Cathay Pacific Airways together with Dragonair flew 5.88 billion RPKs in February, up 2.2% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 3% to 7.79 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 0.5 point to 75.5%.
US Airways said it distributed $58.7 million in profit sharing to employees yesterday. The profit-sharing program sets aside 10% of US's annual pre-tax profit excluding special items.
Frontier Airlines authorized the repurchase of up to 300,000 shares of outstanding common stock. The repurchased shares will be contributed to the carrier's employee stock ownership plan.
TAM secured a $331 million syndicated loan led by Calyon and Natixis Transport Finance to finance pre-delivery payments on the four firm 777-300ERs ordered last fall ( ATWOnline, Nov. 22, 2006).
BCI Aircraft Leasing said it acquired two A321-100s from Airbus that are on long-term lease to Alitalia, bringing to five the number of -100s the Chicago-based lessor has placed with AZ.
Airbus, in conjunction with Lufthansa and Qantas, will fly development A380s to New York JFK and Los Angeles International next week to demonstrate the aircraft to US media and to test JFK and LAX facilities. Development A380 MSN7, to be operated with assistance from LH ( ATWOnline, Feb. 14), will fly on to Chicago O'Hare after stopping at JFK. An A380 will fly to Washington Dulles on March 25.
Airline Partners Australia's proposed A$11.1 billion ($8.68 billion) buyout of Qantas hit turbulence when a Senate inquiry investigating a private member's bill was told that QF would be forced to sell off its airline interests in New Zealand, Fiji and Singapore if the Qantas Sale Act was applied to all subsidiaries. The 1994 act, which governed the carrier's transition to a publicly listed company, mandates that QF remain 51% Australian owned, maintain its headquarters in Australia and have a home-grown majority on its board.
European Commission VP-Transport Jacques Barrot told the European Parliament in Strasbourg yesterday that the draft open skies agreement ( ATWOnline, March 13) is "more balanced in favor of Europe" than the former deal that was rejected by the EU transport ministers in November 2005 and that it contains terms forcing the US to return to the negotiating table for a second stage of talks.
Estonian Air will introduce a sixth aircraft to its fleet, a 737-500, in June and launch four-times-weekly Tallinn-Vienna service. It also will reintroduce thrice-weekly flights to Hamburg beginning March 26 and announced summer services to Paris Charles de Gaulle (four-times-weekly), Dubrovnik (twice-weekly) and Simferopol (twice-weekly).
With environmental politics taking center stage in the UK, the opposition Conservative Party said this week that new taxes on both airlines and passengers should be considered as a means to reduce carbon emissions.
Lufthansa's domestic schedule will rely entirely on e-ticketing by April, it said yesterday. It currently is at 96%. Passengers on a domestic flight connecting to a foreign destination still will have access to paper tickets, albeit with a higher service charge.
US and Canada signed an aviation agreement yesterday in Washington that will build upon the countries' 1995 arrangement by affording seventh freedom rights to passenger and cargo carriers, allowing them to fly to third-country markets from cities across the border. It also provides for "market-based pricing, open routes for cargo flights and a liberal charter regime," the US Dept of Transportation said.
Alitalia said "improvement in business activities compared to the previous year" allows it to forecast sales of €4.7 billion ($6.16 billion) in 2007, leading to an 8% rise in annual EBITDAR. AZ has not released its full-year 2006 results.
Fewer than 10 days remain before transport ministers of the 27 EU member states cast their votes on the EU-US open skies draft agreement and speculation is rife on whether the UK will exercise its right to veto the deal. Last week, UK Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander said he would push for a more balanced agreement, specifically on the thorny issue of foreign ownership and control of US airlines.
US Airways lost its bid to merge with Delta Air Lines ( ATWOnline, Feb. 1), but US Chairman and CEO Doug Parker remains convinced that the "facts are irrefutable and compelling in favor of consolidation" among US carriers. Speaking to the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading 24th annual conference in Phoenix Monday, Parker cited the experience of America West Airlines and the old US Airways as evidence of consolidation's benefits.
News from Travel Technology Update: British Airways signed a new three-year agreement with Galileo, the GDS unit of Travelport. It is the first GDS agreement announced by the carrier since its previous pacts expired at the end of February. The new deal, which goes into effect April 10, is basically a "continuation" of Galileo's travel agency opt-in program that was launched in 2004, according to the carrier. The program gives Galileo subscribers in the U.K. and Ireland access to all publicly available fares, provided they opt in to the program.
Indonesia National Transportation Safety Bureau investigator Marjono Siswo Suwarno, who is leading the inquiry into last week's Garuda Indonesia 737-400 crash in Yogyakarta, said Friday that the initial evidence does not support the flight captain's contention that a sudden "downdraft" as the aircraft was attempting to land caused the accident ( ATWOnline, March 9). "There was no downdraft at the point of landing," Marjono told reporters.
Amadeus reported that total bookings grew 5.5% last year to 499.5 million while online bookings jumped 25.5% and represented 16.2% of total air bookings. The GDS claimed it had a 31% share of travel agency bookings in 2006, up 1.74 points over 2005. Total revenue grew 10.9% to €2.68 billion. It migrated four airlines to its Altea customer management solution, bringing to 29 the number of carriers using Altea.
CSA Czech Airlines released its full-year results Friday, confirming last week's report of a CZK397 million ($18.5 million) loss ( ATWOnline, March 9), narrowed from a CZK496 million deficit in 2005. Revenues rose 5.9% to CZK23.48 billion and expenses fell 1.5% to CZK23.59 billion. CSA said it achieved cost reductions by "centralizing its purchasing and by re-bidding tenders for outsourced services," such as switching insurance brokers and ground handlers at foreign airports.
Gulf Air named former Galileo International executive John Matthews manager-global distribution system strategies and former Alitalia Commercial Web Development Manager Nicola Simionato e-commerce manager.
Continental Airlines flew 6.48 billion RPMs in February, up 7.6% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 6.2% to 8.42 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 1 point to 77%. Domestic RPMs climbed 5.8% to 3.19 billion against a 6.2% lift in ASMs to 3.96 billion, dropping load factor 0.3 point to 80.7%. International RPMs grew 11.1% to 2.56 billion, ASMs were ahead 7% to 3.5 billion and load factor rose 2.7 points to 73.2%.
Citing strict cost control and increased revenues mainly from customers outside Lufthansa Group, Lufthansa Technik Group reported net income of €153.1 million ($167.6 million) in 2006, a healthy 17.7% increase compared to the €127.6 million earned in 2005. Revenues rose 9.4% to €3.4 billion, with revenues from group airlines ahead 5.1% to €1.4 billion, representing 40% of total sales. Revenues generated from external customers grew 12.5% and represented 60% of sales, up from 58.3% in 2005.
