China Eastern Airlines is targeting a shareholders meeting on Jan. 8 to secure approval for the sale of a 24% stake to Singapore Airlines and parent Temasek and soon will launch a road show to gather support for the deal in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Singapore. CEA this month signed a definitive agreement to sell 15.73% and 8.27% stakes to SIA and Temasek respectively and agreed to nominate SIA Chairman Stephen Lee and CEO Chew Choon Seng to the CEA board ( ATWOnline, Nov. 15).
Qantas will pay a $61 million fine to settle with US authorities investigating the carrier's role in a widespread price-fixing scheme related to fuel surcharges on international cargo flights, CEO Geoff Dixon announced late yesterday.
The British Airways and TPG-led consortium yesterday confirmed that it formally withdrew its interest in bidding for Iberia because a bid under friendly terms no longer was possible. The decision follows last week's announcement by Caja Madrid, which holds a stake in IB similar in size to BA's, that it wanted to increase its shareholding from just under 10% to 23% and that BBVA and Logista, holding 7.3% and 6.7% respectively, intended to sell their shares to CM ( ATWOnline, Nov. 27).
Thai Airways suffered a 29.5% decline in profit in its fiscal year ended Sept. 30 to THB6.34 billion ($201.7 million), according to press reports from Bangkok that cited weak aircraft sales and unfavorable foreign currency fluctuations for the result. Sales climbed 7.5% to THB192.03 billion, but foreign currency gains plunged 80.6% to THB1.2 billion and the THB500 million earned from the sale of three aircraft compared to THB2 billion it made from disposal of four freighters in the 2005-06 fiscal year, Thomson Financial reported.
Bombardier opened a new spare parts depot near Tokyo Narita to support operators of its CRJ and Q-series aircraft ( ATWOnline, Nov. 14). The 4,000-sq.-ft. facility will be operated by Schenker-Seino and will be stocked with approximately 2,300 regional aircraft line items.
Air France KLM Chairman and CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta credited the airlines' "strong" long-haul network and "ongoing group-wide efforts to contain costs" in the face of rising oil prices for a robust profit of €736 million ($1.09 billion) in the fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, up 96.8% from the €374 million reported in the year-ago period.
British Airways yesterday confirmed that it will not increase its 9.95% stake in Iberia through the acquisition of shares being sold by BBVA and Logista, to which it has preemption rights as a core shareholder under a 1999 agreement.
DHL announced yesterday that it will establish a $175 million "Express North Asia Hub" at Shanghai Pudong. "Hubs like Shanghai are optimally positioned to reduce transit times and distances within the region [and] also ensure that the region is better connected with the rest of the world," DHL said, adding that the new hub will allow it to provide guaranteed time definite morning delivery "to more major cities in North Asia." The facility's peak sorting capacity will be up to 20,000 parcels and 20,000 documents per hr.
Korean Air released further details about its new low-cost airline, a project it originally said could launch within three years but that now is scheduled to take flight next May ( ATWOnline, June 5). The new carrier, dubbed Air Korea, will start operations with three A300s and two 737s flying mainly leisure travelers to Japan, China, Thailand and Malaysia.
Aeroflot transported 688,900 passengers in October, up 7.2% from the year-ago month, and reported a 5.9% rise in RPKs to 2.97 billion. Load factor was 69.6%.
TAP Portugal signed a firm order for 12 A350 XWBs plus three options, replacing its 2005 order for 10 of the former version of the A350, Airbus said ( ATWOnline, June 19). The carrier also signed a letter of intent for an additional eight A320 family aircraft.
Malaysia Airlines' resurgence continued in the third quarter as net profit soared 51.7% year-over-year to a record MYR364 million ($106 million) from MYR240 million, the carrier reported yesterday, crediting "strong passenger demand and sustained yield improvement" for the result.
Virgin America, forced by the US Dept. of Transportation to replace CEO Fred Reid ( ATWOnline, May 21), yesterday announced that American Airlines Senior VP-Global Sales C. David Cush will take over the position on Dec. 10. "David's extensive industry experience, business acumen and creativity are the perfect attributes for leading the company as it continues to grow from a promising startup to a major carrier," VX Chairman Donald Carty said.
China expanded its airspace capacity from Nov. 22 by implementing Reduced Vertical Separation Minima in order to be better prepared for next summer's Olympics. Under the new rule, CAAC halved the height of each flight layer between 8,900 m. and 12,500 m., increasing the number of layers from 7 to 13 and nearly doubling the number of aircraft that can fly through the same area simultaneously. The regulator noted that Sanya, Hong Kong and Taipei are excluded as these cities already have implemented RVSM. Chinese carriers welcomed the new policy.
East Star Airlines, which launched operations from Wuhan last year, said it will purchase six A320s worth CNY3 billion at list prices, Xinhua reported. East Star will finance the purchase with loans from Royal Bank of Scotland. Separately, the carrier said it successfully launched its daily Wuhan-Hong Kong-Macau service ( ATWOnline, Oct. 29).
Aegean Airlines reported a €33.4 million ($49.2 million) profit through the first nine months of 2007, up 45% over the year-ago period, Thomson Financial reported from Athens. Sales climbed 20% to €370.5 million and passenger numbers were up 19% to 4.1 million.
LAN Airlines placed a firm order with Rolls-Royce for Trent 1000s to power 26 787s it has on order to begin delivering in 2012 ( ATWOnline, Nov. 6). The order, which includes 15 options, is the first LAN has placed with Rolls. The two parties also reached agreement on a long-term TotalCare service program. Total value of the deal, including the 15 options, is more than $2.4 billion, Rolls said. LAN is slated to be Latin America's largest 787 operator.
SkyTeam Governing Board Chairman Leo van Wijk believes alliances will be around for years to come "because it is clear that a global airline with a single ownership is not yet possible" owing to regulatory issues, nationalism and the complexity of combining carriers. However, he does not think they will retain their current form. In a speech to the European Aviation Club in Brussels, he said alliance composition will change along with the intensity of cooperation between alliance partners. "It is increasingly difficult for an airline to survive without an alliance," he said.
Atlantic Southeast Airlines named SkyWest Airlines VP-Flight Operations Bradford Holt as COO effective Dec. 1. He is replacing the retiring Bryan LaBrecque.
Alitalia flew 3.39 billion RPKs in October, up 1% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 1% to 4.5 billion ASKs and load factor rose 1.5 points to 75.3%. Silverjet transported 6,782 revenue passengers in October with a load factor of 58.5%. It said passenger numbers have risen 86% since May.
Finnair board yesterday approved a share offering worth €248.5 million ($365.9 million), with the subscription period beginning Nov. 29 and ending the afternoon of Dec. 17. Current shareholders will have a preemptive right to subscribe in proportion to their holdings. The company will issue 39.4 million shares at €6.30 per share. Danske Markets and UBS Investment Bank are joint global coordinators and book runners and Aventum Partners is financial adviser.
AirAsia reached an agreement with Aviation Australia under which the latter will provide maintenance engineer training for the LCC, including training courses for its existing technicians that aim to ensure that the carrier fully complies with EASA regulations.
El Al reported a third-quarter net profit of $41 million, significantly improved over net income of $1.4 million in the 2006 third quarter when its earnings were hurt by conflict in the region, Israel's Globes reported. Revenue increased 27% to $567 million.
Double-digit passenger growth rates helped Air Berlin "claw back" from a disappointing second quarter, CEO Joachim Hunold said as the German LCC reported third-quarter earnings of €60.8 million ($89.5 million), up 57.2% from the €38.7 million reported in the year-ago period.
EasyJet reported net profit of £152.3 million ($312.5 million) in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, up 61.8% from the £94.1 million earned in the previous financial year. Revenue rose 11% to £1.79 billion with passenger revenue up 9.2% to £1.63 billion and ancillary revenues soaring 30.4% to £171.2 million, or from £0.47 to £3.85 per seat. The biggest contributor to this improvement was the introduction of a speedy boarding product, the LCC said. Operating costs grew 11.8% to £1.5 billion.
