FedEx signed a new 30-year lease agreement yesterday with the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority under which it will pay more than $240 million over the life of the contract to control a 30.5-million-sq.-ft. area at Memphis International. The agreement goes into effect Jan. 1 and replaces one that had been in place since 1979. FedEx will pay $7.9 million next year, with annual payments rising 13% every five years. The agreement includes options to extend it to 2058.
MAIR Holdings, parent of Big Sky Airlines, reported a net loss of $7.4 million for the fiscal year ended March 31, narrowed considerably from a net loss of $82.8 million a year ago. The results do not include any data from former subsidiary Mesaba Airlines, which was transferred to Northwest Airlines in April ( ATWOnline, April 25). Operating loss shrank to $14.6 million from $62.7 million. The fourth-quarter net loss of $1.2 million compared to the year-ago period's $54.1 million.
Etihad Airways intends to add narrowbody aircraft to its fleet in order to cut down on the number of regional services it operates with widebodies. "We are currently sourcing for a minimum of six to nine A319/A320 aircraft for our regional routes," CEO James Hogan told ATWOnline at this week's IATA GM in Vancouver. Etihad plans to lease or buy the aircraft "depending what is available on the market and what's best for the carrier," he said. They are scheduled to enter service by year end on routes to destinations like Doha, Bahrain and Muscat among others.
TAP Portugal's acquisition of PGA Portugalia Airlines ( ATWOnline, Nov. 8, 2006) has been cleared by the country's competition authority, AdC, which last month imposed seven conditions on the merger, including a limitation of frequencies between Lisbon and Porto in order to open the route to competing carriers. TAP paid approximately €140 million for PGA following several years of on-again-off-again negotiations and said it aims to integrate the two airlines fully by the end of September.
Aeroflot CEO Valery Okulov stressed again this week that SU wants to win the Italian government's auction to buy Alitalia and that he has no plans to drop out of the bidding. "Of course we want to have AZ. But this is a very tough process," he said ( ATWOnline, June 4). He said Aeroflot has the experience necessary to rebuild Alitalia as a result of its own restructuring. He also said it is becoming more important for the Russian airline to invest in Europe.
Soaring on the wings of a MYR133 million ($39 million) first-quarter profit that exceeded the carrier's full-year earnings target of MYR50 million, Malaysia Airlines CEO Idris Jala said MAS will continue to focus on building both yield and network. "We are working on improving our customer value proposition, looking at every aspect of our work, at every touch point," Jala told media in Vancouver at this week's IATA AGM.
Aer Lingus Group placed an order for six A330-300Es and six A350 XWBs, with deliveries commencing in 2009 and running though 2014. The carrier also holds the option to purchase a further six A350s for delivery by 2018 as part of an order valued at $2.4 billion at catalog prices. It noted in a stock exchange filing that "substantial discounts off the catalog prices have been negotiated." The transaction is subject to shareholder approval.
Delta Air Lines flew 10.08 billion system RPMs in May, up 5.9% from the year-ago month, as domestic traffic rose 2.9% and international climbed 12.8%. Capacity was up 0.6% to 12.48 billion ASMs on a 4.8% domestic decline and a 13.1% international increase. Load factor grew 4.1 points to 80.8%, climbing 6.1 points to 81.9% domestically and dipping 0.2 point to 78.5% internationally.
British Airways flew 9.3 billion RPKs in May, a 2.1% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity dipped 0.1% to 12.7 billion ASKs and load factor fell 1.5 points to 73.3%. Southwest Airlines flew 6.27 billion RPMs in May, up 5.2% on the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 9.2% to 8.47 billion ASMs, dropping load factor 2.8 points to 74%.
Croatia Airlines ordered four 76-seat Q400s with options on two more, Bombardier announced. Firm orders are worth an estimated $105 million at list prices. The turboprops will replace three 48-seat ATR 42s in the airline's fleet, which also includes four A320s and four A319s.
Silverjet signed an LOI to acquire two 767-200ERs from Thomsonfly for delivery next March. Aircraft are powered by CF6-80C2B4Fs. The all-business-class carrier now has five of the type either in use or on the way. It currently operates one aircraft on a daily London Luton-Newark service but said it is considering an additional 30 routes. Its second aircraft is undergoing cabin reconfiguration. A second daily frequency will start in late July. Silverjet flew 3,628 revenue seats in May at 62.6% load factor.
South African Airways, which revealed a major restructuring initiative this week, is being offered the opportunity to reverse its financial situation but has been warned it will not be backed indefinitely by the national government, which owns the troubled carrier.
Northwest Airlines announced the following executive changes: Executive VP-International, Alliances & Information Technology and Chairman-NWA Cargo Phil Haan resigned effective July 31; Executive VP and CFO Neal Cohen was named executive VP-strategy and international and CEO-regional airlines; Senior VP-Finance and Controller Dave Davis will succeed Cohen; CIO Theresa Wise was promoted to senior VP and CIO. TAP Portugal CEO Fernando Pinto was named chairman of the IATA board of governors yesterday at the AGM.
Ryanair reported a 42% jump in full fiscal year net income to €435.6 million ($586.3 million), compared to €306.7 million in the prior year, on rising fares and passenger numbers, yet warned that profit growth will slow to about 5% in the current financial year and that it may even report a loss in the third and fourth quarters.
Mesaba Airlines will launch the first NextGen CRJ900 into service Thursday. The aircraft features a newly designed cabin interior and lower operating costs, according to Bombardier ( ATWOnline, June 4). A Mesaba flightcrew operated a trial flight yesterday at Washington Dulles. First revenue flight for the Northwest Airlines subsidiary will start in Minneapolis/St.
Air France KLM is in talks with its US SkyTeam partners regarding slot exchanges to permit the US carriers to operate to London Heathrow when the US-EU open skies agreement takes effect next spring, Vice Chairman Leo van Wijk confirmed earlier this week. Speaking to media in Vancouver at the IATA AGM, van Wijk said KLM is talking with Northwest Airlines and Air France with Delta Air Lines. They also have agreed in principle that Continental Airlines will participate. "London Heathrow will become an additional transatlantic hub for SkyTeam partners," he stated.
While shoring up its domestic presence with its pending acquisition of Air Deccan, Kingfisher Airlines has big long-haul plans as well, including a possible alliance tie-up, Chairman and CEO Vijay Mallya said at this week's IATA AGM in Vancouver.
B/E Aerospace said yesterday that it has been selected to provide main cabin retrofit and new-buy seating programs for some 250 aircraft by US Airways, Frontier Airlines and AirAsia in contracts collectively valued at more than $70 million. The US deal includes retrofitting A320s and equipping new-buy single-aisle aircraft with economy and first class seating. The contract with Frontier covers retrofitting A318s and A319s as well as equipping A320s with economy seating. The AirAsia award is a follow-on order for economy seating for new-buy A320s.
Royal Brunei Airlines named Ray Sayer its new CEO, effective Sept. 1. Los Angeles World Airports named Gina Marie Lindsey executive director, replacing Lydia Kennard, who resigned in January. Formerly executive director of Seattle-Tacoma International, Lindsey will oversee Los Angeles International, Ontario, Van Nuys and Palmdale airports.
Virgin Atlantic Airways revealed yesterday that it intends to launch a business class-only carrier within the next 12-18 months. In a first stage, the new airline will fly transatlantic routes to the US from London and other European cities including Paris, Frankfurt, Milan and Zurich. Direct flights from points throughout the EU to the US will be possible under the new open skies regime that will take effect March 30, 2008. Virgin did not say which aircraft it would use to operate the flights.
South African Airways said yesterday that it will ground its 747-400 fleet, divide into seven subsidiaries and cut its management staff by 30% as part of a comprehensive restructuring effort aimed at returning the carrier to profitability.
Korean Air, saying it "shall no longer remain indifferent to the invasion of low-cost carriers from China and Southeast Asia into the Korean market," announced plans yesterday to launch an LCC within three years that will operate flights on domestic and short and mid-range international routes using 737s. The plan's unveiling culminated a process that began in 2005 when a KAL task force started studying the feasibility of the airline operating its own LCC.
Swiss International Air Lines will launch daily Zurich-Delhi service on Nov. 25 aboard A330-200s and a daily ZRH-Shanghai Pudong flight in summer 2008. It is adding two A330-200s and one A340-300 this summer and will take two additional A340-300s by next April.
Australia's Regional Express Holdings, which operates as Rex, said last week that it earned a A$17.3 million ($14.3 million) profit in the first nine months of its fiscal year, a figure 51.8% higher than in the year-ago period. It is projecting full-year profit growth of 40%. Nine-month passenger numbers rose 19.8% to 1.05 million.
