Silverjet announced the signing of an MOU with an unidentified party from the United Arab Emirates for a $25 million investment, including approximately $8 million in equity. The new ordinary shares issued to the investor will represent around 28% of the enlarged share capital, with a debt facility accounting for the remainder.
South Africa's Nationwide Airlines shut down operations Tuesday following a March and April during which fuel costs climbed 30% and load factors decreased. The carrier has faced difficulties since a November engine separation on a 737-200 led to grounding of its fleet by the South African Civil Aviation Authority ( ATWOnline, Dec. 10, 2007). It said it "attained a gradual recovery of the business" in December and January but was unable to secure investment from a consortium with which it was negotiating.
Hawaiian Airlines and Mesa Air Group reached a $52.5 million settlement in their case regarding Mesa's alleged misuse of confidential information in the establishment of its go! inter-island subsidiary. Mesa will make a cash payment to HA and agreed to withdraw its appeal of the $80 million judgment levied by the US Bankruptcy Court six months ago ( ATWOnline, Dec. 18, 2007). "This settlement is the last chapter in the legal dispute over Mesa's misuse of Hawaiian's confidential information.
British Airways issued a statement yesterday confirming that it is "exploring opportunities for cooperation with American Airlines and Continental Airlines" and that "further details will be announced when appropriate." CO said two weeks ago that it was reconsidering its membership in SkyTeam and would examine other potential alliances as well as a merger ( ATWOnline, April 18).
Virgin America announced the following frequency additions effective through Jan. 6, 2009: A third daily Los Angeles-Washington Dulles beginning May 11, a third daily San Francisco-IAD from May 18, a fifth daily SFO-New York JFK beginning June 10, a fifth daily LAX-JFK from June 20, a fourth and fifth daily SFO-Seattle beginning June 26.
Emirates' net income for its full fiscal year ended March 31 totaled AED5 billion ($1.36 billion), up 62.1% over AED3.1 billion in the prior year, as the fast-expanding carrier marked its 20th straight year of profitability.
European Union and Australia signed a horizontal aviation agreement that removes nationality restrictions in bilateral ASAs between EU member states and Australia. The new agreement does not replace the bilateral agreements but brings them in line with EU law by removing nationality restrictions. More than 4 million passengers travel between the EU and Australia annually.
Royal Jordanian posted a JOD2.9 million ($4.1 million) loss in the first quarter, a 22% improvement on the loss incurred in the year-ago period. Operating revenue rose 31% year-over-year to JOD140 million, reflecting a 17% increase in passengers carried and a 2-point improvement in load factor to 68%. Separately, President and CEO Samer Majali conceded that RJ's long-haul fleet modernization will be affected by the 787 program delays.
Fuel costs, overcapacity and falling yields hit SAS Group hard in the first quarter, resulting in a SEK1.13 billion ($189.5 million) loss that represented a massive deterioration from the SEK47 million deficit reported in the year-ago quarter. In response, the company announced a short-term "action plan" called Profit 2008 under which it will seek to generate SEK1.05-SEK1.15 billion through "price adjustments, changes to the traffic programs, additional efficiency enhancements of overheads and the discontinuation and postponement of certain planned activities."
Finnair reported a first-quarter profit of €5.5 million ($8.6 million), down 40.9% from the €9.9 million earned in the year-ago period, and warned that "difficult terrain" is ahead for the remainder of the year owing to high fuel costs.
Emirates is ramping up its cabin crew recruiting as it prepares to take delivery of its first A380 in August. Its Aviation College will begin accepting A380 personnel to its crew training program in early June. EK plans to have 24 cabin staff onboard a normal 489-seat A380, and it will need about six complete crews for every aircraft.
Sabena Technics signed a 10-year base maintenance contract with Aer Lingus to perform C checks and structural checks on its A320 family and A330 aircraft.
US Senate is debating long-stalled FAA reauthorization legislation, with a vote possible this week. A House of Representatives version of FAA reauthorization was passed last year. If a Senate version is cleared, the two chambers will attempt to hammer out a compromise bill that the full Congress could consider.
Tunisair reached agreement with Airbus for the purchase of three A350 XWB-800s, three A330-200s and 10 A320s, the manufacturer said yesterday. No delivery dates were announced for the order. "This acquisition is part of a major fleet development that will allow Tunisair to prepare for the future and take up the market opportunities that exist for our airline," President and CEO Nabil Chettaoui said.
Allegiant Air parent Allegiant Travel Co. bucked the first-quarter trend with a performance that Chairman, President and CEO Maurice Gallagher Jr. called "exceptional," posting a $9.7 million profit that slipped just 0.8% from a nearly identical figure posted the prior year. He said Allegiant's focus on generating higher load factors, ancillary revenue and a more even spread of departures throughout its network were key drivers of the result.
Sterling Airlines appointed Fredrik Kinnunen as director-direct sales. SR Technics elevated Marco Imboden to senior VP- corporate & marketing. Lufthansa CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber told shareholders this week that he will not seek reappointment when his contract expires on Dec. 31, 2010. He joined LH in 1970 and has been CEO since 2003.
Air One will launch daily Milan Malpensa-Brussels on June 1 aboard a two-class CRJ900. EasyJet will launch four-times-weekly Manchester-Alicante on Sept. 29.
Brussels Airlines yesterday acknowledged that it is negotiating an alliance membership, although it declined to comment on rumors that it was discussing possible acquisition by Lufthansa.
Lufthansa Group airlines flew 12.37 billion RPKs in March, up 25.1% from the year-ago month, which did not include Swiss International Air Lines. Capacity rose 25.5% to 15.56 billion ASKs and load factor fell 0.2 point to 79.5%. Air Canada and Jazz flew a combined 4.46 billion RPMs in March, up 3.7% from the year-ago month, against a 3.9% increase in capacity to 5.38 billion ASMs. Load factor slipped 0.1 point to 82.9%. Vueling Airlines carried 539,042 passengers in March, up 33% from the year-ago month. Load factor rose 1.6 points to 72.4%.
WestJet reported first-quarter net income of C$52.5 million ($53.1 million), up 75.9% over C$29.9 million earned in the year-ago quarter, on a 27.3% boost in revenue to $599.3 million. President and CEO Sean Durfy credited the LCC's strategy of shifting a portion of its domestic capacity to expand its "sun destination" services during the winter for the period's strong result. He also pointed to the Canadian economy, which has been surprisingly resilient given slowness in the US, and the strength of Canadian currency as contributing factors.
Italian Prime Minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi yesterday threatened to re-nationalize Alitalia if the European Commission continues to question the €300 million ($469.1 million) bridge loan the outgoing government granted the virtually bankrupt company last week ( ATWOnline, April 28). "If they continue whining, we could take a decision in which Alitalia could be bought by the state, by the state railways," Berlusconi was quoted as saying.
Ryanair will increase its baggage check-in fee to €10 ($15.62) from €9 and its airport check-in fee to €5 from €4 effective May 5. It said that 40% currently use the free Internet check-in service. Separately, Ryanair named Sinead Finn as director-commercial revenue.
Iberia flew 4.54 billion RPKs in March, up 1% on the year-ago month, against a 0.5% fall in capacity to 5.55 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 1.2 points to 81.8%. LAN Airlines flew 2.3 billion system RPKs in March, a 14.2% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 9.2% to 2.89 billion ASKs and load factor rose 3.5 points to 79.5%. Estonian Air carried 63,946 passengers in March, up 16.3% year-over-year, helping boost first-quarter boardings to 163,230, up 17%.
