US Airways President Scott Kirby said in a Monday conference call with investors that March ticket revenue has improved over the first two months of 2009 and that the carrier has "been cautiously optimistic the last couple of weeks" even though leisure fares are falling. Demand is stable and ancillary revenue initiatives are mitigating the impact of falling yields, he said. CFO Derek Kerr said US has arranged financing for 20 of the 25 deliveries scheduled for this year, excluding five A330s.
Air New Zealand will incorporate fuel surcharges into all fares from March 30 as a lure for travel agents to book clients on the carrier. The practice of excluding surcharges, which have been substantial, has caused significant rifts between travel agents and airlines around the globe. ANZ GM-Australia John Harrison said he expects the decision to have a "positive effect" on sales.
Shanghai Airlines is expecting a "difficult" 2009, although a turnaround is possible if it can maintain its passenger load factor of 72% and the airline industry shows signs of recovery in April or May, Chairman Zhou Chi said. SAL announced in January that it expects to report loss for 2008. In response, it announced a 20% cut in senior management salaries and said it would not lay off any employees.
Air Berlin and TUIfly confirmed that they are in discussions regarding a long-awaited alliance. AB said yesterday that negotiations regarding a cross-shareholding with the TUI Travel subsidiary are well under way ( ATWOnline, Oct. 14, 2008), while a TUI spokesperson in Hanover told ATWOnline that talks are in an advanced stage.
Lufthansa Group's summer capacity will be up 0.6% year-over-year owing to Lufthansa Italia, which will compensate for a 0.5% reduction on the rest of the network ( ATWOnline, March 5). The March 29-Oct. 24 summer schedule will feature 14,038 weekly flights to 206 destinations. European capacity will rise 1.5% and intercontinental ASKs will climb 0.2% owing to the addition of 22 additional economy seats on LH's 747-400s.
Honeywell said Qantas received approval from Australia's CASA to use the Honeywell SmartPath Ground-Based Augmentation System at Sydney for satellite-based landings on QF's A380s. The airline previously had been approved to fly GBAS approaches with its 737s, recording more than 1,600 GBAS landings at Sydney to date.
Singapore Airlines reported a record decline in passengers for February, a 20.2% year-over-year plunge to 1.2 million. RPKs fell 17% to 5.86 billion against just an 8.5% cut in capacity to 8.41 billion ASKs, lowering load factor 7.1 points to 69.7%. Cargo declined 15.2% to 473.7 million FTKs on a 7% fall in capacity to 835.1 million ATKs, dropping load factor 5.5 points to 56.7%.
East Star Airlines was forced to suspend operations Sunday by CAAC owing to its heavy debt burden and the collapse of a stake sale deal with Air China parent CNAC. It is the second privately held Chinese carrier to suspend service in recent months. Okay Airways stopped flying in December ( ATWOnline, Jan. 19) but resumed operations the following month ( ATWOnline, Jan. 26).
SAS Group shareholders last Friday approved a rights issue expected to raise up to SEK6.06 billion ($704.9 million) before costs, in which each share held on March 18 will entitle the holder to subscribe to 14 new shares at SEK2.63 each. The company's share capital was reduced by SEK1.23 billion without redemption of shares "in order to enable and facilitate the rights issue," it said ( ATWOnline, Feb. 4).
Ryanair will reduce its operation at Dublin further from July in "response to the decision of the government-owned Irish Aviation Authority to increase ATC charges by 12% this summer, at more than 12 times the rate of inflation," the LCC said. It announced an initial cut at DUB last month and said Ireland's €10 ($12.92) passenger tax "and other government price hikes" contributed to a 12% fall in passengers at the airport in February ( ATWOnline, March 6).
Lufthansa said yesterday that it plans to implement short-time work for approximately 1,000 ground employees as an additional measure to counter falling passenger numbers. The reductions will not take place at its Frankfurt or Munich hubs and will affect those "mostly employed in service and support functions." The group transported 4.7 million passengers in February, down 9.3% year-over-year.
Emirates dismissed reports that the A380 has a laundry list of problems that have kept the jet grounded numerous times for repairs. Germany's Der Spiegel claimed over the weekend that the airline, the A380's largest customer, delivered a 46-page list of problems to Airbus that required rectification.
Indian airlines carried 3.3 million passengers on scheduled flights last month, about level with January. Kingfisher Airlines led with 904,000 (27.1% market share, 74.3% load factor), followed by Jet Airways at 597,000 (17.9%, 68.7%) and Air India at 574,000 (17.2%, 66.3%). Iberia flew 3.66 billion RPKs in February, down 10.7% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 7.6% to 4.79 billion ASKs and load factor slipped 2.7 points to 76.4%.
Delta Air Lines Executive VP-Human Resources and Labor Relations Mike Campbell said in a merger update sent to employees yesterday that "seniority integration has already been resolved for pilots, dispatchers, AMTs and meteorologists" and that progress is being made on "a fair and equitable integration for flight attendants." If Northwest Airlines flight attendants agree to recommendations made by their DL counterparts last week, "we would have seniority integration issues resolved for the vast majority of our combined employee groups," he said.
Airports Council International-Europe said it was "alarmed" by the European Commission's proposal for a temporary freeze of the 80/20 slot rule during the upcoming summer schedule, which would allow airlines to reduce capacity while retaining historic rights to slots at coordinated EU airports ( ATWOnline, March 11).
Air New Zealand endorsed a government proposal to subsidize one work day over a two-week period to help national businesses through the economic downturn. CEO Rob Fyfe said ANZ would embrace the aid if it is forced to reduce capacity further and consider redundancies ( ATWOnline, Feb. 27).
Shanghai Airlines Chairman Zhou Chi told a shareholders meeting last week that the 787 does not "fully meet the quality that Boeing touted earlier" and said the carrier is considering cancelling and/or postponing some or all of its nine Dreamliner orders, according to Bloomberg News.
Finnair said it will furlough about 700 pilots for at least one week each beginning in the middle of next month as part of a €30 million ($38.4 million) cost-savings program in the company's flight operations division. Length of leave will depend on aircraft type. Finnair Catering also will place employees on unpaid leave of two weeks to three months as part of a €3.9 million cost-cutting initiative ( ATWOnline, Feb. 6).
MNG Technic won a tender issued by the Turkish airports authority for construction of a new MRO hangar at Istanbul Ataturk. The 64,000-sq.-m. facility will be built in four phases. Construction of the 16,000-sq.-m. first phase will begin "as soon as possible," MNG said. The company provides line and heavy maintenance at its IST base and line maintenance services at airports in Istanbul and Antalya.
China Southern Airlines expects to its 2008 net loss to be worse than previously expected owing largely to its decision to retire older aircraft whose value continues to decrease in the current economic downturn. It said in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange that the impairment "will, to some extent, have a negative impact on the 2008 financial results of the company."
Austrian Airlines Group executive board members Andreas Bierwirth and Peter Malanik said Friday in Vienna that the company does "not have enough reserves to get through the crisis" that helped push it to a €429.5 million ($550.3 million) loss in 2008, a reversal from the €3.3 million profit in 2007 and the worst result in its history.
Lufthansa Group airlines flew 9.83 billion RPKs in February, a 9.8% drop from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 5.7% to 13.63 billion ASKs and load factor slipped 3.3 points to 72.1%.
ALTA member airlines carried 10.6 million passengers in January, up 5.8% from the year-ago month, fueled by strong domestic and Latin American traffic that offset weaker demand to the US and Europe. RPKs rose 3.2% to 15.79 billion against a 4% increase in capacity to 21.58 billion, lowering load factor 0.5 point to 73.1%. US Airways said February consolidated passenger RASM fell 9%-11% year-over-year, although total RASM dropped just 5%-7% thanks to a la carte revenue initiatives. It flew 4.19 billion consolidated RPMs, down 9.3%, against a 9% drop in ASMs to 5.48 billion.
