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.
BOC Aviation, which said it anticipates "ongoing demand for leased aircraft from the A320 family at both full-service and low-cost airlines around the world," placed firm orders for 20 aircraft, Airbus announced at the Zhuhai Air Show. The Singapore-based lessor, a subsidiary of Bank of China, now has ordered 98 single-aisle aircraft from Airbus, of which 58 have been delivered.
Continental Airlines' October consolidated RASM rose an estimated 9%-10% year-over-year. It flew 7.14 billion RPMs during the month, down 7.3%, against a 6.7% fall in capacity to 9.04 billion ASMs. Load factor dropped 0.5 point to 79%. Southwest Airlines flew 6.21 billion RPMs in October, up 2.9% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose at approximately the same rate to 8.81 billion ASMs. Load factor dippedl 0.1 point to 70.4%.
China received a boost to its aircraft manufacturing ambitions yesterday as GECAS announced an order for five firm and 20 option ARJ21-700s. The aircraft will be powered by GE's CF34-10A and are scheduled to begin delivering to the lessor in 2013. GECAS is the first Western customer to order the 90-seater, which now has sold 206 units. Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China Chairman Zhang Qingwei said the commitment also marks the largest so far. It is worth up to approximately $800 million if all options are filled.
Ryanair reported a €185.8 million ($236.3 million) net profit in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, a 31% drop from the €268.7 million earned in the year-ago period, as fuel costs jumped 109% to €422 million. Operating revenue increased 20% to €1.03 billion as passengers rose 20% to 16.7 million. Operating expenses climbed 50% to €830.8 million and operating profit decreased to €202.9 million from €304 million a year earlier.
Royal Jordanian suffered a JOD2 million ($2.8 million) net loss through the year's first nine months, implying a third-quarter profit of approximately JOD1.1 million based upon its half-year results ( ATWOnline, Aug. 5). Nine-month revenue rose 34% year-over-year to JOD533 million, but fuel costs soared 92% to JOD221 million.
Compagnia Area Italiana presented its binding offer for Alitalia Friday despite the continuing protest of unions representing pilots and flight attendants ( ATWOnline, Oct. 30). AZ, operating under administration, said the bid is "unique, inseparable and irrevocable" until Nov. 30 and is conditional upon European Commission approval of the Italian government's emergency loan and antitrust approval ( ATWOnline, Oct. 3). CAI is confident it can re-launch Alitalia on Dec.
Flight Safety Foundation last week announced its support for new laws to protect against the release or use in judicial proceedings of information gathered by voluntary self-disclosure reporting programs. Examples of such programs include the Aviation Safety Action Program, the Flight Operational Quality Assurance program and the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing system.
GHS Aviation Auditing of McLean, Va., was certified to conduct IATA Operational Safety Audits by IATA. GHS was founded in 2004 by George Snyder, who led airline safety departments in the US and Asia. He is a founding member of the IOSA development committee.
Greek Transport Minister Costis Hadzidakis said "at least" 10 companies expressed interest in acquiring Olympic Airlines' flight, maintenance and ground handling operations, with six being interested in all three, according to press reports from Athens ( ATWOnline, Nov. 3). He confirmed that neither Aegean Airlines nor Lufthansa are among the interested parties.
Cathay Pacific Airways finally has decided to phase out its 777-200s, rationalizing its 777 fleet around the -300 and -300ER while cutting capacity. It has been considering the future of its -200s for some time, as its fleet is built around the A330-300 for regional flying and the 777-300 for heavy trunk routes. It will attempt to sell the aircraft.
IATA late last month extended its e-freight pilot program to the US, New Zealand and Australia. American Airlines, United Airlines, British Airways and KLM began transporting a portion of cargo between New York JFK and London Heathrow and Amsterdam without most paper documents. Similarly, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways and DHL began paperless cargo carriage on flights from New Zealand to Singapore and Hong Kong.
