TNT reported a 32.3% drop in third-quarter net profit to €113 million ($142.5 million), with its Express unit's EBIT declining 23.8% to €99 million. Overall revenue grew just 1.5% to €2.69 billion while Express revenue rose 2.3% to €1.66 billion. The Dutch delivery giant revised its revenue outlook for full-year 2008 downward to "mid-single-digit" growth. CEO Peter Bakker said TNT's European Express business "significantly worsened in September and the first weeks of October. Air volumes in September were down an unprecedented 10%. .
DHL and Polar Air Cargo yesterday launched their transpacific partnership ( ATWOnline, Feb. 28) with a 747-400F flight from Hong Kong to the express operator's US air hub in Wilmington, Ohio. Polar, a subsidiary of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, now will serve as a DHL carrier by operating six 747-400Fs between US and Asian destinations. US flights will depart from Los Angeles, Wilmington and New York JFK and fly via Anchorage to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo.
Norwegian reported a NOK414.4 million ($59.1 million) profit in the third quarter, more than five times greater than the NOK76.3 million posted in the year-ago period, which it called its "best result" in its six years as an independent European carrier. "The demand for tickets has so far not been affected by the turmoil in the global financial markets.
Emirates took delivery of its second A380 and 122nd aircraft overall Friday in Dubai. It is scheduled to enter service on Dubai-New York JFK today. It will seat 14 in first class, 76 in business and 399 in economy.
United Airlines launched daily Washington Dulles-Dubai Sunday aboard a four-class 777. Emirates SkyCargo began thrice-weekly Dubai-Los Angeles Sunday aboard a 777-200LR freighter.
Chautauqua Airlines, a subsidiary of Republic Airways Holdings, agreed to amend its service contract with American Airlines and reduce the number of ERJ-140s it operates to 13 from 15 beginning in June. It also will lower reimbursement rates by 3% from April 1. In exchange, the date on which AA can terminate the deal shifted to March 2012 from March 2009. Chautauqua will continue to be reimbursed for the two extra ERJs unless it is able to sell, sublease or place them.
UPS Friday started construction on its new intra-Asia air hub at Shenzhen International, a $180 million investment. The airport additionally will provide 150,000 sq. m. of ramp space dedicated to the delivery giant's operations. The 89,000-sq.-m. facility is slated to open in 2010 and initially employ 400.
SR Technics finalized a 10-year deal with South Korea's Eastar Jet for its Integrated Airline Solutions package offering technical management services and support for components, engines, APUs and landing gear on 737NGs.
The EU Council on Friday adopted the European Commission directive to include aviation in the EU emissions trading system. The decision was made "without discussion" at the Council meeting of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministers, according to a statement. The EU's 27 member states now are required to transpose the new directive into national law within 12 months.
GE Aviation is working with NASA on a wind-tunnel test program to evaluate counterrotating fan-blade systems for an "open rotor" engine design that hearkens back to their joint efforts a quarter of a century ago. Testing will begin at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Ohio in early 2009 and continue into mid-year, GE said. The company noted that "this is not a full engine test, but a component rig test to evaluate subscale fan systems using GE's and NASA's advanced computational tools and data acquisition systems."
Arab Air Carriers Org. Secretary General Abdul Wahab Teffaha said he believes his member airlines are well-positioned to face the current industry and economic crises and that the turmoil might present opportunities for Arab carriers to emerge stronger and better developed. "There are some dampening elements that may soften the depth of the crisis on the Arab airlines," Teffaha noted during AACO's annual general meeting in Tunis last week.
Air France KLM said Friday that "it will be very difficult" to reach its €1 billion ($1.28 billion) full-year EBIT target "taking into account current economic conditions," but said its operating result "will remain comfortably in profit as long as market conditions do not deteriorate."
Amadeus announced the deployment of its e-Retail solution at Hainan Airlines. The booking engine allows customers to book their tickets in English, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese.
IATA reported that September international passenger traffic (RPKs) declined 2.9% compared to September 2007, the first monthly drop since the 2003 SARS crisis.
China Eastern Airlines received CAAC permission to resume operating from Kunming to Dali and Xishuangbanna yesterday, six months after its suspension resulting from a highly publicized incident in which disgruntled pilots returned outbound flights ( ATWOnline, April 21).
United Airlines flew 8.33 billion system RPMs in September, down 9.2% year-over-year. Capacity fell 8.6% to 10.46 billion ASMs, lowering load factor 0.5 point to 79.7%. Lufthansa Group airlines flew 13.73 billion RPKs in September, up 5.8% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 8.3% to 17.15 billion ASKs and load factor fell 1.9 points to 80.1%. Ukraine International Airlines transported 168,000 passengers in September, up 5% year-over-year. Load factor rose 7.4 points to 76.1%.
Ryanair announced the closure of its Valencia base, following through on its threat in a dispute with the Valencian regional government ( ATWOnline, April 21). The LCC said it will pull more than 70 weekly flights from the airport on Nov. 4 and invest $140 million in another base set to be unveiled this week.
Allegiant Air parent Allegiant Travel Co. reported a $4.9 million third-quarter profit, down 30.3% from $7 million in earnings during the year-ago period, citing "aggressive capacity management" as the principal reason for its continued profitability.
US Airways reported a third-quarter net loss of $862 million, reversed from a profit of $177 million in the year-ago period, and like other US carriers cited fuel hedging charges as a principal cause.
Gol and Varig parent Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes said losses on its fuel hedges and gains on currency hedges would result in a BRL48 million ($22.1 million) charge against its third-quarter results, which it is scheduled to report Oct. 27. It expects to report an operating margin of -1% to 1%.
Spirit AeroSystems won a contract with Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. to design and build the pylon for the Mitsubishi Regional Jet. Financial terms were not disclosed. First delivery of the MRJ is slated for 2013.
Alaska Air Group, like several US counterparts, suffered a third-quarter loss owing to a decline in the mark-to-market value of its fuel hedges, reporting an $86.5 million deficit that compared to an $81.8 million profit in the third quarter of 2007. Excluding special items, which also included fleet transition costs from the phaseout of Alaska Air's MD-80s and the CRJ700s at Horizon Air and gains related to the deletion of inactive loyalty program accounts, AAG posted net earnings of $39.9 million, down 49.4% from a similarly calculated $78.8 million last year.
Lufthansa was the only carrier to confirm its interest in bidding for Austrian Airlines Group by the Tuesday deadline, Austrian competition authorities confirmed yesterday.
UPS posted third-quarter net income of $970 million, down 9.9% from $1.08 billion in the year-ago period, and CFO Kurt Kuehn warned, "We anticipate a challenging environment for a number of quarters going forward." Revenue increased 7.4% to $13.11 billion while expenses lifted 9.4% to $11.48 billion, producing an operating profit of $1.63 billion, off 4.4% from $1.63 billion last year. International package revenue, which is highly dependent on UPS Airlines, rose 16.6% to $2.95 billion. "Export volume per day increased 7%. .
Air France KLM Chairman and CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta "evoked the possibility of zero growth in capacity for the company in 2009 and 2010" while meeting with trade unions this week, an AF KLM spokesperson told Reuters. Regarding reports that the company was looking to trim jobs, the spokesperson said it "remained determined to keep jobs whenever possible." AF KLM projected a 2% year-over-year capacity increase for both the upcoming winter schedule and summer 2009, according to press reports, but dropped the winter guidance to 1.7% last month.
