United Airlines parent UAL Corp. Chairman, President and CEO Glenn Tilton, who repeatedly has called consolidation a "strategic imperative" for the US industry, spoke publicly for the first time regarding the latest merger speculation, insisting Friday that UA has options even if Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines reach a combination agreement.
Intersky, an Austrian LCC, will add a fourth Dash 8-Q300 to its fleet and launch service from Friedrichshafen to Paris Charles to Gaulle (four-times-weekly) and Munster Osnabruck (five-times-weekly) on March 29. Intersky enjoyed an 11% increase in 2007 revenue to €23 million ($33.7 million) as passenger numbers climbed 9.1% to 180,000. It expects to carry 235,000 in 2008.
Hawaiian Airlines' fleet overhaul is in jeopardy because of strained relations with its pilots, the carrier said Friday in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Finnair flew 1.78 billion RPKs in December, up 18.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 18.3% to 2.36 billion ASKs, lowering load factor 0.6 point to 58.4%. Copa Airlines flew 450.5 million RPMs in December, up 13.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 15.1% to 577.9 million ASMs and load factor dropped 1.4 points to 78%. Republic Airways flew 737.6 million RPMs in December, a 32.1% rise from the year-ago month, against a 32.9% increase in ASMs to 1.06 billion. Load factor slipped 0.4 point to 69.3%.
Northwest Airlines pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn. resolved last week to form a merger committee and said they are "prepared to protect Northwest pilots' careers and seniority while also taking advantage of any positive operational synergies to extract contract enhancements and long-term pilot job security." Separately, the MEC said in a notice to pilots that NWA will reduce its fleet by 27 aircraft in 2008, comprising 24 DC9s and three 747-200s.
Shanghai-based Juneyao Airlines last week sold a 25% stake to a foreign private fund for $100 million, a source at the carrier said yesterday, taking the LCC one step closer toward its goal of listing on an overseas market by early 2009.
Southwest Airlines board authorized a new share repurchase program to acquire up to $500 million of SWA common stock, equal to roughly 41 million shares. It is the sixth repurchase program authorized since January 2006, resulting in the repurchase of 116 million shares of common stock worth $1.8 billion, CEO Gary Kelly said. The company has around 735 million shares outstanding.
LOT Polish Airlines signed a contract for 12 E-175s plus two options and 10 purchase rights, the Brazilian manufacturer announced yesterday, adding that the aircraft were listed on its fourth-quarter backlog as unidentified. Firm aircraft are worth $372 million and the order could rise to $744 million if all options and purchase rights are exercised. Aircraft will seat 82 passengers. LOT will become the largest E-Jet operator in Europe once the jets are delivered, Embraer said. It was an E-Jet launch customer with the E-170 in 2004 and currently operates 10 170s and six 175s.
Lufthansa will start operating a wet-leased PrivatAir A319LR outfitted with an all-business-class cabin on a Munich-Dubai flight from June 1, creating an all-year service that will supplement LH's winter flights aboard a three-class A340-300, the carrier confirmed to ATWOnline. It sees sufficient demand to justify an all-business operation during the summer. LH currently has two PrivatAir A319LRs operating from its minihub in Dusseldorf on a daily Newark run and a five-times-weekly service to Chicago O'Hare.
UK's Air Accident Investigation Branch will be joined by the US National Transportation Safety Board and Boeing to investigate yesterday afternoon's accident at London Heathrow, where a British Airways 777-200ER landed in the grass several hundred meters short of Runway 27L near a busy perimeter road. The aircraft skidded, causing severe damage to the landing gear, both engines and the wings. Three passengers suffered minor injuries during evacuation, BA said.
Eurocontrol revealed that the number of flights in Europe surged to approximately 10 million in 2007, an all-time high and an increase of 5.3% on 2006. Average daily traffic was 27,676 flights last year compared to 26,286 in 2006. Traffic growth was strongest in Eastern Europe, with several states seeing growth near 20%, while growth in Finland, Sweden, Azores and Canary Islands was lower than the European average.
Continental Airlines reported pre-tax income of $566 million for 2007, up 53.4% over earnings of $369 million on a similar basis in 2006, but the company is resolving a "noncash tax" issue related to pilot pensions that prevented it from disclosing net income yesterday.
PrivatAir converted a 787-8 purchase right into a firm order, Boeing announced yesterday. The company now has two 787s on firm order plus one remaining purchase right. "The ever-increasing demand from charter customers for long-range, large-cabin aircraft shows no sign of abating," PrivatAir CEO Greg Thomas said.
Thai Airways plans to lease 20 A320s to replace its 737s and 14 787s to replace its A300s and A330s, according to sources at the airline. The 787 deliveries are thought to start from 2014.
Midwest Airlines announced that Skyway Airlines, which provides regional lift as Midwest Connect, will cease flying this spring, resulting in 380 layoffs, as operations are transferred to SkyWest Airlines under terms of a five-year agreement that took effect last April ( ATWOnline, April 3, 2007). The latter will use 50-seat CRJ200s as opposed to the 32-seat Fairchild-Dornier 328s used by Skyway, and frequencies will decline in Skyway markets.
China Southern Airlines flew 6.52 billion RPKs in December, a 21.8% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 11.6% to 8.94 billion ASKs, driving up load factor 6.1 points to 72.9%. AirTran Airways flew 1.42 billion RPMs in December, up 16.6% over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 13.1% to 1.96 billion ASMs and load factor rose 2.3 points to 72.7%. LAN Airlines flew 2.2 billion RPKs in December, up 13.8% from the year-ago month, against a 13.6% climb in capacity to 2.89 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 0.2 point to 76%.
American Airlines parent AMR Corp. reported full-year 2007 net income of $504 million, more than double the $231 million earned in the prior year, despite a fourth-quarter net loss of $69 million that it attributed largely to "record fuel prices."
ACE Aviation Holdings yesterday said it will sell 13 million units of its Jazz Air Income Fund to West Face Capital and Sunrise Partners Ltd. Partnership for approximately $96.9 million, Reuters reported. ACE's stake in the regional will drop to 9.5% from 20.1%.
Alenia Aeronautica and Sukhoi Civil Aircraft announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed off on the Italian firm's acquisition of a 25%-plus-one-share stake in the Russian OEM ( ATWOnline, Sept. 12, 2007), which is designing and producing the Superjet 100 ( ATWOnline, Sept. 12, 2007).
Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines have launched formal merger negotiations, US Rep. and House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D.-Minn.) told the Star Tribune. "Northwest sees a benefit to them of a merger with Delta," Oberstar said, adding that NWA executives said "there is little route overlap and not a significant effect on competition, which I disagree with." The Congressman confirmed DL is looking at United as well ( ATWOnline, Jan.
Philippine Airlines said it will continue to operate flights to the US despite FAA's downgrading of the country to a Category 2 safety rating. PAL said it will be restricted by FAA to the 33 weekly flights it currently operates to the US and will not be able to change aircraft types used on the routes, meaning that six 777-300ERs scheduled to begin delivering next year will not be able to be deployed as planned unless FAA upgrades the country's status.
China Eastern Airlines has begun to soften its stance on a possible investment by Air China and now says it plans to take seriously a cooperation with CA if Singapore Airlines, whose bid for a stake was rejected by minority shareholders last week, remains involved.
