LAN Airlines said December traffic rose 12.6% over the year-ago month against a capacity increase of 8.5%, sending load factor up 2.7 points to 72.8%. Domestic traffic dropped 5.3% alongside a 2.8% decline in capacity and load factor fell 1.7 points to 66.6%. LAN was stronger internationally as traffic rose 16.4%, capacity increased 11% and load factor climbed 3.4 points to 73.9%. Separately, LAN finalized a 10-year component support agreement with Air France Industries and KLM E&M covering its 24 767-300ERs. It is planning to add 10 more 767-300ERs through 2008.
ATA Holdings and ATA Airlines announced an immediate restructuring of senior management designed "to drive accountability down" to its core scheduled service and military/charter operations in advance of its planned emergence from bankruptcy this quarter. Heading the changes was the elevation of Senior VP and CCO Subodh Karnik to executive VP and COO. Reporting to Karnik will be newly promoted GM-Military/Charter and Senior VP-Operations John Graber, Senior VP-CFO Doug Yakola and a yet-to-be-named senior VP-scheduled service.
Monarch Airlines said it posted a "record-breaking" 2005, flying more than 2.6 million passengers compared with 1.9 million in 2004. The low-cost/charter carrier opened a new base in Birmingham last year and introduced a host of new routes--London Gatwick to Lisbon and Granada, Manchester to Almeria, Birmingham to Alicante, Faro, Malaga and Tenerife, and to Malaga from Blackpool, Aberdeen and Newquay. It acquired four new aircraft--three A320s and a 767. Traffic for December was up 18.15% to 148,968 passengers.
United Airlines' cabin staff, represented by the Assn. of Flight Attendants, have filed an objection with the US Bankruptcy Court to the carrier's Management Equity Incentive Program under which 11% of the reorganized company's stock would be set aside for 400 management employees after the airline leaves bankruptcy. A hearing to confirm the reorganization plan will take place Jan. 18. AFA also objected to a provision in the plan that would permit United to reject the flight attendants' labor contract after it exits bankruptcy.
Indian Airlines said it posted a record net profit of INR656.1 million ($14.8 million) in FY05, a 48.5% increase over the previous fiscal year's profit of INR441.7 million. The carrier reported that earnings were driven by an increase in traffic, which lifted total revenue to INR53.63 billion from INR47.26 billion in FY04. Indian said "strict cost control measures" adopted during the year saved it INR765.9 million.
Pemco Aviation Group said it received its first Southwest Airlines 737 at its MRO facility in Dothan, Ala., under an agreement signed last November ( ATWOnline, Nov. 16).
Three weeks after the US Dept. of Transportation tentatively rejected their request for transatlantic antitrust immunity ( ATWOnline, Dec. 23), SkyTeam members Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Air France, Alitalia and Czech Airlines withdrew their application.
Lufthansa carried 51.3 million passengers last year, up 0.7% compared to 2004. It flew 108.2 billion RPKs, up 4%. ASKs rose 2.5% to 144.2 million, resulting in a 1-point gain in load factor to 75%. Lufthansa Cargo carried 1.7 million tonnes of freight, down 1%, on a 1.3% increase in capacity owing to additional belly space on the group's passenger aircraft, causing cargo load factor to fall 2 points to 65%. Cathay Pacific reported December traffic of 6.05 billion RPKs, a 12.7% increase over the same month in 2004.
Jet Airways is close to a deal to acquire Air Sahara or to enter into a marketing alliance, according to media reports in India. Previously, Kingfisher Airlines reportedly bid to take over 100% of Air Sahara ( ATWOnline, Nov. 30). The airline earlier said that financial advisers Ernst and Young valued it at between $750 million and $1 billion.
Eurocontrol said 2005 was a record year for European aviation with more than 9.2 million flights and more than 700 million passengers. The number of flights rose by 4.5% from 2004. Growth was notable particularly in Eastern Europe, with Croatia, Slovakia and Poland seeing respective increases of 18%, 17% and 16%. Eurocontrol forecasts an average growth across Europe of 3% this year. Average delay caused by air traffic management was 1.9 min. per flight despite the higher number of flights, and early indications are that rate will be maintained this year, Eurocontrol noted.
United Airlines will keep mainline capacity flat at 140.9 billion ASMs in each of the five years 2006-10 inclusive. RPMs also are expected to be flat. The carrier sees scheduled passenger RASM climbing from 9.32 cents per ASM to 10.26 cents over the forecast period. It provided the guidance in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission Monday. It also sees nonfuel operating CASM for the mainline rising from 7.47 cents in 2005 to 8.29 cents in 2010.
As expected, the European Court of Justice followed last September's opinion of the advocate general and upheld the European Commission's regulation concerning common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding, long delay or flight cancellation.
Less than two months after he announced a 35% downsizing of British Airways' top management ( ATWOnline, Dec. 1), CEO Willie Walsh yesterday presented an overhaul of BA's poorly performing regional operations.
Cyprus Airways is closing in on full union approval for its restructuring plan, with four out of five unions having already given their go-ahead for a scheme aimed at trimming C£21 million ($44.3 million) from its cost base. It awaits the pilots' support. It expects the cuts to be finalized in the next few weeks and for everything to be in place by around March 1. It also will begin to implement new working practices among the remaining staff in the hope that the measures will gain EC approval for a state-guaranteed loan.
FL Group of Iceland purchased 6% of Finnair, adding to airline holdings consisting of Sterling and 16% of EasyJet, which has been the subject of recent takeover speculation. The investment in Finnair brings the total holding by Icelandic interests in the Nordic airline to 18%. The Finnish government has control with 57%. Finnair plans to add an eighth long-haul aircraft to support its Far East expansion, which could be an A340-300 rather than another MD-11 "depending what is available on the market," a spokesperson said.
JAL Group had mixed results during the Japanese New Year vacation period from Dec. 28 to Jan. 9. Total number of passengers traveling on international routes was down 5.1% while domestic passenger numbers rose 1%. Internationally, JAL recorded strong increases on transpacific and Korean routes, up 4.2% and 4.3% respectively. Despite soft traffic to Indonesia, Southeast Asian routes showed signs of recovery with passenger numbers rising 1.6%. Load factor on transpacific routes was particularly high at 91.2%.
Aeroflot is targeting a 6.7% rise in enplaned passengers, a 4.2% growth in RPKs, a 5.4% increase in RTKs and a 12.2% gain in revenue for 2006. It will launch scheduled service to Krasnoyarsk and Yuzhno-Sakhalisnk and increase frequencies domestically to St. Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Volgograd, Irkutsk and Novosibirsk and internationally to Beijing, Shanghai, Simferopol, Baku, Athens, Belgarde, Dusseldorf and Vienna. It will "consider" adding service to Hanoi. It also said it will continue work on "restructuring and replenishment" of its fleet and improving customer service.
Copa Airlines CEO Pedro Heilbron is the new president of the Latin American Airline Assn.'s executive committee. He replaces Juan Emilio Posada, who left the position after four years.
Germanwings said turnover rose 60% in 2005 to around €400 million ($480 million). It transported 5.5 million passsengers, up 57%. Load factor reached 83%. The number of employees grew from 459 to 704. For 2006 the carrier expects a 36% increase in passengers to more then 7.5 million. Turnover is expected to exceed €570 million.
Austrian Airlines Group announced yesterday that it plans to start scheduled services to Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The twice-weekly service will be operated with A319s from March 9 and will increase to three flights per week in May.
Emphasis Media of Hong Kong and Publicitas Promotion Network named Moritz Wuttke CEO of Emphasis Media and CEO-Asia/Pacific of PPN. US FAA named David Bowen chief information officer and assistant administrator for information services. He replaces Daniel Mehan, who retired in September.
EasyJet said it flew 2.4 million passengers in December, an 11.1% increase over the year-ago month. Load factor dipped 0.2 point to 80.5%. For the year, the carrier reported 17.8% passenger growth to 30.3 million and a 0.3-point rise in load factor to 84.9%. It also said unaudited annual revenue jumped 20.5% to £1.38 billion ($2.44 billion) from £1.15 billion. Separately, EasyJet announced that Group Finance Director Jeff Carr was appointed company secretary, replacing Deborah Abrehart, who resigned.
US Airways is cutting fares on 21 routes between markets in the eastern and midwestern US and its hubs in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Charlotte. Sample fares provided by the airline show reductions of between 42% (Charlotte-Indianapolis, Philadelphia-Akron) and 61% (Pittsburgh-Syracuse).
