Qantas revealed yesterday that its pre-tax profit for the fiscal year ending June 30 will be approximately A$670 million ($494.3 million), which falls at the bottom of the A$670-A$895 million range forecast by analysts.
Emirates remains totally committed to the A380, saying that fundamentally it promises to be a "superb aircraft." Speaking to ATWOnline in Sydney, Emirates President Tim Clark urged Airbus to instigate program management changes quickly and refocus its energies on getting the program back on track. He was bullish on Airbus CEO Gustav Humbert's efforts, saying, "Humbert is honest and is demanding accountability."
Northwest Airlines asked the US Bankruptcy Court for an extension of its period to exclusively file its reorganization plan to Jan. 15, 2007. The current period is set to expire July 13.
Driven by growing revenues on transpacific services, FedEx posted fiscal fourth-quarter net income of $568 million, a 26.8% increase over earnings of $448 million in the year-ago quarter. The FedEx Express airline segment produced operating income of $560 million for the period ended May 31, a 29.9% improvement over $431 million last year. Perhaps more importantly, Express achieved an operating margin of 10%, a figure that long has been a target of FedEx executives.
Swiss International Air Lines announced that it will expand its long-haul fleet with the lease of two Lufthansa A330-200s starting with the winter timetable. Configured with 229 seats, the aircraft will replace a leased A300-600R from Hapag Lloyd. Swiss will take delivery of the first A330 in mid-November and operate it to Malabo/Douala/Yaounde and Nairobi/Dar-es-Salaam. The second aircraft will arrive in December and add capacity on existing routes to the Americas, the Middle East and Africa from Zurich.
Southwest Airlines, after 35 years of first-come, first-served seating, announced that it will look to trim boarding times by experimenting with assigned seating. Starting July 10 and running for "several weeks," it will assign seats on about 200 select departures from San Diego. It will not be evaluating assignment procedures or the accompanying information technology issues and instead will assign seats manually during the test.
Varig said yesterday that it is suspending some flights to the US, Europe and three cities in South America after being forced by a US Bankruptcy Court judge to ground leased aircraft. In a statement on its website, the airline said it will stop serving New York, Los Angeles (leaving Miami as its only US gateway), Mexico City, Montevideo, Asuncion, Bogota, Milan, Munich, Paris and Madrid. Operations are suspended until at least June 28, according to press reports. The carrier has grounded 20-35 aircraft, according to various sources.
National Transportation Safety Board hearings into the Southwest Airlines 737-700 that overran a runway at Chicago Midway last December concluded yesterday with attention focused on the pilots' calculation of stopping distance before landing and their decision to land in deteriorating winter conditions rather than divert to another airport, an option they discussed during flight. "There are certainly a lot of variables," Capt. Denny Mosseller, Southwest's senior director-pilot training and standards, testified regarding the decision to land.
Apparently satisfied that an investor group organized by Varig employees has its financial affairs in order, a Rio de Janeiro bankruptcy court judge approved a BRL1.01 billion ($449.7 million) bid for the ailing airline late Monday.
Iceland and India reached an air services agreement that will allow both countries to designate as many airlines as they wish and either country to limit, suspend or revoke service by a carrier designated by the other country under certain conditions, the Indian government announced last week. Designated airlines will be allowed to fly from any point in their own country to any two points in the other via any two intermediate points and to any two points beyond. The agreement will be signed formally upon approval by both governments.
Luxair ordered three 70-seat Q400s from Bombardier, worth $75.5 million at list prices. It also took three options. The company said last month that streamlining its fleet with the introduction of 70/90-seat aircraft was part of its effort to return its airline unit to profitability ( ATWOnline, May 16). It will take delivery of the Q400s next year and use them mainly on routes to London, Paris, Frankfurt and Munich.
AirTran Airways said glitches following a planned Monday night upgrade to its internal reservations and check-in systems caused long lines and delays yesterday at airports, primarily Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta. The carrier said "most" of the issues were resolved late yesterday but that the systems still were "experiencing periodic outages" and passengers should allow more time for check-in.
TAT Group will adopt Sabena Technics as the single brand for its civil and military aviation maintenance activities. TAT Group acquired Sabena Technics, a subsidiary of the former Belgian flag carrier, one year ago ( ATWOnline, June 20, 2005). The rebranding "underscores the group's strategic ambition to be one of Europe's leading independent operators of maintenance services," TAT Group said in a statement.
US Airways Group flew a combined 5.56 billion RPMs in May, a 7.7% drop from the year-ago month. Capacity declined 10.8% to 6.96 billion ASMs and load factor rose 2.7 points to 79.9%. US Airways mainline flew 3.24 billion RPMs, an 8.2% decrease, as capacity fell 12.9% to 4.05 billion ASMs. Load factor climbed 4 points to 79.9%. Austrian Airlines Group flew 1.9 billion RPKs in May, an increase of 3.9% over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 4.3% to 2.7 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 0.3 point to 69.4%.
International Lease Finance Corp. signaled yesterday that it may cancel its order for 10 A380s and could do so without penalty because of the program's delays. Chairman and CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy told Bloomberg News that ILFC "could cancel and are considering canceling" an order valued at $3 billion. "We are not happy and on safe ground to cancel the order," he said.
Finnair took delivery of a former Virgin Atlantic A340-300 last week that will be used on the Helsinki-Shanghai route. The second and third A340s will arrive over the next two years. It ordered nine A350s and three A340s in December ( ATWOnline, Dec. 8, 2005). The current MD-11 fleet will be phased out by 2012. Separately, Finnair placed a second ATR 72 with Bravo Aviation in a transaction arranged by Skyways Aviation.
AirBaltic will start four-times-weekly Riga-Kaliningrad flights on July 2 using F50s, codesharing with Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise. AirBaltic said it carried 119,389 passengers in May, 32% more than in the year-ago month. Load factor rose 5 points to 56%.
Malaysia Airlines is expected to cancel its A380 commitment, according to an airline source. Speaking to ATWOnline, the source said MAS is close to canceling its order for six aircraft. This website understands from another source in Toulouse that at least one other airline is examining options to cancel its order. Before the delay announced last week by Airbus ( ATWOnline, June 14), MAS had been scheduled to take delivery of its first A380 in July 2007 and its sixth in May 2009.
SkyTeam members except for Aeroflot yesterday received a Statement of Objections from the European Commission that the alliance said is a "normal step in a Commission competition investigation." The EC has been reviewing the alliance since its 2000 launch and said yesterday that it "does not raise objections to the alliance as a whole but has concerns about a limited number of routes" on which SkyTeam cooperation "may have a negative effect on competition." It did not identify the routes in question, but said the "more problematic" ones include transatlantic and intra-EU routes and thos
Delta Air Lines filed documents yesterday with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. to terminate its pilots' pension plan. The move, which Delta said is necessary to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, was not unexpected following the pilots' May 31 ratification of a concessions deal that will save the airline $280 million annually and that included incentives for pilots if they do not oppose the pension termination ( ATWOnline, June 1).
Air France will operate thrice-weekly flights between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Chennai from Oct. 30 using its own aircraft. It currently codeshares on the route with Delta Air Lines. AF's flights will be aboard a two-class A340 and also will be sold by Delta. In addition, AF will increase capacity to Bangalore from Oct. 30, offering seven weekly flights from CDG instead of five. The Paris-Mumbai route will use 310-seat 777-300s instead of the 270-seat dash 200s operated last winter.
Frontier Airlines said its May yield rose 3% over the year-ago month to 10.31 cents and RASM increased 7.6% to 8.23 cents. Traffic grew 24.2% to 763.7 million RPMs against a 19% rise in capacity to 956.8 million ASMs, sending load factor up 3.3 points to 79.8%.
Singapore Airlines reported an 8.9% year-on-year growth in May RPKs to 6.75 billion. Capacity rose 3.7% to 9.55 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 3.3 points to 70.7%. AirTran Airways flew 1.2 billion RPMs in May, a 23.2% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 21.3% to 1.58 billion ASMs and load factor rose 1.2 points to 75.8%.
