Singapore and Portugal concluded an open skies agreement that will become fully effective from the 2010 IATA summer schedule. Singapore now has concluded open skies agreements with 14 EU countries.
SAS yesterday announced the launch of an aggressive environmental strategy aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 20% from 2007 levels by 2020. The airline group said it will reach the target, which assumes passenger growth of 4% annually, by "implementing energy enhancements and mixing jet fuel with renewable sources."
Turkish Airlines took delivery of its second converted A310-300F from the EADS EFW facility in Dresden. A third A310-300 will be converted beginning in July.
Continental Airlines paid $209 million for four pairs of slots at London Heathrow, according to a US Securities and Exchange filing cited by several press reports. CO did not identify the seller of the slots. It plans to serve the airport from both Newark and Houston Intercontinental ( ATWOnline, Jan. 18). The Financial Times said GB Airways (two), Air France and Alitalia sold the slots and that CO will pay $116 million for the summer season and an additional $93 million for the next witner schedule.
Alaska Air Group announced completion of a $100 million stock repurchase program authorized last September. It repurchased approximately 4.1 million shares of outstanding common stock, or 10%, at an average price of $24.31. The company now has around 36.5 million shares of common stock outstanding. US Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. sold 12% of its stake in Delta Air Lines for $106.2 million, the Associated Press reported, citing regulatory filings. PBGC reduced its DL stake to 43.6 million shares from 49.5 million shares through 14 separate sales.
Alitalia Group said its net debt as of Jan. 31 was €1.28 billion ($1.95 billion), up 6.8% from a month prior. It made €3 million in debt repayments last month.
Lufthansa said it will cancel 142 flights today "as a precautionary measure" in the face of "token strikes" scheduled by workers at German airports. Domestic flights to and from Frankfurt will be most severely affected, it said.
Singapore Airlines will open a new front in the increasingly heated competition for premium travelers, announcing yesterday that it will reconfigure its five A340-500s with 100 lie-flat business class seats for use on transpacific routes to the US. Since the routes were launched several years ago, SIA has operated the A340-500s in a business class/premium economy configuration seating 181. Owing to range shortfalls, it never was able to incorporate a first class cabin into the aircraft. The all-business-class configuration will feature a 1-2-1 arangement.
American Airlines flew 9.97 billion system RPMs in February, up 2.5% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 2% to 12.98 billion ASMs and load factor was up 0.3 point to 76.9%. American Eagle flew 607.7 million RPMs, down 2.4%, against a 1.9% decline in capacity to 880.6 million ASMs. Load factor slipped 0.4 point to 69%. United Airlines flew 8.15 billion system RPMs in February, down 0.5% from the year-ago month, against a 3.7% climb in capacity to 10.95 billion ASMs. Load factor fell 3.1 points to 74.4%.
Pratt & Whitney selected Hamilton Sundstrand to provide engine controls and accessories for engines covering Mitsubishi Regional Jet, Bombardier CSeries and Cessna Citation Columbus aircraft. Contract also includes fuel, pneumatic and thermal management systems.
Air China parent China National Aviation Holding Co. Saturday urged China Eastern Airlines to reconsider its rejection of CNAC's bid to raise its stake in the Shanghai-based airline from 12% to just over 26% and return to the negotiating table with the Beijing-based carrier. CEA formally rejected CNAC's proposal last week ( ATWOnline, Feb. 28) and accused CA of "lacking sincerity to make the cooperation happen," claiming CA had made no contact and conducted no negotiations following its bid submission.
Enigma said Korean Air selected its InService MRO and Oracle Complex MRO solutions to streamline maintenance operations across its fleet of A300, A330, 737, 747 and 777 aircraft. Features include comprehensive airframe, engine and component maintenance data as well as troubleshooting, repair and reporting capacities.
SkyEurope posted a loss of €11.3 million ($17.2 million) in its fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 31, a 17.9% improvement on the €13.8 million deficit the LCC experienced in the year-ago period. Operating loss, however, widened 21.8% to €14.8 million from €12.2 million a year earlier. Revenue grew 32.2% to €53 million on a 44.1% increase in passengers carried to 857,953. Total operating expenses rose 30% to €59.6 million.
Surging passenger numbers and its entry into oneworld provided a significant financial boost to Royal Jordanian, which reported a JOD20.4 million ($28.6 million) profit in 2007 that represented a more-than-threefold increase from the JOD6.1 million earned the prior year. Operating revenue climbed 21.5% to JOD543 million, with operating profit nearly tripling to JOD33 million from JOD13 million in 2006. Passenger numbers rose 18% to 2.4 million and load factor was up 4 points to 71%.
Japan Airlines parent JAL Group in its FY2008-2010 Medium Term Plan raised its profitability target for its 2010-11 fiscal year to ¥96 billion ($932 million) from ¥88 billion in last year's Medium Term Plan. The decision to increase the target is owing to early successes in its ongoing restructuring program, which also contributed to its raising its operating profit forecast for the current year ending March 31 to ¥48 billion from ¥35 billion.
Emirates unveiled its initial A380 schedule yesterday, announcing that the aircraft will enter service on its Dubai-New York JFK route Oct. 1. Flights to London Heathrow follow on Dec. 1 and service to Sydney begins Feb. 1, 2009. Aircraft on these routes will seat 14 in first class, 76 in business and 399 in economy. "While we are still debating our first commercial A380 route, it has always been our intention to fly the aircraft on capacity-constrained trunk routes. The cities that we have now scheduled for A380 services bring our plans to fruition," President Tim Clark said.
Aeroflot on the occasion of its 85th birthday said it intends to double its annual passenger numbers by 2015 to approximately 16 million and acquire at least one European competitor. "Aeroflot's future growth will focus on the development of the route network between Europe and Asia involving strategic alliances, infrastructure improvements and an ambitious aircraft acquisition program," CEO Valery Okulov said.
Transaero took delivery of a 767-300ER and a 747-300, bringing its long-haul fleet to 17 aircraft and its total fleet to 32. It said it is planning to add "several" long-haul routes this year including Saint Petersburg-Tokyo Narita on April 24 and flights to the US from Moscow.
Air New Zealand, Air Transport World's Passenger Service Award winner for 2008, posted a 58% increase in net profit to NZ$115 million ($93.7 million) for the six months ended Dec. 31 on a 9.6% rise in operating revenue to NZ$2.33 billion.
LTU German Airlines MD Jurgen Marbach resigned on Feb. 29 and will be replaced by former dba MD Helmut Weixler. Marbach sold his 45% stake in LTU to airberlin in August.
CSA Czech Airlines posted a CZK111 million ($6.7 million) pre-tax profit in 2007, an impressive reversal from a CZK396 million loss the previous year and nearly three times greater than its forecast result under its OK 2006-2008 strategy.
Norwegian is taking its low-cost model long-haul and will launch twice-weekly flights from Oslo Gardermoen and thrice-weekly flights from Stockholm Arlanda to Dubai on Oct. 26 aboard new 737--800s. "We see no reason not to launch long-haul routes based on our low-cost model," CEO Bjorn Kjos said. "Our new fleet of 737-800s from Boeing enables us to look even further when analyzing future markets and we aim to make good use of the opportunities the extra range gives us."
Hainan Airlines is in crisis following the appeal of six pilots to the Haikou arbitration committee to have their labor contracts terminated. The six resigned at the end of last year, bringing to 20 the number of HNA pilots who have walked out since 2006. The carrier has accepted none of the resignations and their disputes remain unresolved. Luo Zulin, one of the six who asked for arbitration yesterday, said the resignations were a result of "frequent overtime" and "long delays in getting their salary."
