Continental Airlines announced the sale of $1.15 billion worth of pass-through certificates, issued in three separate series, that will be used to finance its purchase of 30 737-800s and 737-900ERs scheduled for delivery in the January 2008-March 2009 timeframe. The proceeds initially will be held in escrow by an unidentified depository institution. The escrowed funds will be used to acquire equipment notes issued by CO to finance the aircraft. The three classes have coupons of 5.983%, 6.903% and 7.339% per annum.
Air Canada flew 3.94 billion RPMs in March, up 5% on the year-ago month. Capacity rose 2% to 4.7 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 2.4 points to 83.8%. AirTran Airways flew 1.48 billion RPMs in March, up 22.2% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 22.9% to 1.9 billion ASMs and load factor fell 0.4 point to 77.7%. Gol flew 1.48 billion RPKs in March, up 42.9% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 59.2% to 2.4 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 7 points to 61.8%.
European Commission approved public financing of infrastructure developments at Lodz Airport. Cost of the project is PLN34.8 million ($12.1 million), with a maximum contribution by the Polish state of 71.85 %. Lodz increased passenger throughput to 216,861 in 2006 from 35,460 the prior year. Separately, the EC will allow the Italian government to grant startup aid for new domestic and European air routes from airports in the Puglia region of southeast Italy. The measure will last three years and provides for a total of €63 million ($84.3 million) to airlines.
Transaero plans to sell a 10%-17% stake in an IPO next year, Russia's AK&M reported. The company reported turnover of RUB13.63 billion in 2006, up 37.8% from the prior year.
China unveiled more details of its plan to build "jumbo aircraft," which it defines as passenger jets with more than 150 seats or freighters with a takeoff weight of more than 100 tons, saying it will begin assembling the planes in 10 or more years in Shanghai and Xi'an, according to the official state Xinhua News Agency.
Xiamen Airlines is negotiating with Boeing to order 25 737-800s valued at $2.1 billion, with the aircraft to be delivered in the 2011-13 timeframe if a deal can be reached. "We will offer a favorable price to Xiamen Airlines, as its fleet is virtually all Boeing," Commercial Airplanes President Scott Carson noted during his recent trip to Xiamen. Currently the carrier operates 43 Boeing aircraft comprising four 737-300s, six 737-500s, 15 737-700s, nine 737-800s and nine 757-200s. One additional 737-800 will be delivered in August.
Despite a rough winter in the US Northeast and glitches related to last month's reservation system migration, US Airways Group still expects to report a first-quarter profit.
Republic Airways Holdings announced the sale of its $91 million pre-petition unsecured creditor claim in Delta Air Lines' bankruptcy for $44.6 million. The transaction will close April 11. Republic subsidiaries Chautauqua Airlines and Shuttle America operate as Delta Connection.
Silverjet announced an underwritten placing, subject to shareholder approval, designed to raise £27 million ($53.1 million) gross. Shares are being placed at £1.80 each, a discount of 3.49% from the closing market price, the startup carrier said. The money will be used for "general working capital purposes." The all-business-class airline sold 3,293 revenue seats in March, representing a 59% load factor. In addition, last month it began offering cargo services on its daily London Luton-Newark 767 flight.
Fraport announced an investment of "approximately" €50 million ($66.9 million) to take a 24.5% share of Xi'an Airport. The transaction is scheduled to be completed in the third quarter and marks the first investment by a foreign airport operator in an unlisted Chinese airport, Fraport said. It will take charge of Xi'an's "operational optimization and commercial development."
Airbus said US Airways has joined America West Airlines in using the Airman real-time maintenance tool to monitor its fleet of Airbus aircraft. US becomes the largest Airman user.
Airline consolidation in the US began last week on a smaller scale than the failed mega-merger between US Airways and Delta Air Lines and AirTran Airways' contentious pursuit of Midwest Air Group as ATA Airlines parent ATA Holdings bought out World Air Holdings, parent of World Airways and North American Airlines, for $315 million in cash or $12.50 per share.
Air France KLM flew 17.13 billion RPKs in March, up 7.5% on the year-ago month. Capacity rose 3.8% to 20.83 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 2.8 points to 82.3%. Northwest Airlines flew 7.02 billion consolidated RPMs in March, a 1.3% rise from the year-ago month, as domestic traffic climbed 3.1% and international rose 1.4%. Regional traffic declined 12.9%. Capacity was up 1.8% to 8.19 billion ASMs on a 2.6% domestic increase and a 3.7% rise in international ASMs. Load factor fell 0.4 point to 85.7%.
Lufthansa CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber told ATWOnline that his company is keeping a close watch on the sales and consolidation rumors circulating through Europe, especially those involving Iberia and Alitalia, but that it will err on the side of caution regarding its own involvement. "Both carriers would theoretically fit us," he said aboard a flight from Munich to Busan last week. "But conditions have to be proper, otherwise one can get into financial difficulties."
Garuda Indonesia 737-400 that crashed last month, killing 21 people ( ATWOnline, March 12), was traveling at 410 kph when it hit the runway at Yogyakarta Airport, nearly twice normal speed, according to a report by Indonesia's Transport Committee obtained by Australian media.
Mesa Air Group named Freedom Airlines President and Senior VP-West Coast Operations Mike Ferverda as COO of its JV with Shenzhen Airlines, Bombardier Flexjet VP-Marketing Tom Bacon as VP-planning, VP-East Coast Operations Jorn Bates as Freedom COO, Director-MRO Services Gary Appling as VP-technical services and purchasing, Director-Corporate Development Jeff Bethune as VP-financial planning and analysis and Adam Wilensky as director-planning.
FedEx Express, the delivery giant's airline unit, signed an agreement Friday to acquire its Hungarian service provider, Flying-Cargo Hungary, a move that fits with its strategy to expand in Eastern Europe and gain greater control of service providers in emerging markets. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. F-C has been aligned with FedEx in Hungary since 2003, helping to move and deliver international express shipments.
BAE Systems Regional Aircraft selected Romania's Aerostar as the prime contractor for the relaunched BAe 146QT freighter conversion program. Aerostar will be responsible for maintenance, large freight door assembly and E-Class cargo interior kit manufacture and installation and will subcontract the manufacture of the large upward-opening freight door and delivery to Avione Craiova. The first conversion is scheduled to be available early to mid-2008. It will be available in Series 200 and Series 300 types and will have a maximum bulk payload of 11,670 kg. for the 200 or 13,265 kg.
US Bureau of Transportation Statistics said the 20 reporting US carriers posted and ontime arrival rate of 75.4% in 2006, down from 77.4% in 2005. Reports of mishandled baggage per 1,000 passengers rose to 6.73 from 6.64 while complaints about service fell 4.8%.
Turkish Airlines on Friday released select English-language financial results for 2006, reporting a $132 million net profit that represented a 31.4% increase over the prior year's net earnings of TRY138.2 million ($100.5 million). The comparison is based on capital market bond standards and does not account for currency fluctuations. It is higher than airline officials predicted in December ( ATWOnline, Dec. 11, 2006), when THY announced its intention to join Star Alliance.
UTair Airlines' 2006 profit more than doubled to RUB263.9 million ($10.2 million) from RUB128 million in 2005, Russia's AK&M reported. The company anticipates a RUB645 million profit in 2007.
