United Airlines flew 8.2 billion RPMs in December, down 11.5% year-over-year. Capacity fell 12.7% to 10.26 billion ASMs and load factor rose 1.1 points to 79.9%. British Airways flew 9.18 billion RPKs in December, down 3.4% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 3% to 11.98 billion ASKs, lowering load factor 0.2% to 76.7%. Ryanair transported 4.4 million passengers in December,11% more than in the year-ago month. Load factor was level at 79%.
Southwest Airlines said it has completed the private placement of $400 million in senior secured notes due to mature on Dec. 15, 2011. They will bear interest at 10.5% per year and are secured by an interest in 17 737-700s.
Thai Airways received permission from Airbus to delay the initial payment on six A330s scheduled to be delivered this year, acting President Narongsak Sangapong told Reuters. Payment will be postponed to April from this month, with subsequent payments also pushed back three months. The first of eight ordered A330s is due to arrive in April.
China Southern Airlines posted a $6.3 million gain on its fuel hedges in 2008, becoming the only Chinese carrier to avoid the impact of last year's wildly fluctuating oil prices. The Guangdong-based airline suspended its hedging contract in September, which is why it was able to remain in the black, a company insider told ATWOnline yesterday.
DAE Capital signed a sale and leaseback contract with Air New Zealand covering two 777-300ERs. Lease terms are for 12 years and aircraft are due to be delivered in January and March 2011.
Emirates has saved about 10 million liters of fuel and 772 hr. of flight time in the five years since it started working with Airservices Australia to pioneer Flex Tracks. The program involves the use of sophisticated ground and cockpit technology to track live weather and helps pilots chase tailwinds and favorable conditions. It was developed by ASA in December 2003 ( ATW, April 2006).
Frontier Airlines pilots represented by the Frontier Airline Pilots Assn. ratified a labor agreement Monday that will extend wage and benefit concessions through Dec. 11, 2011 ( ATWOnline, May 23, 2008). "This agreement is important because now 100% of our workers have made wage and benefit concessions, a factor that will prove critical in attracting exit financing for our emergence from bankruptcy," Frontier President and CEO Sean Menke said.
Ryanair extended to Feb. 13 the deadline for Aer Lingus shareholders to accept its takeover offer while confirming that on the initial closing date of Jan. 5 it had received acceptances totaling just 29.83% of the shares in EI, including its own stake of 29.82%.
Aeroflot said it plans to post a profit of RUB9.3 billion ($316 million) this year, which would be "higher than the expected level of 2008," as it moves forward with a plan and budget "taking into account the anti-crisis-management program aimed at increasing the efficiency of the operational and commercial activity."
The mystery surrounding what is now dubbed the Ningaloo Triangle centered at Western Australia's North West Cape near Exmouth deepened last week when it was confirmed that Qantas experienced a second air data inertial reference unit failure in just four months in the area ( ATWOnline, Nov. 17, 2008).
Air Canada boosted its liquidity with a series of financial agreements in late December. It arranged a five-year, $78 million loan from Calyon New York Branch and Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale and secured a revolving credit facility with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, which agreed to provide AC with up to C$100 million ($82.9 million) of revolving credit for one year. AC said it drew C$50 million from the facility upon closing. The carrier also concluded a series of agreements for secured financings with General Electric Capital Corp.
The Chinese government injected an additional CNY4 billion ($584.5 million) into China Eastern Airlines on top of the CNY3 billion provided last month in an effort to help the carrier work through its financial difficulties. The Shanghai-based airline plans to sell nonpublic shares to its parent China Eastern Air Holding Co. in order to reach the CNY7 billion total ( ATWOnline, Dec. 11, 2008). The holding company's stake in CEA will rise to 74.6% from 59.7%.
Republic Airways flew 783.4 million RPMs in December, up 6.2% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 4.1% to 1.12 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 1.4 points to 79.75.
Ryanair called a recent amendment to Aer Lingus CEO Dermot Mannion's employee contract awarding him €2.8 million ($3.9 million) if he resigns following a takeover as "indefensible and unprecedented." Irish media revealed the clause over the weekend. In a letter to EI Chairman Colm Barrington, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary argued that the contract proves that management has no faith in Aer Lingus's future as an independent airline.
Air New Zealand operated a 2-hr. 747-400 biofuel test flight from Auckland on Dec. 29 using a 50/50 blend of jatropha-based fuel and standard jet fuel to power one of the aircraft's Rolls-Royce RB211s.
Southwest Airlines said it reduced its fuel hedge contracts to cover just around 10% of its estimated consumption each year through 2013. This year it expects to save approximately $1.4 billion compared to the guidance provided last summer as its economic fuel cost per gal. excluding taxes is expected to be around $1.80. Its current unhedged estimate is $1.60 per gal.
Japan Airlines will conduct a test flight using biofuel refined from the energy crop camellina on Jan. 30. A blend of 50% biofuel and 50% Jet-A will be tested in one of the four Pratt & Whitney JT9Ds on a JAL-owned 747-300. The approximately 1-hr. demo flight out of Tokyo Haneda will be operated by JAL crew and will be the final stage in a 12-month project. The biofuel component will be a cocktail of three second-generation feedstocks: Camellina (84%), jatropha (under 16%) and algae (under 1%).
Emirates has saved almost 10 million liters of jet fuel and 772 hr. of flight time in the five years since working with Airservices Australia, the country's air navigation services provider, to pioneer the flight route planning and airspace management program known as Flex Tracks. Emirates said that over the five years the fuel saving of 9.6 million liters (equivalent to approximately 351 tanker trucks) resulted in a reduction of 26,644 tons of CO2 and 163 tons of NOx.
Continental Airlines followed Air New Zealand's historic trip into the record books a week later by making the first flight on Jan. 7 of a commercial transport partially powered by a fuel derived from algae. The 80-min. test regimen that Richard Jankowski and Joe O'Neil put their 737-800 through went "perfectly," said Jankowski. If parity with Jet A was the goal, the mission may have been a shade better than perfect. He said both fuel consumption and exhaust gas temperatures "were slightly lower" for the No.
Air New Zealand successfully conducted the world's first sustainable biofuel test flight with a Rolls-Royce-powered 747-400 on Dec. 30, capping a year in which air transport efforts on alternative fuels rapidly accelerated from the test tube to the runway. More than a dozen key performance tests were undertaken during the 2-hr. test flight that took off at 11:30 a.m. local time from Auckland International. A biofuel blend of 50:50 jatropha and Jet A1 was used to power one of the 747-400's RB211s.
Turkish Airlines said it signed an agreement Monday to purchase a 49% stake in Bosnian flag carrier B&H Airlines ( ATWOnline, Oct. 13). The Bosnian government will continue to hold 51%. Under a first stage, THY will invest €5 million ($7 million) on the lease of two additional aircraft (one 737 and one Airbus type) for B&H, with an additional €5 million injection to follow, Reuters reported.
TAM flew 1.95 billion domestic RPKs in November, a 3.4% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 13.4% to 2.96 billion ASKs and load factor fell 6.4 points to 65.8%. International traffic jumped 36.3% to 1.32 billion RPKs against a 32.4% rise in ASKs to 1.88 billion, sending load factor up 2 points to 70%. LAN Airlines flew 2.32 billion system RPKs in November, up 9.9% year-over-year. Capacity climbed 12.4% to 3.03 billion ASKs and load factor was down 1.7 points to 76.4%.
