US FAA tentatively determined that Los Angeles International may have acted illegally in providing more than $40 million to the city's convention and visitors bureau, L.A. Inc., the Los Angeles Times reported. Funds were given to the tourism promotional office over a period dating back to 2002. US law allows advertising or marketing efforts aimed at increasing travel at a particular airport but forbids spending on general promotion of local tourist attractions. FAA could require that the money be returned or could seek civil penalties of up to $50,000 from LAX.
AirAsia majority shareholder Tune Air, which holds 30.9% of the LCC, said in a statement to Bursa Malaysia that it is "considering" privatizing the airline at an indicative price of approximately MYR1.35 ($0.39) per share, according to press reports. AirAsia has 2.36 billion shares outstanding, according to its website. Separately, the carrier this week retired the final 737-300 used on its Malaysian network. It now operates A320s on those routes. The company has 175 firm A320s on order plus 50 options and currently operates 42 in Malaysia, seven in Thailand and one in Indonesia.
SEPLA, representing Iberia pilots, and the British Airline Pilots Assn., representing British Airways pilots, said yesterday at a joint news conference in Madrid that they support a BA/IB merger. Union leaders said the combination would generate more than $560 million in combined cost savings and revenue enhancements annually. Last month the respective unions signed a bilateral agreement in anticipation of the proposed merger in which they pledged to work together.
Air France will abandon its daily London Heathrow-Los Angeles International service launched when the EU-US open skies agreement came into force on March 30 and opened LHR to flights to/from the US to all EU and US carriers.
Network carriers based in the US that cut fall and winter capacity as a result of soaring fuel prices may have insulated themselves somewhat from the steepening global economic downturn, United Airlines Chairman, President and CEO Glenn Tilton told ATWOnline.
Lufthansa Flight Training announced the opening of its Munich training center. Expected to have a staff of 24, the facility initially will accommodate E-190, A320 and A330/A340 simulators. CAE said it will add a CRJ200 FFS to support the CRJ200/900 FFS currently installed at its Madrid training center. Simulator is slated to enter service early next year.
Virgin Atlantic Airways posted a pre-tax profit of £72 million ($125.9 million) in the fiscal first half ended Aug. 31, up 67.4% from the £43 million reported in the year-ago semester. Revenue climbed 15% to £1.37 billion and passenger numbers were up 3% to 3 million. Premium traffic rose 6% year-over-year. Separately, VS this week launched a website "showing why passengers will lose out" if antitrust immunity for American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia is approved ( ATWOnline, Sept. 15).
Turkish Airlines won the tender to acquire a 49% stake in B&H Airlines ( ATWOnline, Sept. 5), a Bosnian government official told Reuters in Sarajevo. "After the evaluation of all bids, we found the offer of Turkish Airlines by far the best," the unnamed official told the news service. Comintel Corp. of Malyasia and a Jordanian consortium including Royal Jordanian were among THY's competitors.
Delta Air Lines flew 9.71 billion system RPMs in September, down 0.8% year-over-year. Capacity fell 3.7% to 12.14 billion ASMs and load factor rose 2.4 points to 80%. Etihad Airways transported 4.4 million passengers through the first nine months of 2008, up 33.3% year-over-year. Overall load factor rose 7 points to 75% while business class loads climbed at the same rate to 63%. It launched routes to four new destinations this year and will add two more, Moscow Domodedovo and Almaty, in December. It said it is "set to exceed" its full-year target of 6 million passengers.
Star Alliance returned to Latin America yesterday, formally inviting Brazil's TAM to be its 24th member, and said it will look to increase its presence further in the region next year.
Pinnacle Airlines Corp., parent of Pinnacle Airlines and Colgan Air, plans to exercise up to 15 Q400 options before year end and shop the aircraft to its mainline partners, President and CEO Phil Trenary told ATWOnline yesterday.
SAS Group yesterday said that a decline in bookings related to the August Spanair MD-82 crash at Madrid will impact its result by SEK500 million ($69.4 million). "Forward bookings in Spanair have, as expected, been affected by the tragic accident. . .The initial effect was significant, but the bookings are gradually improving and [are] now almost in line with normal levels," SAS said ( ATWOnline, Sept. 5).
Alaska Air Group expects to suffer a "significant" third-quarter loss on a GAAP basis resulting from a $220 million mark-to-market loss on the value of its fuel hedges and other special items, it said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It will announce its third-quarter results on Oct. 23. It said it expects third-quarter passenger RASM to increase 3%-4% year-over-year and it recorded a one-time gain of $42 million related to a change in its loyalty program's mile expiration policy.
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary told reporters yesterday in London that "if aircraft fleet prices collapse," he would be interested in spearheading an effort to launch a long-haul LCC, Reuters reported. "There may be the opportunity to buy a fleet of long-haul aircraft cheaply next year," he said. He provided few details, but revealed his interest in the long-haul "no frills" transatlantic carrier concept more than a year ago ( ATWOnline, April 13, 2007). He said the potential airline would be independent from Ryanair.
Air France KLM flew 17.99 billion RPKs in September, a 0.5% increase on the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 2.2% to 22.25 billion ASKs and load factor fell 1.4 points to 80.9%. Gol flew 1.73 billion consolidated RPKs in September, down 3.1% year-over-year. Capacity rose 4.1% to 3.03 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 4.2 points to 57%.
US Airways expects fourth-quarter mainline unit costs excluding fuel, special items and transition expenses to increase 6%-8% year-over-year, it reported in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It cited "higher engine maintenance expense" and costs associated with previously announced capacity cuts as the cause ( ATWOnline, July 23). It has hedged 56% of its fuel exposure for the fourth quarter and expects to lose $0.19 per gal. purchased as a result.
US Dept. of Transportation said the 19 reporting carriers cancelled 1.6% of their scheduled domestic flights in August, improved from 1.9% in the year-ago month and 1.7% in July. Comair (4.6%), ExpressJet Airlines (3.3%) and JetBlue Airways (3.2%) had the highest cancellation rates while Frontier Airlines (0.3%), Northwest Airlines (0.5%) and Southwest Airlines (0.6%) reported the lowest. Airlines posted an ontime arrival rate of 78.4%, up from 71.7% in the year-ago month and 75.7% in July.
Air France will consider deploying the A380 in India "when the airport infrastructure at the Mumbai and Delhi airports supports the aircraft," which also would require a renegotiation of AF's rights with the Indian government, Senior VP-International Jean-Louis Pinson told Indian media last week, the Business Standard reported. AF has 12 A380s on firm order and currently serves Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai.
Dalavia Far East Airways, based at Khabarovsk, had its traffic rights suspended by the Russian government due to rising debts, Itar-Tass reported. Aeroflot and Vladivostok Air have been transporting Dalavia passengers. The news service reported that Dalavia's debt to Khabarovsk Novy Airport exceeded RUB240 million ($9.2 million) last month and bank accounts were frozen in order to allow the airport to collect its money.
JetBlue Airways flew 1.75 billion RPMs in September, down 4.8% year-over-year. Capacity fell 11.5% to 2.28 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 5.3 points to 76.7%. EasyJet transported 4.2 million passengers in September, up 22.1% year-over-year. Load factor rose 1.8 points to 86.9%.
Caja Madrid, Iberia's largest shareholder, said yesterday that British Airways shareholders likely will receive approximately 60% of a merged company while IB shareholders take the remainder, Reuters reported. CM Chairman Miguel Blesa told reporters that he expected the new board to have a similar composition.
Aer Lingus intends to cut up to 1,500 jobs as part of an effort to save €74 million ($101.8 million), it announced yesterday following meetings with unions, according to widespread press reports.
