Lufthansa posted a €184 million ($273.4 million) net profit in the third quarter but remained in the red through the first nine months of 2009 and yesterday issued a warning that its target of a full-year operating surplus now is at risk.
A five-day pilot strike combined with "a lean season and lower yields" dragged India's Jet Airways to a INR4.07 billion ($86.6 million) loss in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, deepened 5.8% from the INR3.85 billion deficit reported in the year-ago period.
Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines enjoyed a financial turnaround in the third quarter owing to a strong recovery in the domestic market and gains on their fuel hedges. CA earned net income of CNY885.3 million ($129.5 million) in the quarter, a significant reversal from the CNY1.94 billion loss suffered in the year-ago period, on a 1.3% lift in operating revenue to CNY14.05 billion. Expenses dropped 10.6% to CNY13.45 billion and the Beijing-based airline reported a CNY554 million profit on its fuel hedges for the period.
Turkish Airlines flew 29.22 billion RPKs through the first nine months of 2009, up 14.2% from the year-ago period. Capacity rose 20.6% to 41.21 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 4 points to 70.9%. Iberia flew 4.07 billion RPKs in September, down 8.1% year-over-year, against a 6.3% cut in capacity to 5.16 billion ASKs. Load factor slipped 1.6 points to 79%. Transaero Airlines flew 2 billion RPKs in September, a 12.2% increase year-over-year, while passenger numbers climbed 4% to 595,000.
LAN Airlines reported third-quarter net income of $52.1 million, down 47.3% from an $83 million profit in the year-ago period, as both passenger and cargo yield declined owing to the recession and the swine flu scare.
Oneworld airlines operating to/from London Heathrow will be concentrated in Terminal 3 and Terminal 5 on Thursday, finalizing the alliance's biggest co-location project to date. T3 is the closest existing terminal to T5. T3 is nearing completion of an upgrade designed to bring customer facilities up to a similar standard to those offered at T5. The eight oneworld carriers operated from five different terminals in the past.
KLM cityhopper reduced the number of seats on the five F100s that will remain in its fleet to 100 from 103 or 108, allowing it to operate the aircraft with two flight attendants instead of three, a spokesperson confirmed to ATWOnline. The carrier's new E-190LRs are equipped with 100 seats as well. It will take delivery of its eighth E-190 this week and an additional nine by July 2010. It holds 11 options. The Embraer aircraft gradually are replacing the Fokker fleet. Cityhopper's F50s are set to be phased out during the winter schedule.
Copa Airlines expects to make a decision whether to follow Continental Airlines into Star Alliance fairly soon, CEO Pedro Heilbron told ATWOnline on the sidelines of yesterday's Star Alliance-Continental Airlines joining event at Newark. Copa has a very close partnership with CO, a former investor in the Panamanian airline, so much so that it also left SkyTeam on Oct. 24. Heilbron said Copa has two choices: "To remain independent or join Star." Oneworld is not an option owing to the need to remain in partnership with Continental.
Continental Airlines yesterday became the 25th member of Star Alliance in Newark ceremonies attended by leaders of current and future member airlines, at which CO also unveiled a winglet-equipped 757-200ER in alliance livery. Ahead of the formal induction, the carrier entered into bilateral commercial agreements with the other 24 members and signed codesharing deals with four--United Airlines, Lufthansa, Air Canada and bmi--the first three of which are part of the Atlantic Plus Plus antitrust immunized partnership.
Vueling Airlines, which merged with Clickair in July ( ATWOnline, July 13), posted a third-quarter operating profit of €68.1 million ($102.1 million) compared to EBIT of €24.7 in the year-ago period when it was an independent carrier. Revenue rose 68.6% year-over-year to €259.2 million and operating expenses increased 48.2% to €191.1 million.
Jat Airways CEO Srdjan Radovanovic told the Associated Press that the airline will be forced to cut one-third of its staff, or around 550 people, in order to complete its reorganization. It expects to lose around €20 million ($30 million) this year and will have to transport some 1.5 million people in 2010 in order to avoid a loss, he said. Jat's winter schedule, which began Sunday and runs through March 27, will feature 163 weekly flights to 36 destinations in 25 countries. A Belgrade-Gothenburg service is set to launch on Dec. 19.
British Airways said it is "extremely disappointed" by the Unite union's decision to ballot 14,000 cabin crew regarding strike action. "We have put together a package of changes, which despite the unprecedented financial circumstances facing the company, not only protects current cabin crew but also offers many new benefits," the airline said, noting that those changes are effective from Nov. 16 ( ATWOnline, Oct. 21).
Assn. of Asia Pacific Airlines' 17 members transported 10.8 million international passengers in September, a figure "effectively matching" the year-ago month for the first time in more than a year, the group said. International RPKs fell 0.9% but capacity was cut 6.1%, boosting load factor 4.1 points to 76.4%. The 6.5% year-over-year decline in FTKs was the smallest this year, AAPA said. Freight capacity was down 11.2% and load factor climbed 3.4 points to 68.7%.
Airbus said EASA certified brake-to-vacate and runway overrun warning and protection systems for the A380. BTV and ROW/ROP were trialed on the aircraft for the first time in May 2008 and will be added to the first A380s delivered to Air France and Lufthansa.
The Japanese government and Japan Airlines reportedly will unveil a new turnaround plan for the troubled carrier later this week that will include slashing 13,000 jobs and giving a new government-backed agency control over JAL's restructuring process.
Southwest Airlines revealed in a regulatory filing that it has settled a shareholder lawsuit related to safety issues for $3.5 million. The lawsuit stemmed from SWA's $7.5 million fine paid to US FAA for operating 46 737 Classics for nine days in March 2007 after it had disclosed to the agency that the aircraft were in noncompliance with an airworthiness directive ( ATWOnline, March 3).
Czech government rejected the CZK1 billion ($57.8 million) bid for CSA Czech Airlines from Unimex and Travel Service ( ATWOnline, Aug. 20). "There will be a hard restructuring, namely to the expense side," Prime Minister Jan Fischer told reporters, according to Dow Jones.
Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings reported third-quarter net income of $14.7 million, a nearly threefold increase over $5.2 million earned in the year-ago period and its third quarter of strong earnings growth this year.
FAA has talked a great deal about transitioning to a satellite-based NextGen ATC system, which would allow carriers to use RNP procedures supported by ADS-B and other technology to operate more direct flight paths, increasing system efficiency and reducing airline fleets' fuel burn and carbon dioxide emissions. But the US Congress repeatedly has stalled trying to determine how the $45-$75 billion transition to NextGen will be funded.
Describing the current situation as "unsustainable," Iberia's board last week approved a strategic plan that includes creation of a new short/medium-haul carrier, long-haul expansion (mainly to/from Latin America.), an additional €37 million ($55.5 million) annual reduction in overhead costs over the next two years and a "radical" change of approach designed to generate more revenue.
Brussels Airlines is "set and ready" to enter the Star Alliance, with the formal accession scheduled for Dec. 9 in Brussels, MD Bernard Gustin told ATWOnline last week. "We performed out last IT tests yesterday in Frankfurt and we expect a green light," he said. "When we were formally invited to join Star Alliance in December in Chicago, I was cautious and expected the integration could take between 12 and 18 months. We did it in less than a year." Lufthansa, a 45% shareholder in the carrier, assisted SN with the integration.
Air Astana is expecting a record profit this year, surpassing the $35 million earned in 2007, thanks to cost-cutting measures implemented before the global economic crisis hit both the airline and Kazakhstan last autumn. "KC was very affected. Our traffic collapsed. But all this happened during a time when KC's cost-cutting program already was in progress," President Peter Foster told ATWOnline last week in Almaty. Astana cut capacity by 33% compared to 2008 and it faces a 15% decline in revenue.
