US major passenger airlines posted a cumulative third-quarter net loss of $578 million, narrowed from a $2.52 billion loss in the year-ago period, ATWOnline calculated. The nine carriers' combined revenue dropped 18% to $28.25 billion while expenses decreased 23.1% to $27.8 billion, producing an operating profit of $450 million, reversed from an operating loss of $1.97 billion for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2008. The quarter's top performer among the majors was Alaska Airlines parent Alaska Air Group with net income of $88 million.
Finnair named Nokia Siemens Networks COO Mika Vehvilainen as its new president and CEO effective Feb. 1. He will succeed Jukka Hienonen, who is leaving the airline at the end of January ( ATWOnline, April 10). Vehvilainen, 48, will join Finnair on Jan. 5 and "has strong experience of sales and marketing and of strategic management and business development in Asia, North America and Europe," the airline said.
Qantas plans to introduce an Airport of the Future concept in major domestic markets next year that it said will reduce dramatically time spent at check-in and in security queues and speed baggage collection. Domestic passengers will be issued new RFID cards that will replace both the standard boarding pass and baggage tags and give instant recognition to security agents.
American Airlines Chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey reiterated this week that he sees no need to relinquish slots at London Heathrow in order to address possible competition concerns over AA's planned transatlantic joint venture with British Airways and Iberia.
Grupo Mexicana CEO Manuel Borja expects that the carrier's membership in oneworld will strengthen its "position considerably in an increasingly competitive marketplace" and boost international passenger traffic by 5%-7%.
Gol reported third-quarter net income of BRL77.9 million ($45.6 million), reversed from a BRL510.7 million loss in the year ago period when foreign exchange losses and interest expenses weighed down the bottom line.
Singapore Airlines reported a S$158.8 million ($114.4 million) loss in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, reversed from a S$323.8 million profit in the year-ago period, but said that "advanced bookings indicate that demand for air travel has stopped declining and is gradually recovering." Group revenue fell 29.6% year-over-year to S$3.08 billion against a 21.3% cut in expenses to S$3.26 billion. Operating result swung to a S$181.4 million loss from a S$231.7 million profit in the three months ended Sept. 30, 2008.
Malaysia Airlines will announce at a press conference today that it has transitioned to the SITA Reservations platform, part of a 10-year, $130 million contract under which SITA will install/manage a variety of MAS IT systems. The changeover to the SITA reservation system took 13 hr. on Nov. 1 and involved the transfer of almost 1.5 million PNRs. MAS CEO Azmil Zahruddin said, "Upgrading to a new reservations platform is the equivalent of a heart transplant for an airline.
Air Canada and Jazz flew 3.85 billion RPMs in October, a 1.3% decrease from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 0.5% to 4.84 billion ASMs and load factor dipped 0.6 point to 79.6%. JetBlue Airways flew 2.02 billion RPMs in October, up 7.2% year-over-year, while capacity rose 7.1% to 2.5 billion ASMs. Load factor was up 0.1 point to 80.8%. Hawaiian Airlines flew 680.7 million RPMs in October, a 5.7% increase year-over-year, and capacity rose 2.6% to 797.7 million ASMs. Load factor climbed 2.4 points to 85.3%.
Shenzhen Airlines plans to sell a partial stake in its Kunpeng Airlines subsidiary to the Henan government in order to raise funding for the troubled regional carrier. "We are still negotiating with the Henan provincial government on how much of a stake to sell and at what price to sell," a Shenzhen spokesperson told ATWOnline. Kungpeng may change its name to Henan Airlines as part of the deal.
Malev Hungarian Airlines expects a final decision about its future ownership by the end of this month. The troubled carrier is in talks with the government, which is considering reinvesting in Malev and helping it restructure, Deputy CEO and CCO Karim Makhlouf told ATWOnline at this week's oneworld event in Mexico City. He said the government likely will acquire at least 51%. The airline currently is 99.5% owned by the AirBridge consortium, which is backed by Russia's Vneshekonombank.
Korean Air posted third-quarter net income of KRW264 billion ($227.9 million), a dramatic turnaround from the KRW684.1 billion loss it suffered in the year-ago period, marking its second straight profitable reporting period after six consecutive quarterly losses.
Japan Airlines is expected to report a heavy loss Friday for its fiscal first half ended Sept. 30, increasing pressure on the carrier and the Japanese government to develop a restructuring plan to help assure investors and customers that the troubled company won't collapse.
Air France KLM flew 17.68 billion RPKs in October, down 4.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity dropped 5.6% to 21.41 billion ASKs and load factor increased 1.3 points to 82.5%. British Airways flew 9.41 billion RPKs in October, down 1.9% year-over-year, against a 6.4% cut in capacity to 11.79 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 3.7 points to 80.7%. EasyJet transported 4.2 million passengers in October, a 6.6% increase year-over-year, while load factor rose 3 points to 86.8%.
SpiceJet lost INR1.01 billion ($21.5 million) in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, a 49% improvement from the INR1.98 billion lost in the year-ago period. Operating revenue rose 31% as passenger numbers soared 98%. Capacity measured in ASKs climbed 44%, load factor was up 19 points and unit cost fell 26% year-over-year. "Traditionally, this is the weakest quarter for the industry," CEO Sanjay Aggarwal said. "However, we continue to improve our load factor and today one out of every eight flyers chooses SpiceJet.
Aer Lingus's third-quarter revenue fell 9.7% year-over-year on a 17.6% drop in average fare, it announced yesterday, adding that it has launched the "first phase" of a restructuring aimed at "reduc[ing] any costs within our control so that we can cope with continued falling fares, compete and maintain balance sheet strength."
United Airlines ended its agreement with Mesa Air Group for operation of 26 50-seat CRJs on its behalf, with the aircraft to be phased out by April 30.
Mexicana and its affiliates officially became oneworld's 11th member at midnight last night, adding 24 Mexican destinations, Edmonton and Oakland to the alliance's map. Iberia Chairman and CEO Antonio Vazquez, whose airline sponsored MX's entry, said the alliance's newest member "will considerably strengthen oneworld's long-established position as the leading airline alliance in the Spanish-speaking world and in Latin America." LAN Airlines is oneworld's other Latin American member.
Embraer was certified by EASA as a Part 147 Maintenance and Training Organization for the E-170 and E-190 families. First training customer is KLM cityhopper.
AerCap last week said it signed a series of agreements with China Development Bank covering funding for $86 million of pre-delivery payments and a $272 million "long-term funding facility" covering four new A330s with deliveries scheduled in 2010-11. Aircraft are part of AerCap's order for 30 A330s placed in 2006-07 with deliveries scheduled through 2012.
Feel Air, a new Scandinavian LCC, will begin operations with Stockholm Arlanda-New York JFK and Oslo Gardermoen-Bangkok service in spring 2010 aboard dry-leased A330-200s, it announced yesterday. It currently is raising capital of NOK240 million ($42.1 million) with Norwegian investment bank DnBNOR Markets.
Icelandair Group said third-quarter EBITDA rose 35.5% year-over-year to ISK8.4 billion ($68.2 million) on a 29% surge in revenue to ISK53.7 billion, although release of its full financial report was postponed until December because its financial restructuring "has not been finalized." It warned that depreciation and financial costs "increase[d] considerably" from the 2008 third quarter.
Norwegian will issue up to 1.62 million new shares, corresponding to some 5% of the outstanding total, in a capital raising expected to generate NOK250-NOK260 million ($43.9-$45.7 million) based on Friday's closing price. "We see new opportunities ahead. This combined with Norwegian's positive development makes the timing good for strengthening the company's financial position and flexibility even further," CEO Bjorn Kjos said. HBK Invest AS, a company controlled by Kjos and DY Chairman Bjorn Kise, will reduce its holding in the airline from approximately 32% to around 29%.
Delta Air Lines flew 15.3 billion system RPMs in October, a 6.5% decrease year-over-year. Capacity dropped 8.3% to 18.18 billion ASMs and load factor rose 1.6 points to 84.2%. American Airlines flew 10.24 billion system RPMs in October, down 2.6% from the year-ago month. Capacity dropped 7.3% to 12.33 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 4 points to 83.15%. American Eagle flew 680.1 million system RPMs, up 6%, against a 0.7% lift in capacity to 927.4 million ASMs. Load factor was up 3.7 points to 73.3%.
AerCap Holdings and Aircastle Ltd., two midsized operating lessors, each reported solid third-quarter financial results and cited positive signals pointing toward a market recovery.
