Pinnacle Airlines Corp., parent of Pinnacle Airlines and Colgan Air, plans to exercise up to 15 Q400 options before year end and shop the aircraft to its mainline partners, President and CEO Phil Trenary told ATWOnline yesterday.
SAS Group yesterday said that a decline in bookings related to the August Spanair MD-82 crash at Madrid will impact its result by SEK500 million ($69.4 million). "Forward bookings in Spanair have, as expected, been affected by the tragic accident. . .The initial effect was significant, but the bookings are gradually improving and [are] now almost in line with normal levels," SAS said ( ATWOnline, Sept. 5).
Alaska Air Group expects to suffer a "significant" third-quarter loss on a GAAP basis resulting from a $220 million mark-to-market loss on the value of its fuel hedges and other special items, it said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It will announce its third-quarter results on Oct. 23. It said it expects third-quarter passenger RASM to increase 3%-4% year-over-year and it recorded a one-time gain of $42 million related to a change in its loyalty program's mile expiration policy.
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary told reporters yesterday in London that "if aircraft fleet prices collapse," he would be interested in spearheading an effort to launch a long-haul LCC, Reuters reported. "There may be the opportunity to buy a fleet of long-haul aircraft cheaply next year," he said. He provided few details, but revealed his interest in the long-haul "no frills" transatlantic carrier concept more than a year ago ( ATWOnline, April 13, 2007). He said the potential airline would be independent from Ryanair.
Air France KLM flew 17.99 billion RPKs in September, a 0.5% increase on the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 2.2% to 22.25 billion ASKs and load factor fell 1.4 points to 80.9%. Gol flew 1.73 billion consolidated RPKs in September, down 3.1% year-over-year. Capacity rose 4.1% to 3.03 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 4.2 points to 57%.
US Airways expects fourth-quarter mainline unit costs excluding fuel, special items and transition expenses to increase 6%-8% year-over-year, it reported in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It cited "higher engine maintenance expense" and costs associated with previously announced capacity cuts as the cause ( ATWOnline, July 23). It has hedged 56% of its fuel exposure for the fourth quarter and expects to lose $0.19 per gal. purchased as a result.
US Dept. of Transportation said the 19 reporting carriers cancelled 1.6% of their scheduled domestic flights in August, improved from 1.9% in the year-ago month and 1.7% in July. Comair (4.6%), ExpressJet Airlines (3.3%) and JetBlue Airways (3.2%) had the highest cancellation rates while Frontier Airlines (0.3%), Northwest Airlines (0.5%) and Southwest Airlines (0.6%) reported the lowest. Airlines posted an ontime arrival rate of 78.4%, up from 71.7% in the year-ago month and 75.7% in July.
Air France will consider deploying the A380 in India "when the airport infrastructure at the Mumbai and Delhi airports supports the aircraft," which also would require a renegotiation of AF's rights with the Indian government, Senior VP-International Jean-Louis Pinson told Indian media last week, the Business Standard reported. AF has 12 A380s on firm order and currently serves Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai.
Dalavia Far East Airways, based at Khabarovsk, had its traffic rights suspended by the Russian government due to rising debts, Itar-Tass reported. Aeroflot and Vladivostok Air have been transporting Dalavia passengers. The news service reported that Dalavia's debt to Khabarovsk Novy Airport exceeded RUB240 million ($9.2 million) last month and bank accounts were frozen in order to allow the airport to collect its money.
JetBlue Airways flew 1.75 billion RPMs in September, down 4.8% year-over-year. Capacity fell 11.5% to 2.28 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 5.3 points to 76.7%. EasyJet transported 4.2 million passengers in September, up 22.1% year-over-year. Load factor rose 1.8 points to 86.9%.
Caja Madrid, Iberia's largest shareholder, said yesterday that British Airways shareholders likely will receive approximately 60% of a merged company while IB shareholders take the remainder, Reuters reported. CM Chairman Miguel Blesa told reporters that he expected the new board to have a similar composition.
Aer Lingus intends to cut up to 1,500 jobs as part of an effort to save €74 million ($101.8 million), it announced yesterday following meetings with unions, according to widespread press reports.
Facing a projected $250 million drop in revenue this year, Mesa Air Group is finding it impossible to "support the same level of overhead" and is reducing staff across the board, Chairman Jonathan Ornstein told ATWOnline yesterday. "The company will be smaller this year and we needed to right-size the workforce to the new level of reductions," Ornstein said. "Reductions were made throughout the company at all levels. It was a very difficult process for everyone, me in particular." He did not disclose further details.
Air France subsidiary Brit Air converted six CRJ1000 NextGen options into firm orders, Bombardier announced. Aircraft are worth $299 million at list prices. Original order for eight firm plus eight options was placed in February 2007 ( ATWOnline, Feb. 21, 2007). Brit currently operates 15 CRJ100s and 15 CRJ700s. The CRJ1000 NextGen completed its inaugural flight last month at Montreal Mirabel ( ATWOnline, Sept. 4).
Chinese carriers should get some relief in the fourth quarter as the Chinese government decided to cut the price of fuel by CNY570 ($82.37) per ton owing to the recent drop in international oil prices. The reduction took effect Oct. 1. It marks the fifth time that Beijing has adjusted the domestic fuel price. It introduced a CNY210 per ton increase in the first quarter, a CNY80 drop in the second quarter, a CNY1,500 hike on June 20 and a CNY720 addition on July 8.
Thai Airways said last week that its third-quarter loss would narrow from the THB9.25 billion ($269.7 million) deficit reported in the second quarter, executive VP Pandit Chanapai said, according to Reuters. He cited declining costs as the reason for the improvement. Load factor is expected to be around 70%. For the full year, Pandit said revenue will fall from the THB174 billion reported in 2007.
Boeing booked 11 more commercial aircraft orders last week, taking its year-to-date net to 623, but said that third-quarter deliveries fell 23% year-over-year. Last week's most notable commitment was ANA's order for nine 767-300ERs, which was announced last month but incorrectly identified with an identical order logged for nine -300ERs the prior previous week ( ATWOnline, Sept. 29).
Emirates SkyCargo announced development of its White Cover application for shipment of temperature-sensitive freight. Design includes heat shielding, air and water resistance and internal escape prevention features. Patent is pending.
Brussels Airlines' recent financial tie-up with Lufthansa and its possible entry into Star Alliance will not affect its cooperation with Jet Airways, SN MD Bernard Gustin told ATWOnline last week.
Sun Country Airlines faces an uncertain future following last week's resignation and arrest of its former chairman, warning employees that a shutdown by Dec. 1 is "a distinct possibility."
KD avia 737-300 en route from Barcelona landed on its belly at Kaliningrad on Oct. 1, although none of the 138 passengers and six crew were hurt, according to press reports and Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network. KD Executive Director Leonid Itskov told Interfax that the fuselage was not destroyed and that passengers evacuated with slides. According to ASN, the crew declared an emergency following an unsafe gear indication and confirmed gear did not deploy following a low pass. The crew landed the aircraft gear up on its second approach.
Continental Airlines said September consolidated RASM rose an estimated 8%-9% year-over-year, with mainline RASM climbing 9%-10%. It flew 6.49 billion consolidated RPMs last month, down 10.9%, against an 8.1% fall in capacity to 8.49 billion ASMs. Load factor dropped 2.5 points to 76.5%. American Airlines flew 9.86 billion system RPMs in September, a 9.1% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 7% to 12.87 billion ASMs, dropping load factor 1.8 points to 76.6%. American Eagle flew 587.4 million RPMs, down 17.2%, against a 9.9% fall in ASMs to 910.7 million.
Lufthansa will increase its winter schedule capacity 2.4% year-over-year as it adds flights to six airports to its network, lifting the number of destinations served to 194. European ASKs will rise 1.9% from the 2007-08 winter schedule and long-haul capacity will grow 2.7%, LH said. The winter schedule begins Oct. 26 and runs to March 28. Flights to domestic and European destinations will comprise 91.6% of the weekly program, roughly equal to last year.
