New entrants in Australia and New Zealand, including Tiger Airways' foray into the market, are triggering a wave of deep discounting, according to the Sydney-based Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Qantas subsidiary Jetstar Airways, which celebrated its third anniversary yesterday, had 130,000 seats for sale with companion fares as low as A$2.50 ($2.06) on many domestic, transtasman and international routes.
AiRUnion, the alliance of Russian carriers KrasAir, Domodedovo Airlines, Sibaviatrans, Samara Airlines and Omskavia, received final approval from the government and President Vladimir Putin Wednesday to complete the merger, which should take place within six months and would be the biggest of its kind in Russia ( ATWOnline, Feb. 26). Interfax reported that the government intends to hold at least 45% of the new company.
Korean Air reported first-quarter net income of KRW130.8 billion ($139.2 million), up 2.7% compared to KRW127 billion in the year-ago quarter, on a 10.7% lift in revenue to KRW2.03 trillion.
Southwest Airlines flew 5.92 billion RPMs in April, up 3.3% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 9.6% to 8.19 billion ASMs, dropping load factor 4.4 points to 72.3%.
ABX Air signed a two-year agreement with ANA to operate two 767-200 freighters to support ANA's cargo operations in Japan, China and Thailand. Effective May 15, the deal is expected to generate $22 million in annual revenue for Ohio-based ABX, an all-cargo carrier that primarily operates flights on DHL's US network but has been seeking to expand its base of services. "This agreement underscores ABX's commitment to grow its presence as an international provider of aircraft and aircraft-related services," President and CEO Joe Hete said. It has 35 767s in service, including 29 for DHL.
Jet Airways will establish a European hub at Brussels Airport, the expanding Indian carrier announced yesterday. Jet anticipates operating up to 10 daily flights through BRU within two years, launching service from Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Chennai to Los Angeles, Chicago O'Hare and New York JFK via its new hub in addition to the daily Mumbai-BRU-JFK and Delhi-BRU-Toronto flights scheduled to start later his year.
JetBlue Airways Tuesday launched daily E-190 service from Boston to Charlotte and Bermuda, the latter operating through Oct. 31. Today it will begin operating BOS-San Francisco flights. WestJet will increase service from Vancouver to Honolulu (to 11-times-weekly from seven) and Maui (to 10-times-weekly from seven) from Dec. 15. Kuwait Airways will fly to Casablanca June 26-Oct. 27 and Malaga July 1-Sept. 2. Frequency was not announced.
PAR Capital Management, which played a key role in US Airways' emergence from bankruptcy and had been its largest shareholder when it sold 6.5 million shares to Goldman, Sachs & Co. in February, ( ATWOnline, Feb. 16), sold off nearly all its remaining shares Tuesday to UBS Securities. The 6.75-million-share transaction leaves PAR with just a 0.29% stake in US, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Sabre Travel Network signed an agreement with Interguide Air Ltd. of Nigeria under which the Sabre GDS will be marketed to more than 800 travel agencies across the country. Interguide expects 25% of Nigerian bookings to be on Sabre by year end.
Copa Airlines yesterday announced an order for four 737-800s valued at $282 million for delivery in 2011 and 2012. The Panamanian carrier already operates 24 737NGs and now has 10 on order. Boeing previously listed the order as being from an unidentified customer. Copa operates four of the world's longest 737 routes from its Panama City hub to Buenos Aires, Santiago, Sao Paulo and Los Angeles.
SkyWest Inc., parent of SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, reported first-quarter net income of $34.8 million, up just 0.6% from $34.6 million in the year-ago period. Operating revenue rose 6.3% to $789 million while expenses climbed 7.5% to $709.4 million, sending operating income down 4% to $79.6 million from $82.9 million. The fleet grew by 30 aircraft year-over-year to 425, including six new CRJ900s and 10 CRJ700s "from another operator" added during the recently completed quarter. SkyWest carriers flew 4.02 billion RPMs during the three months, up 10.4%.
Bmi Group reported a pre-tax profit of £29.7 million ($59.4 million) for 2006, nearly triple the £10 million generated in 2005. Operating profit before exceptional items increased 85.5% to £10.2 million. Revenues rose 4.2% to £905.4 million while passenger boardings remained static at 10.5 million, 40% of which were carried by its bmibaby low-fare subsidiary. Per its custom, the company did not provide separate financial results for the mainline, bmibaby and bmi regional.
Japan Airlines yesterday revised down its earnings forecast for its 2006 fiscal year ended March 31 to a net loss of ¥16.2 billion ($135.5 million), significantly changed from a February forecast of a net profit of ¥3 billion for the 12 months.
Compass Airlines, Northwest Airlines' new regional subsidiary, launched its maiden flight yesterday out of Washington Dulles. For now, Compass will be operating a single CRJ200 on two daily roundtrips between IAD and Minneapolis/St. Paul. It expects to put the first of 36 E-175s into service by the third quarter.
Shanghai Airlines' 2006 annual profit plummeted 82.2% to CNY8.2 million ($1.1 million) from earnings of CNY46 million in 2005 as revenues rose 24.5% to CNY9.93 billion and costs climbed 27% to CNY8.49 billion. In the 2007 first quarter, SAL remained stuck in its downturn with a CNY95.8 million loss. Operating revenue increased 27.41% to CNY2.55 billion against a 29.5% lift in costs to CNY2.3 billion.
SkyEurope Airlines is planning to expand aggressively from its new Vienna base, possibly to 15 aircraft, in order to challenge Austrian Airlines' "Focus East" strategy, CCO Karim Makhlouf told ATWOnline. Speaking last week at the French Connect seminar in Nantes La Baule, Makhlouf said, "In times of consolidation it is normal to go where you expect a gap in the near future," adding that he considers Austrian to be "the weakest hub carrier in Europe. They have a cost problem. That is why we will attack them."
Indian government yesterday made seat assignments compulsory for all domestic airlines. The Office of the Director General of Civil Aviation said it was imposing the regulation "in order to ensure correct loading of aircraft and keeping the center of gravity of the aircraft within limits at all times during flight."
Shenzhen Airlines is looking to capture a significant share of the Chinese business aviation market with Yalian Business Jet Co., a recently established joint venture with Business Aviation Asia of Hong Kong and National Trust, a Beijing-based financial services provider. The carrier holds a 46% stake in the new entity with an investment of CNY46 million ($6 million), while BAA and NT put in CNY43 million and CNY11 million respectively for 43% and 11%.
Alitalia Group's net debt as of March 31 was €1.07 billion ($1.46 billion), down 2.7% from Feb. 28. During March the company repaid €14 million of medium/long-term financing.
HNA Group, parent of Hainan Airlines and several other carriers, reported net profit of CNY51.2 million ($6.6 million) in the first quarter, a more than fourfold improvement over earnings of CNY12.1 million in the year-ago quarter. Operating revenue rose 20.6% to CNY3.45 billion against a 21.5% lift in costs to CNY2.72 billion. The company attributed the good results to "tightening cost control" and "fleet expansion," pointing out China's air transport market upturn also boosted its traffic revenue.
Swelling ancillary revenue and effective seasonal capacity deployment were among the reasons cited by WestJet for a booming first quarter during which the Canadian LCC posted net earnings of C$29.9 million ($26.8 million), more than double the C$12.9 earned in the first three months of 2006.
On the day that Delta Air Lines emerged from 19 months of bankruptcy protection, executives expressed confidence that the reorganized company will develop and thrive as a global carrier. CEO Gerald Grinstein told ATWOnline in Atlanta Monday that while he believes "there is no magic mark" or percentage of DL's business that will come from long-haul operations, "a 50/50 share would be no surprise." Starting with ATL-Prague flights today, the airline plans to launch service to 13 new international destinations in the next two months alone.
Asiana Airlines will launch Busan-Weihei flights on June 1, bringing the number of Chinese cities it serves to 20. It also reached agreement with the Chinese government to operate a Seoul Gimpo-Shanghai Hongqiao service starting as early as next year, which Asiana said will save an hour of travel time between the two cities. Spirit Airlines will operate Fort Lauderdale-San Pedro Sula flights thrice-weekly beginning July 20, becoming daily from Nov. 15. The Honduran city will be Spirit's third Central American destination after San Jose and Guatemala City.
GE Plastics announced the launch of a new line of products specifically designed to reduce aircraft weight and maintenance costs and improve fuel performance.
Volga-Dnepr Group reported sales of $725 million in 2006, up 55% from 2005, and is projecting $1 billion in revenue this year. It said rising turnover resulted from development in its An-124-100 (revenue up 26%) and IL-76 (up 114%) charter freight businesses and expansion at AirBridge Cargo (up 96%), which operates four 747Fs. V-D transported more than 155,000 tonnes of freight last year, 98% of which was flown internationally. AirBridge reported revenues of $227.4 million and transported 78,400 tonnes of cargo, up 79% on the prior year.
