Mesa Air Group's profit fell 36% in the third fiscal quarter ended June 30, a drop that company officials attributed to weather, fleet repositioning and the startup of Hawaiian carrier go! Mesa reported after-tax earnings of $10.9 million on operating revenues of $339 million. Revenues were up 13.6%, primarily as a result of increases in reimbursed fuel expenses. For the nine-month period, net income was $29 million, reduced from $41 million in the year-ago period.
Lufthansa yesterday released preliminary financial results for first-half 2006 that showed a profit of €85 million ($107.3 million) compared to €0.2 million in net earnings for the same period in 2005. Operating profit increased 17.4% to €297 million from €253 million, while revenues climbed 12.9% to €9.6 billion. LH said the addition of the stakes acquired in Swiss International Air Lines and the Eurowings companies should be taken into account when making year-over-year comparisons. The company will release complete data Friday.
Iberia confirmed that its new Barcelona-based LCC, now formally named Clickair, will launch in October with 12 domestic and additional European destinations, AFX News reported. Originally dubbed Catair after its Catalonia home, the airline officially has been branded Clickair to highlight the importance of the Internet to its sales efforts.
Mellon Leasing announced the sale of three ex-Comair Embraer 120s to Everts Air of Alaska. Meridian Aerospace Group acted as exclusive agent for Mellon.
Thai Airways will launch thrice-weekly 777-200ER service between Bangkok and Johannesburg Oct. 31. Separately, Thai and Shanghai Airlines signed an MOU for increased commercial cooperation. The carriers currently codeshare on routes between China and Thailand. Alaska Airlines will operate four-times-weekly flights from Seattle to Cancun and from Portland, Ore., to Los Cabos and thrice-weekly PDX-Puerto Vallarta service aboard 737s from the end of October through the end of April.
Sun Country Airlines announced that Petters Aviation, a subsidiary of Petters Group Worldwide and Whitebox Advisors, will purchase the carrier for an undisclosed price. The transaction will be finalized over the next few months. "This sale will allow us to continue to develop our strong consumer offering, as well as provide necessary capital for future business growth," Sun Country CEO Shaun Nugent said. The airline operates nine 737-800s to 31 destinations in the US, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Avient Solutions will supply its new inventory management system, SmartCargo, to Avient, an unaffiliated freight carrier operating from the UK and France on routes to Africa.
Alaska Air Group, parent of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, reported net income of $55.5 million for the second quarter ended June 30, more than triple the net income of $17.4 million in the year-ago quarter, strong results that the company attributed to "a combination of revenue gains and cost improvements." Group operating revenues grew 15.4% to $873 million while expenses climbed 10.1% to $792.9 million. Operating income more than doubled to $80.1 million from $36.6 million last year.
Air Astana of Kazakhstan took delivery of its first leased A320, which it said is the first step in a "major fleet modernization program" that will see it expand its fleet to 34 Western aircraft by 2014. It will take another four A320s this year and purchase six additional aircraft by 2011, including three widebodies in 2008. The airline also operates three 737NGs, four 757-200s and five F50s. It expects to carry 1.4 million passengers this year, up 16.7% from 2005, and 2.3 million in 2007. It is owned by the government of Kazakhstan (51%) and BAE Systems (49%).
LAN Airlines flew 1.37 billion RPKs in June, a 6.4% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 8.2% to 2 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 1.2 points to 68.6%. TAM flew 1.57 billion domestic RPKs in June, a 45.6% increase over the year-ago month. Domestic capacity rose 21% to 2 billion ASKs and load factor increased 13.2 points to 78.5%. International RPKs grew 51.9% to 540 million as ASKs climbed 40.4% to 718 million and load factor went up 5.7 points to 75.1%.
Delta Air Lines named Atlanta attorney Michael Campbell executive VP-human resources and labor relations. Eastern Caribbean Airlines, a subsidiary of Viva International, named Pedro Maldonado director-operations and Jesus Rodriguez-Pazo chief pilot.
Comair of South Africa said it will sell a 16.1% stake to a consortium of black investors, Thelo Group, for approximately ZAR130 million ($18.5 million) as part of the country's Black Economic Empowerment program, according to press reports. The sale involves both the issuance of a new class of A shares and a cash purchase of existing shares.
After two consecutive quarters in the red, JetBlue Airways announced a return to profitability yesterday with net earnings of $14 million during the three months ended June 30, an increase of just 7.7% over the $13 million profit in the year-ago quarter but a performance that represented "a definite step in the right direction," according to Chairman and CEO David Neeleman. "Our comprehensive and ongoing plan has become a new way of doing business at JetBlue," Neeleman added.
Lufthansa will start a daily Munich-Sao Paolo service on Sept. 13 using A340-300s. Separately, LH opened the Lufthansa Aviation Center at Frankfurt International Airport. The facility will house offices for 1,800 employees and features 36 meeting rooms and seven conference rooms.
Worldspan signed a new multiyear, full-content distribution agreement with Swiss International Airlines. Separately, Swiss entered into a reciprocal loyalty program alliance with Jet Airways.
Austrian Airlines Group announced its half-year financial results yesterday and revealed that it will not achieve a balanced adjusted EBIT this year as planned owing to "continued high kerosene prices that exceed our budgetary assumptions, already set high as a precautionary measure, and because of the negative consequences of the capacity bottlenecks that have emerged at Austrian air traffic control since spring," according to CEO Alfred Oetsch.
Air Line Pilots Assn. called the June 30 dismissal of 57 Polar Air Cargo flight engineers "drastic and unprecedented" and "in complete defiance of the parties' collective bargaining agreement." Polar retired the last of its 747-100/-200/-300 freighters on July 1 and now operates five 747-400s that require two pilots instead of three.
Kingfisher Airlines started daily Ahmedabad-Mumbai, Hyderabad-Chennai, Hyderabad-Vishakhapatnam, Chennai-Vishakhapatnam and Chennai-Kochi flights aboard ATR 72s. It now operates 86 daily flights to 17 destinations. Delta Air Lines will launch daily New York JFK-Punta Cana flights aboard an MD-88, daily Atlanta-Santiago de Los Caballeros service with 737-800s and four-times-weekly ATL-Port of Spain service, also with dash 800s, on Dec. 9. It will begin daily Boston-Dayton and daily Jacksonville-Pensacola service on Sept. 11 operated by Comair.
SkyEurope Airlines will begin thrice-weekly Salzburg-Paris Orly service on Sept. 15. Innsbruck-Orly service will be discontinued. Also, SkyEurope took delivery of its fifth 737-700 last month. It will be based in Krakow. The airline flew 283,388 passengers in June, a 36.3% increase over the year-ago month. Load factor plunged 9.6 points to 77.6%. The drop "reflects a significant reduction in the proportion of nonscheduled services, which are accounted as fully booked flights," SkyEurope said.
Middle East Airlines resumed Damascus service Friday in an effort to evacuate people stranded in Syria as a result of the hostilities in Lebanon, which have closed Beirut Rafik Hariri Airport. MEA initially moved its nine Airbus aircraft to Jordan and Cyprus after BEY was bombed on July 13. It said it will fly to Frankfurt, Riyadh, Paris, Jeddah, Kuwait City and Dubai after securing permission from the Syrian government to use Damascus International. It added that it "hope[s] to resume flights from Beirut once the fighting ends."
Swiss International Air Lines and the Aeropers pilots union agreed on the principles of a new three-year labor agreement that will become effective Nov. 1 if approved. The pilots had threatened a strike after the previous accord expired earlier this month ( ATWOnline, July 6). The parties agreed not to reveal details of the deal until it has been submitted to union members for approval.
