Ethiopian Airlines completed an agreement to buy five 787s with purchase rights for five more. The carrier also will wet-lease two Air Atlanta Icelandic 747-400s later this year for flights from Addis Ababa to the US and Asia, CEO Girma Wake told ATWOnline.
Turkish Airlines leased two A319-100s formerly operated by defunct Independence Air. The carrier also signed a codeshare agreement with Croatia Airlines for flights between Istanbul and Zagreb.
Hainan Airlines reported an 11.7% decline in first-quarter profits to CNY12.1 million ($1.5 million) from CNY13.7 million earned in the year-ago quarter, according to a company statement cited by Reuters. Its full-year 2005 result was worse as the carrier lost CNY215.8 million one year after earning a profit of CNY90.7 million. Hainan will change its name to Grand China Air following its acquisition of three smaller carriers ( ATWOnline, Oct.
LTU German Airlines unveiled a new strategy focused on long-haul routes and business travelers. The carrier will concentrate on its Munich and Dusseldorf hubs, where partner DBA will provide feeder services for domestic routes. DBA acquired a 60% share of LTU in February ( ATWOnline, Feb. 20). According to the new plan, which LTU hopes to begin implementing late this year, it will add one A330-200 to its fleet per year. It currently operates seven A330-200s, four A330-300s and 15 A320s/A321s.
Airbus and China Aviation Suppliers Import and Export Corp. extended the cooperation agreement covering their joint-venture training and support center in Beijing for 20 more years. The facility has been in operation for a decade and features both flight simulators and spare parts servicing.
Midwest Air Group, parent of Midwest Airlines and Skyway Airlines, reelected three directors to new three-year terms on its board: Samuel Skinner, Elizabeth Solberg, and Richard Sonnentag.
The spate of airline bankruptcies around the globe and the challenges they have presented to the leasing and finance sector will impact the way commercial transports are financed in the future, says GE Commercial Aviation Services President and CEO Henry Hubschman. Commenting on lessons learned from the ongoing bankruptcy reorganizations in the US, Hubschman noted, "We don't do leveraged leases anymore. Period. We're [also] more cautious about doing single-investor leases." He added, "We have not been harmed that much when someone breaks an operating lease."
Air Pacific reached agreement to acquire the assets and business of domestic carrier Sun Air. Under terms of the agreement, Air Pacific subsidiary Fiji Airlines Ltd. will take over the operations of Sun Air from July 1 subject to the transfer of Sun's licenses and AOC. Based in Nadi, Sun operates a fleet of 11 aircraft comprising Twin Otters, Islanders and Queen Airs to eight resort destinations on six islands.
Southwest Airlines Chairman Herb Kelleher used to say that his airline's primary competitor was the automobile. Some 10,000 mi. away, Tony Davis, CEO of Singapore-based LCC Tiger Airways, makes a somewhat similar argument. For example, Davis points out that 12 million people travel by train in Vietnam and the train trip from Hanoi in the north to Ho Chi Minh City in the south takes 34 hr.
Six months into the merger of US Airways Group and America West Holdings Corp., executives here are confident that the deal to create what they call "the largest nationwide low-cost carrier" already is paying big dividends, with industry-leading unit revenue growth, improving operational performance and declining unit costs.
On May 4, Air Canada withdrew its Tango fare for travel within Canada and between Canada and Florida from the GDSs and from its own dedicated travel agency Web site, aircanada.com/agents. In response, Sabre began "de-preferencing" Air Canada's displays in its GDS to ensure that flights by carriers that provide full content are displayed before Air Canada flights. Galileo said it would no longer return Air Canada results in low-fare shopping inquiries unless they are specifically requested.
Forecasts for airline traffic among the nations of Central and Eastern Europe are good. Actually, they are very good, with Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania featuring in IATA's worldwide list of the top 10 countries with the highest average annual growth rates in passenger traffic for 2005-09. Poland leads the group with an AAGR of 11.2% while the Czech Republic is third at 9.5%. This compares with an overall industry AAGR of 5.6% for international passenger traffic between 2005 and 2009, and 5.1% within Europe.
Aeroflot reported a 4.7% year-over-year decline in annual profit to RUB6.03 billion ($220.3 million), according to a company statement cited by press reports. Revenues for 2005 increased 11.5% to RUB62.85 billion. The airline carried 6.7 million passengers, 2.3% fewer than in 2004. Aeroflot also posted a Reuters story on its website saying that Russia's State Property Agency intends to transfer all of its stakes in Russian airlines to Aeroflot, which would boost its share to at least 75%. The government now holds a 51% share in the flag carrier.
Transaero said last week that it aims to raise $250 million by floating 15%-18% of its stock in an IPO in Russia in 2007. According to Reuters, the plan has received the backing of the airline's board of directors. A general meeting of shareholders will vet the issue on May 27.
LOT Polish Airlines signed a deal with BRE Leasing for the purchase of four Embraer 175s that will be owned by Polish leasing company PLL LOT and leased to the airline for seven years with an option for five more. The carrier also took delivery of its seventh 767-300, a leased plane owned by ILFC, to be operated by LOT until February 2009 on transatlantic flights.
Cirrus Airlines inked an agreement with AD Aerospace for installation of the FlightVu Cockpit Door Monitoring System, a video security system, on its 737-500s.
CommutAir, which operates as Continental Connection out of Plattsburgh, NY, signed an agreement with Continental Airlines to increase service from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. It will expand its fleet by up to 16 turboprops. Spokesperson Joel Raymond told ATWOnline that the Regional is looking at Q Series aircraft from Bombardier as well as Saab 340s. No final decision has been made on the type, but Raymond said the carrier expects to be operating the new aircraft by late 2006 or early 2007. "It's very exciting for us," he said.
AerCap Group said it completed a $346 million credit facility with a consortium of banks led by Calyon. The facility was raised from $275 million owing to strong market demand. AerCap will use the five-year facility to finance a portion of the acquisition and planned expansion of its newly acquired subsidiary AeroTurbine. Separately, AerCap announced the completion of a $1 billion, six-year warehouse credit facility with UBS. It will use the facility "to finance aircraft acquisitions to substantially expand its portfolio over the coming years."
GECAS President and CEO Henry Hubschman has a gut feeling that Airbus will unveil a significantly redone A350 by the Farnborough Air Show in mid-July ( ATWOnline, April 26). Speaking to media in Washington Friday, Hubschman said, "I don't know what they are going to do, but my tummy says they are going to make changes." He also noted that although GECAS has signed an MOU for 10 A350s, it has not finalized the order.
Alaska Airlines flight attendants ratified a new four-year labor contract that the Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA said "provides a more generous profit-sharing program." No other details of the deal were released. Parent Alaska Air Group also announced the conversion of $150 million in outstanding convertible notes due in 2023 into Alaska Air common stock. "With this transaction, we have converted $150 million of debt into equity," CFO Brad Tilden said.
Thai Airways and Bangkok Airways signed an MOU to develop coordination further on their respective networks. Thai signed a similar agreement with Laos Airlines in early April.
Affected by its lack of fuel hedging contracts, Norwegian posted a net loss of NOK43.1 million ($6.9 million) for the quarter ended March 31 compared to a net loss of NOK34.3 million in the year-ago period. The jet fuel bill more than doubled from NOK56.7 million to NOK123.3 million and now represents 21% of the carrier's total operating costs against only 15% in the year-ago quarter.
ANA Group posted net income of ¥26.7 billion ($233.1 million) for its fiscal year ended March 31, a 0.9% decrease from income of ¥26.9 billion the previous year but a performance considered a success by the Japanese airline company given rising fuel costs and other negative factors.
Iberia will place its code on Malev Hungarian Airlines' thrice-weekly Malaga-Budapest service beginning May 2. It also will codeshare with charter carrier Iberworld on four-times-weekly Madrid-Cancun service from May 1.
