Qantas exercised options for two 72-seat Q400s for January 2008 delivery to its QantasLink regional carrier. Qantas ordered seven Q400s in early 2005 and the first entered service in early 2006. QantasLink operates 46 aircraft including eight 717s and 28 Dash 8s on 1,900 weekly flights to 49 destinations.
Azerbaijan Airlines placed an order for two ATR 42-500s and four 72-500s worth a combined $100 million at list prices, ATR said. The aircraft will be delivered this year and next and allow the Baku-based carrier to renew its fleet of Antonov and Tupolev aircraft and open new regional routes.
Alitalia Group expects to post a consolidated operating loss of about €380 million ($490.7 million) in 2006 on revenue of €4.33 billion, the company said in a statement Sunday following a request from the country's securities regulator. AZ's operating loss up to Nov. 30 was €197 million instead of the €364 million profit it had projected.
ILFC announced the following lease deals: KrasAir Airlines for four used 757-200ERs for six years, Air Europa for one new A330-200 for 5.5 years, Golden International Airlines of Turkey for one used 757-200ER for six years, JETX of Iceland for two new 737-800s for eight years and KLM for one new A330-200 for six years.
Sky Express, which is billing itself as Russia's first LCC, launched operations yesterday at Moscow Domodedovo. The startup is leasing two 737-300s and said it plans to add six more by June. According to its website, it will fly to Sochi, Murmansk, Rostov-on-Don and Tyumen. Yesterday's maiden flight was to Sochi, according to Russian press reports. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development reportedly contributed $10 million to Sky's $48 million initial capitalization, the Associated Press reported.
British Airways was able to avert a potentially damaging two-day cabin crew strike called for today and Wednesday, plus two further 72-hr. walkouts next month, by forging a last-minute agreement with the Transport & General Workers Union after negotiating through the weekend over sick leave, pay, staffing and pensions.
Japan Airlines flew 6.94 billion RPKs in December, down 8.4% from the year-ago month. Capacity decreased 5.1% to 10.9 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 2.3 points to 63.9%.
CFM International won an order from Air China valued at $345 million for CFM56-5Bs to power 24 A321s scheduled to be delivered in 2008-12. In addition, CA signed a 15-year maintenance agreement. Air China and CFM agreed to establish a JV to develop a new MRO facility in China.
With its $10.2 billion offer to acquire Delta Air Lines set to expire Thursday, US Airways reportedly is willing to raise the cash portion of its bid to $6 billion from $5 billion if DL's creditors committee agrees to pressure the carrier's executives to allow due diligence to begin and to postpone a key bankruptcy hearing scheduled for next week. US yesterday neither confirmed nor denied the report, published in the The Wall Street Journal Monday.
Finnair appointed Anssi Komulainen senior VP-human resources, Kristina Inkilainen senior VP-catering and Sami Sarelius VP and general counsel. British Airways promoted BA World Cargo MD Gareth Kirkwood to director of operations for the airline, effective April 2. Steve Gunning, currently BWAC's finance head, will succeed Kirkwood.
IATA estimated that its member airlines posted a collective operating profit of $10.2 billion for 2006, with net losses totaling $500 million--entirely owing to red ink among North American carriers--on a decelerating passenger traffic growth rate of 5.9%, down from 7.6% in 2005. But the organization said growth was "more profitable" in 2006 than in recent years as "careful capacity management" led to a record average load factor of 76%, up 0.9 point. Worldwide capacity growth for the year was just 4.6%.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard hinted yesterday that the government's approval of Aviation Partners Australia's A$11.1 billion ($8.58 billion) bid for Qantas will not be unconditional.
News from Travel Technology Update: ITA Software, which revolutionized air fare shopping, is applying its shopping technology to a new arena: frequent flyer rewards. Its first client is Aeroplan, founded as Air Canada's frequent flyer program but spun off as a separate company after the carrier's bankruptcy reorganization. Andre Hebert, Aeroplan's vice president of IT and eBusiness, said the move was part of a larger project called ClassicPlus, whose goal was "to offer not just more seats for redemption, but every seat on the aircraft."
Etihad Airways will launch thrice-weekly Abu Dhabi-Sydney service March 26, becoming daily June 29, with a 240-seat, three-class A340-500. Sydney will be Etihad's fifth destination in the Asia/Pacific region. Clickair will launch daily flights from Seville and Valencia to London Heathrow on Feb. 2 aboard A320s. The LCC is taking over the routes from Iberia and will operate them under codeshare. It also will start flights from Barcelona to Berlin Tegel and Prague on Feb. 1 and from BCN to Dublin, Frankfurt, Basel and Amsterdam on March 1.
China Southern Airlines told the Shanghai Stock Exchange it will return to profitability in 2006 following a CNY1.79 billion ($229.9 million) loss in 2005, according to press reports. It will release its results in April. It said on its website that it will report CNY46.54 billion in revenue for 2006, of which more than 30% came from online sales.
MNG Airlines, a Turkish freight operator, signed an MOU for two A330-200Fs plus one option, Airbus announced. MNG currently flies 10 A300B4-200s and eight F-27s.
Japan Airlines Group took a hatchet to its 165-route domestic network in its biggest overhaul since 9/11. Changes announced yesterday include introduction of one new route (a daily Kobe-Ishigaki service starting in July), a frequency increase on four, reductions on five and suspension of 10 regional domestic services. Key drivers of the change are the availability of more slots at Tokyo airports in FY09, a focus on yield and competitive pressures from ANA.
Air Deccan parent Deccan Aviation reported a INR96.4 million ($2.2 million) net profit in the three months ended Dec. 31, its first profit since going public last summer, Reuters reported. The company lost INR429.4 million in the September quarter and INR3.4 billion in the 15 months ended June 2006, the news agency said. Last quarter's revenues of INR6.37 billion were boosted by the $100 million October sale of delivery rights to 60 A320s ( ATWOnline, Oct. 16, 2006) and a 4% rise in yields.
CAE said Shanghai Eastern Flight Training Co. ordered an A320 full flight simulator while an unidentified airline ordered a 737-800 FFS and an A330/A340 FFS and another unidentified carrier ordered two 777 FFSs. CAE valued the orders including additional flight training devices and buyer-furnished equipment at C$75 million.
Lufthansa said it is extending its Lufthansa Private Jet cooperation with NetJets for a further five years after a successful 2006 in which the number of Private Jet flights rose 13%. Up to 10 private corporate jets were booked daily last year, with highest demand--60% of the total--coming from point-to-point connections to around 1,000 destinations in Europe and the Russian Federation. LH said "more jets will be on call" to accommodate increased demand and it is adding a Falcon 2000 capable of seating 10 passengers to its offering.
Midwest Air Group can attempt to fend off AirTran Airways' hostile takeover bid from a position of perceived strength following last week's announcement that it returned to the black, posting a 2006 net profit of $5.4 million after losing $64.9 million in 2005.
Aer Lingus carried 8.6 million passengers in 2006, up 7.3% year-over-year, as it added new routes and 11.6% more seats. Passenger numbers grew 9.3% on short-haul flights and fell 4.4% on long-haul flights. Load factor dropped 3.8 points to 77.6%, including a 5.8-point decline on long-haul services.
Frontier Airlines was hit hard by last month's Denver snowstorms and suffered a $14.4 million net loss in its third fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, widened from a $10.3 million loss in the year-ago period. The carrier cancelled 875 flights in December due to inclement weather estimated to have reduced revenue by some $12.2 million. President and CEO Jeff Potter admitted it was "the greatest challenge in our history" save for 9/11.
