Mesa Air Group's go! subsidiary announced the launch of a Hawaiian-language website. Go! operates approximately 60 daily flights on inter-island routes aboard CRJ200s and as a codeshare partner of Mokulele Airlines.
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways reached an approximately $200 million settlement last week on a class action suit filed on behalf of some 8 million US and UK passengers who purchased long-haul tickets from Aug. 11, 2004, through March 23, 2006, when the carriers were found to have colluded on fuel surcharges
GKN Aerospace said CAAC extended its MOC covering MRO of various engine fan blades and components for Airbus and Boeing aircraft until Dec. 31, 2009. MOC validates maintenance operation compliance with CAAR part 145.
Boeing named Matthew Ganz president of its Phantom Works research and development unit. Ganz was president, CEO and GM of HRL Laboratories, which is owned by Boeing and General Motors. He succeeds the retiring Bob Krieger.
Turkish Airlines flew 2.31 billion RPKs in January, a 7% rise from the year-ago month. Capacity was up 3.6% to 3.43 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 2.2 points to 67.5%. JetBlue Airways flew 2.08 billion RPMs in January, up 7.2% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 8% to 2.75 billion ASMs and load factor slipped 0.5 point to 75.6%. Aer Lingus flew 1.07 billion RPKs in January, a 16.4% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 25.9% to 1.67 billion ASKs, lowering load factor 5.2 points to 64%.
A turbulent year for Brazilian commercial aviation and the acquisition of floundering flag carrier Varig hit hard at Gol's bottom line as the LCC's Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes parent reported an 82% plunge in full-year profit to BRL102.5 million ($58.6 million) from the BRL569.1 million earned in 2006, plus an operating loss.
SkyEurope Airlines conceded that it will not be profitable this financial year, which ends Sept. 30. Management told a shareholders meeting in Vienna last week that the LCC is working on maintaining its financial viability ( ATWOnline, Feb. 6). CFO Nick Manoudakis said it will continue to work on cutting costs and has asked pilots to reduce aircraft speed to save fuel. SkyEurope also is open to investment from other carriers, he said.
AirTran Airways CEO Robert Fornaro said last week that mergers are a good idea for struggling airlines that may need to reduce capacity but not for AirTran, which has been profitable consistently for nearly a decade and should benefit from consolidation. Speaking at an Aero Club luncheon in Washington, Fornaro said, "The industry needs to evolve and the quicker the better. .
Cathay Pacific Airways raised its stake in Air China from 17.5% to more than 18% through the Feb. 6 purchase of 15 million H shares, according to a statement released by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange last week. CA Board Secretary Huang Bin noted that Cathay may have want to avoid any dilution of its cross-shareholding in CA, as the latter plans to circulate 400 million additional A shares to raise funds for the acquisition of 54 aircraft ( ATWOnline, Nov. 5, 2007).
Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair flew 7.79 billion RPKs in January, up 17.8% on the year-ago month. Capacity rose 10.2% to 9.47 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 5.3 points to 82.3%. Hawaiian Airlines flew 651.7 million RPMs in January, up 4.6% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 5.8% to 784.7 million ASMs and load factor slipped 0.9 point to 83.1%.
JADE won US FAA STC authority under the Singapore-US Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement for cabin interior reconfiguration modification on Singapore Airlines 747s. SIA, SIA Engineering and Singapore Jamco participated in JADE's application. This is the first STC granted under the Singapore-US BASA.
Asiana Airlines will invest KRW23 billion ($24.3 million) in startup Busan International Air and become the managing shareholder of the new carrier with a 46% stake, it announced yesterday. Now capitalized to the tune of KRW50 billion, BIA will "focus on offering customers low fares but with the quality service and safety assurance that is synonymous with Asiana Airlines," the latter said. An Asiana "taskforce" will begin working on launching service. No further details were released.
SAS Group became the principal shareholder in GO, a Norwegian company launched last May that sells travel through the SAS, Avis Budget Group and gonow.no websites. SAS bought out Reitan Group, which will maintain its distribution agreement with GO.
Massachusetts Port Authority announced a new financial incentive package called the International Air Service Incentive Program designed to help Boston Logan "compete more aggressively for international airline service." It will apply to new nonstop international flights to Asia, Central America, South America, Africa, the Middle East and Mexico City and is intended to "minimize the initial business risk of the air carrier." Massport said ASIP "is not designed to subsidize a service that is not likely to be self-sufficient." BOS currently offers flights to 32 international destinations.
Mesa Air Group, which provides regional lift for Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and US Airways and operates independently as Mesa Airlines and go!, reported a $4.2 million loss in the fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 31, reversed from an $8 million profit in the year-ago period. "We are certainly disappointed with the results," Chairman and CEO Jonathan Ornstein said. "We are confident in our plans, however, to shrink our less-profitable 50-seat fleet and grow with our larger, more profitable regional jets.
Iberia is in and Grupo Marsans is out as the sale of SAS Group subsidiary Spanair took a dramatic turn yesterday. Marsans presented a formal offer in December but yesterday withdrew its interest, with a spokesperson telling Thomson Financial that the tourism conglomerate that counts Aerolineas Argentinas among its subsidiares "feels a bit betrayed" by SAS's decision not to keep the bidding private.
Alitalia reported significantly improved financial results for 2007 yesterday but stressed that its survival continues to be "increasingly linked" to its ability to raise approximately €750 million by mid-year.
Norwegian reported a 2007 net profit of NOK84.6 million ($15.4 million), reversed from a NOK22 million loss the prior year, as expansion and the acquisition of FlyNordic boosted its bottom line ( ATWOnline, July 3, 2007). Full-year operating revenue climbed 43.7% to NOK4.23 billion against a 35.8% increase in operating expenses to NOK3.72 billion.
A year in which Air Arabia signaled its ambition with an IPO and a significant aircraft order ended with a AED376 million ($102.4 million) net profit, more than three times the AED101 million profit reported in 2006. Revenue rose 71.3% to AED1.28 billion and passenger numbers climbed 53.2% to 2.7 million.
Belavia Belarusian Airlines CRJ100ER flipped over and caught fire at Yerevan Zvartnots International yesterday. There were no fatalities but at least four passengers were hospitalized with burns. The BBC and Associated Press reported that Armenian civil aviation head Artyom Movsesyan said the aircraft's wing touched the ground on takeoff, causing it to flip over and burn. "Nearly everyone onboard received burns of various degrees," an aviation authority spokesperson said, according to several press reports.
"Ever-higher" fuel costs, striking employees, steeper taxes and what Air France KLM described as a "negative impact from the revaluation of derivative instruments" weighed heavily on the company's profit in the fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31, although its operating result remained robust.
AirAsia X yesterday confirmed the sale of 10% stakes to Bahrain-based Manara Consortium and Japan's Orix Corp. for a combined MYR250 million ($77.2 million) cash consideration ( ATWOnline, Feb. 14). Each investor will receive approximately 16.7 million newly issued shares of common stock. Orix also holds a stake in Japanese LCC Skymark Airlines.
IER said Billund Airport contracted it to install 12 of its 918 common-use self-service kiosks, four of which will be equipped with an active eyecatcher to display airport information. Billund also chose IER's IMS to supervise kiosk operations independently. Kiosks are slated to be operational next month.
Bmi will lease two 757-200s to expand its medium-haul network further from London Heathrow. In December, Chairman Michael Bishop told ATWOnline that bmi was looking for additional capacity, possibly 757s or 767-200s, to support growth on several former BMED routes that were performing well ( ATWOnline, Dec. 24, 2007). The aircraft have been wet-leased from Astraeus for two years with an option to extend.
AirAsia X will sell 10% stakes to private equity funds in Japan (Orix Group) and Bahrain (Perigon Capital) for a combined $75 million, an official told Agence France Press, in order to raise money for the purchase of 25 A330-300s. Virgin Group acquired a 20% stake in the startup last summer ( ATWOnline, Aug. 13, 2007). The AirAsia X official was quoted by AFP but declined to be named.
