Eleven US Major passenger airlines in aggregate earned $19.31 billion in the first quarter ended March 31 compared to a loss of $3.3 billion in the year-ago period. Bottom-line results for the group were distorted heavily by large bankruptcy-related items at Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines and United Airlines. United, for example, booked a $22.9 billion noncash gain owing to the adoption of "fresh-start" accounting upon exiting bankruptcy Feb. 1.
American Airlines flew 11.94 billion system RPMs in April, a 5.5% rise over the year-ago month. Capacity remained flat at 14.61 billion ASMs and load factor climbed 4.3 points to 81.7%. Domestic traffic grew 3.3% to 7.83 billion RPMs against a 2.3% decline in capacity to 9.33 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 4.6 points to 83.9%. Internationally, traffic was up 10.1% to 4.1 billion RPMs, capacity increased 4.4% to 5.27 billion ASMs and load factor improved 4 points to 77.7%.
Embraer launched a Chinese version of its corporate website as part of its ongoing effort to gain a foothold in the burgeoning Asian market. It has an ERJ-145 assembly plant in Harbin, but thus far only a dozen aircraft have been delivered into the Chinese market. The Brazilian manufacturer, which is forecasting demand for some 600 RJs in China over the next 20 years, also has a commercial office in Beijing.
Cathay Pacific flew 5.86 billion RPKs in April, a 16.3% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 11.5% to 7.26 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 3.3 points to 80.7%.
Singapore Airlines appointed Senior VP-Finance Goh Choon Phong as president of SIA Cargo effective June 1. He replaces Hwang Teng Aun, who will become senior VP-marketing (special projects). Divisional VP-Finance Chan Hon Chew will replace Goh.
ExpressJet Holdings, Regional partner of Continental Airlines, reported first-quarter net income of $23.8 million, 2% above earnings of $23.3 million in the year-ago quarter. ExpressJet cited rising demand as a key factor behind its 20th consecutive profitable quarter. The Houston-based carrier reported a 7.7% rise in revenues to $404.2 million while operating expenses increased 9% to $366.8 million, producing operating income of $37.3 million, down 3.9% from the year-ago quarter.
Condor Airlines, the German leisure carrier jointly owned by Lufthansa and tour operator Karstadt/Quelle, denied rumors that it will take over certain long-haul services on behalf of Lufthansa in markets where yields are too low for LH to operate profitably. "We can operate flights for Lufthansa as we did in the past. But so far there are no discussions about that," MD Ralf Teckentrup told ATWOnline. Condor made a profit of €20.5 million ($26.2 million) in 2005 compared to a loss of €39 million the year before.
Airbus said it achieved "two major test milestones in the A380 program this week." Fatigue tests on an A380 in Dresden reached 10,000 cycles, twice as many as needed for certification, according to COO Charles Champion, who heads the A380 program. Fatigue testing began in September 2005 and will continue through 2008 to simulate 47,500 flights. In Hamburg, Airbus completed "the first extensive ground cabin tests in a fully equipped A380." During 5 hr. of testing, 474 passengers and 20 crewmembers simulated a 15-hr.
International Assn. of Machinists and Transport Workers Union reached agreement over future representation of 8,000 active and furloughed fleet service workers at the new US Airways. IAM has represented fleet service workers at US since 1994, while TWU has represented America West Airlines employees since 1999. Representatives from the unions will work alongside each other in negotiations with US on a transition agreement to cover all affected employees at the merged airline.
Sabre Airline Solutions and Worldspan jointly implemented a new message routing technique yesterday that the two interline e-ticketing providers said streamlines communications links between their systems. "The new approach eases cooperation between hub providers and should accelerate implementing interline electronic agreements," according to Tom Murphy, IATA senior VP-industry distribution and financial services.
US airlines reported an ontime performance rate for March of 76.1%, down 0.8 point from the year-ago month but up 0.8 point from February, according to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Hawaiian Airlines had the highest March ontime rate at 90% among the 19 airlines reporting while United Airlines was lowest at 69.3%.
Worldspan signed a new multiyear full content agreement with Air France that will give Worldspan travel agencies complete access to the airline's content.
Air Proxy was selected by Lufthansa Cargo as its GSA for Latvia from May 1, replacing its previous agreement with airBaltic. Air Proxy already represents Lufthansa Cargo in Estonia.
Air France-KLM flew 16.49 billion RPKs in April, a 10% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 4.8% to 19.86 billion ASKs and load factor was up 3.9 points to 83.1%. AF-KLM flew 918 million RTKs, an increase of 1.1%, as cargo capacity grew 2.1% to 1.36 billion ATKs. Frontier Airlines said its April RASM increased 6.8% to 8.27 cents as yield climbed 1.1% to 10.25 cents and traffic grew 27% to 707.7 million RPMs. Capacity increased 20.1% to 877.4 million ASMs and load factor rose 4.4 points to an April record 80.7%.
AirTran Airways yesterday resumed negotiations with its 1,400 pilots, represented by the National Pilots Assn. Talks in Orlando are aimed at renewing a labor contract that became amendable in April 2005. This week's talks are scheduled to run through Thursday and another round of negotiations is slated for May 30-31 in Baltimore. Separately, AirTran yesterday launched flights from Chicago Midway to Dallas/Ft. Worth (thrice-daily) and Charlotte (twice-daily) aboard 717s.
US Airways Group reported a 6.8% decline in consolidated April traffic to 5.45 billion RPMs. Capacity dropped 12.4% to 6.65 billion ASMs and load factor rose 4.9 points to 82%. British Airways flew 9.83 billion RPKs in April, up 9.8% on the year-ago month. Capacity rose 4.2% to 12.49 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 4 points to 78.7%. BA said the increase in traffic comprised a 3.8% gain in premium and a 10.9% lift in nonpremium traffic.
Air France increased its fuel surcharge by €7 ($8.90) per segment on long-haul flights effective April 28. Increases will be withdrawn when price per barrel falls below $60 for 30 consecutive days. Indian Airlines began adding a fuel surcharge of INR300 ($6.68) to tickets on all domestic sectors effective May 4.
British Airways will implement e-ticket interlining with 80 new partners through Amadeus in the next two years. BA, which is hosted on the Amadeus e-Ticket Server, already has implemented e-ticket interline links with 40 airlines, including its oneworld partners. "These new interline links will allow us to grow the number of routes on which our customers can travel using an e-ticket and help British Airways advance towards the 100% e-ticket target set by IATA for the end of 2007," Product Delivery Manager Jerry Foran stated.
Aviation Capital Group reported first-quarter activity comprising leases of two new A320s by Air Deccan, one 737-300 by BRA Transportes Aereos of Sao Paulo, a new A320 by Royal Jordanian, a new A320 by Wizz Air, a 737-400 by Aegean Airlines, an A319 by Mexicana de Aviacion and an A320 by Air China and extension of leases on three 767s by LOT Polish Airlines. ACG also acted as agent and sold nine 757s subject to leases with US Airways on behalf of a group of institutional investors and three 757s to US on behalf of an institutional client.
Bahrain and Thailand reached an open-skies agreement allowing designated airlines to offer unlimited flights. Annual air traffic between the countries has been growing at 15% over the past five years.
Mesaba Airlines mechanics, represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn., followed the lead of the carrier's pilots union by setting up strike headquarters. Union groups representing pilots, mechanics and flight attendants are at an impasse with the carrier over its effort to cancel labor contracts ( ATWOnline, Feb. 7). A bankruptcy court judge is scheduled to rule May 11.
European Union reached agreement Friday with 10 neighboring countries to work toward establishment of a European Common Aviation Area by 2010 that would comprise 35 nations and more than 500 million people. Eight non-EU nations in Southeast Europe, including Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania, signed what the EU called a "political agreement" to create a single aviation market encompassing most of the European continent. Iceland and Norway also signed the accord.
Northwest Airlines flew 6.04 billion RPMs in April, a 4.6% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 8.8% to 7.12 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 3.7 points to 84.9%. Domestic traffic dropped 5.7% to 3.58 billion RPMs as capacity decreased 12% to 4.25 billion ASMs, sending load factor up 5.6 points to 84.3%. International RPMs lowered 3% to 2.46 billion while capacity fell 3.8% to 2.87 billion ASMs. Load factor inched up 0.7 point to 85.9%. United Airlines flew 9.81 billion RPMs in April, an 8.4% rise over the year-ago month.
Continental Airlines and the Air Line Pilots Assn. issued statements Thursday protesting the US Dept. of Transportation's revised Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued Wednesday that clarified its position on foreign control of US airlines ( ATWOnline, May 4).
Cathay Pacific Airways will offer early retirement to 1,600 cabin crew with more than 15 years experience, according to a Cathay spokesperson cited by the Associated Press. Those who elect to take the buyout will receive 17 months' salary in addition to standard benefits and will be replaced by new staff.
