Lufthansa will launch five-times-weekly Frankfurt-Nanjing service March 31 and thrice-weekly Munich-Shenyang service via Seoul June 8, bringing the number of Chinese destinations served to five. Routes will be operated with 221-seat A340-300s. LH flew 9.38 billion RPKs in November, up 6.7% on the year-ago month. Capacity rose 5% to 12.37 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 1.2 points to 75.8%.
Copa Airlines flew 419.9 million RPMs in November, up 14.4% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 16.1% to 535.7 million ASMs and load factor fell 1.1 points to 78.4%.
Jet Airways exercised options for five A330-200s, according to a statement cited by widespread press reports. Delivery is scheduled from October 2009 through first-quarter 2011. The airline placed an order for 10 of the type plus 10 options at the 2005 Paris Air Show ( ATWOnline, Oct. 26, 2005).
Frontier Airlines said it expects a pre-tax loss of $0.58-$0.68 per share excluding special items in the third fiscal quarter ending Dec. 31. It did not offer a comparison to the year-ago quarter, when it reported a net loss of $14.4 million. It also said it planned to reduce year-over-year mainline capacity growth for the fiscal fourth quarter to 8.6% from the originally scheduled 13.7%. Frontier flew 788.8 million RPMs in November, up 22.5% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 14.1% to 1.01 billion ASMs and load factor rose 5.3 points to 78.1%.
Berjaya Air of Malaysia placed an order for four ATR 72-500s worth $74 million, ATR announced, firming an MOU signed at the Paris Air Show. The 72-seat aircraft will be delivered in 2009-10 and replace 48-seat Dash 7s.
Aircraft lessors were active yesterday as Babcock & Brown Aircraft Management placed an order with Boeing for 20 737-800s valued at $1.5 billion and CIT Aerospace signed contracts with Ryanair for the purchase of 15 737-800s.
Gol and Varig parent Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes yesterday reduced its full-year profit outlook once again while offering a preliminary indication of next year's performance.
Air France KLM flew 16.09 billion RPKs in November, up 3.5% on the year-ago month, against a 3.7% climb in capacity to 20.53 billion ASKs. Load factor fell 0.1 point to 78.4%. TAM flew 1.9 billion domestic RPKs in November, up 15.5% on the year-ago month, against a 9% rise in capacity to 2.63 billion ASKs that lifted load factor 4.1 points to 72.1%. International RPKs climbed 58.4% to 960 million while capacity grew 65% to 1.41 billion ASKs. Load factor fell 2.9 points to 68%.
United Airlines parent UAL Corp. approved a special distribution of $2.15 per share to holders of its common stock, or approximately $250 million, scheduled for Jan. 23. It also said it has paid down $500 million of the term loan under its existing credit agreement ( ATWOnline, Nov. 28).
Sinotrans Air Transportation Development Co. and Korean Air will expand on their cargo agreement with construction of a new freight station in Tianjin. The joint venture will launch with $14.9 million in capital, of which Sinotrans Air contributed $3 million for a 20% stake while Korean invested $7 million for a controlling 47% stake. Other investors are Air Korea, Hanjin Group and Dongliqu Economic Investment Co. The station will be developed in two phases.
Air France KLM's plan to concentrate Alitalia's operations at Rome Fiumicino appear to have won the backing of AZ Chairman Maurizio Prato, who told Corriere della Sera over the weekend that the Franco-Dutch bid "is based on Alitalia's own plan with integrations and changes" while rival Air One presented a bid containing "some generic statements" and AZ "still need[s] to understand how the [Air One] plan will actually work."
Kingfisher Airlines, the Indian domestic carrier with plans to become an international player in the next few years (it has 20 A350 XWBs and five A380s on firm order), reported a loss of INR5.77 billion ($146.2 million) in the fiscal year ended March 31.
Cypress Airways' ground staff plans to strike Dec. 12 and Dec. 17-18 to protest the carrier's plan to outsource ground handling at Larnaca and Paphos to the Swissport & GAP Vassilopoulos joint venture. The strike potentially will affect 107 flights, the airline and two of its unions said Friday. "If need be, our aircraft will fly empty to specific destinations to ferry inbound passengers," CY said in a statement, insisting it will continue operating through the job action.
EasyJet announced six new routes: From Bristol to Biarritz (four-times-weekly from April 23), Olbia (thrice-weekly from April 26) and Split (twice-weekly from April 26); daily London Luton-Pisa from March 30; thrice-weekly Edinburgh-Nice from April 24, and thrice-weekly Glasgow International-Faro from April 22. The LCC transported 2.9 million passengers last month, up 13.2% from the year-ago month. Load factor rose 0.3 point to 80.8%.
Austrian Airlines Group will announce today that former Lufthansa Marketing Director Andreas Bierwirth will become CCO and AAG General Secretary Peter Malanik will be promoted to COO. Jeffrey Shane confirmed last week that he will resign as US Dept. of Transportation undersecretary for policy effective Jan. 31. He did not announce his future plans.
Cebu Air, which operates LCC Cebu Pacific, was approved to launch an IPO by the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission, XFN reported. Cebu Air plans to sell as many as 72 million primary shares and 63.4 million secondary shares at a maximum price of PHP95 ($2.26) each, which it said could raise PHP12.5 billion.
Midwest Air Group said it has complied with requests for additional information from the US Dept. of Justice pertaining to its acquisition by TPG Capital and Northwest Airlines ( ATWOnline, Oct. 31). It added that the parties have agreed not to complete the sale before Jan. 31 without DOJ approval. It said closing will "occur as soon as practicable."
Ryanair called on the European Commission to block Air France KLM from buying Alitalia "until both airlines have paid back a combined €2.7 billion ($3.9 billion) in illegal state aid received from the French and Italian governments" ( ATWOnline, Dec. 7).
Passengers on JetBlue Airways Flight 641 from New York JFK to San Francisco Tuesday morning will be the first to have access to the carrier's new inflight Internet service, which will allow customers with Wi-Fi enabled laptops or one of two BlackBerry models to log on to Yahoo! Mail and Messenger or their personal e-mail accounts (via PDA).
SAS Group airlines flew 3.16 billion RPKs in November, up 3.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 4.5% to 4.83 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 0.9 point to 65.4%. SAS Scandinavian Airlines flew 2.17 billion RPKs, up 0.4%, against a 2.8% increase in ASKs to 3.15 billion that lowered load factor 1.7 points to 68.8%. Aer Lingus flew 1.21 billion RPKs in November, up 17.4% over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 23.3% to 1.65 billion ASKs and load factor fell 3.7 points to 73.4%.
MAXjet Airways, the all-business-class transatlantic carrier, said Friday that it requested "with immediate effect" the suspension of trading of its stock, citing a need to gain "clarification of its financial position."
Lufthansa will end its cooperation with NetJets in February and purchase its own aircraft to expand its Lufthansa Private Jet service, which it said then will be better equipped to handle "strong" demand. "Based on the excellent market response, Lufthansa anticipates steady growth in this segment," it said. It did not say what type of aircraft it will buy or how many, but it expects the jets to start entering service next spring.
Olympic Airlines will be prepared for liquidation. Greek Minister of Transport Kostis Hadzidakis is planning the closure of the loss-making carrier next year and wants to replace it with a new airline under a new name and with a much smaller fleet. The Greek government also is looking for private investors, according to press reports. "We do not want a blueprint of Olympic, where the state has full control," Hadzidakis was quoted as saying. According to preliminary plans, the new carrier would operate with a fleet of 20 aircraft instead of the current 42.
