Flight Explorer, a global flight tracking and IT solutions provider, entered into a teaming agreement with Metron Aviation "to integrate Metron's Enhanced Substitution Module product into Flight Explorer's FE Professional Aircraft Situation Display." Flight Explorer also will serve as "a value-added-reseller" of Metron's ESM product.
British Airways reported a profit of £269 million ($546.5 million) for its fiscal first quarter ended June 30, a 74.7% jump over a profit of £154 million for the year-ago quarter, a performance with which the airline said it was particularly pleased given ongoing security restrictions at London Heathrow. "These are very good results despite operational difficulties at Heathrow," CEO Willie Walsh said. "Profits are up as a result of steps we took last year to control costs."
Air France KLM Group subsidiaries Regional and KLM Cityhopper last week placed a joint order for 20 E-170/190 aircraft plus 18 options. The group said the combined order "will lead to substantial synergies both in the purchasing of aircraft, engines and spare parts and in fleet management, operational maintenance and crew training." Regional will take six 170s and four 190s and Cityhopper will take 10 190s and replace its oldest F100s. Deliveries are scheduled between 2008 and 2011.
Frontier Airlines President and CEO Jeff Potter, who joined the carrier in 1995 as VP-marketing and assumed his current position in April 2002, will step down on Sept. 6 in order "to accept a new position outside of the airline industry," the Denver-based carrier announced last week, adding that the board already has launched its search for a successor. Potter will remain on the board. He left Frontier in May 2000 to become president and CEO of Vanguard Airlines, spending a year with the now-defunct carrier before returning to Frontier as COO.
Air Arabia reported net earnings of AED115 million ($31.3 million) for the first half of 2006, more than four times greater than the AED26 million reported in the year-ago semester. Revenue rose 67% to AED513 million as passenger boardings surged 57.9% to 1.2 million. Second-quarter profit was AED71.7 million and passenger numbers during the three months ended June 30 increased 11.5% to 646,000. "The company has received acceptance and support from the market and our business has expanded rapidly," CEO Adel Ali said.
Already the subject of takeover rumors involving such heavyweights as TPG, British Airways and Air France KLM, Spanish flag carrier Iberia yesterday presented itself as an even more appetizing target by reporting a second-quarter profit of €62.6 million, up 75.2% on year-ago earnings of €35.7 million, and a half-year profit of €74.8 million that marked its "best performance in the last five years."
Philippine Airlines said it informed shareholders yesterday that it will exit receivership before year end thanks to an eight-year streak of operational profits and three straight years of net profits. The carrier earned a record $140.3 million in the fiscal year ended March 31 ( ATWOnline, June 29). Separately, PAL signed an MOU with authorities in Chongqing paving the way for future service. It already serves Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen on the Chinese mainland.
ExpressJet Holdings will have its 2007 block-hour rates under its capacity purchase agreement with Continental Airlines reduced by $14.2 million, an arbitration panel decided. The dispute went to arbitration June 25. ExpressJet said the reduction "represents changing staffing levels and overhead expenses allocated to the CPA as well as expenses associated with ExpressJet's nonflying businesses."
Montenegro Airlines signed an agreement to lease two E-195s from GECAS. Deliveries are scheduled for May 2008 and May 2009. Aircraft will be configured with 116 seats in two classes--the first business class-equipped E-195s in Europe--and used on routes to Russia, the UK and Scandinavia, Embraer said.
Despite the fact that one Chinese airline after another has forecast a first-half profit, significant operational challenges still face the industry as it continues to grow.
Continental Airlines reported an estimated 3%-4% increase in July consolidated RASM as it flew 9.06 billion system RPMs, up 3.6% from the year-ago month, against a 2.4% rise in ASMs to 10.48 billion. Load factor improved 1 point to 86.4%. Domestic RPMs climbed 4.5% to 4.25 billion, ASMs were up 3.7% to 4.83 billion and load rose 0.7 point to 88%. International traffic increased 6.3% to 3.93 billion RPMs, capacity was ahead 4.6% to 4.57 billion ASMs and load factor lifted 1.3 points to 86%. Southwest Airlines flew 7.05 billion RPMs in July, up 11.4% from the year-ago month.
A Brazilian Congressional commission investigating last month's TAM A320 crash released a cockpit voice recorder transcript this week in which the pilots indicated they were unable to decelerate the aircraft owing to inoperable spoilers, while TAM said its ticket sales have plunged 30% since the accident.
Northwest Airlines, which has been beset for the past two months by high levels of flight cancellations that it has attributed to weather and "pilot absenteeism," reached a tentative agreement with the Air Line Pilots Assn. on "a variety of contract issues and pilot work rules," according to the carrier.
Mesa Air Group reported third fiscal quarter earnings of $2.6 million, a 76.2% drop from the year-ago period. Revenue for the regional provider rose 5% to $355.9 million while operating expenses increased 10.2% to $343.4 million, dropping operating income 54.5% year-over-year to $12.5 million from $27.5 million.
CAE and Air Canada signed contracts valued at C$60 million ($56.4 million) over 15 years giving CAE responsibility for "operation services" at AC's Toronto and Vancouver training centers. CAE also will market excess training capacity to third parties. AC will continue to conduct its own pilot training, including curriculum and instructors. Separately, CAE said it won a contract for an A330/A340 FFS from US FAA for delivery in the summer of 2008. Virgin Blue ordered a 737NG FFS. Air France ordered an A320 FFS and Japan Airlines ordered a suite of 787 maintenance training devices.
WestJet reported second-quarter net income of C$11.5 million ($10.8 million), down 48.7% from C$22.4 million in the year-ago quarter, a falloff largely attributable to the C$31.9 million charge incurred when it scrapped installation of the aiRES reservation system. The Calgary-based LCC also said it signed an agreement with Boeing to purchase 20 additional 737-700s to be delivered in 2012 and 2013, with options to convert the orders to -800s.
Record first fiscal quarter revenue helped Singapore Airlines Group to a S$424.1 million ($280.3 million) net profit attributable to equity holders during the three months ended June 30, down from year-ago earnings of S$575.1 million that were boosted by a one-time gain of S$223 million from the sale of the SIA Building.
Southwest Airlines promoted Senior Director-Airport Performance Improvement Matt Hafner to VP-ground operations. Alaska Air Group promoted Director-Government Affairs Megan Lawrence to MD-government and community relations.
Iberia launched a new service on its website to allow passengers to supply Advance Passenger Information when traveling to countries that require it such as the US, Cuba, and Mexico. Initially the service is available only when the reservation has been made through Amadeus. Next year it will be available regardless of the distribution system, IB said.
American Airlines signed an MOU with AirCell to become the first US carrier to test that company's high-speed broadband capability for passengers traveling within the continental US. The test will be conducted next year on AA's 767-200s "that primarily fly transcontinental routes," according to the airline. The solution will provide passengers the ability to use Wi-Fi-enabled laptops and PDAs "coast-to-coast, border-to-border," surf the Internet and send and receive e-mail, according to AirCell.
Antitrust authorities on both sides of the Atlantic levied heavy fines against British Airways and Korean Air for their participation in conspiracies to manipulate fares and surcharges on both passenger and freighter flights throughout this decade. The carriers, which pleaded guilty and have agreed to the penalties, are among several that have been under investigation by the US Dept. of Justice and UK Office of Fair Trading since last year.
Alitalia yesterday named former Finmeccanica executive Maurizio Prato chairman a day after Berardino Libonati resigned on the eve of a critical board meeting. AZ said it would "defer approval of the guidelines of the company industrial plan until a meeting scheduled for Aug. 30, which would give Prato "time to obtain the necessary information." The board is scheduled to approve AZ's first-half results on Sept. 12. The company's net debt as of June 30 was €1.03 billion ($1.42 billion), down from €1.05 million at the end of May.
American Airlines took Google to court over the sale of its keywords to other companies for use in Google searches. In its complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, Texas, American took issue with Google's practice of allowing other companies to bid on "American Airlines" as a search term, which allows the companies' ads to appear in the paid search field to the right of "organic" search results.
THE PAST TWO YEARS HAVE BEEN turbulent for Pinnacle Airlines, which until New Opportunities However, the revised deal also permitted Pinnacle to take advantage of growth opportunities outside the Airlink program, something previously forbidden. It now can sell its services to other carriers (although not into NWA's hubs of Detroit, Memphis and Minneapolis) and can operate aircraft up to 76 seats or other sizes that do not cause NWA to violate its labor agreement with its pilots union.
One-time noncash gains related to its emergence from bankruptcy in May propelled Northwest Airlines to a net profit of $2.15 billion for the second quarter ended June 30, significantly reversed from a net loss of $285 million in the year-ago period when it was operating under Chapter 11 protection. Excluding reorganization items, NWA reported a pre-tax profit for the period of $273 million, up 52.5% compared to earnings of $179 million on a similar basis in the year-ago period.
