British Airways admitted that its full-year revenue forecasts "carry some risk" as "forward bookings are being affected by the increased anxiety in financial markets and by the uncertain economic outlook." It said long-haul premium traffic has "softened." It continues to target a breakeven result at the operational level and said that "good yields and the stronger [US] dollar are broadly offsetting volume impact. It anticipates fuel costs to be around £3 billion ($5.3 billion). BA flew 9.29 billion RPKs in September, down 4.8% year-over-year.
Mesa Air Group announced that Paul Foley has been tapped to serve as COO. Foley formerly was president and CEO of Mesaba Holdings, parent of Mesaba Airlines and Big Sky Airlines. Under his leadership, Mesaba Airlines exited bankruptcy protection and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Northwest Airlines. Big Sky shut down in March after continued losses ( ATWOnline, Dec. 21, 2007).
Hawaiian Airlines last week took delivery of the first of four 717-200s on lease from Boeing Capital Corp. Remaining aircraft will arrive one per month in November, December and January, at which point HA will have 15 717s operating on its inter-island network. Aircraft will seat 118-123 passengers with eight seats in first class and will replace a 767-300 used on inter-island routes while restoring a spare aircraft to HA's 717 and 767 fleets.
Aer Lingus said Friday that it will "proceed with a cost-reduction program to deliver. . .substantial savings," adding that "fundamental change" is needed to keep the carrier "competitive" going forward. Meetings are planned this week to detail the cost-cutting plan to EI's labor unions. The SIPTU union representing more than 1,500 ground workers last week voiced "total opposition to outsourcing any part of the Aer Lingus operation." EI reportedly has approached labor groups about outsourcing ground handling operations.
Alitalia Extraordinary Administrator Augusto Fantozzi said he received several expressions of interest for acquisition of the group's assets and activities. Deadline for offers was Sept. 30 ( ATWOnline, Oct. 1). Fantozzi said only one proposal directly concerned air transport activities whereas the other expressions of interest were for specific branches and/or activities of various companies comprising Alitalia Group.
Sun Country Airlines, which is seeking to gain financial independence from scandal-hit parent Petters Group Worldwide ( ATWOnline, Oct. 1), announced yesterday that President and CEO Stan Gadek was appointed chairman replacing Tom Petters, who resigned. DHL Express named George Kerschbaumer executive VP-commercial division. He formerly served as Deutsche Post World Net's executive VP-corporate development.
Porter Airlines reached agreement with Bombardier to convert two existing options on 70-seat Q400s into firm orders. Aircraft will be the 17th and 18th in the Toronto-based regional's fleet. Value of the new contract is $52 million at list prices.
Wizz Air said it will base one extra A320 each at Timisoara, Bucharest Baneasa and Cluj Napoca and double its Romanian capacity over the next six months. From Timisoara it will launch thrice-weekly Dortmund (Dec. 18), thrice-weekly London Luton (Oct. 27), twice-weekly Paris Beauvais (Feb. 20), thrice-weekly Treviso (Feb. 19), thrice-weekly Bergamo (Feb. 19), thrice-weekly Rome Fiumicino (Feb. 17), thrice-weekly Barcelona (Feb. 19) and twice-weekly Valencia (Feb. 22).
Jetstar Airways' new CEO, Bruce Buchanan, downplayed the impact of Tiger Airways in the Australasian market, telling ATWOnline yesterday that his focus is on "bigger [low-cost] competitors with large fleets that have a significant impact on the market. There is only one or two in the Asian region and I don't put Tiger in that category." Virgin Blue operates more than 50 aircraft and has local market presence, while Kuala Lumpur-based AirAsia has 70 aircraft and has been frank about its ambitions ( ATWOnline, Sept. 19).
KrasAir and Domodedovo Airlines, two of the five members of the defunct AiRUnion alliance, have been granted approval by Russian authorities to operate certain flights until Oct. 31. The other three carriers--Omskavia, Samara Airlines and Sibaviatrans--will shut down operations by Sunday.
Transaero DG Olga Pleshakova said the carrier plans to announce an order for six A350 XWBs or A380s very soon. She told the Vedomosti business daily that the airline is awaiting a detailed offer from Airbus, adding that the A350 "is a more economical aircraft" than the 787. Transaero has ordered eight A330-200s and four A320s but currently operates no Airbus equipment. It expects its fleet to reach 43 by year end, up from 38 one year ago. It recently took delivery of its first 777-200.
European Low Fares Airline Assn. criticized the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency for its "abusing pricing policy" and called on it to reduce its cost base significantly and introduce a single charge zone for terminal navigation services in Poland. "PANSA's pricing policy is clearly to the detriment of passengers and regional airports, which risk losing many of the direct routes, opened by low fares airlines in recent years, as operating to Polish regions becomes prohibitively expensive compared to other European regions," ELFAA Secretary General John Hanlon warned.
Jet Airways is "very pleased" with the performance of its European hub in Brussels, which it launched in August 2007 with a daily Mumbai-BRU-Newark 777 service, claiming that its first year "proves that the concept of hubbing out of your home market works." But CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer confirmed to ATWOnline on the sidelines of a presentation in Brussels that the venture is not yet profitable. "We remain optimistic to achieve our target to break even after 18 months of operations despite the current slowdown," he said.
Southwest Airlines flew 5.31 billion RPMs in September, down 5.9% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 0.8% to 8.38 billion ASMs, lowering load factor 4.5 points to 63.4%.
AiRUnion, the failed Russian airline alliance that comprised five carriers, ceased to exist Tuesday as the management company shut down. The Russian government intended to replace AiRUnion with a state-owned grouping of nine airlines ( ATWOnline, Sept. 11), but AiRUnion COO Gustav Baldauf told ATWOnline that "we are still working on a concept for a follow-up company" and that decisions on how the replacement alliance would function "will take some time."
Ryanair will expand its Madrid Barajas base with two new 737-800s on Nov. 18 and launch twice-daily service to Alicante, Palma, Santiago and Valencia. It also will increase frequencies to Dublin, Santander and Bergamo. Expansion will see the LCC's MAD network grow to six domestic and 17 international routes on six based aircraft. Ryanair also said that delayed delivery of new aircraft resulting from the machinists strike at Boeing ( ATWOnline, Sept. 22) has forced it to cancel 25 flights to/from Birmingham between Oct. 24 and Oct.
IAE announced that the first V2500 SelectOne engine entered service with launch customer IndiGo yesterday on a new A320. Aircraft, which was delivered to the Indian startup Sept. 23, is leased from Australia's Allco Finance Group.
United Airlines continued to take measures to boost its cash position, announcing yesterday that it has completed financing transactions that will add approximately $275 million in cash by year end. It said $125 million will come from an aircraft financing agreement, an additional $140 million from asset sales and another $10 million from substituting "certain cash collateral with a letter of credit." It did not provide more specific details.
LAN Airlines said the required adoption of IFRS on Jan. 1 will result in a 4.3% decline in shareholders' equity as of Dec. 31, representing a $42 million reduction to $946 million. LAN said the transition will not have a "significant material effect" on future financial results.
British Airways World Cargo's former commercial GM, Keith Packer, pleaded guilty to conspiring to fix rates on international airfreight shipments and agreed to serve eight months in prison, the US Dept. of Justice announced. Under terms of the deal, which is subject to court approval, Packer also will pay a $20,000 criminal fine and has pledged to cooperate with DOJ's ongoing investigation into cargo carrier collusion. He is the first foreign national and third individual charged as part of DOJ's investigation.
Southwest Airlines said yesterday that it will add Minneapolis/St. Paul to its network in March, its first new city since adding San Francisco in August 2007. Chairman and CEO Gary Kelly said the expansion will be "very cautious and very conservative," evidenced by SWA's only operating flights to Chicago Midway from MSP. He did not disclose the number of daily flights on the route.
ExpressJet Holdings shareholders yesterday approved a 1:10 reverse stock split, which the company said will allow it to return immediately to trading on all NYSE Group platforms and return to compliance with NYSE's continued listing standards at the close of the six-month cure period on Jan. 18 ( ATWOnline, Sept. 8).
Air Pacific's two 747-400s will be refurbished with new cabins (including seat covers, carpet and curtains), upgraded digital IFE, renewed galleys and lavatories, interior lighting and paint. The aircraft will be serviced in Singapore in October-November and February-March and a United Airlines 747-400 will be wet-leased to maintain the flight schedule. Separately, FJ will launch twice-weekly Nadi-Gold Coast on Dec. 1 aboard a 737-800.
SAS Group yesterday signed an MOU with Gate Gourmet Switzerland for a five-year catering contract scheduled to be finalized in two weeks. Agreement, which includes a two-year extension option, applies to catering supplies for SAS departures from Copenhagen, Stockholm Arlanda, Gothenburg, Malmo, Oslo and Bergen.
