Cathay Pacific Airways reported a profit of HK$1.67 billion ($214.9 million) for the six months ended June 30, down 5.7% compared to a HK$1.77 billion first-half profit last year as a 27.9% rise in fuel expense dampened strong passenger demand. Passenger and cargo fuel surcharges only partially offset the additional cost. Turnover increased 21.5% to HK$23.88 billion as passengers carried rose 14.5% to 7.3 million, ahead of a 12.2% increase in passenger capacity.
EADS Sogerma Services will lease A330 spares worth $7 million from aviation spares specialist A.J. Walter Aviation to support Sogerma customers worldwide.
Lufthansa yesterday confirmed a second-quarter net profit of €116 million and an operating result of €279 million ( ATWOnline, Aug. 10). Revenues rose 4.3% to €4.55 billion. For the six months, operating profit was €253 million while net result was a breakeven €0.2 million. CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board Wolfgang Mayrhuber called the outcome "a fine feat in such a tough setting," adding that "all our business segments improved their result." LH expects full-year operating result to exceed €400 million.
Blue1, the Finnish SAS subsidiary, carried 97,000 passengers in July, up 24% compared to last year. Year-to-date through July, 804,000 passengers flew with Blue1, 30% more than in 2004. RPKs increased 29% and ASKs dipped 4% in July. Load factor rose to 76.3%.
Garuda and Singapore Airlines will be able to increase services as the result of an MOU signed yesterday between Singapore and Indonesia that formalizes an agreement in principle reached in May. SIA will be given more access to Bali and Jakarta while Garuda will get fifth freedom traffic rights from Singapore.
Aviapartner will provide ramp handling to Scandinavian Airlines at both Dusseldorf and Hannover from Oct. 1 under a new three-year agreement. It already handles SAS at Brussels, Lyon, Nice, Turin and Venice.
Lufthansa, which reports complete results today, said it had an operating profit of €253 million ($312 million) for the first half ended June 30 compared to an operating profit of €33 million in the year-ago period. Net profit was €0.2 million, down from a profit of €39 million in 2004, but last year's six-month result was boosted by book profits of €292 during the first quarter from the sale of LH's stake in Amadeus. Revenues rose 2.4% in the 2005 first half to €8.5 billion.
Goodrich Corp. board of directors elected Scott Kuechle senior VP and CFO. He succeeds Rick Schmidt, who is leaving to become CFO of Spirit AeroSystems. Kuechle is a 22-year veteran of Goodrich and has served as VP and controller since 2004.
Boeing and Qualcomm said they successfully demonstrated "the simultaneous use of CDMA and GSM mobile phone technology over an onboard network inflight mobile phone" on Boeing's Connexion One 737demonstrator. Passengers were able to download a variety of applications, send and receive e-mail and use instant message functions.
EVA Air will offer OnAir's two-way SMS beginning with its first 777-300ER that enters service this month. An English-language version will be followed by a Chinese version later in the year. The service will be available to passengers in all cabins and will cost $1.50 per message sent or received. It allows passengers to use the in-seat entertainment system to send messages to mobile phones and e-mail addresses and also to receive replies. The system will be installed on the entire EVA Air fleet over the next few years.
United Airlines parent UAL Corp. said it largely has "completed its aircraft restructuring effort," saving it approximately $300 million annually. The contractual savings associated with the agreement-in-principle reached with the Public Debt Group, which controlled 105 United aircraft, is subject to approval by the bankruptcy court. When coupled with previous restructurings, UAL said it will result in the company reducing its fleet costs by approximately $850 million in average annual savings since entering Chapter 11.
Royal Jordanian carried 186,300 passengers in July, up 3.8% over the same month in 2004 and a record for July. VP-Commercial Hussein Dabbas said load factor rose 3.8 points to 81.6% . The airline carried approximately 984,000 passengers between January and July, up 4.2% over the year-ago period. Based on preliminary figures, it expects to carry around 192,000 passengers in August.
FLYi, parent of Independence Air, reported that its loss for the second quarter ended June 30 widened to $98.5 million from $27.1 million in the year-ago period. Current-period results are net of a $43.4 million pre-tax noncash impairment charge related to asset writedowns, while last year's results included $21.9 million in pre-tax special charges. Excluding special items from both periods, net loss widened from $14.1 million in 2004 to $55.5 million in 2005.
US Bankruptcy Court overseeing US Airways' Chapter 11 reorganization authorized the carrier to solicit votes from its creditors in favor of its Plan of Reorganization, which if approved will clear the way for the company to exit bankruptcy and merge with America West Airlines in late September/early October, the airline said yesterday. A hearing on confirmation of the reorganization plan is set for Sept. 15.
Lufthansa Systems announced that Airbus successfully integrated its Lido eRouteManual and electronic airport and route charts into the On-board Information System of the A380. The eRouteManual presents a worldwide data set of airport and en route aeronautical information and detailed taxi, departure and approach charts, "as well as global, seamless en route moving charts." LHS will offer it for all Airbus electronic flight bags.
OnAir announced that Munich-based TriaGnoSys and Alabama-based Miltope Corp. will provide the software and server respectively for the OnAir onboard GSM solution that "will allow the safe and effective use of mobile phones on aircraft for the first time." With the recent selection of Siemens as the pico cell manufacturer, all suppliers for the system are identified and fully engaged with Airbus. A pre-production version of the server with the TriaGnoSys software is expected by year end.
Lufthansa will add six new destinations from Hamburg from Oct. 15. It will base four 737s there and start services to Budapest, Gothenburg, Madrid, Nice, Prague and Rome. Separately, Lufthansa said passenger traffic rose 6.8% in July to 10.23 billion RPKs, while capacity climbed just 2.1% to 13.13 billion ASKs. The result was a 3.4-point improvement in cabin factor to 77.9%. Most of the growth occurred on long-haul routes to the Americas and Asia/Pacific, LH said in an statement. The number of passengers rose 2.2 % to 4.76 million.
Gulf Air appointed Rohan Alce regional GM for Europe, Africa and the Americas. Clive Wratten succeeds Alce as UK GM. Alce has been with Gulf Air since 2002 and previously held positions at Qatar Airways, bmi, Virgin Atlantic and British Caledonian. Wratten joined Gulf Air in 2003 after stints with Qantas and British Airways
Adria Airways and LOT Polish Airlines will launch service between Ljubljana and Warsaw Sept. 2. The four weekly flights will be evenly divided between the carriers, which are codesharing on the route.
Germanwings, the low-fare clone of Eurowings in which Lufthansa holds 49%, will open a new base at Hamburg this winter. The carrier will base two A319s/A320s at Hamburg and offer services to London Gatwick, Stockholm, Oslo, Krakow, Warsaw, Zagreb, Munich, Toulouse and Istanbul. It also will increase flights on its existing Hamburg-Stuttgart route to thrice-daily. Fares will start at €15 ($18.50) including taxes. It will add another domestic route from Hamburg in the near future and expects to carry around 500,000 passengers in its first year there.
SAS Group flew 3.2 billion RPKs in July, up 5.2% over the year-ago period. Group capacity rose 1.8% to 4.4 billion RPKs and load factor improved 2.4 points to 74.1%. Flagship Scandinavian Airlines reported a 1.5% decline in RPKs to 2.4 billion while ASKs fell 5.4% to 3.1 billion, pushing load factor up 3 points to 76.9%.
Aerleasing.com, which celebrated its first month in business on Aug. 4, aims to use Web auctions to bring together buyers, lessors and sellers of aircraft and engines. The site is the brainchild of Jason Bell, a UK-based software designer who admits his background is in software and systems, not wheeling and dealing in airplanes. "I've come from the outside in," he told ATWOnline. The site has "two tracks: You are either sourcing an aircraft or you have an aircraft you want to part with via sale or lease," he explained.
Sun-Air of Scandinavia took delivery of a second Dornier 328JET specially configured for short takeoffs and landings and will use it for new service at London City Airport starting in November. The airline, which also operates 328 turboprops, is a franchise partner of British Airways. Private Wings, a charter carrier based at Berlin Templehof, also purchased a 328JET, boosting its total fleet to six.
Pakistan's Airblue ordered eight A320-200s and two A330-200s valued at $800 million. The airline, which started operations in 2004, operates three A320s. It is one of three private carriers in Pakistan. The order is in part a response to additional overseas route allocations from the Pakistan government. The A320s will be used on domestic routes and the A330s on flights to the UK.
