarter net loss of BRL51.9 million ($29.6 million), reversed from a BRL353.7 million net profit in the year-ago period, as interest expenses, foreign exchange losses and non-recurring maintenance costs weighed on the bottom line.
SAS President and CEO Matts Jansson, who faced a string of escalating labor, operational and financial crises since taking the helm of SAS in January 2007, announced he will step down this fall.
Lufthansa Cargo will increase its worldwide cargo rates by 20% from Oct 1. Ethiopian Airlines said it signed a purchase agreement with Diamond Aircraft Industries of Austria for 10 DA40NG pilot training aircraft and one D-SIM-40 simulator valued €3.7 million ($4.9 billion).
Delta Air Linesflew 19.6 billion system RPMs in July, a .5% rise year-over-year. Capacity decreased .3% to 22 billion ASMs and load factor increased .7 point to 88.3%. Great Lakes Aviationoperated 13.92 million RPMs in July, up 10.1% year-over-year, against a 6.1% cut in capacity to 33.43 million ASMs. Load factor rose 6.1 points to 41.6%.
Bombardier said Porter Airlines signed a firm order for four Q400 NextGens plus six options. The Toronto-based airline’s firm order is valued at C$123 million ($120 million) at list prices. The four aircraft will increase Porter’s fleet of Q400s to 24 ( ATW Daily News, Oct. 20, 2009). Porter took delivery of its 20th aircraft, and the 300th Q400 aircraft to be delivered, in April.
Mexicana Airlines said in a statement Sunday that its "financial situation has deteriorated substantially in the last week" and announced it is suspending 15 international routes effective yesterday and today.
Iridium Communications announced that it received "in excess of $1.8 billion of commitments from a syndicate of preeminent international banks" in connection with the credit facility that will be used to finance the construction of the company’s next-generation satellite constellation, Iridium Next. Thales Alenia Space is the prime contractor for the project, which consists of 81 low-earth orbiting communications satellites with first launch in early 2015. Iridium expects to sign the credit facility in September and close shortly thereafter.
Flybe concluded an agreement with Finnair to “cooperate on the delivery of regional services in the Scandinavian and Baltic Sea area.” Initially, the UK carrier will wet-lease three Q400s to Finnair, which will operate services from Helsinki to Tampere, Turku and Tallinn as of Oct. 31. The service provision is expected to grow “beyond” three aircraft in the summer of 2011, Flybe said, but the carrier declined to tell ATW how many aircraft or routes it could cover and if the cooperation could evolve into a codeshare or franchise agreement.
Following Air Berlin’s announcement last week that it intends to join oneworld, Austrian LCC Fly Niki President Niki Lauda told ATW the airline has started talks with AA and AY to pursue codeshare agreements. Lauda said Niki is eyeing "big passenger potential in the worldwide market" as it carries passengers to eastern and southeastern Europe via its hub in Vienna ( ATW Daily News, July 27).
Malev Hungarian Airlines CCO and Deputy CEO Karim Makhlouf resigned from the carrier last week. Makhlouf, who joined Hungary's state-owned national carrier in January 2009, said it had been a “great experience to restructure this airline until this stage.”Before joining Malev, he was CCO of SkyEurope and director of Network Management at Hapag-Lloyd Express. He also was member of the founding
Japan Airlines, in the midst of a bankruptcy restructuring, announced it will sell its 79.6% stake in JAL Hotels and additionally will merge four sales subsidiaries into one unit.
Tiger Airways Holdings reported net income of S$1.9 million ($1.4 million) for its first fiscal quarter ended June 30, much improved over a loss of S$6 million for the year-ago period.
Operating lessor AerCap Holdings reported net income of $48.9 million for the second quarter ended June 30, down 13.6% compared to income of $56.6 million in the year-ago period. Excluding the impact of mark-to-market interest rate caps and share-based compensation, however, net income jumped 52.4% to $59.6 million from $39.1 million last year.
China Southern Airlines announced plans to add 800-900 flights for the upcoming Asian Games, hoping to boost its financial performance in the second half of the year. General Manager Tan Wangeng said CZ would introduce more than 10 aircraft in the next three months to operate its Asian routes. “We estimate the Asian Games [scheduled to be held in November in CZ base city Guangzhou] would attract more than 50,000 people," he said.
Mexicana Airlines suspended all ticket sales late Wednesday but insisted it would continue to operate flights "as scheduled" to carry passengers that have already booked tickets, and Air Canada confirmed it seized two of four aircraft that it leases to MX.
WestJet reported C$21 million ($20.6 million) in second quarter net income, more than double the C$9.2 million profit in the year-ago period, citing improved demand and higher commissions from its WestJet Vacations business.
Etihad Airways will reconfigure several of its A320s to an all-economy class cabin fitted with 162 seats, with the first two aircraft set to re-enter service in October.
Air Canada reported a second-quarter net loss of C$203 million ($198.7 million), reversed from a C$155 million profit in the year-ago period, despite being profitable on an operating level.
Continental Airlines and Brussels Airlines announced plans to start codesharing on Continental’s transatlantic services between Newark and Brussels, as well as on selected beyond hub flights operated by each carrier.
