Singapore Airlines' traffic continues to grow, with the carrier recording a 6.9% lift in passengers and a 9.7% increase in cargo for July. Traffic rose 7.2% while capacity grew 6.8% for an overall load factor lift of 0.3 point to 69.1%. Strongest passenger load factor was to the Americas at 88.1%, while Europe had the highest cargo load factor at 69.5%. During the month, SIA introduced passenger flights to Ahmedabad and Amritsar and cargo flights to Johannesburg.
Virgin Blue's exposure to higher fuel costs forced the airline to downgrade earnings expectations by one-third for the current financial year. In an announcement to the Australian Stock Exchange, the carrier said its full-year profit will fall from A$159 million ($120 million) to A$90-A$100 million for the 12 months to next June 30. It blamed the profit warning on a A$150 million increase in its fuel costs due to price rises. It has no hedging in place.
Connexion by Boeing named Lianne Stein VP-Commercial Aviation Business, succeeding Stan Deal, who was named VP-sales and marketing operations at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Stein most recently served as VP of BCA for Washington operations. Prior to joining Boeing in 2001, she spent 10 years at ILFC. Earlier she was with Flying Tigers.
US Airways received bankruptcy court approval to sell four of its 767s and one spare engine to Mountain Capital Partners LLC, an affiliate of Goldman Sachs, as part of a sale/leaseback agreement. The deal will provide the carrier with $30.8 million initially and another $10 million after recurrent maintenance checks through 2009. US Airways said it has been operating under a month-to-month agreement with Mountain Capital enabling it to return planes and the spare engine as it takes delivery of new aircraft.
China Airlines revised its financial forecast for the 2005 year, telling the markets that it is increasing its operating revenue prediction by 5.8% to TWD$111.69 billion ($3.48 billion) but downgrading its profit forecast from TWD$4.4 billion to TWD$3.08 billion. The airline recorded a 17% growth in passenger revenue and a 12% lift in cargo for the first six months.
Northwest Airlines appeared to come through the first day of a strike by its 4,400 mechanics and aircraft cleaners with flying colors, operating most of its flights on Saturday and achieving a 57.8% ontime departure rate and 97.9% outbound completion factor through 5:15 p.m. EDT, according to an analysis by JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker. To ease the burden on the mix of replacement workers and third-party providers who are filling in, the airline began flying its fall schedule Friday, operating around 300 fewer daily flights than during the peak summer season.
AirTran Holdings filed a shelf registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission covering the sale of up to $225 million of its debt securities, preferred stock, common stock or warrants to purchase any of these securities.
El Al Israel Airlines earned $29.9 million in the second quarter ended June 30, a fourfold increase over $7 million earned in the year-ago period and a record for any second quarter. Revenues rose 30% to $423 million. The carrier attributed the strong performance "to enormous growth in passenger traffic during the period." A 16% increase in capacity resulted in a 26% jump in passengers on scheduled flights, pushing load factor up 7 points to 80%. El Al noted that it overcame a 52% surge in fuel prices during the quarter that raised operating expenses by approximately $33 million.
Aviapartner will provide catering in Brussels to Continental Airlines for its daily 767-400 service under a five-year contract that begins Jan. 1. Aviapartner valued the deal at €2.2 million ($2.7 million) annually.
Estonian Air, which is 49% owned by SAS, reported a profit of EEK17.7 million ($1.39 million) in the first half of 2005 compared to a loss of EEK1.1 million in the year-ago period. First-half operating revenue grew 13% to EEK494.1 million on a 20.2% rise in passengers to 293,700. Load factor improved 3.4 points to 61.9%. Despite a 68% jump in fuel price, the carrier slashed its cost per ASK by 12.3% compared to 2004.
Qantas reported after-tax earnings for the fiscal year ended June 30 of A$763.6 million ($580.9 million), up 17.8% on prior-year earnings of A$648.4 million, but CEO Geoff Dixon warned that owing to the high price of fuel, savings "of up to at least A$1.5 billion would be required" for the 2007/08 fiscal years above and beyond the A$1.5 billion already targeted through FY06 from the Sustainable Future Program.
British Airways launched an investigation into last week's "outrageous" walkout by 1,000 baggage handlers, cargo workers and bus drivers at London Heathrow that caused the airline to cancel more than 700 flights and disrupted the travel plans of some 100,000 BA customers ( ATWOnline, Aug. 16).
CIT Group, the New York-based finance and leasing company, ordered five A350s and 24 A320s from Airbus valued at $2.2 billion at list prices, the companies announced yesterday. CIT said it also took options on an undisclosed number of additional aircraft.
SAS took a page out of the low-fare airline playbook yesterday as it announced that it will adopt so-called one-way pricing on all tickets sold to and from European destinations, eliminating roundtrip purchase and weekend stay requirements. Sales of the new European tickets will commence Sept. 1. German destinations will be available from January. Tickets can be purchased by telephone, through travel agencies or on the Internet, "where it will be easy to see what prices are available for each departure," the airline noted.
Low-fare airline Norwegian reported a second-quarter after-tax profit of NOK14.6 million ($2.26 million), reversing a loss of NOK27.4 million last year. "The result exceeds our expectations and we are delighted. . .We are on the right track, and believe that we will post a profit for the year as a whole," said President and CEO Bjorn Kjos. Total operating revenue jumped 70.8% to NOK531.3 million on a 69% rise in traffic to 730 million RPKs. Capacity increased 46% to 940 million ASKs and load factor soared 11 points to 78%.
Air Wisconsin began service for new partner US Airways with a flight from Philadelphia to Burlington. By the end of August, Air Wisconsin is scheduled to operate16 daily departures as US Airways Express. In September the schedule will expand to include a total of 25 markets with approximately 88 daily departures, primarily flown to and from Philadelphia. By February 2006 it will operate a fleet of 70 CRJs as US Airways Express.
ACE Aviation Holdings, parent of Air Canada, named former Aer Lingus CFO Brian Dunne executive VP and CFO reporting to ACE Chairman and CEO Robert Milton. Dunne replaces Rob Peterson, who will assume the position of executive VP-finance and CFO at Aeroplan LP, Air Canada's loyalty program that has been spun off into a separate subsidiary. Dunne was one of the top Aer Lingus managers credited with leading the airline's turnaround who resigned along with CEO Willie Walsh last year.
SAS Group reported that its second-quarter net profit more than tripled to SEK499 million ($66.2 million) from SEK147 million in the year-ago period and President and CEO Jorgen Lindegaard reiterated that the company expects to achieve a profit this year, "provided there are no important changes in the business environment or further significant increases in jet fuel prices."
IndiGo Airlines' order for 100 A320s announced at the Paris Air Show may have run into some turbulence. According to reports from some analysts and the Times of India, the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation's Aircraft Acquisition Committee deferred a decision on IndiGo's ambitious fleet plans. Sources suggest the committee needs "more clarification of the airline's funding" and there are concerns about the impact of the aircraft on slot requirements.
UPS ordered eight 747-400Fs, Boeing said yesterday. The order is the first by UPS placed directly with Boeing for any 747 variant. First delivery is scheduled for June 2007 with two additional deliveries that year followed by the remaining five in 2008. UPS chose GE CF6-80C2-B1F engines to power the aircraft. Value of the order was not disclosed. Earlier this year, UPS signed up for 10 A380Fs plus 10 options
Gol, in a step that represents a departure from the low-fare airline template it has followed since startup, announced a marketing agreement with Copa under which the two carriers will codeshare between Brazil and Panama beginning Aug. 24. The first phase of the agreement will connect Gol flights from Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo with Copa flights to Panama. Additional phases will increase the number of Brazilian cities served by the codeshare and add beyond destinations from Panama.
SkyWest Airlines plans to maintain Atlantic Southeast Airlines as a standalone operation upon completion of its purchase of the Delta Air Lines Regional subsidiary for $425 million, a deal announced late Monday ( ATWOnline, Aug. 16).
LAN Airlines threw a lifeline to Pratt & Whitney's PW6000 as it placed a launch order for the engine to power 15 firm A318s ordered in late June ( ATWOnline, July 1) with options on a further 25 shipsets and spares. The firm order covers 34 engines including four spares, while the options cover 50 installed and six spare engines. A long-term maintenance agreement is part of the deal. Previous orders for the PW6000 were cancelled after the engine experienced extended design delays.
Asiana Airlines will offer free domestic flights Thursday when services are expected to return to normal after a lengthy pilots' strike. International schedules, however, are not expected to be back to normal until the end of August. The free flight offer applies to nine destinations and there will be a 30% discount on the same routes until Sunday. The offer does not include the holiday island of Jeju.
