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.
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.
SAS Group signed a catering contract with LSG Lufthansa Service Holding AG covering catering for Scandinavian Airlines Denmark, Scandinavian Airlines Sweden, SAS Braathens and Scandinavian Airlines International departures from Copenhagen, Stockholm Arlanda, Gothenburg, Malmo, Oslo and Bergen. It also includes the takeover of Braathens' catering department by LSG Sky Chefs. The contract is effective Aug. 1 and has a duration of three years with an option for SAS Group to extend it for a further two years. It is valued at about Sek700 million ($102.4 million) per year.
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.
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.
SAS Trading AB, a wholly owned subsidiary of SAS Group that operates travel retail chain Euroshop, signed an agreement for the sale of its subsidiaries in Poland, Latvia and Estonia to Swedish-based Inflight Service Europe AB.
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.
Teledyne Controls said LTU ordered its Aviation Quality Database, a comprehensive and integrated software tool designed to support safety management and quality assurance processes. LTU will rely on AQD to facilitate occurrence data collection, incident investigation and corrective action tracking.
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.
Lufthansa Technik appointed Andreas Meisel as senior VP-aircraft overhaul and VIP Jet Services. He takes over the position from Wolfgang Gohde, who will become MD-Lufthansa Systems Group.
Sabre Airline Solutions' AirFlite suite was selected for implementation by Air China. In addition, the airline will employ consulting services from Sabre to assist with product implementation and network planning.
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%.
Air France-KLM Group flew 12.94 billion RPKs in February, up 3.8% on the year-ago period. Capacity increased 1.9% to 16.76 billion ASKs and load factor gained 1.4 points to 76.6%. AF load factor reached 74.6%, up 2.3 points, as traffic increased 3.3% on 0.2% higher capacity. KLM traffic grew virtually in line with capacity, up 4.7% and 5% respectively. Load factor was down just 0.3 point to 80.1%. The group carried 4.7 million passengers in February, 2.3% more than in the year-ago period.
AAR was selected by United Airlines to be the exclusive provider of heavy maintenance for the carrier's fleet of 737s. Under the terms of the five-year deal, AAR will operate up to four maintenance lines at AAR Aircraft Services-Indianapolis.
Singapore Airlines launched real-time high-speed Internet access on its London-Singapore flights. The service, which is being provided by Connexion by Boeing, will be available on all three of the carrier's daily flights on the route from mid-2005. SIA said it will introduce the service progressively on other long-haul flights and by year end it will be installed on more than 15 aircraft.
Delta Air Lines flew 8.18 billion RPMs in February, up 9.7% over the year-ago period. Capacity declined 1.6% to 11.52 billion ASMs and load factor gained 2.4 points to 71%. For the two months ended Feb. 28, RPMs climbed 11% to 16.86 billion, ASMs increased 5.6% to 23.62 billion and load factor rose 3.5 points to 71.4%.
Assn. of Asia Pacific Airlines' 17 member carriers posted a thumping 22.5% increase to 117 million in international passenger numbers for 2004. RPKs grew 18.6% while capacity lifted 13.1%, resulting in a 3.4-point jump in load factor to 73.1%. The spectacular growth was due partly to the lower base in 2003 because of SARS, but nonetheless passenger numbers and RPKs grew 7.7% and 6.9% respectively when compared to 2002. The biggest growth area was China, which recorded a 51% increase in passengers although no mainland Chinese airlines are members of AAPA.
Northwest Airlines flew 5.5 billion RPMs in February, up 6.6% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 2.4% to 7.09 billion ASMs and load factor gained 3.1 points to 77.6%. For the two months ended Feb. 28, RPMs increased 8.8% to 11.32 billion, ASMs rose 4.1% to 14.67 billion and load factor grew 3.3 points to 77.1%.
News from Travel Technology Update: The advent of GDS new entrants, dubbed GNEs, sparked an unusually acerbic response from the traditional vendors at ResExpo, who warned suppliers and agents that embracing new technology comes with risks. G2 SwitchWorks and ITA Software say they are close to rolling out systems that will take travel reservations off TPF mainframes and onto open systems that are more agile and a lot cheaper.
Leaders of the pilots union at Continental Airlines last week unanimously agreed to approve and support a new labor agreement and now will send the deal to union members for a ratification vote. According to the Air Line Pilots Assn., the agreement, which was reached late last month ( ATWOnline, March 1), will provide the airline with more than $200 million of the $500 million in annual cost savings Continental said it needs from employees.
