Vueling Airlines posted a pre-tax loss of €32.4 million ($50.1 million) for the first quarter, a 47.1% increase over a €22 million pre-tax loss in the year-ago period. Total revenues grew 48.2% to €88.6 million on a 32.1% rise in passengers carried to 1.4 million. Total operating costs climbed 44% to €120.8 million. Operating loss jumped 32.6% to €32.2 million from a €24.3 million year-ago loss.
Teledyne Controls received an order from Philippine Airlines for AirFASE, a flight data monitoring solution jointly developed by Teledyne Controls and Airbus. PAL is the 100th customer for the solution.
Austrian Airlines Group's talks with potential investor Mohamed bin Iassa Al Jaber have collapsed, with Al Jaber saying he no longer has any interest in investing in AAG. CEO Alfred Oetsch told Austrian Radio this week that he doesn't expect further negotiations with Al Jaber but insisted the carrier will go ahead with a Middle East expansion. In a deal announced in March, Al Jaber said he would take a 20% stake in AAG at €7.10 ($10.97) per share, substantially higher than current market value.
The A380 delivery delays announced this week by Airbus belie the more fundamental turnaround at the aircraft manufacturer and parent EADS, which yesterday credited its "remarkable order intake" for its return to the black.
Dragonair will add two A320-200s to its fleet via leases with CIT Aerospace. The aircraft, to be powered by IAE V2527-A5s, will be delivered in 2009 and 2010.
Lufthansa would support a merger between Star Alliance partners United Airlines and US Airways, LH Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber said in Washington yesterday on the 11th anniversary of the founding of the alliance. "[United Chairman and CEO] Glenn Tilton is absolutely right. Consolidation is the way forward," he said, adding that "anything that helps [a member of Star] helps us."
Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choon Seng said yesterday that the company is "open to all reasonable offers" for its 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic Airways. Reiterating comments he has made before, he told reporters, "It's not a secret that we regard it as an underperforming investment" ( ATWOnline, Dec. 13, 2007). But yesterday's remarks were the clearest indication yet that SIA is ready to move forward with a divestment of the stake it has held since 1999.
Mesa Air Group will do a phased shutdown of its Air Midwest subsidiary from May 23 to June 30. The Wichita-based regional, which has been in business for 43 years, operates a fleet of 20 B1900s serving 27 cities. Mesa said record high fuel prices, insufficient demand and a difficult operating environment factored into the decision to end service. Even with Essential Air Service subsidies provided by the US Dept. of Transportation, AM has been unable to achieve "sustained profitability" for several years, MAG said in a statement.
Continental Airlines Executive VP and CFO Jeff Misner will retire effective Aug. 31 to be replaced by Senior VP-Network Strategy Zane Rowe. Misner has served as CO's CFO since 2001. He joined the company in 1995 as VP-treasury operations. Rowe, 37, has been with CO since 1993 and has held his current post since September 2006. Sabena Technics appointed Willy Buysse MD of its Brussels site.
Iberia Group said it its first-quarter results were "dulled" by sharp hikes in the price of fuel, resulting in a net loss of €441,000 ($684,000), reversed from a profit of €12.3 million in the year-ago period.
Northwest Airlines announced that Executive VP-Strategy, International and CEO-Regional Airlines Neal Cohen will leave the company effective June 16. Cohen spent nine years with Northwest from 1991 to 2000 in a number of senior positions including senior VP and treasurer. He was executive VP of finance and CFO for US Airways from April 2002 to April 2004, a period that overlapped that carrier's first bankruptcy reorganization. He returned to NWA in May 2005 as executive VP and CFO, positions he held during the company's Chapter 11 reorganization.
Flybaboo, which recently took delivery of three E-190s, announced that it will change its name to Baboo, a move that coincides with a new red and white logo designed to position the brand and increase visibility, company officials said. The Geneva-based airline began flying in 2003.
Singapore Airlines parent SIA Group reported a net profit of S$2.05 billion ($1.5 billion) for its fiscal year ended March 31, down 3.8% from S$2.13 billion earned in the prior year, but said the income falloff was attributable to one-time gains in FY07 and boasted that it was able to grow full-year revenue at twice the rate of costs despite high fuel prices.
Vancouver Airport Authority yesterday said it entered into a "partnership" with Citi Infrastructure Investors, a unit of Citigroup, "to jointly pursue the sourcing, funding and maximization of potential airport opportunities through YVR Airport Services." Under the terms of the agreement, CII will acquire 50% of YVRAS, which "will become CII's exclusive platform for investing in airport assets."
Lufthansa Cargo, AiRUnion and Krasnoyarsk's Yemelyanova Airport signed an MOU establishing a strategic cooperation that will result in LHC's shift from Astana, where it currently stops on flights to/from Asia ( ATWOnline, March 24). The airport and service companies operating at Yemelyanova promised to make necessary investments, including an upgrade of the CAT II instrument landing system scheduled be completed and certified by year end.
El Al placed an order valued at $850 million for four 777-200ERs plus two options. Boeing noted that the airline has the right to convert the -200ERs to -300ERs. The Israeli carrier's fleet already includes six 777s.
Virgin America said yesterday that it will seek government approval to serve Chicago O'Hare and hopes to launch flights to ORD from San Francisco and Los Angeles later this year. Chicago would be the eighth city in its network. "With legacy airlines representing 99% of the domestic departures at O'Hare and low-cost airlines only representing 1%, Virgin America intends to add some healthy competition to the market," the carrier said. "We want to be part of O'Hare's future."
FedEx lowered its earnings forecast for its fiscal fourth quarter ending May 31, projecting a per-share profit of $1.45-$1.50, down from $1.60-$1.80 it projected in March. Earnings of $1.50 per share would mark a more than 23% decrease from $1.96 in the year-ago quarter. The delivery giant said that the revised forecast "assumes no additional increases to the current fuel price environment."
Japan Airlines Group announced a significant earnings turnaround to a net profit of ¥16.9 billion ($162.1 million) for the fiscal year ended March 31 from a loss of ¥16.2 billion the prior year on the back of premium strategies on its international operation and route restructuring on its domestic network. The profit was achieved on a 3% drop in sales to ¥2.23 trillion as JAL disposed of a number of consolidated subsidiaries. In terms of air transportation, JAL Group's core business, revenue increased 1.4% to ¥1.82 trillion.
ACE Aviation Holdings, as it reported a first-quarter net loss of C$182 million ($180 million), reiterated plans to close down the business but cited difficulty in disposing of its 75% stake in Air Canada and 20.1% stake in Jazz. This year's loss represented a 152.8% increase over a loss of C$72 million in the year-ago period.
Pinnacle Airlines Corp. suffered a plunge in first-quarter profit to $2.7 million from $9.4 million in the year-ago quarter as rising fuel costs produced a $5 million operating loss at its Colgan Air subsidiary and severe weather and an increase in maintenance events resulted in its Pinnacle subsidiary failing to meet incentive levels contained in its Airline Services Agreement with Northwest Airlines.
British Airways will begin shifting long-haul flights to London Heathrow's Terminal 5 next month, it said in a joint statement with airports operator BAA. The move will be phased, in contrast to the short-haul transfer that coincided with an operationally disastrous opening of its £4.3 billion ($8.4 billion) new home in March. "We will move our Terminal 4 long-haul program into Terminal 5 in phases," BA CEO Willie Walsh said, noting that the carrier took this decision "in the interests of customers." He added: "Terminal 5 is now working well."
Unisys won a two-year contract with the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority to supply, implement and oversee an identification management system using fingerprint and iris biometric technology for employee verification at 29 airports. COTS-based technology will replace applications in the RAIC system and allow CATSA to update the security status of 100,000 airport workers. Contract includes two additional two-year option periods.
