Japan Airlines parent JAL Group reported net income for its fiscal first half ended Sept. 30 of ¥36.6 billion ($373.4 million), a more than fivefold increase from ¥7.3 billion in the year-ago period, crediting aircraft downsizing, route restructuring, cost cutting and new premium product strategies on international routes.
JetBlue Airways flew an E-190 being used by Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign from Anchorage to Buffalo last Thursday, a 2,694-nm. repositioning flight the carrier claimed was a record for the aircraft type, according to a message to employees cited by USA Today. Flight took 6 hr. 11 min. Its longest regularly scheduled 190 flight is a 1,476-nm. Boston-Austin. JetBlue flew 1.88 billion RPMs in October, down 5.4% from the year-ago month. Capacity dropped 11.1% to 2.33 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 4.8 points to 80.7%.
United Airlines canceled a planned 100% increase on the one-way fee for a second checked bag on domestic flights (it will remain $25) and said it will offer a 20% discount on the $15 first-bag fee if paid on UA's website between Nov. 10 and Jan. 31. Customers also will be able to purchase premium economy seats with 5-in. extra legroom and a $9 loyalty point program "accelerator" on the website beginning Nov. 10.
Delta Air Lines flew 9.93 billion system RPMs in October, down 2.2% from the year-ago month. Capacity dropped 4.7% to 12.17 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 2 points to 81.6%. Northwest Airlines flew 6.38 billion system RPMs in October, a 1.4% decrease from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 2% to 7.57 billion ASMs and load factor was up 0.5 point to 84.3%. SkyEurope Airlines transported 304,669 passengers in October, down 10.1% year-over-year. Load factor declined 6.8 points to 68%.
Pinnacle Airlines and Colgan Air parent Pinnacle Airlines Corp. reported a $7.7 million third-quarter profit, down 29.2% from the $10.9 million earned in the year-ago period, on a 7.8% rise in operating revenue to $221.8 million. Expenses grew 5.8% year-over-year to $201.8 million and operating income climbed 33.3% to $20 million from $15 million in the 2007 third quarter. Pinnacle Airlines' income was $12 million, down 24.5% year-over-year, while Colgan's operating result swung to an $8 million profit from a $900,000 loss in the year-ago quarter.
Lufthansa Technik reached a 15-year deal with Norwegian to provide MRO on more than 100 CFM56-7Bs. Agreement is LHT's biggest engine service contract in Scandinavia to date, covering engines on 53 737NGs as well as seven spares. Work will take place at LHT's Hamburg shop, which is under construction.
Air Wisconsin, which operates 70 CRJ200s as US Airways Express, said it provided a $35 million, 12-month loan to US. Another Express operator, Republic Airways Holdings, provided a similar loan as part of a $950 million liquidity package that US announced last month ( ATWOnline, Oct. 24). Air Wisconsin said the loan includes optional monthly extensions totaling an additional 12 months.
Cathay Pacific Airways issued a stock market alert warning that its full-year result will be "disappointing" despite falling fuel prices. CX said in its statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that "weakness in revenue and losses on certain fuel hedging contracts" would "affect the year's results adversely." It lost HK$663 million ($85.5 million) in the first half of 2008 ( ATWOnline, Aug. 7) after reporting a HK$7.02 billion profit last year.
AerCap Holdings, the Amsterdam-based operating lessor, has "suspended all future Capex other than existing contracted Capex with Airbus" and is reducing headcount by around 15% as it seeks to adjust to the impact of the ongoing credit crunch and airline traffic downturn. The company also is "in active discussions" to sell minority stakes in parts of its portfolio.
Greek Ministry of Transport and Communications announced the companies interested in bidding for some or all of Olympic Airlines, which the government intends to split and sell by year end. Interested in Olympic's flight operations are Athens Airways, Kuwait's Fouad El Ghanim Group, Italy's MyAir, Qatar Airways, SkyEurope Airlines and US charter services Chrysler Aviation and SkyOne. Interested in OA's ground handling division are Athens Airways, Greek construction firm Ellaktor, Fouad El Ghanim, Goldair, Hellenic Cargo Group and Swissport.
Ameco Beijing, the joint venture between Air China (60%) and Lufthansa (40%), announced deals with Jet2.com and Astraeus Airlines to provide MRO on RB211-535E4 engines (two for Astraeus and one for Jet2).
Boeing predicted this week that world air cargo traffic will grow 5.8% annually over the next 20 years, down slightly from the 6.1% rate it projected in previous forecasts. Its newly released "2008/2009 World Cargo Forecast" said worldwide airfreight traffic will triple by 2027 and that "current near-term market weakness and worldwide economic uncertainty" won't significantly affect long-term demand. "The industry has shown strong recoveries from previous economic downturns such as the Asian economic crisis, the 9/11 attacks and the SARS outbreak," it said.
Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, parent of Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo, posted third-quarter net income of $5.2 million, down 84% from $32.4 million in the year ago period. It blamed the drop on fuel costs and "soft demand." President and CEO William Flynn noted that Polar becoming a DHL contract carrier last month will lead to "significant earnings improvement" in 2009 by "de-risking our business model."
Compagnia Aerea Italia's binding offer for Alitalia is worth €1 billion ($1.29 billion), the airline said in a statement to the country's stock market regulator, and comprises €900 million for AZ's flight operation, assets and contracts, €57 million for Alitalia Servizi, €7 million for Alitalia Airport, €19 million for Alitalia Express and €17 million for low-cost subsidiary Volare. The €900 million for AZ comprises €275 million cash and €625 million to assume the carrier's debts.
Kingfisher Airlines defaulted on rental payments for four A320s on lease from GECAS, which complained to India's Directorate General for Civil Aviation and is seeking to repossess the aircraft.
Air Mauritius lost €13.4 million ($17.3 million) in the fiscal first half ended Sept. 30, reversed from a €2.5 million profit in the year-ago semester. Revenue rose 8.5% year-over-year to €216.1 million but the airline said it could not overcome a 17.5% increase in operating costs driven by a 49% surge in fuel expenses. It said it was able to reduce nonfuel costs through schedule and capacity adjustments. Passenger numbers fell 2.7% to 596,587 and load factor slipped 3 points to 75.3%.
Singapore Airlines reported a S$323.8 million ($219.4 million) profit in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, a 32.6% decrease from the S$507.8 million earned in the year-ago period, as fuel costs took their toll. SIA said the global "financial turmoil" and "weak consumer confidence" have impacted demand, and while advance bookings in the current quarter "are holding up reasonably well," it sees "signs of weakness beyond that." Nevertheless, it said its "sound finances and low level of debt put it in a position of strength."
Wataniya Airways is on track to launch its all-premium A320 flights in January and said it will have four aircraft operating next year and up to seven by the end of 2010 ( ATWOnline, July 8). The Kuwaiti carrier will lease three aircraft from ALAFCO, three from AerCap and one from ILFC, CEO George Cooper told Reuters. It has committed $250-$300 million for the leases. Qatar Airways also has plans to operate all-business-class service in the region.
ExpressJet Holdings finished what President and CEO Jim Ream called a third quarter "of transition" with a $4.8 million loss, narrowed from a $22.3 million deficit in the year-ago period.
Volga-Dnepr Group announced a 75% year-over-year increase in sales for the first nine months of 2008, with revenue from its charter and scheduled cargo services reaching $1.27 billion. Freight carried jumped 51% to 210,000 tons while charter sales were up 80% to $882.9 million. AirBridge Cargo's scheduled flights brought in $344.1 million in revenue, up 68% from the first nine months of 2007. The group operates An-124-100s (10) and Il-76TDs (12 including two Il-76TD-90VDs) in charter services as Volga-Dnepr Airlines and 747Fs (seven) in scheduled flights as AirBridge.
Bmi will discontinue long-haul operations from Manchester next year and transfer the two A330s currently based at MAN to London Heathrow ( ATWOnline, Nov. 4). It will stop flying from MAN to Chicago O'Hare on Jan. 14 and to Las Vegas, Barbados and Antigua following the mid-April Easter holiday. "Long-haul services from Manchester have never performed to the levels that we had hoped and we see little prospect of change or improvements in their performance," bmi CEO Nigel Turner said.
SkyWest Inc., parent of SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, reported third-quarter net income of $26.2 million, down 38.9% from $42.9 million in the year-ago period, as it contended with capacity cuts driven by airline partners reducing flight schedules. Midwest Airlines, for example, modified its agreement with SkyWest to reduce CRJ200s operated by the regional on Midwest Connect flights from 21 to 12.
Air Berlin partner LGW, which is based at Dortmund, will begin operating the first of 10 new 76-seat Q400s on Dusseldorf-Stuttgart on Nov. 10 and Dusseldorf-Sylt the following day. Q400s will replace all A319/A320 services on DUS-Hamburg from Dec. 7, DUS-Stuttgart from Dec. 10 and DUS Nuremberg from Dec. 28.
SAS Group's third quarter, which was blackened by the August Spanair MD-82 accident in Madrid that claimed 154 lives, ended with a SEK2.01 billion ($260 million) net loss that represented a reversal from the year-ago period's SEK701 million profit and largely was due to a SEK1.96 billion goodwill impairment at the Spanish subsidiary.
International Aviation Club will feature Los Angeles World Airports Executive Director Gina Marie Lindsey as its guest speaker at its monthly luncheon on Nov. 19 at the Grand Hyatt in Washington. Additional information is available at www.iacwashington.org.
