Shanghai Airlines earned a CNY23.4 million ($3.4 million) first-half profit based on domestic accounting standards, reversed from a CNY134.5 million loss in the year-ago semester, thanks to a CNY44.5 million government subsidy. It did not say what the subsidy was for, Bloomberg News reported. Instead it credited "the enhancement of marketing efforts and rationalization of the route network, as well as improving aircraft daily utilization" as key to the result. Operating revenue rose 26% year-over-year to CNY7.03 billion against a 22.8% lift in expenses to CNY7.12 billion.
Virgin Blue Holdings blamed soaring fuel prices and one-off product enhancement costs for its 54.7% drop in net profit to A$97.7 million ($85.1 million) for the fiscal year ended June 30. The result was slightly ahead of market expectations but management advised that the year ahead will be tough, although it still expects a positive result.
Northwest Airlines said yesterday that it has gained relevant government approvals to add the Delta Air Lines code to all of its transpacific flights, another step toward the planned merger of the two carriers. NWA also will add the DL code to its flights between Tokyo Narita and three Asian destinations. Expanded codesharing will take effect Aug. 30.
Qantas CFO Peter Gregg resigned his post effective Sept. 30 and will be replaced by Deputy CFO Colin Storrie, CEO Geoff Dixon announced. The move is considered to be the beginning of a change in leadership following the appointment of Jetstar Airways CEO Alan Joyce to succeed Dixon.
SilkAir CEO Chin Yau Seng told reporters that demand for its services remains robust with the exception of "a few blips," and that capacity growth for the fiscal year beginning April 1 now is expected to be 5%-7%, down slightly from the 8%-10% previously forecast. "So far we have seen continued strong support to a lot of our regional points," Chin said, noting that demand is strong from both leisure and business travelers despite high fuel prices.
Despite operating amid "the perfect storm" of high fuel prices and overcapacity, Malaysia Airlines yesterday reported its eighth consecutive quarterly profit, a MYR40 million ($11.9 million) figure that represented a 64.6% decline from the MYR112.8 million posted in the year-ago period.
News from Travel Technology Update: Ryanair said it will cancel all bookings made through screen-scraping Web sites. "We believe this is a quicker and more effective way of discouraging this unlawful activity and we hope that by getting rid of screen-scrapers we will speed up passenger processing times on Ryanair.com, as well as ensuring that Ryanair passengers are not paying unnecessary handling charges or higher fares to screen-scrapers," the carrier said.
Kingfisher Airlines will launch international service on Sept. 3 with a Bangalore-London Heathrow A330-200 flight, according to widespread press reports from India. Kingfisher acquired the operating certificate of Deccan Aviation, which this month will reach the mandatory five years of service required to fly internationally from India ( ATWOnline, March 31).
Lufthansa CFO Stephan Gemkow was elected to the board of JetBlue Airways, the New York-based carrier announced. He joins Swiss International Air Lines President and CEO Cristoph Franz on the 11-member board ( ATWOnline, Feb. 11).
ALAFCO announced the lease of eight A320-200s to Saudi Arabian Airlines for eight years each. Delivery is scheduled in 2009 and 2010. The Kuwaiti lessor struck a deal with Saudi Arabian for 17 long-haul aircraft in June ( ATWOnline, June 26). The combined deals are worth $3.3 billion, ALAFCO said.
British Airways' planned all-business-class flights between London City and either New York JFK or Newark will launch in autumn 2009 and have just 32 seats that can be converted into lie-flat beds, the carrier announced yesterday. The twice-daily service will be aboard an A318, the largest aircraft that can operate at LCY, and will refuel at Shannon on the westbound journey. Passengers will complete US arrival checks in Ireland. Eastbound flights will be nonstop. BA vowed customers will be able to arrive at LCY up to 15 min.
Sensis Corp. announced that its Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X is now operational at Detroit Metro. ASDE-X combines surface movement radar, transponder multilateration and ADS-B "to provide air traffic controllers with real-time, highly accurate position and location information of all aircraft and vehicles on the airport surface," the company said.
Sterling Airlines reappointed Almar Orn Hilmarsson president and CEO replacing Reza Taleghani. The former JP Morgan executive took over from Hilmarsson in March after the latter had been at the post for nearly three years ( ATWOnline, March 5). The move coincides with a change in the shareholding of Northern Travel Holding, which bought Sterling in December 2006 from FL Group.
Chinese carriers continued to suffer falling passenger demand in July. Air China's RPKs decreased by 8.4% from the year-ago month, while passenger boardings fell 6.8% to 3 million and load factor plunged 8.1 points to 73.3%. China Southern Airlines' RPKs slid 4.2% year-over-year and load factor dipped 1.4 points to 75.1%. It is noteworthy that CA's and CZ's international RPKs dropped 13.7% and 13.3% respectively, mainly owing to heightened security measures related to the Beijing Olympics and slowing global demand. CZ cut its international capacity 14.2% last month.
US Air Transport Assn. forecast a 5.7% year-over-year fall in the number of passengers traveling globally on US airlines during the Labor Day holiday period from Aug. 27 through Sept. 3 to 16 million. Decline comprises a 6.5% domestic drop and a 1% international increase. Air France KLM flew 20.1 billion RPKs in July, up 1.8% year-over-year, against a 3.9% increase in capacity to 23.82 billion ASKs. Load factor fell 1.8 points to 84.4%.
BAA completed the long-awaited £13.3 billion ($24.81 billion) refinancing of its seven UK airports, which it said will provide "a stable, long-term, investment grade financing platform for investment in [London] Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports over the coming decades."
American Airlines said $7.1 million in civil penalties for alleged safety violations proposed last week by US FAA are "excessive" ( ATWOnline, Aug. 15). The agency alleged that AA "used the wrong provisions of its Minimum Equipment List to return two MD-83 aircraft to service after pilots had reported problems, and flew the planes 58 times in violation of FAA regulations.
United Airlines parent UAL Corp. named VP-Investor Relations Kathryn Mikells to succeed Executive VP and CFO Jake Brace when he retires on Nov. 1. Mikells, who joined UA in 1994 as a financial analyst and has held several leadership positions throughout the company, will be senior VP and CFO. Brace joined the company in 1988 and has been CFO since 2001. He will continue to serve in an advisory role, UA said. UAL also named former Northwest Airlines pilot and Air Line Pilots Assn. officer Howard Attarian as VP-flight operations, effective Sept.
Thai Airways set aside THB700 million ($20.6 million) that it hopes to use for early retirement packages to induce 500 workers to leave the airline, the Bangkok Post reported. Thai also said it will cease operating flights from Bangkok to New York JFK and Auckland. The moves came after the carrier posted a THB9.24 billion second-quarter loss ( ATWOnline, Aug. 14), widened from a THB417.4 million deficit in the year-ago quarter and its largest quarterly loss since 1997.
Indian government announced official approval for significant modernization and expansion projects at Kolkata and Chennai airports that will bring the facilities to "international standard" and cost a combined $900 million.
ACTS and GE signed an MOU recognizing ACTS Engine Maintenance Center as a GE fulfillment center for engine MRO and on-wing and diagnostic services for CFM56-2/-3/-5A and -5C operators in the Americas.
German travel, tourism and shipping conglomerate TUI AG slipped to a €125.3 million loss in the second quarter, reversed from a €70.5 million profit in the year-ago period, owing to special items "arising in particular from the strategic realignment of flight operations."
US Airways said Merrill Lynch, the underwriter of its public offering of 19 million shares of common stock at $8.50 per share, exercised the entire overallotment option of 2.85 million shares. The resulting net proceeds from the offering are expected to be around $179 million, US said ( ATWOnline, Aug. 15).
Alaska Airlines flew 1.79 billion RPMs in July, a 2.2% year-over-year decrease. Capacity rose 2.4% to 2.24 billion ASMs and load factor fell 3.7 points to 79.7%. SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines flew a combined 1.6 billion RPMs in July, down 4.7% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 3.3% to 2 billion ASMs, dropping load factor 1.2 points to 80.1%.
