Lufthansa flew 10.57 billion RPKs in June, up 7.6% on the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 4.9% to 13.22 billion ASKs and load factor rose 2 points to 80%. Royal Jordanian transported 204,000 passengers in June, a 14% increase on the year-ago month. Load factor rose 4.8 points to 72.2%. LAN Airlines flew 1.78 billion RPKs in June, a 29.7% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 22.5% to 2.45 billion ASKs and load factor rose 4 points to 72.6%.
US Dept. of Transportation yesterday asked for public comment on possible changes to the rules governing airline oversales, including a potential increase in the maximum compensation due to passengers bumped from oversold flights.
Air Transport Assn. said data from the first quarter reveals that US airlines' costs rose 10.6% compared to the year-ago quarter. "Costs of running an airline continue to rise. . .driven primarily by a 12.6% [first-quarter] cost surge in fuel," VP and Chief Economist John Heimlich said. "Fortunately, airlines were able to compensate with a 16.7% improvement in fuel efficiency and continued vigilance on other controllable items." The three largest cost components were labor (24.5%), fuel (23.4%) and transport-related expenses (13.9%).
Dubai International Capital said it purchased a 3.12% stake in Airbus parent EADS through its Global Strategic Equities Fund. Reuters reported that the stake is worth more than $830 million and makes the fund EADS' fifth-largest shareholder. DIC, which is wholly owned by the Dubai government, said in a statement that it is confident in the eventual success of Airbus's "comprehensive restructuring program."
Precision Conversions received an order for a 15-pallet 757-200 freighter conversion from Cargo Aircraft Management. Work on the ex-Delta Air Lines 757 will begin in September at the Flightstar facility in Jacksonville. Aircraft will be redelivered to CAM in December.
Gate Gourmet reached an agreement to acquire deSter Holding of Amsterdam, the world's leading supplier of items such as cutlery, chinaware and amenity kits, according to Gate Gourmet, which added that deSter also owns Supplair, a provider of "alternative airline meal solutions assembled off-airport." Private equity fund group EQT has owned deSter since 1999. The company, which had sales of €235 million ($320.1 million) in 2006, has operations on three continents and more than 350 airlines as customers. Purchase price was not disclosed.
Northwest Airlines flew 6.96 billion consolidated RPMs in June, down 0.7% from the year-ago month, as domestic traffic fell 2.1% and international rose 1.2%. Capacity was up 0.3% on a 2.7% domestic decline and 5.2% international lift. Load factor dropped 1 point to 88% as domestic rose 0.5 point to 87.9% and international declined 3.5 points to 89.6%. SAS Group airlines flew 3.99 billion RPKs in June, up 6.6% from the year-ago month, against a 6.7% rise in capacity to 5.22 billion ASKs. Load factor slipped 0.1 point to 76.4%.
ACTS, the MRO provider 30% owned by Air Canada parent ACE Aviation Holdings, reached new 10-year agreements with both TACA and Mexico's Volaris for MRO work on components and related logistics in deals valued at a combined C$200 million ($190.5 million). ACTS President and CEO Chahram Bolouri said the company "anticipates strong revenue growth" in its engine and component businesses for 2007 and that its acquisition of El Salvador's Aeroman ( ATWOnline, Dec.
Iberia confirmed Friday that it brought forward its next board meeting, originally planned for July 26, to this Thursday but did not confirm speculation that the board will discuss opening its books to a potential bid consortium including TPG Capital and British Airways ( ATWOnline, May 28). IB will open its books only to offers above €4 ($5.45) per share, Cinco Dias reported, citing shareholder sources. TPG's March approach valued IB at €3.4 billion, or €3.60 per share.
Oman Air will begin serving Tehran and Damascus from Muscat in September and will launch its long-haul expansion in November with flights to London and Bangkok, the Arab Air Carriers Organization announced. AACO said Oman Air will be "operating its widebody aircraft" on the latter two routes.
GA Telesis announced that Aldebaran Leasing, its joint venture with EB-Erste Bank Internationale Beteiligungen, acquired two A340-200s on long-term lease to Royal Jordanian from GIE Lizad. Transaction represents GAT's first A340 acquisition and first Middle East lessee.
The so-called High Level Group for the future European aviation regulatory framework formed by European Commission VP-Transport Jacques Barrot last week delivered its long-awaited report containing 10 recommendations and a roadmap with concrete measures boosting performance of Europe's air traffic management system.
Air France KLM flew 17.75 billion RPKs in June, up 4.9% from the year-ago month, against a 4.5% lift in ASKs to 21.45 billion. Load factor was up 0.3 point to 82.7%. Delta Air Lines flew 11.67 billion system RPMs in June, up 5% from the year-ago month, on a 1.5% lift in domestic traffic and a 12.7% surge internationally. Capacity rose 3.3% to 13.59 billion ASMs as domestic fell 2.2% and international climbed 15%. System load factor gained 1.4 points to 85.9%--domestic rose 3.2 points to 87.3% and international fell 1.7 points to 83.4%.
Qantas yesterday said the level of foreign shareholding in the company has fallen to 44.5% from "just below" 50% ( ATWOnline, May 31). "Foreign shareholding is trending down and we are confident that our share register is in compliance with the Qantas Sale Act," CEO Geoff Dixon said.
The European Commission on Wednesday published the fourth update of its "blacklist" of airlines banned from operating in the EU. The list, which takes effect today, now includes all 51 carriers certified in Indonesia, Angolan flag carrier TAAG Angola Airlines and Ukrainian cargo operator Volare Aviation Enterprise.
Lufthansa Technik started construction yesterday on a 27,000-sq.-m. maintenance hangar for A330s and A340 in Malta. LHT will invest €55 million ($74.9 million) and said the project will create about 540 jobs. The facility should be operational by the 2008 fourth quarter and will be leased to Lufthansa Technik Malta, in which Lufthansa will hold 92% and Air Malta the remainder. LH said the expansion is required to meet rising demand for MRO on the Airbus widebodies. LHT also operates an A330/A340 facility in Manila.
American Airlines announced the following changes to its London service: One of its two daily Dallas/Fort Worth-Gatwick flights and its daily Raleigh/Durham-LGW service, both aboard 777s, will switch to Heathrow on March 29. A new daily New York JFK-Stansted flight begins Oct. 28 aboard a 221-seat 767-300, with a second daily frequency added next spring. Separately, AA flew 12.22 billion system RPMs in June, down 3.5% from the year-ago month, as domestic traffic declined 3% and international fell 4.3%.
American Eagle Airlines flew 806 million RPMs in June, down 2.4% from June 2006, against a 2.2% fall in ASMs to 1 billion. Load factor was off 0.2 point to 80.3%. Ryanair transported 4.3 million passengers in June, up 18% from the year-ago month. Load factor dropped 2 points to 85%. AirTran Airways flew 1.63 billion RPMs in June, up 26% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 21.3% to 1.97 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 3.1 points to 82.9%.
The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, reached a definitive agreement to acquire ARINC from its current shareholders, which include more than a dozen major airlines and Boeing.
Continental Airlines and Kingfisher Airlines announced a partnership under which they will offer loyalty program and lounge reciprocity effective Oct. 1. Codesharing is scheduled to begin by year end. CO operates a daily Newark-Delhi service and plans to launch daily EWR-Mumbai flights on Oct. 1.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines yesterday officially introduced its new flexible fare structure allowing business, Economy Extra and economy passengers to purchase Fully Flexible, Flexible and Fixed fares for any class on any segment. All fares are available to book immediately save Fixed Economy Extra, which will be ready by year end. "The new fixed fares allow customers to purchase business or Economy Extra class at a competitive price, if they book well in advance," SAS International CCO Lars Sandahl Sorensen said. "They can also mix classes to suit their budgets and schedules.
Etihad Crystal Cargo appointed Heavyweight Air Express as its general sales agent in Ireland to support belly cargo service on the four-times-weekly Abu Dhabi-Dublin service that Etihad Airways launched this week aboard an A330-200.
Continental Airlines and representatives of the Air Line Pilots Assn. this week signed a Protocol Agreement that "sets the stage for the parties to begin talks about changes to the pilots' contract," CO said. The current contract becomes amendable on Dec. 31, 2008, and ALPA requested that discussions begin earlier than the originally scheduled April 2008 date. Separately, CO estimated that June consolidated unit revenue climbed 1.5%-2.5% year-over-year and mainline RASM rose 3.5%-4.5%.
