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).
Air France-KLM Group reported an 11.9% increase in December traffic to 15.6 billion RPKs. Capacity climbed 9% to 19.54 billion ASKs and load factor rose 2.1 points to 79.8%. Passengers enplaned increased 8% over the year-ago month to 5.6 million. Cargo RTKs grew 7.5% to 985 million against a 9% lift in ATKs to 1.4 billion and cargo load factor declined 1 point to 70.4%. Northwest Airlines reported systemwide December traffic of 5.82 billion RPMs, a decline of 5.7% from December 2004. ASMs dropped 8.6% to 7.21 billion and load factor was up 2.5 points to 80.7%.
US FAA last week proposed to fine Alaska Airlines $500,000 for flying a 737 without required cabin floor lighting on 478 revenue flights between July 12 and Dec. 2, 2004. The agency said Goodrich Aviation Technical Services performed "extensive" MRO on the aircraft but did not reinstall the floor proximity lighting system's emergency exit identifier lights. Following 40 additional inspections, Alaska discovered the problem and installed the identifier lights on Feb. 2, 2005.
United Airlines parent UAL Corp. remains on course to leave bankruptcy in early February after the company announced the launch of its oversubscribed exit financing loan for up to $3 billion. The six-year loan consists of a $300 million revolving credit facility and an up-to-$2.7 billion term loan, both priced at LIBOR plus 450 basis points. It is secured by "substantially all available assets."
Alitalia won the bidding for Volareweb.com, the LCC subsidiary of Volare Airlines. It reportedly offered €38 million ($46.2 million), some €10 million more than Air One, for the carrier, which has been in extraordinary administration since Nov. 30, 2004, Il Sole 24 Ore reported. Air One is considering suing Alitalia, questioning its right to participate in the auction, Corriere della Sera said. Official results of the sale are due to be announced Jan 15.
JAT Airways will become a member of SkyTeam with sponsorship from Air France, according to media reports in Serbia citing JAT Commercial Director Milutin Popovic.
Japan Airlines announced it is increasing the number of 747-400BCFs it has on order to eight with four options, up from its October 2004 commitment of three firm orders and four options. Value of the contract was not disclosed. JAL's first 747-400 passenger-to-freighter conversion entered modification at Taikoo Aircraft Engineering in Xiamen last month and will be delivered in May. Boeing said it now has 37 firm orders and 29 options for the aircraft. JAL also ordered four 767-300Fs last year.
Precision Conversions received an STC from FAA to carry out passenger-to-freighter conversions of PW2000-powered 757-200s. In conjunction with the awarding of the STC, CAAC approved the conversion, clearing the way for delivery of the first converted aircraft to Shanghai Airlines. The work was carried out on behalf of ILFC, which is leasing the jet to the Chinese carrier. Work will begin shortly on converting a second ILFC 757 for Shanghai Airlines. Precision received an STC for conversion of Rolls-Royce-powered 757s last June.
Northwest Airlines' markets are particularly well-adapted for new-generation large regional jets, the company argues in a special edition of its internal newsletter Passages. As previously reported, the carrier is seeking permission from its pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn., to create a standalone subsidiary to operate 70/100-seat jets ( ATWOnline, Jan. 6).
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said JFK, Newark and LaGuardia airports handled nearly 100 million passengers last year, a new record. A final tally is still a couple of weeks away, but preliminary figures suggest a 6% rise in passenger throughput, the Port Authority said. JFK handled nearly 41 million, Newark 33 million and LaGuardia about 26 million.
