China Eastern Airlines signed a five-year, CNY590 million ($86.3 million) sale and leaseback contract with Bank of Communications Finance Lease Co. for two A340s. The aircraft, delivered in 1996, will be leased back for CNY17 million per quarter. "We can not only improve our cash flow and reduce debt ratio by a sale and leaseback of these two A340s but we also can optimize our fleet makeup," CEA Board Secretary Luo Zhuping explained. He said CEA's high debt ratio remains its biggest problem.
Emirates Chairman and CEO Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum told reporters in Dubai that the carrier will report a profit for the fiscal year ended March 31 and that it has no plans to defer any aircraft deliveries scheduled through 2011.
A first quarter that was "difficult in the extreme" ended for Austrian Airlines Group with an €88.1 million ($117.3 million) loss, widened 45.9% from the €60.4 million deficit reported in the year-ago period. The company has said it has enough cash to maintain operations until its anticipated merger with Lufthansa ( ATWOnline, April 8), which executive board member Peter Malanik said is "going ahead as planned" and should close by the middle of this year.
Air Canada is seeking to lessen the burden of its C$3.2 billion ($2.7 billion) pension solvency deficit in order to gain "financial certainty" and is asking unions "for a moratorium" on funding its defined benefit plans.
Southwest Airlines announced a tentative four-year agreement with customer support and services and airport customer service employees represented by the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Contract is subject to union ratification.
American Airlines launched a third daily Boston-London Heathrow service and a seasonal daily BOS-Paris Charles de Gaulle flight, as well as a daily Dallas/Fort Worth-Madrid service aboard a 767-300. AirAsia Indonesia will launch Bali-Perth service on July 17 aboard an A320. Safi Airways will launch Kabul-Frankfurt service on June 15.
WestJet reported first-quarter net income of C$37.5 million ($31.7 million), down 28.7% from C$52.5 million in the year-ago period, citing a weak demand and pricing environment.
Qatar Airways announced that it has joined the Aviation Global Deal Group, the consortium of Air France KLM, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways and UK airports operator BAA that is pushing for a unified global policy covering aviation emissions trading ( ATWOnline, April 8).
Allegiant Air parent Allegiant Travel Co. announced that PAR Investment Partners, its second-largest shareholder, is offering 2.25 million shares for sale, leaving it with more than 1.9 million following the transaction. Chairman, President and CEO Maurice Gallagher is the largest shareholder.
UK Secretary of State for Transport Geoff Hoon yesterday urged President Barack Obama's administration to commit to completing a Stage 2 open skies agreement by June 2010 "with the headline objective of liberalizing all foreign ownership in airlines to give European and American carriers a bigger home market and the ability to operate like any other competitive international company."
Air France reached a sale and leaseback deal with BOC Aviation for two 777-300ERs and two 777-200LR freighters. The latter closed last week and the former is expected to close next month. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, parent of Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo, posted first-quarter net income of $23.4 million, reversed from a $5.3 million loss in the year-ago period, as it benefited from the first full quarter of Polar's operating as a DHL Express carrier. The Polar ACMI contract pushes much of AAWH's fuel and maintenance expense to DHL. AAWH also retired seven 747-200 freighters last year (half of its -200F fleet), assets that previously were a big expense burden.
GE Aviation signed a 10-year OnPoint solution agreement with Gulf Air covering the CFM56-5Bs the airline ordered to power 15 A320s scheduled for delivery between 2009 and 2013 ( ATWOnline, April 28). Contract is valued at more than $100 million.
Aeroflot remains interested in expanding its footprint in Europe, yet "it is a great myth that Aeroflot is shopping around for airlines," Deputy DG-Corporate Communications Lev Koshliakov noted during a presentation at last week's North Hub Riga conference organized by airBaltic.
Royal Jordanian reported a JOD8.5 million ($11.9 million) first-quarter loss, nearly double the JOD4.4 million deficit reported in the year-ago period. Revenue fell 11% year-over-year to JOD124 million. Yield was down 5% and passenger boardings slipped 11.2% to 491,000. Load factor dropped 6 points to 62%. RJ said it expects to "compensate" for the first-quarter result with "growth in bookings on all sectors" during the second and third quarters.
Ryanair confirmed it will not scale back operations at Dusseldorf Weeze following the issuance of a new operating licence for NRN that allows the airline to operate its full flight schedule. Last month it threatened to close the base after the OVG Court in Munster decided to reduce operating hours at the airport ( ATWOnline, April 23). Ryanair currently operates six aircraft at NRN.
Boeing said the first 787 test aircraft has been moved to the flight line and will begin a "phase of extensive checks" with fuel testing starting later this week, and reiterated that first flight will be achieved by the end of the current quarter.
Hainan Airlines cut its ERJ-145 order in half, from a firm 50 aircraft to 25, Embraer announced. The manufacturer's Harbin Embraer Aircraft Industry Co. had delivered 12 aircraft to HNA as of April 30 and deliveries now are scheduled to be completed by the first half of 2011 rather than the end of 2010. Hainan placed the original order in the summer of 2006 ( ATWOnline, August 31, 2006).
News from Travel Technology Update: Continental chief Larry Kellner hinted that the carrier may migrate to the Star Alliance Common IT Platform at some point after it joins the alliance in October. In a conference call to discuss first-quarter earnings, Kellner said, "I and other members of the Continental management team meet regularly with Glenn Tilton [United chairman, president and chief executive officer] and his team at United as we develop plans to co-locate at airports, deliver mutual cost savings, share airport lounges, bring benefits to each other's elite customers and ult
Air Arabia Maroc will launch operations Wednesday with a four-times-weekly service between its Casablanca base and London Stansted operated by a new A320 ( ATWOnline, Nov. 13, 2008). It will add four-times-weekly flights to Marseille Friday and Brussels South Charleroi on May 10, thrice-weekly flights to Bergamo on May 12 and Lyon on May 14 and a daily to Paris Charles de Gaulle on May 16.
Continental Airlines said April consolidated RASM dropped 12.5%-13.5% and mainline unit revenue fell 10.5%-11.5%. It flew 7.57 billion consolidated RPMs, down 3.4% from the year-ago month, against a 6.8% fall in capacity to 9.19 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 2.9 points to 82.3%.
United Airlines and US Airways joined Continental Airlines in announcing reduced schedules to Mexico owing to the swine flu's impact on travel demand ( ATWOnline, May 4). From today, UA will cut its weekly roundtrip flights to Mexico in May to 24 from 51 and in June to 52 from 90. US will cut 38% of its scheduled capacity to Mexico between May 10 and July 1 through the use of smaller aircraft and reduced frequencies. No destinations will be cut by either airline.
Singapore Airlines reached an agreement with Air Line Pilots Assn.-Singapore for a one-day furlough this month. Deal was reached with mediation by the Ministry of Manpower and constitutes "an interim measure to provide both parties more time for discussions on the number of compulsory no-pay leave days required to match head count to operational requirements," SIA said. Unions representing ground staff, cabin crew and administrative personnel already have agreed to short-time work ( ATWOnline, April 3).
