Boeing said last week that it will close its Melbourne, Ark., facility during the second quarter. "This decision reflects the unfortunate business realities facing the Melbourne operations," said Joy Romero, director of the Boeing Commercial Airplanes Salt Lake City facility, which will absorb Melbourne's remaining work. The facility served as an MRO station for MD and dash 700 series doors and flight controls.
Assn. of European Airlines members' punctuality fell in 2005 for the second consecutive year as 80.7% of short- and medium-haul flights departed within 15 min. of schedule compared with 82.7% in 2004 and 70.8% of long-haul flights took off within 15 min. of schedule, down from 72.6% in 2004. The 27 AEA member carriers that provided punctuality data operated some 3.64 million short- and medium-haul flights at a 98.5% completion rate. Regularity of long-haul flights stood at 99.4%, with a total of 274,003 flights operated by 21 AEA members.
Iberia introduced online check-in for passengers flying from London Heathrow. It said it is the first of 29 carriers at LHR's Terminal 2 to offer the service.
American Airlines and the Transport Workers Union representing its mechanics reached agreement on a goal "to obtain $150 million in value creation" at its Kansas City Maintenance & Engineering Base and to make the base a profit center by the end of 2007 through developing third-party business and implementing Continuous Improvement. The base, acquired in AA's purchase of TWA in 2000, employs 900 people. The goal was set by a joint team of base management and labor leaders who met recently under the carrier's Working Together initiative.
Norwegian reported a reversal of financial fortune yesterday as the LCC posted an annual profit of NOK26.8 million ($4 million) compared to a NOK109.8 million loss in 2004. Fourth-quarter earnings of NOK2.3 million reversed a NOK31.2 million deficit in the year-ago quarter. It marked the carrier's first yearly profit since launching its low-cost operation in 2002. Operating revenues in 2005 rose 63% to NOK1.97 billion while expenses increased 44.1% to NOK1.79 billion, driving operating result from a NOK32.7 million loss in 2004 to a NOK181 million profit.
SAS Group returned to profit in 2005 after four years of red ink, reporting net income of SEK255 million ($32.9 million) compared to a SEK1.77 billion loss in 2004. The group was profitable on an operating basis for the first time since 2002. CEO Jorgen Lindegaard attributed the positive results to "the biggest change in the group's history, Turnaround 2005," which has led to savings of SEK14 billion since 2002.
Thales signed a deal with LAN Airlines for retrofit and line-fit installations of its TopSeries i-4000 video and audio on-demand system for 18 767s and four A340s, with options for three additional 767s. Delivery will begin next month.
MAIR Holdings, parent of Mesaba and Big Sky Airlines, reported a net loss of $4.5 million for the third quarter ended Dec. 31 compared to net earnings of $1.5 million for the same period a year earlier. Mesaba, which operates as a Northwest Airlink partner, declared bankruptcy in October. Total operating revenues for the third quarter were $21.2 million and operating expenses were $28.3 million.
SkyWest Airlines reported a 2005 net income of $112.3 million, a 37% increase over 2004, owing to a 70% jump in operating revenue to $2 billion that was attributable in large part to the $426 million acquisition of Atlantic Southeast Airlines from Delta Air Lines last fall ( ATWOnline, Sept. 9, 2005). Operating income rose from $144.7 million in 2004 to $220.4 million in 2005. SkyWest operates as a Regional partner of Delta and United Airlines. For the fourth quarter ended Dec.
United Airlines is adding ramp and customer service employees at its Chicago O'Hare hub as well as better IT tools to improve operational performance at the airport, according to Senior VP-Airport Operations Larry DeShon, who spoke to employees in a weekly taped message. United has allocated close to $1 million for radios, scanners, new computers for the Station Operations Control center and other tools. It also is expanding training on the ramp so more guidance people are available to receive and dispatch aircraft.
Avion Group, parent of wet-lease specialist Air Atlanta Icelandic, announced yesterday that it has acquired the entire issued share capital of French charter carrier Star Airlines. Purchase price was not disclosed, but the Icelandic transportation solutions group said it is financing the acquisition through equity and debt. Star was owned by Franco-Egyptian businessman Raymond Lakah.
Calgary-based WestJet returned to the black for the fourth quarter and full year 2005, earning C$1 million ($0.87 million) and C$24 million respectively against losses of C$46.3 million and C$17.2 million in the comparable 2004 periods. "WestJet achieved a significant turnaround during the last quarter. . .even though net income remained disappointing," President and CEO Clive Beddoe said during a webcast. "We remained profitable during a period when jet fuel prices escalated to unprecedented levels following one of the most violent hurricane seasons in history."
Jet Airways is expected to issue a secondary stock offering in both the Indian and international markets to fund its $500 million acquisition of Sahara Airlines ( ATWOnline, Jan. 20) and aircraft purchases. Jet advised Indian authorities it will hold an extraordinary general meeting Feb. 28 to address the issue.
Luxair SA said its scheduled airline is in a "fragile situation" and is expected to lose approximately €12 million ($14.4 million) in 2005. The company began reducing the carrier's schedule in October and has pared the number of annual flights by 1.7%. During the year the number of scheduled passengers dropped 1.6% to 808,863 and load factor climbed 0.7 point to 51.5%. Its Luxair Tour Operating and Cargo Handling subsidiaries are expected to turn a profit for 2005.
Japan Airlines and oneworld exchanged an MOU as a first step in the airline's effort to join the global alliance. The MOU was signed in Vancouver a little more than three months after JAL indicated its intention to join ( ATWOnline, Oct. 26, 2005) and "sets out a framework" for the remainder of the process. It is expected that JAL, sponsored by American Airlines, will be a full member within a year, expanding oneworld's network by 68 destinations or approximately 10%.
Lufthansa denied rumors that it has plans to take over troubled German leisure airline LTU and transform it into a long-haul, low-cost carrier based in Dusseldorf. "That really does not fit into our concept. Lufthansa has enough capacity available, also on long-haul routes," a spokesperson told this website. LTU, which has struggled financially over the past few years, is 40% owned by Rewe, which said the airline is no longer part of its core business. It operates nine A320s, four A321s and 11 A330-200s/-300s and flies to 81 destinations.
British Airways reported a 3.3% January system traffic increase to 9.12 billion RPKs, a 3% capacity increase to 12.57 billion ASKs and a 0.2-point rise in passenger load factor to 72.5%. Delta Air Lines reported a systemwide 4.5% decline in January traffic to 8.57 billion RPMs. Capacity decreased 6.8% to 11.68 billion ASMs and load factor rose 1.7 points to 73.4%. Domestic RPMs dropped 7.3% to 6.43 billion as capacity fell 10.8% to 8.76 billion ASMs and load factor rose 2.7 points to 73.3%.
The sale of Thailand's Shin Corp., which owns 50% of Thai AirAsia, to an investment group led by Singapore's Temasek Holdings sent shockwaves through Kuala Lumpur-based AirAsia. Thai AirAsia was a joint venture between AirAsia (49%) and Shin, the telecom giant founded by Thailand's controversial Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, with 50%. The remaining 1% of the discount airline is owned by Thai AirAsia CEO Tasapon Bijleveld.
Taiwanese government is facing increased pressure to agree to regular direct charter flights between China and Taiwan as the annual Spring Festival comes to a close. This year 27,000 passengers flew on 72 direct charter flights from Jan. 20 to Feb. 7 in conjunction with the Chinese New Year. Last year 10,000 passengers flew on 48 flights. According to China Daily, Pu Zhaozhou, General Administration of Civil Aviation of China director-Office of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Affairs, called regular charter flights the first step toward open skies.
Bratislava-based SkyEurope nearly doubled its revenue and reduced unit costs by more than 10% in its first fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31 but saw little improvement on its bottom line, which showed a €12 million ($14.4 million) loss that was just 0.5% better than the €12.1 million deficit in the year-ago quarter. Operating revenues climbed 42.5% to €26.2 million against a 23.8% rise in expenses. Totals were not provided, but the carrier said it spent €12.3 million on aircraft and traffic servicing and €11.9 million on fuel, the latter an increase of 29%.
Although United Airlines cut its annual budget by $7 billion through its three-year Chapter 11 reorganization, its unit costs do not appear to be significantly lower than those of its network competitors with the exception of Northwest Airlines. Furthermore, on a stage-length-adjusted basis excluding fuel, UA still has among the highest unit costs in the industry. This information is contained in an 8K filed yesterday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in which a presentation to the JP Morgan High Yield Conference is included.
Lufthansa said that a new low-fare concept introduced in Hamburg last October is off to a successful start. The carrier discussed Program Hamburg with journalists Monday. The project is designed to achieve 20% higher productivity--resulting in lower production costs--and a capacity increase in Hamburg of 40%. Similar to low-cost airlines, LH offers 20% of its seats at fares starting from €99 ($118.8) including taxes and serves 23 direct destinations from the city.
Vueling reported revenues of €136 million ($163.2 million) in 2005 and said it was profitable in the second half of the year, without providing details. The Barcelona-based LCC carried more than 2 million passengers. "With these results we have easily exceeded the company's initial business plan forecasts," CEO Carlos Munoz said.
Connexion by Boeing and Air China reached a "preliminary agreement" to provide Connexion's high-speed connectivity solution to Air China passengers traveling to and from China. The agreement covers up to 15 firm and optional retrofit installations of the product on 747-400s and other long-haul models. Financial terms were not disclosed. Installations are planned to begin in October.
Air France-KLM reported systemwide traffic of 15.74 billion RPKs in January, a 9.5% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity grew 8.1% to 19.92 billion ASKs and load factor rose 1 point to 79%. EasyJet reported 2.3 million earned seats flown in January, up 11.2% from the same month a year earlier. Load factor dropped 2.3 points to 74.2%. "Our total revenue performance this month was in line with our expectations, and our guidance for the year to September 2006 remains unchanged," CEO Andrew Harrison said in a statement.
