US airline investors seemed indifferent to whether merger activity was under way or not in the first half of this year. After seemingly being spurned by United as a partner, US Airways stocks have gained 80.5% in the first six months of 2010. Yet at the same time, as United seeks authorisation to combine...
Investing in European airlines was a roller-coaster ride in the first half of 2010, with early signs of economic recovery giving way to significant volcanic ash-related disruption in April/May, uncertainty and losses, as well as rising concerns over Europe's indebtedness. Holders of Cimber Sterling...
Kuwait National Airways’ (+1%) rose on Wednesday (30-Jun-2010), the same day Wataniya Airways opened a sales office in Beirut, with CEO, George Cooper, stating the new office "allows us to respond to the growing demand in the Beirut market".
The lingering effects of the credit crunch on aviation investment are well documented. Now the Bank for International Settlements is warning that the European sovereign debt crisis could be a repeat of the US subprime mortgage debt crisis, pointing to a global loss of investor confidence that has impacted...
Latin America has long underperformed in aviation business terms, as airlines and associated industries deal with under-developed infrastructure, varying regional regulations, a lack of investment and a fragmented airspace system. Latin America has a population of more than 600 million people, with...
European shares were mixed on Wednesday and are expected to drop sharply on Thursday, mirroring notable falls in Asian equities after manufacturing data from China showed recent rapid economic growth was slowing, heightening nervousness about the global economic recovery.
Airlines may be global businesses in many ways, as well as exhibiting cutting edge technology in areas like mobile phone check-in at airports and offering user-friendly websites for buying air tickets (along with a host of other “ancillary” items like hotels and car rental). But, when it comes to...
01-Jul-2010 was not a good day for the markets, as nervousness about Euro credit, Chinese economic cooling and weak consumer spending coursed through the community’s veins. The FTSE 100 index fell 1.62%, France’s CAC 40 was down 2.02% and the German DAX lost 1.4%. But those losses went only part...
Airbus has brushed off any notions that this week’s WTO ruling will affect its new A350 XWB programme. The company’s Senior VP for Public Affairs and Communications, Dr Rainer Ohler, stated the company is moving forward at full speed on the A350 - “Boeing’s wishful thinking to the contrary".
Kenya Airways (-0.5%) plans to acquire an additional two E190 aircraft for regional operations, the first of which is expected to be delivered later in 2010. The aircraft will be leased from US-based Jetscape for eight years. The carrier also plans to increase frequencies on all regional and transcontinental...
Frontier Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary of Republic Airways Holdings, announced details of its fleet optimisation plan for 2011, under which the carrier will make “changes to its fleet that continue its strategy of operating the most cost-effective aircraft”.
As part of efforts to focus on its core mainline business, Delta is continuing the process of unbundling its regional operations, selling Mesaba and Compass – both acquired with Northwest – to Pinnacle Airlines Corp and Trans States Airlines, respectively, for USD82 million. The proceeds from these...
The world’s airports showed very healthy gains in air cargo volumes during May-2010, according to new figures from Airports Council International (ACI). The airports body noted that air freight growth is dominated by demand for international shipments, with major international freight hubs registered...
As business confidence slips and the stock market follows suit (or leads), airlines will inevitably be in the front line of economic winds for the remainder of this year. Initial signals are not good – but neither are they convincingly negative.
The CEO of Indian LCC SpiceJet, Sanjay Aggarwal, has resigned less than a month after Sun TV founder, Kalanithi Maran, acquired a 37.7% stake in the airline.
When the African Airlines Association, AFRAA, elected Nick Fadugba as Secretary General just over six months ago, there was an expectation of action, of a new direction for a floundering aviation industry. There was certainly a great deal of rhetoric in the wake of his appointment. But then he summarily...
The 1,076 page WTO panel report on the US case against subsidies to EADS and Airbus is in, and the outcome is not wholly satisfactory to any party. While US trade representative and Boeing have again come out with claims of a sweeping victory, Airbus too has claimed the WTO panel has rejected the majority...
US airline share prices were weaker on Friday, reflecting weakness in the overall US market and Continental Airlines' report of less than hoped-for figures for Jun-2010.
Amid an environment of cost control, confrontation and change among Scandinavian airlines, the Swedish Airline Pilots Association (SweALPA) took its pilots out on strike briefly in mid-Jun-2010.
Bombardier shares rose 3.1% on Friday after Lufthansa announced an order for eight CRJ900 regional jets. The order is a boost for the CRJ programme, in which Bombardier has been striving hard to keep production up and avoid cutting more staff in Montreal.
In India, GMR Infrastructure, investor in Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) (54%), GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL) (63%) and Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (ISGIA) (40%) closed 0.6% higher, with much activity among the group’s airports sector recently.
Air Arabia's Maroc (-0.5%) subsidiary appointed on Friday (02-Jul-2010) AVIAREPS as their General Sales Agent (GSA) in two additional markets: Italy and France. With immediate effect, AVIAREPS will take over responsibility for the airline’s sales, marketing and ticketing activities within the countries...
Ryanair, the second largest carrier in the UK, announced plans to reduce UK winter capacity by 16% from Nov-2010, stating the decision will result in the loss of more than 2 million passengers at UK airports over winter 2010 on a year-on-year basis.
Latvian flag carrier and dominant regional airline airBaltic has announced plans to serve more destinations over the forthcoming northern winter and to offer additional flights to improve connections for travellers flying via northern hub Riga to/from more than 70 destinations in Europe, CIS and the...
Asia Pacific airline stocks were mixed on Friday, with Chinese and Korean airline stocks falling and Australian and Singaporean airlines rising.
Shares in Air Berlin remained unchanged on 05-Jul-2010, the same day the German LCC announced an increase in its shareholding in NIKI Luftfahrt GmbH, implementing the agreements notarised in Feb-2010.
Alitalia has announced it will join Air France-KLM’s trans-Atlantic JV with Delta Air Lines, as part of a long-term agreement effective until at least 31-Mar-2022. The addition of Alitalia increases the JV’s capacity to approximately 26% of total trans-Atlantic capacity, with annual revenues estimated...
Aviation supplier stocks were mixed on Monday, with Amadeus and Travelsky Technology falling 2.4% and 1.6%, respectively, and Airbus' parent EADS gaining 2.4%.
Kenya Airways (-0.5%) announced plans to acquire two additional E190 aircraft for regional operations by the end of 2010.
Delta and US Airways have dropped plans to trade slots at LaGuardia and Washington National, saying the FAA’s conditions – making slots available by blind auction – are too high. However, the carriers are proceeding with plans to appeal the issue based on their contention that FAA does not have...
