China Southern Airlines posted a net profit of CNY1.88 billion ($249.5 million) in the third quarter, up 49% from the CNY1.29 billion earned in the year-ago quarter, on a 16.9% lift in operating revenue to CNY16.5 billion and a 10.2% increase in expenses to CNY12.33 billion.
LAN reported third-quarter net income of $78.8 million, up 52.9% over a net profit of $51.5 million in the year-ago quarter, on a 15.2% increase in revenue to $878 million. "This result reflects significant margin improvements resulting mainly from capacity expansion and strong traffic growth as well as effective control of operating costs," the company said.
Singapore Airlines flew 7.48 billion RPKs in September, up 4.1% on the year-ago month, as capacity fell 0.5% to 9.23 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 3.6 points to 81%.
JetBlue Airways reported a $23 million third-quarter profit that, while representing a turnaround from a $500,000 loss in the year-ago period, did not sway the carrier from its continuing commitment to streamlining its operation.
Finnair said the sale of its FlyNordic subsidiary to Norwegian will result in a €14.1 million ($20.1 million) net gain in its third-quarter operating profit resulting from a €18.6 million capital gain recognized for the summer transaction ( ATWOnline, July 3), an additional €3 million in depreciation on six FlyNordic MD-80s owned by Finnair Aircraft Finance and a €1.5 million amortization.
Mxi Technologies said MRO Teknik Servis Sanayi Ticaret A.S. (myTechnic), a startup maintenance facility in Turkey, chose to implement its Maintenix maintenance management software.
Airline fares are expected to trend upward in 2008 in response to continued strong demand, generally tight capacity and higher fuel prices, according to the "Global Business Travel Forecast" released by American Express Travel Advisory Services yesterday. US domestic and short-haul economy fares will rise 1%-5% while international/long-haul business fares climb 5%-10%. Domestic/short-haul fares in Canada should rise 2%-5% while international/long-haul business fares climb 5%-8%.
United Airlines parent UAL Corp. reported third-quarter net income of $334 million, up 75.8% from $190 million in the year-ago quarter, and said it will continue to maintain "discipline in capacity planning" as it implements a five-year strategic plan that focuses on its "core business" and contemplates selling off noncore businesses such as its Mileage Plus frequent-flier program.
Air Mauritanie, which ceased operations last month, has been liquidated owing to its inability to pay off $2.7 million in debt related to aircraft leased from ILFC. Two 737-700s are grounded in France while one F28 and one 727 have been stored at Nouakchott, leaving Mauritania without a national carrier for the time being. A new airline called Mauritanie Airways is scheduled to start operating Nov. 8. That company will be owned 51% by Tunisair, 39% by Groupe Boumatou and 10% by the Mauritanian government. No details have been released regarding its aircraft or network.
UPS reported third-quarter net income of $1.08 billion, up 3.7% over a net profit of $1.04 billion in the year-ago quarter, as a strong performance in the international sector compensated for a slowing US market. "Once again, UPS's balanced network around the globe produced solid results even in the face of a lackluster US economy," Vice Chairman and CFO Scott Davis said.
JetBlue Airways will launch daily flights from New York JFK to Puerto Plata (from Jan. 10) and St. Maarten (from Jan. 17) and a daily Salt Lake City-Burbank service on Dec. 15, all aboard A320s. JetBlue flew 1.84 billion RPMs in September, up 11.8% on the year-ago month, against a 13.7% rise in ASKs to 2.57 billion that lowered load factor 1.2 points to 71.4%.
Emirates raised $239 million with the support of the US Export-Import Bank to finance two 777-200LRs delivered in August and September. The 12-year financing was arranged and funded by BNP Paribas and its leasing subsidiary Capstar Partners.
Naverus named United Airlines Senior VP-Flight Operations Steve Forte as its new COO, effective Nov. 1. Air Jamaica released a statement confirming last week's resignation of CEO Michael Conway, saying that his contract "offered the option" to resign owing to a change in the national government, which owns the carrier. The airline's new board, chaired by Shirley Williams, will meet this week. "She will be temporarily assuming a larger executive role until the new direction of the airline's management is determined," the carrier said.
Aeroflot will decide within two weeks whether to submit a second bid for Alitalia, according to press reports citing SU Deputy GD-Finance and Planning Mikhail Poluboyrarinov, who said the airline may raise up to €1 billion ($1.43 billion) to finance the acquisition. SU was named on a shortlist of potential bidders two weeks ago ( ATWOnline, Oct. 9).
Garuda Indonesia 737-400 crash at Yokyakarta that killed 21 people in March ( ATWOnline, April 9) was the result of pilot error, according to widespread press reports citing comments from National Transportation Safety Commission Chairman Tatang Kurniadi. The pilot, who reportedly had more than 15,000 hr. of -400 flight time, approached the runway at 408 kph--approximately 65% faster than normal--despite at least 15 alerts from the GPWS and advice from the copilot, Kurniadi said.
Qantas announced an order for 12 Q400s for regional subsidiary QantasLink, plus options and purchase rights for an additional 24. Firm order deliveries will begin in June 2008 and boost QantasLink's Q400 fleet to 21 aircraft. QF CEO Geoff Dixon said the order is valued at A$400 million ($356 million) and that the 72-seat aircraft are "central to QantasLink's growth strategy." The carrier will retire its 36-seat Dash 8-100s by early 2010. It is forecasting annual capacity growth of 19% during the July 2008-June 2010 period.
Dongbei Air, the new regional that Sichuan Airlines plans to launch in the first half of next year, is expected to receive CAAC approval soon. According to a CAAC statement, Sichuan will hold a 33.5% stake in the startup with an investment of CNY53.6 million ($7.1 million), while Shenyang Zhongrui Investment Co. put in CNY54.4 million for 34% stake.
LOT Polish Airlines management board last week presented a new "seven pillar" strategy for the 2008-12 period. The company plans to standardize its fleet, maintain two brands (LOT and low-cost subsidiary Centralwings), develop connections in the east (especially in Russia and Ukraine) and increase sales through the Internet by a minimum 40% in the next five years. The board also anticipates listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange no later than 2008 and achieving a net profit of PLN200 million ($77.6 million) in 2012.
Skyservice Airlines announced that Gibralt Capital Corp. of Vancouver completed acquisition of a "majority interest" in Skyservice's charter business ( ATWOnline, Aug. 30), with no changes planned for the carrier's leadership, workforce or operations. Skyservice's business aviation operation will continue to be owned by Skyservice Investments.
Pacific Blue will bring forward the launch of its New Zealand domestic service by three days to Nov. 12, it announced Friday ( ATWOnline, Aug. 24). Tickets went on sale Saturday for flights between Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
Continental Airlines flew 7.29 billion consolidated RPMs in September, up 5.6% from the year-ago month, against a 4.5% lift in ASKs to 9.23 billion. Load factor rose 0.8 point to 79%. Air China flew 5.94 billion RPKs in September, up 6% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 1.4% to 7.13 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 3.6 points to 83.3%. AirTran Airways flew 1.26 billion RPMs in September, a 32.3% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 19.3% to 1.83 billion ASMs and load factor was up 6.7 points to 68.5%.
Vueling Airlines reported a net profit of €350,000 ($498,750) for the third quarter, a sharp decrease from the €5.02 million earned in the year-ago period. "This reduction is completely driven by a fare decrease of 22% which could not be completely offset by improvement in all other fundamental magnitudes that drive the profit and loss account," the LCC said.
Allegiant Air parent Allegiant Travel Co. promoted MD-Planning Andrew Levy to CFO. Scott Sheldon was named principal accounting officer. Finnair named MD-11 fleet captain Veikko Sievanen senior VP-flight operations division. SR Technics announced that Chairman and CEO Hans Lerch will relinquish the latter title effective Jan. 1. New CEO will be Bernd Kessler, who has been president and CEO-commercial maintenance at MTU Aero Engines since 2004. He will leave the company this month.
Eos Airlines said it will acquire its seventh and eighth 757s thanks to the $50 million injection received during the summer and launch Newark-London Stansted and New York JFK-Paris (airport unidentified) service next spring and fall respectively. Eos said further details will be announced "in the coming months."
