British Airways reported net profit of £27 million ($53.5 million) in the fiscal first quarter ended June 30, down 90.1% from the £274 million earned in the year-ago quarter, with the drop largely due to a 49.3% year-on-year rise in fuel costs to £706 million after hedging. Revenue grew 2.8% to £2.26 billion and total operating costs rose 15.2% to £2.22 billion. Operating profit fell 86.8% to £35 million from £263 million a year ago. Operating margin for the quarter was a meager 1.5%.
Continental Airlines said both mainline and consolidated unit revenue in July climbed 4.5%-5.5% year-over-year. It flew 9.2 billion consolidated RPMs, up 1.6%, against a 4.3% rise in ASMs to 10.93 billion. Load factor fell 2.2 points to 84.2%.
Unite, which represents approximately 25,000 workers at British Airways and Iberia combined, said it has scheduled an "urgent" meeting with Spanish counterpart CC.OO. in order "to ensure workers' interests are protected as these companies inevitably seek greater efficiencies and cost savings, as well as the opening up of markets in the wake a successful merger." BA and IB announced their entrance into merger negotiations last week ( ATWOnline, July 30). Overall, Unite said it was "cautious" about the potential combination.
Lufthansa and the ver.di union, which conducted strike actions throughout Germany last week, reached a deal on a pay raise for some 34,000 ground employees.
The most aggressive expansion program in airline history was launched when the first of Emirates' 58 A380s flew from Dubai to New York JFK as EK3801, the first of a series of commercial flight trials. Pushback came about two years and 2 min. late at 11:02 a.m., but passengers still appeared plenty excited by the images on their seatback video screens that showed the giant jet lifting effortlessly into the sky from the vantage point of a camera mounted atop the tail.
Gategroup, parent company of Gate Gourmet and 10 other subsidiaries, promoted President Guy Dubois to CEO effective Sept. 1. He succeeds David Siegel, who will remain chairman.
Aeroservice Aviation Center of Miami said Sim Industries sold it a 737-800 FAA and JAA Level D FFS. Slated for operation in the fourth quarter, the simulator will be the first from SI installed in the US.
Aer Lingus welcomed Sean Coyle as CFO. Aerospace Industries Assn. tapped Dan Elwell as VP-civil aviation. Airbus appointed Mario Heinen executive VP & head-Centre of Excellence Fuselage & Cabin, Alain Flourens head-A380 program and Daniel Baubil executive VP & head-A320 family program. Alaska Airlines elected Jay Schaefer VP-finance & treasurer and Ben Minicucci VP-Seattle operations and named Lane Kemper MD-customer service-call centers.
Kayak.com stopped displaying American Airlines' fares in search results after the two companies clashed over how Kayak and its subsidiary, SideStep.com, refer consumers to sites for booking American flights. American wanted Kayak to direct consumers only to its own site for booking its flights. Kayak, however, shows results from Priceline, Expedia, Travelocity and other third-party sites, and it refused to suppress those options for American flights.
THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE when you board a Virgin America A320 is the subdued mood lighting. There are 12 different shades that can be changed according to, well, the mood. There are plush leather seats in the two-class cabin and, following in the tradition of an earlier trendsetting transcontinental startup, free live television at every seat. VX also offers more than a dozen pay-per-view movies and streaming audio and claims to have more than 3,000 MP3s onboard, plus AC power for laptops.
Ryanair said it will cancel all bookings made through screen-scraping Web sites. "We believe this is a quicker and more effective way of discouraging this unlawful activity and we hope that by getting rid of screen-scrapers we will speed up passenger processing times on Ryanair.com, as well as ensuring that Ryanair passengers are not paying unnecessary handling charges or higher fares to screen-scrapers," the carrier said.
ANA Group yesterday reported a ¥6.6 billion ($61.1 million) net profit in the fiscal first quarter ended June 30, down a steep 92.4% from the ¥87.3 billion earned in the year-ago quarter, with the drop due largely to the gain realized from the sale of its hotel assets in June 2007.
Ryanair's announced fiscal first quarter profit of €21 million ($32.7 million) did not include a €93.6 million writedown in the value of its stake in Aer Lingus nor €17.9 million in accelerated depreciation on 15 aircraft scheduled for disposal during the 2009-10 fiscal year. As a result, the actual result for the three months ended June 30 attributable to equity holders was a steep €90.5 million loss. The company's operating profit was €7.9 million, down from €157.5 million in the year-ago period.
Vueling Airlines reported a pre-tax loss of €12.5 million ($19.5 million) in the second quarter, an 8.9% improvement from the €13.7 million loss reported in the year--ago period, citing implementation of an "improvement plan" based on cost reduction and increased flight revenue for the "substantial" gain.
Hawaiian Airlines parent Hawaiian Holdings, benefiting from a legal settlement with Mesa Air Group and the abrupt collapse of two competitors, posted second-quarter net income of $54.3 million, reversed from a net loss of $3.9 million in the year-ago period.
Martinair appointed Frank de Jong as VP-planning and Harm Winkeler as VP-Asia Pacific. Former Jet Airways CEO Nikos Kardassis, who ran the carrier from 1993 to 1999, will return to Jet as head of its North American operation as senior VP-the Americas and senior adviser to the chairman for corporate strategy and finance. Jet has launched four daily North American services in the past year.
FedEx Express yesterday launched revenue service with the first of 12 757-200 converted freighters it is scheduled to add over the next year, starting eight-times-weekly flights between Memphis and Washington National, its first service to DCA. The 757F is the first of the type to enter the delivery giant's fleet. It is investing $2.6 billion to replace its 90 727-200Fs with 90 757Fs and last year inked a deal with Singapore Technologies Aerospace covering 87 757-200 passenger-to-freighter conversions over seven years ( ATWOnline, Jan.
Air China is looking at presenting a bid for Star Alliance partner Austrian Airlines in order to establish a foothold in the West. A CA spokesperson revealed yesterday that the Beijing-based carrier recently sent a senior management and financial adviser of China International Capital Corp. to visit Austrian, which this week recommended that the government move forward with privatization ( ATWOnline, July 31). The CA spokesperson would not confirm that the visit was related to a possible bid for OS.
Austrian Airlines Group plans to phase out 12 CRJs. One will be retired, two will be replaced by Q400s acquired from SAS Group and nine will be made available for sale. Meanwhile, AAG subsidiary Austrian Technik Bratislava is targeting the F70/100 market. "ATB is the only maintenance facility beside the manufacturer in the Netherlands for Fokker jets. ATB is also JAR 145 approved," COO Peter Malanik told ATWOnline. ATB employs 130 staff and is looking to increase third-party work.
Lufthansa Group yesterday released details of its second-quarter performance, confirming both the €345 million ($541.6 million) profit that fell 21.2% year-to-year and the significant contributions of its Swiss International Air Lines subsidiary. Group revenue rose 20% to €6.47 billion and operating profit slipped 6.2% to €530 million from €565 million in the second quarter of 2007.
Philippine Airlines posted a profit of $30.6 million in its fiscal year ended March 31, down 76.6% from the $130.5 million earned in the previous 12 month period. Still, PAL called it a "noteworthy result in the escalating-fuel-price environment that has battered the aviation industry since last year." It is the restructured carrier's fourth consecutive full-year profit. Operating revenue rose 15% to $1.46 billion and expenses were up 14.9% to $1.37 billion. Operating profit increased 19.9% to $84.3 million from $70.3 million. The 2006-07 net result was boosted by special gains.
Surging revenue and relatively successful efforts to mitigate the impact of rising fuel prices helped boost LAN Airlines to a $47.2 million profit in the second quarter, up 10.7% from the $42.6 million reported in the year-ago period. It said its "strong first-half performance provides a solid base for long-term growth and profitability. As a consequence, LAN is in a position to plan for capacity expansion in response to growth opportunities, while leveraging opportunities to improve its cost performance."
WestJet reported second-quarter net income of C$30.2 million ($29.5 million), up 161.4% from an C$11.5 million profit in the year-ago period, on a 23.6% lift in revenue to C$616 million. The Calgary-based LCC conceded that last year's quarterly results were affected by one-time costs associated with scrapping installation of the aiRES reservation system; excluding those charges, second-quarter 2007 income was C$33.7 million. This year's result represented a 10.4% earnings decrease excluding special charges.
United Airlines yesterday filed a federal lawsuit seeking a preliminary injunction against the Air Line Pilots Assn., which the carrier claimed has engaged "in deliberate, organized and unlawful job actions" that have resulted in "hundreds" of flight cancellations. UA claimed the union and four specific pilots participated in "organized sick leave abuse in opposition to the company's plan to reduce its fleet size and furlough pilots" and to pressure the company to reopen collective bargaining negotiations.
Investigators examining the decompression explosion onboard a Qantas 747-400 last Friday found that a part from the suspect and missing oxygen bottle No. 4 burst into the aircraft's cabin and moved an exit door handle ( ATWOnline, July 29)."There was never any danger of the door opening," Australian Transport Safety Bureau Director Julian Walsh told media. ATSB investigators have focused on the oxygen bottles in the aircraft's forward cargo compartment as the culprit in the explosion, which tore a 1-sq.-m.
