WestJet flew 774.5 million RPMs in June, up 26% over the year-ago month. Capacity increased 20% to 1 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 3.6 points to 77.1%.
Norman Mineta, the former US transportation secretary who ended a 5.5-year tenure last week, will join communications consultancy Hill & Knowlton as vice chairman effective July 24. He will be based in Washington.
Taiwan's Mandarin Airlines will lease three Embraer 190s and five 195s from GE Commercial Aviation Services. The aircraft come from the existing GECAS backlog and are scheduled to begin delivering in the second quarter of 2007. Configured in a single seating class, they will replace Mandarin's existing fleet of F100s and F50s on domestic routes and eventually will help develop short-haul international markets.
World Air Holdings finally reported its 2005 fourth-quarter and full-year financial results Friday, posting net income of $31.6 million for the year, increased 23.4% from $25.6 million in 2004. WAH, parent of wet-lease specialist World Airways and charter carrier North American Airlines, missed several reporting deadlines and was de-listed by Nasdaq as a result ( ATWOnline, May 22).
In the second fatal airplane crash in Asia in as many days (see item below), a Pakistan International Airlines F27 turboprop departing Multan en route to Lahore crashed minutes after takeoff yesterday, killing all 41 passengers and four crew onboard.
Southwest Airlines will launch four-times-daily Baltimore/Washington International-Detroit Metro flights from Sept. 14. Separately, Southwest flew 6.15 billion RPMs in June, a 13.2% rise over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 7.3% to 7.65 billion ASMs and load factor increased 4.2 points to 80.4%. JetBlue Airways will expand its Syracuse service with a daily flight to Orlando starting July 20 and a fourth daily flight to New York JFK beginning Nov. 1.
ACE Aviation Holdings announced the sale of an additional 2.75 million shares of US Airways Group stock in June and July "through a series of transactions on the open stock market" that netted proceeds of $137.9 million. Air Canada's parent said it has earned $205.5 million from the sale of shares in its Star Alliance partner from an initial investment of $75 million in September 2005. ACE still holds 500,000 shares.
China's General Administration of Civil Aviation said Friday that Chinese carriers lost more than CNY3 billion ($374.7 million) in the first six months of 2006 owing to rising fuel prices, according to press reports. Passenger numbers climbed 17.9% to 74.3 million and freight increased 11.4% to 1.6 million tonnes.
Boeing sold another 25 737s last week to unidentified customers in addition to the 10 ordered by Ryanair ( ATWOnline, July 6). One of the 25 is a BBJ. The company has sold 480 aircraft this year net of seven cancellations, comprising 374 737s, 11 747s, four 767s, 22 777s and 69 787s.
EasyJet issued new full-year profit guidance Friday, forecasting that its pre-tax earnings will increase 40%-50% rather than the 10%-15% originally predicted. It reported a net profit of £59 million ($108.3 million) for the year ended Sept. 30, 2005, based on International Financial Reporting Standards. The new guidance comes after unit revenue rose 17% in the third quarter. In June, passenger numbers climbed 15.6% over the year-ago month to 3 million and load factor increased 2 points to 87.6%.
AWAS and Viva Macau signed a deal for the lease of a 767-200ER and a 767-300. Viva Macau plans to launch its low-fare, long-haul services in the third quarter.
Iberia said a strike called by the SEPLA pilots union, scheduled to start today and last through July 16, will force the cancellation of 200 daily flights and affect more than 200,000 passengers during the week. The pilots announced the strike last month in response to Iberia's plans to participate in a new low-cost airline based in Barcelona ( ATWOnline, June 22).
Tunisair announced that its 2005 net profit improved 43% year-over-year to $29.6 million and that it is planning a $2.6 million capital increase to $60.5 million. It generated $676 million in operating revenues over the 12-month period, representing a 7% increase. Operating expenses also rose 7% to just under $664 million.
Northwest Airlines flew 7 billion consolidated RPMs in June, an 8.8% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity dropped 11.1% to 7.88 billion ASMs and load factor rose 2.3 points to 88.9%. Domestic traffic fell 8.1% to 3.81 billion RPMs against an 11.5% decline in capacity to 4.36 billion ASMs, raising load factor 3.2 points to 87.4%. International RPMs decreased 8.6% to 2.71 billion, capacity was down 8.7% to 2.91 billion ASMs and load factor rose 0.1 point to 93.1%.
China Southern Airlines confirmed it will take 50 A320s as its allocation from the Chinese government's order of 150 A320 family aircraft booked in December, which enabled Airbus to pip Boeing in the order stakes ( ATWOnline, Dec. 6, 2005). The third carrier to announce its allotment, China Southern's order is valued at $3.3 billion. It will take delivery in 2009 and 2010.
PrivatAir hopes to unveil another airline client for its all-business-class operations this summer. The Swiss company, which flies for Lufthansa, KLM and Swiss International Air Lines in addition to operating Airbus's corporate shuttle, said interest in its services is growing. "We are talking to several carriers, because the others [airlines] see that it is a success," CEO Greg Thomas told ATWOnline.
Algeria and Canada concluded their first bilateral air accord, allowing access to airlines from both countries, according to the Arab Air Carrier Assn. Codeshare services also are permitted. Air Algerie announced plans to operate up to two weekly flights to Montreal, while Air Canada intends to codeshare on flights to Algeria via Europe with existing partners.
Emirates signed a $261 million financing agreement with the US Export-Import Bank for two 777-300ERs scheduled for delivery in August and October. The 12-year financing, arranged by Citigroup, combines an Ex-Im loan with commercial funding and carries a weighted average cost of funds of 0.66% over three-month LIBOR, the carrier said. It currently operates 37 777s and has 38 dash 300ERs on order.
IER was awarded a five-year renewal contract for maintenance of the check-in and boarding equipment at Kuwait International Airport. IER, which says it is the industry's "leading supplier of passenger and baggage processing solutions," is collaborating with Computer Data Networks, maintenance provider for SITA, and is supplying boarding pass printers, bag tag printers, barcode boarding gate readers and keyboards to the airport under a December 2005 contract.
US airlines recorded an ontime arrival rate of 78.3% in May, down from 83.7% in the year-ago month and 78.4% in April 2006. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the 20 reporting carriers cancelled 1.2% of domestic flights in May, higher than the 0.9% cancellation rate in the year-ago month and the 1.1% rate in April. Hawaiian Airlines led the way in May with a 95% ontime arrival rate while ATA Airlines reported the lowest rate at 66.1%. Frontier Airlines cancelled just 0.1% of its May flights. American Eagle had the highest cancellation rate at 3.5%.
Falling yields, low-cost competition and soaring fuel costs had a devastating effect on South African Airways' bottom line during the fiscal year ended March 31 as profits plunged 90% to ZAR65 million ($9.1 million) from ZAR648 million, the carrier said yesterday, according to press reports. SAA released certain year-end performance indicators on its Web site, but did not include final profit figures. It did say that passenger revenue rose 0.8% to ZAR13 billion against a 3.5% decline in yield as it lost market share to low-fare carriers.
Northwest Airlines cabin staff yesterday voted to switch to the Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA from the Professional Flight Attendants Assn. The US National Mediation Board said the final count was 4,439-2,668 in favor of the move. The airline was given permission by a US Bankruptcy Court last week to cancel its labor agreement following a 14-day stay ( ATWOnline, July 3).
Qantas and Mexicana signed a codeshare agreement effective Aug. 1. Qantas will codeshare on 237 Mexicana weekly services to Mexico City, Cancun, Guadalajara and San Jose del Cabo from Los Angeles and San Francisco while Mexicana will codeshare on Qantas flights from LAX to Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne and from SFO to Sydney. Separately, Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Corp. of Beijing will paint four Qantas 767-300ERs. The first aircraft will be delivered to Ameco at the end of July with three others following nose to tail.
