Finnair remained profitable in the second quarter, reporting €13.9 million ($20.9 million) in net earnings that represented a 46.1% fall from the €25.8 million posted in the year-ago period, but warned that second-half EBIT "may be negative" as the industry faces "a market failure caused by an overcapacity in relation to demand."
Air Canada named Claude Morin, currently president and CEO of Air Canada Cargo, VP-global sales effective Sept. 1, replacing the retiring Marc Rosenberg. Senior Director Cargo Services-Americas/South Pacific Lise-Marie Turpin will be promoted on Sept. 1 to GM-Air Canada Cargo, a position that will include responsibility for all aspects of the airline's cargo activities.
Virgin Atlantic Airways is increasing its lobbying against the anticipated antitrust immunity application by British Airways and American Airlines for transatlantic operations and confirmed that founder Richard Branson wrote a letter to US presidential candidates John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) warning that the proposed alliance would "severely damage competition. .
HNA subsidiary Grand China Express Airlines, formerly Grand Xinhua Express, plans to sell a stake to Hyundai Heavy Industries so as to improve its financial performance, an industry insider told ATWOnline last week. The Tianjin-based regional has signed a letter of intent for cooperation with Hyundai, which is conducting due diligence on the airline in order to determine the size of its investment. It is widely speculated that the Korean company will purchase a 20% stake with an investment of about CNY120 million ($17.5 million).
SITA signed a five-year, $3 million agreement with Middle East Airlines to implement and maintain its IP VPN. SITA will provide secure Internet access to MEA network users at their sites around the world and connect the Beirut headquarters to 19 global outstations through one gateway. Implementation is underway and will take up to nine months to complete.
Gol reduced its fleet plan by two leased 737-800s in 2008 and five leased -800s in 2009. Full-year 2008 capacity growth will be around 20% instead of the 25% previously forecast. The Brazilian airline's board voted to suspend quarterly dividends for the remainder of 2008, freeing "cash to fund investments and improve credit ratios."
China Eastern Airlines yesterday continued to hope that it could secure Singapore Airlines as a strategic investor even though its stake sale deal expired officially on Saturday. CEA noted in a statement that the deal, reached last September, was "automatically terminated owing to the preconditions for implementing the agreement had not been satisfied by the deadline."
Pilots from Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines voted to approve a joint contract that will take effect when the carriers' planned merger is finalized. DL CEO Richard Anderson confirmed the positive vote yesterday and called it a "historic milestone" that would facilitate the merger.
Delta Air Lines flew 12.44 billion system RPMs in July, up 0.7% from the year-ago month, against a 0.9% rise in capacity to 14.34 billion ASMs. Load factor fell 0.1 point to 86.7%. United Airlines flew 10.49 billion system RPMs in July, down 4% year-over-year. Capacity dipped 1.4% to 12.33 billion ASMs and load factor fell 2.3 points to 85%.
Tiger Airways reported a net profit of S$37.8 million ($27.3 million) for the year ended March 31, according to Reuters. The previous year the airline posted a loss of S$14.30 million. Revenue increased 56% year-over-year to $S271 million. Tiger, which launched in 2004 and also operates an Australian subsidiary based in Melbourne, said passenger numbers rose 73.7% during the fiscal first quarter ended June 30. It will base two A319s at Adelaide early next year.
US Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the Republican presidential candidate, last week called the proposed UPS takeover of DHL's North American air lift a "train wreck" and vowed to "do everything in my power to avert it," while two prominent senators raised antitrust concerns with the US Dept. of Justice.
Air Canada reported second-quarter net income of C$122 million ($116.4 million), down 21.3% from C$155 million in the year-ago period, blaming the earnings drop on a "difficult industry environment created by unrelenting high fuel prices."
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said last week that his government is in talks with a "large foreign company" about forming an alliance with Alitalia. "We are in talks with a big foreign company for an alliance on an international level, exactly the opposite of the hypothesis of the fire sale to Air France KLM, which the previous government wanted, which among other things, included 7,000 job cuts," Berlusconi said in a television interview. "We already have the industrial plan. We have the investors.
Ryanair is interested in launching a £2 billion ($3.9 billion) bid for London Stansted if the UK Competition Commission recommends a breakup of airports operator BAA, CEO Michael O'Leary told The Daily Telegraph.
SkyWest Inc., parent of SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines reported second-quarter net income of $36.4 million, a 10.3% drop from the $40.6 million posted in the same period last year. Operating revenue rose 11.2% to $950.8 million thanks largely to increased cost reimbursements from SkyWest partners. Expenses were up 17.9% to $877.8 million on rising fuel and maintenance costs. Operating profit fell 14.6% to $72.9 million from $88.8 million. Traffic declined 3.5% to 4.49 billion RPMs against a 1.5% dip in capacity to 5.72 billion ASMs.
Austrian Airlines Group CCO Andreas Bierwirth told ATWOnline last week in Damascus that the carrier, which continues to pursue privatization, plans on increasing its focus on the Middle East. He said AAG is looking to be a "leading player" in the region.
Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, parent of Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo, reported second-quarter net income of $1.5 million, down 96.5% from $43.2 million in the year-ago period. President and CEO William Flynn said that "aside from the impact of fuel prices. . .our performance remains on track." Fuel expenses leaped 69.5% to $207 million. Flynn added that fuel costs "will effectively be eliminated" when Polar becomes a DHL Express carrier in October ( ATWOnline, Feb.
Azerbaijan Airlines ordered two 737-900ERs and two 767-300ERs collectively valued at $449 million. One of the 767s is a substitution for a previously ordered 787, Boeing said. Azerbaijan now has a total of four 737-900ERs, two 787-8s and two 767-300ERs on firm order. "We look forward to operating the 787 and benefiting from its advanced performance features; however, the 767-300ER is the economical and logical choice to fulfill our interim capacity targets," President Jahangir Askerov said.
Qantas said yesterday that it will take delivery of its first A380 on Sept. 19 in Toulouse. It will fly the aircraft to Singapore and then to Sydney, where it is scheduled to arrive on Sept. 21. GM John Borghetti said QF will operate its first A380 commercial flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles on Oct. 20 and will operate a Sydney-LAX flight on Oct. 24. It plans to take delivery of three A380s by year end and has a total of 20 on order. It plans to launch Sydney-Singapore-London Heathrow in early 2009.
Japan Airlines Group posted a net loss for its fiscal first quarter ended June 30 of ¥3.4 billion ($31.3 million), narrowed from a ¥4.3 billion deficit in the prior-year period, and unveiled the biggest review of its network since 2002 to mitigate the rising cost of fuel.
United Airlines confirmed to Reuters and Bloomberg that it is "highly unlikely" to take delivery of 42 A319s/A320s it has on order. UA said it recorded a $91 million charge in the second quarter to cover a deposit to Airbus that it will have to forfeit if and when it officially cancels the order.
British Airways placed an order for two 777-300ERs valued at $529 million and agreed to lease four more from GECAS, Boeing said yesterday. Two of the four to be leased are new orders placed by the lessor, the manufacturer said, with the remaining two part of a 2007 order. Including the latest two, GECAS has ordered 25 777s (a combination of freighters and -300ERs) since 2006. BA also secured four 777-300ER options directly with Boeing, the manufacturer said yesterday.
Mxi Technologies said it launched its Maintenix system on KLM's fleet of A330s. Software offers engineering, maintenance planning and heavy maintenance support.
