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.
Republic Airways Holdings saw its second-quarter profit dip 6% to $19 million from $20.3 million in the year-ago quarter on a 12.7% increase in revenue to $320.3 million. Operating expenses climbed 14.7% to $265.7 million and operating income was up 3.8% to $54.5 million. Republic operates as Republic Airlines, Chautauqua Airlines and Shuttle America. During the quarter it took delivery of seven E-175s to be operated under a fixed-fee contract for US Airways and eight CRJ200s to be flown for Continental Airlines on short-term leases.
United Airlines parent UAL Corp. named Rohit Philip as VP-financial planning and analysis, Todd Arkenberg as VP-employee experience and Robert Sahadevan as VP-Mileage Plus.
Sensis Corp. announced that its Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X system at Louisville International Airport is operational. According to Sensis, ASDE-X uses a combination of surface movement radar, transponder multilateration and ADS-B sensors "to provide controllers with an accurate picture of the location and identity of aircraft and vehicles on the airport surface." The system also features conflict detection and alerting technology.
A380 received EASA and US FAA approval to operate on runways with a width of 45 m. or more, which is the standard at most airports around the world, Airbus said. The aircraft already has visited 45 airports and the manufacturer claimed that more than 70 will be ready for the A380 by 2011.
China's LCCs, which are facing a lack of access to trunk routes, restriction on the introduction of new aircraft and pilot shortages, are experiencing mixed results in their efforts to attract the foreign investors they need to move forward with listing plans. Spring Airlines has met with success, sealing a deal with Citibank under which the latter will serve as strategic investor and financial adviser, Spring spokesperson Zhang Lei revealed ( ATWOnline, July 4).
Alitalia Chairman Berardino Libonati resigned from both his position and the board yesterday. The AZ board is scheduled to convene today in order to discuss the options facing the carrier following the government's failure to sell its stake at auction.
Qantas finalized the first of three investment installments in Vietnam's Pacific Airlines, taking an 18% stake. The entire investment for 30% will be concluded over the next two years ( ATWOnline, April 27). Jetstar Airways CEO Alan Joyce and CFO David Hall will represent Qantas Group on Pacific's six-member board, while QF and Jetstar executives will fill a number of key management roles to support the investment.
Midwest Air Group yesterday took a further step toward a possible acquisition by AirTran Holdings, which has been pursuing it for more than eight months, announcing it had appointed a committee to "commence discussions with AirTran regarding its proposal to acquire all the outstanding shares of Midwest." The company added that the committee also will "hold discussions with other strategic and financial parties that have recently expressed interest in pursuing a transaction with Midwest." The decision came a few days after the Milwaukee-based carrier reported a 44.6% drop in second-quart
Surges in passenger traffic and ancillary revenue helped lift Ryanair's first fiscal quarter profit by 20% to a record €138.9 million ($189.7 million) from the €115.7 million earned in the three months ended June 30, 2006. In addition, it raised its full-year earnings guidance to a 10% improvement from the originally forecast 5% thanks to planned aircraft utilization and capacity reductions at London Stansted.
ANA Group is continuing to realize the benefits from the sale of its hotel business, which helped boost the company's profit for the first fiscal quarter ended June 30 to a record ¥87.3 billion ($736.6 million) from the ¥7.6 billion earned in the year-ago quarter.
