AirAsia will subcontract rural turboprop services to Fly Asian Xpress, or FAX, which intends to begin operations Aug. 1. AirAsia is taking over the majority of domestic routes once operated by Malaysia Airlines and will transfer operations of its six F50s and five Twin Otters to FAX.
Air Traffic Control Assn. named Peter Dumont president. Dumont is a VP and acting COO at Serco. Singapore Airlines Cargo named Singapore Airlines Executive VP-Marketing and the Regions Huang Cheng Eng as chairman and director effective Aug. 1. Huang joined SIA in 1974.
The merger of US Airways Group and America West Airlines continues to pay big dividends, according to President and CEO Doug Parker, who said it was the "primary driver" behind second-quarter net earnings of $305 million for the combined company.
Armavia A320 crash that killed 113 people in May was attributable to what appears to be a loss of situational awareness by the flight crew, Russian aviation officials stated yesterday, according to press reports. Last month's flight data recorder analysis revealed no problem with the aircraft ( ATWOnline, June 20). According to civil aviation head Tatyano Anodina, the aircraft was too low on approach and the crew was unable to respond in a timely manner to a GPWS alert.
UPS stock plunged more than 10% yesterday following its Tuesday release of below-expectation second-quarter results. Positive results are relative for the highly profitable express delivery company, which posted net income of $1.06 billion for the quarter, up 7.6% from a $986 million profit in the year-ago quarter. But analysts had predicted $1 per share earnings; the results came in at 97 cents a share for the quarter and triggered a steep drop in share price.
British Airways sold its 14.6% shareholding in WNS, an Indian business services company, for a net $96 million. BA said it will report a gain on the disposal of approximately £48 million ($88.7 million) in the second quarter and use the proceeds to pay existing debt, which amounted to £4.1 billion as of March 31.
Tiger Airways has recorded an 81% lift in passenger volume since moving to the Budget Terminal at Singapore Changi four months ago ( ATWOnline, March 28). Since then, 400,000 passengers have traveled with Tiger, load factor has leapt 21 points and capacity has doubled to six A320s. Next month the airline will operate almost 200 flights per week from the terminal.
Mesa Air Group's profit fell 36% in the third fiscal quarter ended June 30, a drop that company officials attributed to weather, fleet repositioning and the startup of Hawaiian carrier go! Mesa reported after-tax earnings of $10.9 million on operating revenues of $339 million. Revenues were up 13.6%, primarily as a result of increases in reimbursed fuel expenses. For the nine-month period, net income was $29 million, reduced from $41 million in the year-ago period.
Lufthansa yesterday released preliminary financial results for first-half 2006 that showed a profit of €85 million ($107.3 million) compared to €0.2 million in net earnings for the same period in 2005. Operating profit increased 17.4% to €297 million from €253 million, while revenues climbed 12.9% to €9.6 billion. LH said the addition of the stakes acquired in Swiss International Air Lines and the Eurowings companies should be taken into account when making year-over-year comparisons. The company will release complete data Friday.
LAN posted a profit of $16.5 million in the second quarter after a one-time charge of $6.4 million related to severance payments, reduced 38% from $26.6 million in the second quarter of 2005.
Copa Airlines flew 311.4 million RPMs in June, a 15.3% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 8.2% to 406.9 million ASMs, lifting load factor 4.7 points to 76.5%. Mesaba Airlines flew 108.6 million RPMs in June, a 38.8% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 40% to 149.3 million ASMs and load factor rose 1.5 points to 72.8%.
Mellon Leasing announced the sale of three ex-Comair Embraer 120s to Everts Air of Alaska. Meridian Aerospace Group acted as exclusive agent for Mellon.
Sun Country Airlines announced that Petters Aviation, a subsidiary of Petters Group Worldwide and Whitebox Advisors, will purchase the carrier for an undisclosed price. The transaction will be finalized over the next few months. "This sale will allow us to continue to develop our strong consumer offering, as well as provide necessary capital for future business growth," Sun Country CEO Shaun Nugent said. The airline operates nine 737-800s to 31 destinations in the US, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Avient Solutions will supply its new inventory management system, SmartCargo, to Avient, an unaffiliated freight carrier operating from the UK and France on routes to Africa.
Alaska Air Group, parent of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, reported net income of $55.5 million for the second quarter ended June 30, more than triple the net income of $17.4 million in the year-ago quarter, strong results that the company attributed to "a combination of revenue gains and cost improvements." Group operating revenues grew 15.4% to $873 million while expenses climbed 10.1% to $792.9 million. Operating income more than doubled to $80.1 million from $36.6 million last year.
LAN Airlines flew 1.37 billion RPKs in June, a 6.4% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 8.2% to 2 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 1.2 points to 68.6%. TAM flew 1.57 billion domestic RPKs in June, a 45.6% increase over the year-ago month. Domestic capacity rose 21% to 2 billion ASKs and load factor increased 13.2 points to 78.5%. International RPKs grew 51.9% to 540 million as ASKs climbed 40.4% to 718 million and load factor went up 5.7 points to 75.1%.
Delta Air Lines named Atlanta attorney Michael Campbell executive VP-human resources and labor relations. Eastern Caribbean Airlines, a subsidiary of Viva International, named Pedro Maldonado director-operations and Jesus Rodriguez-Pazo chief pilot.
Comair of South Africa said it will sell a 16.1% stake to a consortium of black investors, Thelo Group, for approximately ZAR130 million ($18.5 million) as part of the country's Black Economic Empowerment program, according to press reports. The sale involves both the issuance of a new class of A shares and a cash purchase of existing shares.
After two consecutive quarters in the red, JetBlue Airways announced a return to profitability yesterday with net earnings of $14 million during the three months ended June 30, an increase of just 7.7% over the $13 million profit in the year-ago quarter but a performance that represented "a definite step in the right direction," according to Chairman and CEO David Neeleman. "Our comprehensive and ongoing plan has become a new way of doing business at JetBlue," Neeleman added.
Austrian Airlines Group announced its half-year financial results yesterday and revealed that it will not achieve a balanced adjusted EBIT this year as planned owing to "continued high kerosene prices that exceed our budgetary assumptions, already set high as a precautionary measure, and because of the negative consequences of the capacity bottlenecks that have emerged at Austrian air traffic control since spring," according to CEO Alfred Oetsch.
Swiss International Air Lines and the Aeropers pilots union agreed on the principles of a new three-year labor agreement that will become effective Nov. 1 if approved. The pilots had threatened a strike after the previous accord expired earlier this month ( ATWOnline, July 6). The parties agreed not to reveal details of the deal until it has been submitted to union members for approval.
Republic Airlines reached a purchase agreement for 30 Embraer 175s, expanding its existing service contract with US Airways and making it the US launch customer for the 86-seat jet. The Regional currently operates 28 170s for US Airways. The 175s, which will be delivered in 2007 and 2008, will be operated under a 12-year capacity purchase contract that stipulates US will continue to supply fuel at no cost to its partner. Republic Airlines is a subsidiary of Republic Airways, the US launch customer for the 170 with 106 firm orders and 75 options for 170s/175s.
