British Airways announced an expansion of its operation at London City, which it retained as part of its deal to sell BA Connect to Flybe ( ATWOnline, March 6). BA's new CityFlyer subsidiary will operate 250 weekly flights from LCY, a more than 73.6% increase from its current program of 144, to six UK and European destinations beginning March 26 aboard 10 RJ100s. It will launch new four-times-daily service to Glasgow International and Zurich and also will fly to Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Madrid and Milan Malpensa.
Continental Airlines released an investor update this week saying it expects first-quarter yield to be "up slightly" from the year-ago quarter despite a drop in mainline domestic and regional yields. "Strong improvement" in transatlantic and Latin American yields will help compensate, it said. Full-year capacity is expected to climb 4.9%, driven by a 10.3% growth in transatlantic operations. CO said first-quarter consolidated CASM will be 11.44-11.49 cents, rising to 11.45-11.50 cents for the full year.
Cathay Pacific Airways together with Dragonair flew 5.88 billion RPKs in February, up 2.2% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 3% to 7.79 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 0.5 point to 75.5%.
Air Arabia reported a 2006 full-year profit of AED101 million ($27.5 million), more than three times the AED31.3 million earned in 2005. Revenue soared 82% to AED749.2 million and passenger numbers grew 54% to 1.8 million. Load factor was 81.2%. The airline has submitted its application to United Arab Emirates authorities to launch an IPO this quarter. Separately, Air Arabia launched thrice-weekly Sharjah-Karachi service and twice-weekly Sharjah-Peshawar flights. Each service adds one frequency from April 3.
Frontier Airlines authorized the repurchase of up to 300,000 shares of outstanding common stock. The repurchased shares will be contributed to the carrier's employee stock ownership plan.
TAM secured a $331 million syndicated loan led by Calyon and Natixis Transport Finance to finance pre-delivery payments on the four firm 777-300ERs ordered last fall ( ATWOnline, Nov. 22, 2006).
BCI Aircraft Leasing said it acquired two A321-100s from Airbus that are on long-term lease to Alitalia, bringing to five the number of -100s the Chicago-based lessor has placed with AZ.
Airbus, in conjunction with Lufthansa and Qantas, will fly development A380s to New York JFK and Los Angeles International next week to demonstrate the aircraft to US media and to test JFK and LAX facilities. Development A380 MSN7, to be operated with assistance from LH ( ATWOnline, Feb. 14), will fly on to Chicago O'Hare after stopping at JFK. An A380 will fly to Washington Dulles on March 25.
ANA grounded its 13 Q400s yesterday following an incident at Kochi Airport where an aircraft with 60 people onboard circled while the pilot unsuccessfully attempted to lower the nosegear before bringing the plane down on its main wheels with the nose up. The nose reportedly then hit the runway but the pilot kept the Q400 on the tarmac. No one was hurt. The aircraft was delivered new to ANA in July 2005 and had flown just 2,966 hr. and 4,197 cycles. The Q400 fleet operates 45 sectors per day on 15 routes and carries more than 3,250 passengers.
Airline Partners Australia's proposed A$11.1 billion ($8.68 billion) buyout of Qantas hit turbulence when a Senate inquiry investigating a private member's bill was told that QF would be forced to sell off its airline interests in New Zealand, Fiji and Singapore if the Qantas Sale Act was applied to all subsidiaries. The 1994 act, which governed the carrier's transition to a publicly listed company, mandates that QF remain 51% Australian owned, maintain its headquarters in Australia and have a home-grown majority on its board.
Estonian Air will introduce a sixth aircraft to its fleet, a 737-500, in June and launch four-times-weekly Tallinn-Vienna service. It also will reintroduce thrice-weekly flights to Hamburg beginning March 26 and announced summer services to Paris Charles de Gaulle (four-times-weekly), Dubrovnik (twice-weekly) and Simferopol (twice-weekly).
TAP Portugal posted a €7.3 million ($9.6 million) net profit in 2006, which it called a "remarkable" turnaround from the €10.3 million loss in 2005, citing overall activity increases along with efficiency improvements. Consolidated revenues rose 21.7% to €1.65 billion and operating costs grew 18.1% to €1.47 billion as the fuel bill climbed 30.5% to €373 million. Operating profit came in at €30.3 million compared to a €9.5 million loss in 2005. TAP said all divisions contributed to the improved performance.
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker told ATWOnline during last week's ITB convention in Berlin that the carrier is not making money but that it will earn "tons" from 2012 onward.
A tumultuous year that featured an IPO, an attempted takeover by Ryanair and an announced withdrawal from oneworld ended on a down note for Aer Lingus as a lengthy list of exceptional items resulted in a €69.9 million ($91.9 million) full-year loss compared to a 2005 profit of €88.9 million.
Alitalia said "improvement in business activities compared to the previous year" allows it to forecast sales of €4.7 billion ($6.16 billion) in 2007, leading to an 8% rise in annual EBITDAR. AZ has not released its full-year 2006 results.
China plans to enter the large aircraft manufacturing fray, announcing yesterday via the official state Xinhua News Agency that the "dream" of challenging Boeing and Airbus with domestically produced jets "is expected to come true by 2020 if everything goes well." Liu Daxiang, deputy head of the Dept. of Science and Technology Development at China Aviation Industry Corp. I, said, "We are now fairly well conditioned for making large aircraft with the sound support from growing national economic strength, technological development and experience in manufacturing."
RegionsAir, a codeshare partner of American Airlines and Continental Airlines, may remain grounded for up to 120 days after US FAA found fault with the carrier's pilot training program. "They discovered that their check pilots had not received proper training," an FAA spokesperson told ATWOnline. "They signed a consent order [on March 9] where they said they would stand down for 120 days until they could get it fixed." As a result, RegionsAir lost its Essential Air Service contracts. US Dept.
US Airways lost its bid to merge with Delta Air Lines ( ATWOnline, Feb. 1), but US Chairman and CEO Doug Parker remains convinced that the "facts are irrefutable and compelling in favor of consolidation" among US carriers. Speaking to the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading 24th annual conference in Phoenix Monday, Parker cited the experience of America West Airlines and the old US Airways as evidence of consolidation's benefits.
News from Travel Technology Update: British Airways signed a new three-year agreement with Galileo, the GDS unit of Travelport. It is the first GDS agreement announced by the carrier since its previous pacts expired at the end of February. The new deal, which goes into effect April 10, is basically a "continuation" of Galileo's travel agency opt-in program that was launched in 2004, according to the carrier. The program gives Galileo subscribers in the U.K. and Ireland access to all publicly available fares, provided they opt in to the program.
CSA Czech Airlines released its full-year results Friday, confirming last week's report of a CZK397 million ($18.5 million) loss ( ATWOnline, March 9), narrowed from a CZK496 million deficit in 2005. Revenues rose 5.9% to CZK23.48 billion and expenses fell 1.5% to CZK23.59 billion. CSA said it achieved cost reductions by "centralizing its purchasing and by re-bidding tenders for outsourced services," such as switching insurance brokers and ground handlers at foreign airports.
Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo parent Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings posted net income of $59.8 million for 2006, down 19.1% from $73.9 million earned in the prior year, on an 8.6% decrease in revenue to $1.48 billion. But the company reported a 66.2% fourth-quarter profit gain to $45.7 million and projects strong growth going forward, pointing to 12 747-8 freighters it has on order and a partnership deal with DHL that will see the express cargo giant take a stake in Polar ( ATWOnline, Oct. 17, 2006).
SkyWest Airlines parent SkyWest Inc. announced a plan to repurchase 5 million shares of outstanding common stock, saying it is "a good use of financial resources and. . .will further the advancement of certain corporate objectives." The company reported a 29.9% rise in 2006 net income to $145.8 million ( ATWOnline, Feb. 8).
