Turkish Airlines reported a TRY374 million ($253.8 million) profit in the third quarter, a 7% drop from the year-ago period but a result that the airline said recovered some of the ground lost during the first half of 2009. Third-quarter revenue rose 17% to TRY2.89 billion and THY's operating profit soared 51% to TRY454 million.
Indian airlines carried 4 million passengers in October, up 26.7% from the year-ago month. Passenger traffic through the year's first 10 months rose 3.3% year-over-year to 36 million. Market share was divided as follows: Jet Airways and JetLite 27.7%, Kingfisher Airlines 20.7%, Air India 18.6%, IndiGo 13.6%, SpiceJet 12.4%. Finnair flew 1.72 billion RPKs in October, a 12.3% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 12.9% to 2.18 billion ASKs and load factor was up 0.5 point to 78.7%.
Continental Airlines will issue $644.4 million in equipment notes to finance eight Boeing aircraft already in operation and 11 planes scheduled for delivery in January-June 2010, it said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Finnair said negotiations with Finnair Catering employees represented by the Finnish Aviation Union have failed to produce the required €5 million ($7.5 million) in savings and that 60 employees now will be made redundant in a "first stage." Afterward, "a reorganization of operations will be considered to achieve additional savings, and a review of structural solutions will be initiated," the airline said. Catering employs some 650 people. The carrier said it also is exploring solutions with its Northport ground handling subsidiary and Finnair Cargo Operations.
S7 Airlines this week dismissed rumors that surface regularly in the Russian media that it will be absorbed by Aeroflot and confirmed that it is on track to join oneworld in November 2010. "I'm sure Aeroflot would like to acquire us and our network, but we are not for sale," Credit Risk and Alliance Manager Ilya Alexandrovskiy stressed to ATWOnline at the Mexicana oneworld joining event in Mexico City. S7, which was technically bankrupt in February but since has restructured its debt, is "operational in excellent shape," Alexandrovskiy added.
RwandAir CRJ100ER struck a building at Kigali Airport after landing yesterday, killing one of the 10 passengers onboard. According to the Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network, the aircraft departed KGL bound for Entebbe but turned around 2 min. after takeoff "because of unspecified technical problems." It landed safely and taxied to its parking spot in front of an airport lounge, at which point the engines still were at "100% power," according to the RwandAir COO. The CRJ moved forward, knocking over fences and hitting the concrete wall of the building.
Indian government will offer financial aid to Air India if the airline is able to realize INR20 billion ($429.8 million) in cost cuts and revenue increases by March, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told reporters yesterday. "We are talking of an equity infusion. We are broadly looking at an equity infusion linked to monthly performance parameters. We are only looking at it until March," Patel said, according to reports. "This is not the total equity infusion which is being looked at for Air India.
TAM reported third-quarter net income of BRL213.2 million ($124.2 million), reversed from a loss of BRL465.5 million in the year-ago period, citing "a strong recovery" in domestic demand and lower fuel costs. It said domestic demand surged 26% year-over-year as the country's economy improved and business passengers returned. Fuel expenses lowered 36.5%. It noted that 39% of its revenue and 40%-50% of its costs are linked to foreign currencies, meaning that the real's resurgence against the US dollar (10% improvement in the quarter) had "minimal" overall impact.
Republic Airway Holdings, wooed by some $27 million in tax credits offered by the state of Wisconsin, will pack up and move its heavy maintenance and some administrative jobs from Denver to Milwaukee.
Air India lost INR55.48 billion ($1.19 billion) in the fiscal year ended March 31, more than double the INR22.26 billion deficit suffered in the prior year, the carrier announced yesterday.
American Airlines and Delta Air Lines each continue to express a strong interest in financially troubled Japan Airlines, which reportedly is negotiating a ¥100 billion ($1.1 billion) short-term bridge loan with the Development Bank of Japan to fortify its cash position as it develops a longer-term restructuring plan.
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%.
