Airbus appeared to be on the verge of winning a significant order yesterday as reports from Moscow indicated that Aeroflot is close to announcing a major buy. Aeroflot CEO Valery Okulov told reporters at a news conference that SU was planning to sign a contract for 22 A350 XWBs with deliveries beginning in 2015. Reuters reported that Okulov said, "The deal will be done."
VLM Airlines is not talking with British Airways about a possible sale of the regional carrier that is currently the largest operator at London City, owner Jaap Rosen Jacobson told ATWOnline, putting to rest speculation that arose following BA's launch of CityFlyer ( ATWOnline, March 15). VLM accounts for about one-third of all aircraft movements at LCY. "There has been no negotiation with BA on this subject," Jacobson said. "I'm not saying a sale of VLM might not happen. One never knows.
LTU will launch service from Dusseldorf to Los Angeles (five-times-weekly from May 3) and Las Vegas (twice-weekly from May 3). It also will unveil a new livery when it takes delivery of its 12th A330, a -200, in May. Design will remain red and white, with a touch of silver added, and feature a larger logo on the tail. The new look "stands for the transformation of the former vacation carrier into an airline with standard routes and extremely attractive price-to-performance ratios for vacationers and business travelers."
Tiger Airways was given the green light by Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board to proceed with the creation of Tiger Airways Australia ( ATWOnline, Feb. 12). Tiger said FIRB found that "the creation of Tiger Airways Australia was consistent with the government's foreign investment policy and did not place any specific conditions on the creation of the new airline." TAA now will now work toward securing its AOC.
Cyprus Airways' 2006 full-year loss narrowed to CYP7.2 million ($16.5 million) from CYP22.6 million in 2005 as it began to benefit from its restructuring initiatives. It said in January that it expects to be profitable this year ( ATWOnline, Jan. 4). It said improved yield and an increase in RPKs fueled a 10.7% rise in revenue to CYP157 million. Operating costs fell 0.8% to CYP159.8 million, which the airline credited to the layoffs that were part of its restructuring program.
Responding to calls for guidance from shareholders considering Airline Partners Australia's bid to buy the carrier, Qantas confirmed yesterday that a pre-tax profit of A$1.23 billion ($962.8 million), which matches an average of analysts' expectations, is likely for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008.
Pinnacle Airlines yesterday signed a contract for 15 74-seat Q400s plus 10 conditional orders and 20 options. The firm aircraft are worth $381 million at list prices and the deal could climb to $1.2 billion if conditional orders and options are exercised, Bombardier said. Aircraft will be operated by Pinnacle subsidiary Colgan Air for Continental Connection.
Delta Air Lines is amending its service agreement to lower rates and cut some flying done by Republic Airways. At the same time, it tapped Mesa Air Group to operate 14 new Delta-owned CRJ900s under a 10-year agreement. The Mesa deal also includes six additional ERJ-145s, bringing the number of 145s it flies for Delta Connection to 36 and the total fleet to 62. Mesa will receive a general unsecured claim of $35 million as part of DL's bankruptcy proceedings.
India Ministry of Civil Aviation granted approval to Alliance Air, Jet Airways, Deccan Aviation, Sahara Airlines, Kingfisher Airlines, Paramount Airways and Indus Airways to acquire and operate foreign manufactured aircraft with fewer than 80 seats. Airlines in India are exempt from landing fees for planes with fewer than 80 seats. Separately, the ministry announced that the new Bangalore International Airport will open April 2.
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.
