EuroManx, based on the Isle of Man, ceased operations and cancelled all services Friday. "Over the last six months a number of factors, including rising fuel prices and reduced passenger numbers, have proved to be insurmountable obstacles to the airline being able to continue to operate," it said on its website. Established in 2002, EuroManx flew turboprops to Liverpool, Manchester, Belfast City and London City. Manx2 and Flybe stepped in to rescue stranded passengers.
Austrian Airlines Group CEO Alfred Oetsch, under significant pressure following a steep first-quarter loss and the potential loss of a critical new investor ( ATWOnline, May 7), told Austria's ORF radio last week that a shift from the airline's "standalone" strategy has become a possibility and that it now will consider partnering with a foreign carrier. "If no signs of improvement in the financial situation are on the horizon, a solution could be to bring in a strategic partner carrier," he said.
Former Qantas VP Freight-Americas Bruce McCaffrey agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges in the US related to fixing air cargo shipment rates and will serve eight months in jail, the US Dept. of Justice announced last week. DOJ and antitrust authorities throughout the world have been conducting a wide-ranging probe into air cargo price fixing since February 2006 ( ATWOnline, Jan. 22), but McCaffrey becomes the first individual to face actual jail time as a result.
Asiana Airlines signed a contract for two 777-200ERs worth $438 million at list prices, Boeing announced. OZ has an option to upgrade to the -300ER and currently operates nine 777s. Delivery date was not announced.
Shanghai-based Spring Airlines plans to order 30 A320s and expand its fleet to 100 aircraft by 2015, according to Chairman Wang Zhenghua. Wang said the company is awaiting regulatory approval for the order. The LCC currently operates eight A320s on a network spanning more than 30 Chinese cities. It expects its fleet to number 30 by 2010 and increase to 100 by 2015, at which point half the fleet will be leased and half owned.
Air France-KLM flew 17.44 billion RPKs in April, up 2.6% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 5.4% to 21.79 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 2.3 points to 80%. Northwest Airlines flew 6.59 consolidated RPMs in April, up 1% from the year-ago month, against a 2.1% increase in capacity to 7.96 billion ASMs. Load factor dipped 0.9 point to 82.8%. US Airways Group flew 5.33 billion consolidated RPMs in April, a 2.4% decrease from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 2.8% to 6.45 billion ASMs and load factor rose 0.4 point to 82.6%.
Air Canada reported a first-quarter net loss of C$288 million ($287 million), a substantial increase over a C$34 million loss in the year-ago period, blaming high fuel costs and charges associated with ongoing inquiries into potential antitrust violations in its cargo division.
Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo parent Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings reported a first-quarter net loss of $5.3 million, reversed from a profit of $6.2 million in the year-ago period, but insisted the result reflects high fuel costs from which it largely will be insulated when Polar's blocked-space agreement with DHL begins later this year. "Our business fundamentals are solid and our performance is on track. . .apart from the impact of fuel prices," President and CEO William Flynn said.
United Airlines will launch daily service from Washington Dulles to Moscow Domodedovo (aboard a 767) and Dubai (777) on Oct. 26, pending government approval. UA flew 9.27 billion system RPMs last month, down 6.3% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 2.1% to 11.51 billion ASMs and load factor slipped 3.6 points to 80.5%.
United Airlines announced the appointment of COO Pete McDonald to the new role of chief administrative officer and the promotion of Chief Revenue Officer John Tague to COO, effective immediately. McDonald's role "combines a number of corporate functions to enable successful execution of. . .[UA's] five-year plan," including customer experience, human resources, labor relations, safety and security, information systems and "industry, environmental, corporate and governmental affairs," UA said.
TAP Portugal yesterday announced the launch of new fare and product offerings that it claimed will be better tailored to customer needs while strengthening "transparency in communicating with the traveling public." From June, TAP will offer five new products, each of which will come with a specific level of service both in flight and on the ground: Tap/executive and tap/plus are designed for business travelers or customers "looking for a higher quality service," while tap/classic ("convenience and flexibility"), tap/basic ("very good value") and tap/discount ("very low price") round out
Healthy loads and yields helped Copa Airlines and AeroRepublica parent Copa Holdings mitigate the impact of rising fuel costs in the first quarter, when it suffered a relatively mild 18.7% decline in net income to $39.5 million from $48.6 million in the year-ago period. Results the company characterized as "strong" were boosted by a 21.9% year-over-year increase in operating revenue to $295.9 million. Operating income slipped 14.9% to $51.7 million from $60.8 million as fuel costs climbed $21.7 million.
Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines executives continued to push the merits of their proposed merger this week, assuring both federal and state legislators that no "frontline" workers will be cut, while the two carriers' pilot groups plan to meet next week.
Tiger Airways enjoyed an 81.6% increase in revenue for the fiscal year ended March 31 on a 50% rise in passengers to 2.3 million. Full-year capacity climbed 39.6% and load factor rose 8 points. The Singapore-based LCC did not provide further details and said full results will be released following a formal audit.
EasyJet more than trebled its net loss for the six months ended March 31 to £43.3 million ($85.4 million) from £12.7 million in the year-ago period owing largely to higher fuel costs and the integration of GB Airways.
British Airways flew 8.8 billion RPKs in April, down 7% from the year-ago month, against a 0.4% decline in capacity to 12.29 billion ASKs. Load factor fell 5.1 points to 71.6%. Air Canada and Jazz flew a combined 4 billion RPMs in April, up 0.8% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 0.4% to 4.83 billion ASMs and load factor rose 0.4 point to 82.7%.
Hainan Airlines still is exploring the possibility of joining an alliance although it has not made a firm decision, Liang Pubin, GM of the carrier's Brussels office, told ATWOnline. "We have a team that is exploring the possibility," he said. "The general idea is that it is a necessity to join an alliance, but we have to research the actual advantage and disadvantages of becoming an alliance member and then of course, we have to see what the possibilities are.
Embraer reported a more than tripling of its first-quarter net income to $85 million from $26.2 million in the prior year on a 60.6% surge in revenue to $1.34 billion as commercial aircraft deliveries nearly doubled to 38 compared to 20 last year. Operating income more than tripled to $48.7 million from $15.5 million in the year-ago quarter. The manufacturer delivered 15 E-175s, 17 E-190s, three ERJ-145s and three E-195s during the quarter. Its firm order backlog at quarter's end was $20.3 billion, up 26.1% over $15 billion at the end of the prior-year quarter.
CAE won orders for full-flight simulators and related CAE Simfinity training devices valued at more than C$60 million ($59.4 million) from Lufthansa Flight Training, Flight Training Finance, Swiss Aviation Training and Zhuhai Flight Training Centre. LFT purchased a CAE 7000 Series 777-200 LRF FFS, while FTF ordered a CAE 7000 Series 757 FFS and SAT committed to a CAE 7000 Series E-190 FFS. ZFTC bought two CAE 5000 Series A320 FFSs as well as a CAE Simfinity A320 IPT, a reconfigurable CAE Simfinity APT trainer and a CAE Simfinity 787 VSIM.
Lufthansa Systems reached a deal with Saudi Arabian Airlines to provide its SAP ERP technology for streamlining MRO processes. Technology features a rotation planning system and advanced scheduling and documentation capabilities. LHS entered the agreement as part of an IT consortium that includes SAP, InfoTrust and Atos/Hewlett-Packard.
SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines parent SkyWest Inc. reported first-quarter net income of $29.2 million, down 16.2% from $34.8 million in the year-ago period, on a 10% increase in revenue to $868 million. Commenting on the results, the St. George, Utah-based regional said that "significantly higher fuel costs. . .have risen faster than SkyWest has been able to raise fares to offset these costs."
Tarom and SkyTeam announced an Alliance Associate Adherence Agreement yesterday, paving the way for the Romanian carrier to join the group as an associate. Air Europa, Copa Airlines and Kenya Airways already are associates and FlyLAL Lithuanian Airlines said in March that it was invited to begin the associate membership process ( ATWOnline, March 25). Tarom will offer SkyTeam passengers 130 additional daily flights to Eastern Europe and the Middle East, the alliance said.
Australia's Regional Express (Rex) has been forced to cut more services because of the continuing pilot shortage ( ATWOnline, Nov. 6, 2007). It will withdraw from the Cooma-Sydney route indefinitely--it was scheduled to recommence in June--as well as reduce flying elsewhere in the network.
Lufthansa is considering taking a stake in Austrian Airlines Group, a source close to the German carrier told ATWOnline, saying, "We are watching the value of Austrian's shares very closely, especially with the shareholders meeting scheduled for [today] in Vienna."
European Commission withdrew previously announced plans to limit the maximum size of cabin baggage throughout the EU to 56x45x25 cm. Decision to shelve the plan, which already had been postponed from May 2007, was made to avoid "undue operational complications and inconvenience for passengers on cabin baggage size." Initial plans to restrict the size of hand baggage were part of a package of security measures drawn up in 2006 following the discovery of a terrorist plot to smuggle explosives aboard transatlantic flights.
