Judicial investigation into the role played by Continental Airlines in the July 2000 Air France Concorde crash began in Paris yesterday. According to the Associated Press, Investigating Judge Christophe Regnard placed the US carrier under investigation for manslaughter and involuntary injury, a preliminary step before formally charging it. Accident investigators determined that the crash occurred after one of the tires on the Concorde's main landing gear ruptured, sending pieces of rubber and metal into the jet's fuel tanks and spilling fuel, which ignited.
JAL Group yesterday raised its profit forecast for the current financial year ending March 31 to ¥27 billion ($260 million) from ¥23 billion and revealed further details of its previously announced restructuring plan for the three fiscal years from April 1, 2005, to March 31, 2008 ( ATWOnline, Feb. 7).
Lufthansa and NetJets, as expected ( ATWOnline, March 8), yesterday announced a partnership argreement to create Lufthansa Private Jet, which will permit travelers to fly by business jet from more than 1,000 airports around Europe to Lufthansa's Munich hub to board connecting flights in first or business class. The agreement was signed in Munich by Lufthansa Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber and NetJets Chairman and CEO Richard Santulli. LH will conduct a six-month market test of the service beginning with the start of the summer schedule from March 29.
Gol flew 553.7 million RPKs in February, up 5.8% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 15.1% to 782.3 million ASKs and load factor declined 6.2 points to 70.8%. The airline did not provide year-to-date results.
Cathay Pacific Airways reported its second-best year with profit to shareholders of HK$4.42 billion ($566 million) for full-year 2004, up sharply over net income of HK$1.3 billion in SARS-affected 2003. Cathay attributed the growth to the improved Hong Kong and global economies compared to 2003 and noted that 2004 would have been its best year on record had there not been a sharp rise in the price of fuel.
Delta Air Lines is eliminating pillows, dropping its food-for-purchase program and increasing the cost of alcoholic beverages on most of its flights as part of its Transformation Plan. Pillows will be eliminated on all flights within the continental US and to Bermuda, Canada and Central American and Caribbean destinations beginning in mid-March as "part of the airline's efforts to provide more room for carry-on luggage in overhead bins while reducing costs." Blankets still will be available.
Emirates closed a $239 million financing agreement with the US Export-Import Bank for 22 GE and Rolls-Royce engines. The financing was fully arranged and funded by Royal Bank of Scotland and comprises $129 million for seven spare GE90s using Exim support and $110 million for 15 Rolls engines using commercial debt.
America West Holdings Corp., parent of America West Airlines, revised its previously reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2004 owing to an accounting change associated with the recognition of gains or losses on derivative instruments that the company uses as a means of reducing financial exposure to fluctuating fuel prices. As a result, the company's and airline's consolidated statements of operations for 2004 will reflect net losses of $89 million and $85.3 million respectively, versus the net losses of $89.9 million and $86.1 million previously reported.
Air Canada parent ACE Aviation Holdings reported a C$15 million ($12.4 million) net income for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, which included foreign exchange gains on long-term monetary items of C$98 million. This was a complete turnaround from a C$768 million net loss in the prior-year period, which included C$560 million in reorganization charges. The company did not release full-year results, but losses for the first nine months totaled C$895 million.
Continental Airlines warned yesterday that matching Delta's SimpliFares fare reform in competing markets will cost it an estimated $200 million in annual revenue, or around 2% of 2004 revenues of $9.7 billion, well above an earlier forecast of a $50 million impact.
Virgin Nigeria Airlines is scheduled to begin operations later this year following a successful private placement of 51% of the share capital worth $26 million with Nigerian institutional investors, Reuters reported. It added that the institutional investors are expected to sell half of their stake in an IPO on the Nigerian Stock Exchange once the airline gets airborne. Virgin Group holds a minority share of 49% as originally planned to avoid US authorities viewing the new airline as British, which could affect traffic rights to the US negatively.
EADS posted a net profit of eur1.03 billion ($1.38 billion) in 2004, a 60% increase on 2003 owing mainly to the strong performance of Airbus and a swing into profit by space activities. But Co-Chairman Philippe Camus warned that breakeven for the A380 program now exceeds 300 units, up from original expectations of 250 units. "If we fix the euro/dollar rate at eur1.30, and based on what we have already done for the program [in terms of currency hedging], and also taking into account the higher development costs, we get a breakeven point that is well above 300 planes," Camus said.
Lufthansa today is expected to reveal details of a cooperative venture with NetJets, the business aviation and fractional ownership company owned by billionaire investor Warren Buffet. According to news agency n-tv.de, the program will be marketed under the name Lufthansa Private Jet and begin this summer using aircraft and crew from NetJets. Last fall, Executive VP-Marketing and Sales Thierry Antinori told this website that in order to enhance its offerings for ultra-premium passengers, LH was evaluating cooperating with private executive jet operators.
British Airways yesterday confirmed media reports that CEO Rod Eddington will step down from the airline later this year and will be replaced by former Aer Lingus CEO Willie Walsh, who will begin work as CEO-designate on May 3 and will become CEO when Eddington retires at the end of September ( ATWOnline, March 8). "Many commentators have rightly said that Rod Eddington will be a hard act to follow but I am completely confident that in Willie we have captured the very best person for the job," BA Chairman Martin Broughton said.
Star Alliance and Aeroports de Paris signed an agreement in principle to create a partnership to support the alliance's effort to build a minihub at Paris Charles de Gaulle's Terminal 1. ADP is in the second year of a eur220 million ($290 million) refurbishment and modernization of the 31-year-old T1 during which most Star carriers not currently using the terminal will transfer operations there. "We have to invest for a better standard in T1, to reach a comfort similar to T2E or T2F," ADP President Pierre Graff said during a news conference in Paris.
Air France exercised options to purchase four additional GE90-115B-powered 777-300ERs, valued at $920 million at list prices. Deliveries will begin in April 2006. AF currently operates eight 777-300ERs and the new order brings its backlog of 777-300ER deliveries to 12.
Panama's Copa Airlines and AeroRepublica, Colombia's second-largest carrier, announced a strategic alliance that includes Copa's acquisition of a majority stake in AeroRepublica. According to the carriers, the alliance incorporates "technical and commercial collaborative agreements." AeroRepublica will continue to operate independently and will maintain its corporate identity and current workforce. It flies nine aircraft to 11 destinations in Colombia. In 2004 it transported more than 2 million passengers.
Alitalia's investment bankers Goldman Sachs and Mediobanca finalized the underwriting syndicate for the airline's eur1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) capital increase, Finanza & Mercati reported. Alitalia's restructuring plan and recap currently is being investigated by the European Commission.
Goodyear extended a multiyear contract with Airbus for the supply of aviation tires to the aircraft manufacturer for A300s, A310s, A318s, A319s, A320s and A321s.
In what was a period of significant growth, Gol reported net income of 123.9 million reais ($46.7 million) for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, up 93.3% over net income of R$64.1 million in the year-ago period. "We continued our investment in our virtuous cycle of profitable growth through the addition of four new aircraft to the fleet, 51 flights and seven new market destinations," CEO Constantino de Oliveira said.
LaBarge was awarded a contract valued at $3.2 million by L-3 Communications Security and Detection Systems under which LaBarge will manufacture electronic equipment for an airline checked-baggage screening system that uses x-rays to detect the presence of explosives or other contraband.
British Airways Chief Executive Rod Eddington may leave the carrier in late summer or autumn, several UK newspapers reported Sunday. Eddington's departure depends on when Chairman Martin Broughton finds a replacement, but he is "likely to leave the airline within months of its annual meeting in July," according to the Sunday Times, which added that he wants to be back in his native Australia by early 2006.
SAS Group reported that total traffic for group airlines rose 0.8% in February to 2.3 billion RPKs compared to February 2004. Noting that comparisons are skewed owing to the fact that February 2004 contained an extra day, SAS said traffic was weaker this year. Capacity climbed 4.2% to 4 billion ASKs and load factor slipped 1.9 points to 57.2%. On intercontinental routes, load factor plummeted 8.1 points. Scandinavian Airlines reported that ASKs fell 1.8% to 3 billion, RPKs were down 5% to 1.8 billion and load factor dropped 2 points to 58.7%.
US Airways flew 2.93 billion RPMs in February, up 3% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 1.2% to 4.21 billion ASMs and load factor gained 1.2 points to 69%. For the two months ended Feb. 28, RPMs rose 3.4% to 5.84 billion, ASMs decreased 0.4% to 8.47 billion and load factor jumped 2.6 points to 69%.
EasyJet carried 2.2 million passengers in February, up 16.3% from a year earlier. Load factor lost 2.7 points to 85.9%. "Passenger numbers rose by a satisfactory 16.3% in February, and load factors were ahead of the 12-month rolling average. It should be noted that the load factor for February 2004 was unusually high," CEO Ray Webster said. Last week, competitor Ryanair reported a 13% increase in February passengers to 2.1 million. For the rolling 12 months ending Feb. 28, easyJet carried 26.4 million passengers and average load factor was 84.2%.
