An Aviastar BAe 146-300 en route to Wamena from Jayapura crashed into a mountainside on approach yesterday morning, killing all six aboard. The aircraft reportedly was ferrying food and supplies and was not transporting passengers. According to Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network, those onboard comprised a captain, copilot, engineer, loadmaster and two flight attendants.
Owing to a strong rebound in the domestic market and the continuing decrease in domestic fuel prices, Chinese carriers are expected to report a collective first-quarter profit, according to CAAC Minister Li Jiaxiang. Li noted that "favorable policies" implemented in December were effective in combating declining domestic demand and stimulating growth. Among those initiatives were the decision to withhold approval for new entrants until 2010 and the call for airlines to cancel or delay aircraft orders, as well as fee reductions and infrastructure improvements.
Turkish Airlines yesterday said it achieved a net profit of $874 million in 2008, which would represent a nearly fourfold increase from the $224 million reported in 2007, on increasing revenue and traffic.
Former LTU owner Hans Rudolf Woehrl said he is entertaining the idea of reacquiring the Air Berlin subsidiary, which AB CEO Joachim Hunold said last month is being considered for divestment ( ATWOnline, March 16). Speaking to Handelsblatt, Woerhl said airline acquisition "is part of our business, and we were always very successful there," Reuters reported.
Atlantic Airways reported a 2008 net profit of DKK15.3 million ($2.7 million), down 35.7% from DKK23.8 million in 2007, as passenger numbers jumped 65% to 593,113. The Faroe Islands-based carrier, which marked its 20th year in 2008, saw revenue rise 1.5% to DKK546.8 million. It projected a "reduction in activity" in 2009 owing to the economic downturn.
ILFC, which last month admitted that it needed "additional support" owing to its lack of access to financing as a unit of American International Group, reportedly is close to reaching agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to obtain a $5 billion line of credit that will help facilitate its sale.
China Southern Airlines yesterday became the first Chinese carrier to offer mobile check-in, another innovative step for the airline that sold the country's first e-ticket in 2000 and introduced the first common-use self-service kiosk in 2005 and the country's first online check-in option in 2006.
Air France KLM said it suffered a "significant deterioration" in March unit revenue. The group flew 16.02 billion RPKs during the month, down 9.4% year-over-year, against a 2.9% fall in capacity to 21.21 billion ASKs. Load factor dropped 5.5 points to 75.5%. United Airlines flew 9.58 consolidated RPMs in March, a 13.6% drop year-over-year. Capacity fell 9.9% to 12.18 billion ASMs and load factor was down 3.3 points to 78.7%.
Brussels Airlines reported a €12.2 million ($16.3 million) net loss for last year, a reversal from the €23.1 million profit earned in 2007, owing largely to mark-to-market fuel hedging losses.
TNT said its Express unit's international air volumes were down 23% year-over-year in the first quarter but overall international volumes "stabilized" as the quarter went on. Despite steep declines in the early part of the quarter, later leveling-out led the express giant to predict yesterday that it will report "positive" operating income when it releases its results on May 4.
SAS Group said its rights issue authorized last month ended up oversubscribed by 23.3%, ensuring that the company will receive some SEK6 billion ($734.8 million) in proceeds before transaction costs ( ATWOnline, March 17). "We are pleased that our shareholders, as well as new investors, have shown their confidence in and support for SAS and our new strategy, Core SAS," President and CEO Mats Jansson said ( ATWOnline, March 27).
Alaska Airlines flew 1.56 billion RPMs in March, down 8.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 9% to 1.91 billion ASMs and load factor was up 0.8 point to 81.6%. Allegiant Air flew 468.5 million RPMs in March, up 19.1% year-over-year. Capacity rose 17.3% to 507.9 million ASMs and load factor lifted 1.5 points to 92.3%.
GKN Aerospace broke ground yesterday on a manufacturing facility at Bristol. The new site, known as Filton-West, will be under the management of the recently acquired GKN Aerospace (the former Airbus Filton facility) and will house an automated composites manufacturing operation that will incorporate production techniques "that represent the future of composites manufacture in aviation," GKN said. Starting in January the plant will manufacture wing spars and trailing edge assemblies for the A350.
Southwest Airlines will launch its New York LaGuardia service on June 28 with five daily flights to Chicago Midway and thrice-daily service to Baltimore, the LCC announced yesterday ( ATWOnline, Dec. 3, 2008).
Qantas Executive GM John Borghetti announced his resignation effective May 4, completing the management shakeup that included the elimination of 90 senior positions last month ( ATWOnline, March 26). Borghetti had been a contender for the Qantas Group CEO position along with former CFO Peter Gregg. The job eventually went to former Jetstar Airways CEO Alan Joyce and Gregg resigned last summer ( ATWOnline, Aug. 20, 2008).
Finmeccanica subsidiary Alenia Aeronautica completed the acquisition of a 25%-plus-one-share stake in Sukhoi Civil Aircraft. Price was not disclosed. Alenia is a partner in the development of the Superjet 100. It said the aircraft has received 98 orders and is due to be certified and delivered to launch customer Aeroflot by year end.
Mesa Air Group agreed to sell its stake in Kunpeng Airlines, its regional joint venture with Shenzhen Airlines. Mesa said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it will sell its share to Shenzhen or its nominee and terminate the lease of five CRJ200s to Kunpeng for $4.5 million, minus $900,000 in returned security deposits. Mesa announced its intention to end its 44% participation in the JV last summer and said it expects the aircraft to be returned this month ( ATWOnline, Aug. 20, 2008).
Blue Wings, a Dusseldorf-based scheduled and charter carrier that suspended operations on April 1 after the authorities revoked its operating license, plans to re-launch full service Friday.
BOC Aviation announced a sale/leaseback transaction with Southwest Airlines covering six 737-700s that will be leased back to the carrier for 14 years each. The first tranche of three aircraft closed April 2 and the second is scheduled to close in the current quarter. The lessor closed a similar deal with SWA in January covering 10 aircraft ( ATWOnline, Jan. 15).
Delta Air Lines, including its Northwest Airlines subsidiary, flew 15.6 billion system RPMs in March, a 12.6% decrease from the year-ago month. Capacity was down 7.9% to 19.39 billion ASMs and load factor fell 4.4 points to 80.5%. JetBlue Airways said preliminary passenger RASM fell 12% in March. It flew 2.25 billion RPMs during the month, down 8.5% year-over-year, against a 5.6% fall in capacity to 2.83 billion ASMs. Load factor dropped 2.5 points to 79.3%.
EasyJet Chairman Colin Chandler will resign effective July 1 and be replaced on an interim basis by Senior Independent Director David Michels, the LCC announced. Chandler has held the post since 2002. British Telecom Chairman Michael Rake was named deputy chairman and will join the easyJet board prior to Chandler's departure.
China Airlines announced a net loss of TWD32.35 billion ($968.9 million) for 2008, widened sharply from the $77.5 million deficit reported in 2007. Operating loss of TWD10.21 billion compared to $41.54 million the prior year. CI said fuel costs climbed 45% during the first three quarters of 2008 and falling demand offset declining fuel costs in the fourth. The company lost TWD21.05 billion on its fuel hedges.
US Export-Import Bank announced approval of some $1.08 billion in financing to support the delivery of up to 30 737-900ERs to Indonesia's Lion Air. The financing comprises $238 million in a first stage and a nonbinding preliminary commitment of $841 million. Ex-Im Bank said the transactions were its first in support of the -900ER.
