Emirates President Tim Clark is upbeat about the airline's future despite the financial challenges facing Dubai that came to light last week, when the emirate announced it would seek to delay debt payments owed by Dubai World, the government's primary investment company.
El Al reported a $12.3 million third-quarter profit, down 60.3% from the $31 million earned in the year-ago period, on an 18% fall in revenue to $496.1 million caused largely by lower yields and the rising US dollar. CEO Haim Romano said the net result is "indicative of [El Al's] ability to weather the global financial crisis." Operating expenses declined 15% to $400.7 million as fuel prices fell, and operating profit slipped 53.4% to $23.8 million from $51.1 million in the 2008 third quarter. Passenger numbers climbed 7% year-over-year.
Edward Stimpson, who retired as chairman of the Flight Safety Foundation on Nov. 1, died Nov. 25 of cancer. He was 75. Before joining FSF he served as US ambassador to the ICAO Council for five years. Prior to his 1999 nomination to the Council, he spent 25 years as president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Assn. and is associated closely with the 1994 passage of the General Aviation Revitalization Act, widely seen as helping to revive that segment of the industry.
Malaysia Airlines returned to the red in the third quarter, reporting a MYR298.9 million ($88.2 million) loss that represented a reversal from the restated MYR38.6 million surplus earned in the year-ago period and its second deficit in three quarters this year. A precipitous 26.8% year-over-year plunge in operating revenue to MYR2.89 billion, plus a MYR202.1 million loss on fuel hedges, proved too much for MAS to overcome. Nevertheless, MD and CEO Azmil Zahruddin said that "fuel prices are on an upward trend [and] hedging is the right policy as fuel prices remain volatile."
Australia's Regional Express posted net income of A$3.7 million ($3.4 million) for its fiscal first quarter ended Sept. 30, down 22.9% from a A$4.8 million profit in the year ago period, blaming the decline on one-time restructuring costs incurred by its charter subsidiaries and the "global financial crisis."
Air Slovakia will wet-lease five aircraft to Albanian Airlines for one year and will "assist [Albanian] to develop its operational capabilities in its efforts to operate scheduled services and become the leading airline of the region." Air Slovakia operates 737s and 757s while Albanian has BAe 146s and MD-82s, according to its website.
Engine Alliance named Mary Ellen Jones president succeeding Jim Moravecek, who will return to Pratt & Whitney. Jones led Pratt's Commercial Engines & Global Services Marketing division.
Shunfeng Airlines, which will be China's first express delivery cargo airline, has been approved by CAAC. The carrier was established by delivery company Shunfeng Express and has registered capital of CNY100 million ($14.6 million), according to the regulator. Shenzhen Taihai Investment Co. will hold a 75% stake and Shunfeng Express the remainder. The new venture will be based in Shenzhen and is expected to operate two 757-200s initially.
Singapore Airlines flew 7.28 billion RPKs in October, down 6% from the year-ago month, against a 10.3% cut in capacity to 8.98 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 3.6 points to 81.1%. Swiss International Air Lines flew 2.5 billion RPKs in August, a 0.2% fall year-over-year. Capacity dropped 5.1% to 2.9 billion ASKs and load factor rose 4.2 points to 86.2%. Austrian Airlines flew 1.52 billion RPKs last month, an 8.5% reduction year-over-year, against an 11.8% decline in capacity to 1.94 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 2.8 points to 78.2%.
PACE signed an agreement with Airbus Operations Germany to develop a software solution for streamlining configuration of its passenger cabin maintenance manuals.
Bmi yesterday outlined a major restructuring of its mainline and regional operations, including suspension of unprofitable routes, reduction of its mainline fleet by nine aircraft to 30 and around 600 fulltime job cuts. The manpower reductions equate to approximately 13.5% of bmi's workforce of 4,470 and will impact all areas of the business. "Further job cuts cannot be ruled out," the airline warned. The moves follow the bmibaby shakeup announced three weeks ago ( ATWOnline, Nov. 5).
Delta Air Lines intends to raise $688.7 million through the sale of pass-through certificates in two classes with annual interest rates of 7.75% and 9.75% respectively. The notes are backed by 27 Boeing aircraft, with proceeds going toward refinancing 22 aircraft DL currently operates and payments on an additional five aircraft delivered this year, it said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Ryanair will set up its 37th base, and first in Norway, at Oslo Rygge in March with three aircraft and 16 new routes, it announced yesterday. It currently service six destinations from RYG. New destinations will be Aarhus, Berlin Schonefeld, Dublin, Dusseldorf Weeze, Eindhoven, Gdansk, Krakow, La Rochelle, Malaga, Memmingen, Palma, Paris Beauvais, Riga, Wroclaw, Valencia and Treviso. The LCC said its investment at the airport will exceed $200 million and that it eventually expects to serve 1.7 million passengers per year.
Qantas dismissed rumors out of London that it is interested in restarting merger talks with British Airways, stating yesterday that "consolidation is not on the carrier's agenda."
Japan Airlines yesterday said it reached agreement with the Development Bank of Japan for an emergency bridge loan "necessary for continuance of our flight operations." The troubled airline said the Japanese government had approved the loan. JAL did not reveal the loan's amount but Japanese media pegged it at around ¥100 billion ($1.12 billion).
Spring Airlines expects to report a CNY120 million ($17.5 million) net profit for 2009, a sixfold increase from the CNY20 million earned last year, according to the Chairman Wang Zhenghua. The Shanghai Hongqiao-based LCC was CNY140 million in the black through September owing to rapid growth in the domestic market, "but the fourth quarter is the traditional low season, so it's not surprising that we are suffering from a daily loss of CNY600,000 this month," Wang noted. Spring is planning a dramatic fleet expansion.
AirAsia's growth continued unabated in the third quarter despite the recession, as the LCC posted a MYR130.1 million ($38.4 million) profit that represented a reversal from the MYR465.5 million loss suffered in the year-ago period.
US Airways yesterday announced that it is deferring 54 of the 72 aircraft it was scheduled to receive from Airbus in 2010-12, comprising 46 A320s and eight A330s, and will push back the launch of its A350 service from 2015 to 2017.
Blue Wings 48% shareholder Alexander Lebedev is preparing to transfer his stake to Aeroflot, German daily Handelsblatt reported, adding that he hopes to generate €100million ($148.6 million) from the sale of his shares.
Gulf Air plans to add regional aircraft and more A320s while downsizing its widebody fleet, including selling its five A340s, as part of a three-year "realignment program" aimed at making the unprofitable carrier a "commercially sustainable business" by 2012, it announced yesterday.
Eurofly and Meridiana will merge into Meridiana Fly, the Italian carriers confirmed last week. Meridiana already owns 60.7% of Eurofly. The new airline will focus on medium- and long-haul services while "peak" summer and winter short-haul and charter operations will be handled by a newly incorporated company called Meridiana Express that will be part of Meridiana Fly. Deadline for the integration is Jan. 31.
Japan Airlines President Haruka Nishimatsu yesterday told former employees that the company's pension benefits must be cut significantly to enable it to become sustainable long-term.
Air Berlin said it is seeking to recruit 700 flight attendants and 120 pilots. The new employees would be based in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Munster/Osnabruck, Nuremberg, Paderborn-Lippstadt and Stuttgart in Germany as well as Basel/Muhlhausen and Zurich in Switzerland, AB said. It currently operates 129 aircraft. It has retired all of its 737 Classics and plans to ground two 757s and one 767-300ER by the end of January.
Oxford Aviation Academy signed a five-year agreement with Icelandair for provision of simulator training for 757s and 767s as well as Dash 8-100/-300 training for Air Iceland.
