Irish government is targeting September or October for the sale of part of its stake in Aer Lingus, according to press reports. No schedule was announced when it agreed last month to the IPO ( ATWOnline, April 6), which will see it reduce its stake from 85.1% to 25.1%. Aer Lingus management had been pushing for a flotation in June.
FL Group, the investment firm that owns Icelandair, Sterling Airlines and other air transport and tourism companies, reported a first-quarter net profit of ISK5.84 billion ($82.9 million), a result that compared to a profit of ISK25 million in the year-ago quarter and "highlight[s] FL Group's focus as an investment company specializing in strategic and private equity projects as well as hedge fund activity."
Pinnacle Airlines flew 356.2 million RPMs in April, a 7.6% rise over the year-ago month. Capacity dropped 5.2% to 452.1 million ASMs, boosting load factor 9.4 points to 78.8%.
Ryanair was ordered by a Paris court of commerce to pay €250,000 ($321,000) to Air France-KLM over misleading and disparaging advertising. Ryanair claimed in an ad to be "391% cheaper" than AF-KLM, which the court concluded was unjust. It also ruled that the corruption of AF-KLM's slogan "Making the sky the most beautiful place on earth" to "Making the sky the cheapest place on earth" was unacceptable. The court provisionally enforced the fine regardless of whether the Irish carrier lodges an appeal.
An A380 touched down on London Heathrow's Southern Runway yesterday and parked at Terminal 3, Pier 6, a new purpose-built, £105 million ($198.4 million), three-story pier that can accommodate up to four A380s simultaneously. The new Terminal 5, scheduled to open in 2008, also will accommodate the aircraft. Singapore Airlines will begin flying the A380 into LHR in November.
UPS yesterday unveiled a $1 billion-plus investment in expansion of its air hub at Louisville International Airport, the global headquarters of the company's express package delivery airline operations.
Delta Air Lines and Galileo International yesterday announced a seven-year, full-content agreement. Delta and CheapTickets, a subsidiary of Galileo parent Cendant Corp., also executed a marketing agreement.
Sabre Airline Solutions said it signed 15 contracts in the first quarter with airport operators around the world. The deals are with Macquarie Airports, Turin International Airport, Singapore Changi and 12 French and Swiss properties. Sabre also reached agreement with Caribbean Star Airlines and Caribbean Sun Airlines to create customized "user-friendly front-end access" to the sister carriers' reservations and airport check-in applications using Sabre's Qik Business Processing Solutions and Qik Developer Tool.
American Airlines is "looking under every rock" for additional cost savings and has launched initiatives "that we believe will save us $700 million year-over-year," AMR Corp. Chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey said at yesterday's annual shareholders' meeting. Citing rising fuel prices, employee medical costs and facility charges, he stated, "Just to keep costs flat with last year we would need more than $1 billion in savings" ( ATWOnline, May 11).
SAS Flight Academy is moving into larger facilities in Copenhagen and adding two full flight simulators, a 737NG and an MD-80. The training center also signed a contract with Sterling Airlines to be the exclusive training provider for its pilots and cabin personnel through 2010. Separately, SAS Flight Academy and AirBaltic signed a five-year agreement covering pilot and cabin crew training on 737s and F50s. The 737 training eventually will take place at a new center under construction at Riga International Airport.
Singapore Airlines flew 7.06 billion RPKs in April, an 11% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 4.1% to 9.26 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 4.8 points to 76.3%. SAS Group reported a 6.4% year-on-year increase in April system traffic to 3.23 billion RPKs. Capacity slipped 2.7% to 4.4 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 6.3 points to 73.4%. SAS Scandinavian Airlines traffic fell 1.3% to 2.31 billion RPKs against a 9% decrease in capacity to 3.04 billion ASKs, sending load factor up 6 points to 76.1%.
Set to benefit from expected downsizing at Varig, Gol said it will take delivery of an additional two 737-700s this year and an additional eight in 2007 along with two dash 300s.
Copa Holdings, parent of Panama's Copa Airlines and Colombia's AeroRepublica, reported first-quarter net income of $32.2 million, a 42.9% increase over the $22.6 million earned in the year-ago quarter and a record quarterly result for the company. "We continue to execute both operationally and financially," CEO Pedro Heilbron told analysts in a conference call.
Northwest Airlines flight attendants union expressed anger this week over a May 12 letter from Suzanne Boda, the airline's VP-inflight services, that promised the carrier was through bargaining and warned of potential ramifications if Professional Flight Attendants Assn. members reject the tentative labor agreement reached in March that provides $195 million in annual savings to NWA ( ATWOnline, March 2).
AirBaltic will launch twice-weekly Riga-Tel Aviv service aboard 737-500s from June 5, becoming the only carrier in the Baltics or Scandinavia to offer direct service to Tel Aviv. AirBaltic carried 113,723 passengers in April, 44% more than in the year-ago month. Load factor rose 12 points to 62%.
Jet Airways named Dale Moss COO. He most recently was director-worldwide sales and marketing-worldwide cargo for British Airways. Southwest Airlines named Jeff Lamb VP-people and leadership development. He joined Southwest in 2004.
Allegiant Travel Co., parent of Allegiant Air, filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed IPO of its common stock. The carrier, which provides both scheduled and charter services for leisure travelers, operates a fleet of 21 MD-80s and employs 670 people. The number of shares and price range have not been determined. According to analysts from Raymond James & Assoc., Allegiant's revenue for 2005 was $153 million, a 51% increase over the previous year.
SAS Group President and CEO Jorgen Lindegaard, who kept the airline aloft through the most challenging period in its history, announced yesterday that he will resign this fall, saying in a statement, "I feel that the time is right for a new CEO to take over."
Air Canada reported a 6.4% rise in consolidated traffic in April to 3.77 billion RPMs. Capacity increased 4.7% to 4.63 billion ASMs and load factor gained 1.2 points to 81.2%. Domestic RPMs grew 3.1% to 1.16 billion, capacity lifted 6.9% to 1.48 billion ASMs and load factor dropped 2.9 points to 78%. International RPMs rose 4.4% to 1.91 billion against a 1.5% increase in capacity to 2.27 billion ASMs, boosting load factor 2.3 points to 84.1%. Hawaiian Airlines flew 552.3 million RPMs in April, a 5.3% increase over the year-ago month.
AMR Corp., parent of American Airlines, announced yesterday the pricing of a public offering of approximately $400 million of newly issued shares of common stock. Based on a late-day trading price of $25.60 per share, that would equate to about 15.63 million shares. AMR granted the underwriter, Merrill Lynch & Co., a 30-day option to purchase up to $60 million worth of additional shares to cover any overallotments. AMR said issuance and delivery of the shares is scheduled to occur Friday. Separately, AA set a goal of reducing fuel usage this year by an additional 30 million gal.
Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways signed an 18-month maintenance agreement covering a range of maintenance checks and work on Jazeera's A320 fleet. Separately, Jazeera launched flights from Kuwait to Alexandria and Luxor, its seventh and eighth destinations.
Alitalia's first-quarter pre-tax loss widened to €156.6 million ($201.6 million) from €141.2 million in the year-ago quarter as January's labor unrest ( ATWOnline, Jan. 27) aggravated the low-season effect that marks the March quarter. Revenues decreased 3.1% to €965 million, mainly owing to the deconsolidation of the Alitalia Servizi services unit and the drop in passenger income caused by the strikes. Passenger revenues slid 1.6% to €764 million, with yield falling 3.4%.
Aer Arann signed a contract to purchase 10 new 72-seat ATR 72-500s over the next three years. The deal is worth more than $180 million. The carrier will use the aircraft to "replace and supplement" its existing fleet of 14 ATR 42s and ATR 72s, increasing it to 20 by the end of 2009. It will take delivery of two dash 500s in 2007, five in 2008 and three in 2009. "This is a significant milestone for Aer Arann and marks a consolidation of our strategic policy in going forward with an ATR fleet," MD Padraig O'Ceidigh said.
Hurt by excess capacity, Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo parent Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings posted a first-quarter net loss of $3.7 million, down from a $675,000 profit in the year-ago quarter. "Results for the quarter reflect some tough comparables, with a reduction in military charter activity compared with last year and a related excess of 747-200 aircraft capacity that could not be fully and sensibly deployed elsewhere," outgoing President and CEO Jeffrey Erickson said.
EADS confirmed Friday that it will push forward with the restructuring of its heavily loss-making MRO provider EADS Sogerma Services and close down its main site at Merignac near Bordeaux. EADS Sogerma Services posted losses of €237 million and had debts of €339 million in 2005, a deterioration resulting from a growing domination of the civil MRO market by countries with lower labor costs, the loss of French military maintenance markets and the failure of various diversification operations, EADS said.
