Resenha de notícias - 17/02/2006 (INGLÊS)

[AeroEntusiasta]

(ULRICH HOPPE)

US AIRWAYS converted orders for 57 72-pax EMBRAER 170s to 99-pax EMBRAER 190s (25 firm; 32 subject to reconfirmation), plus 50 options, for delivery starting Nov. '06. It had taken 28 E170s that were acquired by Republic.



HAMBURG INTL ordered 14 A319s with CFM56s for delivery starting in 2008, and optioned six; order was booked in 2005 as undisclosed. It plans to use 10 in its mainline fleet and four for a new project abroad (SPNWS, December 23).



ALASKA ordered three more 737-800s for 2007 (one) and 2008 (two). It has now ordered 40 (two delivered).



BRITISH AIRWAYS ordered three A321s and one A320 with V2500s (Airbus lists as unidentified), plus converted three A319 orders to A320s, for delivery 2007-2008 to replace 10 ex-British Caledonian A320s with CFM56s. It now has seven A320s and three A321s on order, with options for 36 A320 Family aircraft. It also has five ATPs in storage.



WESTJET ordered three more 737-700s for 2008, and has now ordered 38 (33 delivered as of February 1).



HAWAIIAN AIRLINES signed LOI to acquire four used 767-300s with CF6-80s (specific aircraft not confirmed; said to be 23275/23276/23277/23278) that were repossessed from Delta; it curently operates 14 767-300ERs with PW4000s.



ONUR AIR, Turkey leased ex-Jetsgo MD-83 (53465) from bank consortium; aircraft is managed by AerCap.



NOUVELAIR, Tunisia leased ex-Northwest A320 (400) with CFM56s from AerCap, Netherlands starting April 2006.



AIR DECCAN, India leased/took delivery of two new A320s (2645/2676) with V2500s from Aviation Capital Group.



CARGOJET, Canada leased ex-AllCanada Express 727-200F (22460) from JRW Aviation, TX; COMMERCIAL JET, FL completed C-Check.



AIGLE AZUR, France agreed to lease ex-Air France A320 (244) with CFM56s from AerCap, The Netherlands.



FLAIR AIR, Kelowna, BC launched cargo and pax charter operations with 727-200F (21455) and 168-pax 727-200 (21524); its initial customer is CUBANA, which is wet-leasing the freighter for service between Toronto and Havana.



XIAMEN AIRLINES, China leased/took delivery of first of five new 170-pax 737-800s (winglets) from GECAS.



CARGO AIRCRAFT MANAGEMENT, FL purchased fifth (22319) of planned five 767-200ERs from American.



PIA, Pakistan issued tender to lease two or three A310-300s or A300-600/600Rs and two or three 737-300/400s.



SONANGOL, Angola ordered ACJ (2675) with CFM56s for delivery in 2006. Sonangol is an oil exploration group.



Airlines, Financials & Start-Ups

REED EXHIBITIONS announced that it will move Asian Aerospace to Hong Kong with first show scheduled for September 3-6, 2007; Asian Aerospace 2006 (Feb. 21-26 in Singapore) expects >900 exhibitors from 43 countries.

RAK AIRWAYS, Ras Al-Khaimah, UAE is being formed by RAK govt. with US$231.4m capital for late 2006 startup of regional and long-haul services. It plans to operate fleet of eight aircraft and says it is in talks with Boeing and Airbus.

PIA, Pakistan says Business Plan for 2006-2011 includes acquisition of 12 777s (has ordered eight; leasing a ninth from ILFC), 10 turboprops (ordered seven ATR 42-500s), three A310Fs, three "new technology medium-capacity aircraft," and "seven new technology narrowbodies." It expects annual pax traffic growth of 8% and 12% for cargo.

FLYME, Sweden agreed to acquire LITHUANIAN AIRLINES (five 737-500s/two Saab 2000s); it will acquire 33% shareholding immediately, with remaining 67% to be acquired over next three years. FlyMe operates five 737-300s.

DBA, Germany announced a private investor (Helios Kliniken founder) acquired 25.1% of the airline, doubling its capital resources to Û20m; dba operates 15 737-300s and 14 Fokker 100s and handled about 4.3m pax in 2005.

DELTA received US Bankruptcy Court approval for restructured leases for 88 MD-88s, 757s and 767s that it expects will save about $200m per year. Delta has now restructured leases for >90% of mainline fleet and 33% of RJ fleet.

US PBGC (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.) reports it holds 11.1m shares of UAL (23.4% of company) as largest single shareholder. It received shares (expects more as unsecured creditor) from UAL's pension obligation transfer.

BOEING delivered the 5,000th 737 to Southwest Airlines, its 447th. The first was delivered in Dec. 1967 to Lufthansa.

EU and US launched investigation into several intl. airlines regarding possible antitrust law violations in air cargo.



MRO & Production

AIRBUS completed A380 wing-fuselage static structural tests in which wing was subjected to close to 1.5 times limit load before rupturing between engines (in line with predictions); test data is now being analyzed. Airbus says aircraft should be able to meet certification requirements (with optimizations if needed) in time for type certification in 2H06.

THE AIRLINE MONITOR is forecasting delivery of 29,580 jet transports in 2006-2025: 12,225 Airbus; 12,170 Boeing; 2,735 Embraer; and 2,450 Bombardier. It is projecting world airline fleet of 40,126 jets (3,619 freighters) in 2025 vs 17,425 (1,700) at end of 2005; 6,446 aircraft (322 per year) will be retired and/or scrapped in 2006-2025.

AIRBUS plans to begin flight testing winglets (two designs; one by WINGLET TECHNOLOGY, KS) on A320s for possible use on A320 Family aircraft; JETBLUE will provide an aircraft in addition to its own development aircraft.

PRATT & WHITNEY GLOBAL MATERIAL SOLUTIONS, CT was formed to supply PMA parts for CFM56s; it has signed United Airlines as launch customer with long-term parts agreement to support CFM56-3s for 98 737s.

ASIA AVIATION, Thailand was formed to assume 50% ownership of THAI AIRASIA (nine 737-300s) from Shin Corp., Thailand to comply with Thai laws on foreign ownership; TEMASEK HOLDINGS, Singapore acquired 49.6% of Shin (SPNWS, Feb. 10). AirAsia Intl. owns 49% of Thai AirAsia, and airline's CEO owns remaining 1%.

CONSORCIO AEROMEXICO (formerly Cintra), Mexico says it plans to sell itself as a whole rather than just Grupo Aeroméxico. It also owns Aerolitoral, Aeromexpress, SEAT, Alas de América, Sabre de Mexico and ITR.

KELLSTROM INDUSTRIES, FL acquired HIGH TECH AVIONICS & ACCESSORIES, Miami (avionics repair/overhaul).

GE FANUC EMBEDDED SYSTEMS, VA agreed to purchase assets of CONDOR ENGINEERING, CA, including test and simulation products, embedded boards and core technology supporting commercial and military aircraft.

ALBANY INTL TECHNIWEAVE, NY agreed to purchase TEXAS COMPOSITE (composite structures) for $15m.

EADS EFW, Germany has China Eastern contract to convert three A300-600s to freighters in late 2006-2007.

SAS TECHNICAL SERVICES has contracts from SAS to provide letter checks and cabin modifications in 2006 on seven A340s, and from Hello, Switzerland to provide V2500 management and maintenance services for six MD-90s.

THE MEMPHIS GROUP, TN has 5-year agreement with Thales Avionics to provide third party repair management administration services in the Americas; it will manage all RFQs, orders, status requests and technical requests.

OEMSERVICES (consortium founded by Diehl Avionik Systeme, Liebherr-Aerospace, Thales and Zodiac) has 10-year, $4.5m contract from Batavia, Indonesia to provide component maintenance (>185 types) on its two A319s.

AMERICAN and union leaders announced plan for Kansas City Maintenance & Engineering base to both reduce costs and generate revenue through new third party maintenance contracts to become a profit center by end 2007.

AVIO-DIEPEN, The Netherlands has Boeing contract to join Integrated Materials Management (IMM) program to maintain maintenance supplies inventories (including spares) for airlines to reduce costs; current IMM customers include AirTran, All Nippon Airways, Delta, KLM, Japan Airlines, Japan Transocean Air, and Singapore Airlines.

AIRBUS MIDDLE EAST, Dubai was formed to head all commercial activities (marketing/sales, contracts, customer relations, spares, training and technical support) for region. Airbus has similar subsidiaries in US, China and Japan.

SUAL-HOLDING, Russia; ALU MENZIKEN AEROSPACE/UAC, Canton, GA; and CORUS ALUMINUM ROLLED

PRODUCTS, Germany teamed to develop/produce extruded and rolled products in Al-Li alloys for aircraft structures.

SPIRIT AEROSYSTEMS, KS and INFOSYS, India teamed to establish an Engineering Center in Bangalore to focus on product development, design and analysis of airframe structures and engineering change management.

MAGELLAN AEROSPACE, Canada has 10-year, C$150m Goodrich contract to supply main pistons for A380 main and wing landing gear.

AWBU (AEM), UK has 10-year contract from Thales Electrical Systems, France for winding of main stator for the A380 variable frequency generator; it says additional wound components are to be added as contract progresses.

AVIATION PARTNERS BOEING has Royal Air Maroc contract to supply 29 shipsets of 737-700/800 blended winglets for existing (16; to be retrofitted by RAM ENGINEERING & MAINTENANCE in Casablanca) and new (13) aircraft.

AIRBUS completed cold weather testing in Canada of A380 and is flying aircraft to Singapore for Asian Aerospace.

STORK, Netherlands is considering converting from public to private company under previously announced strategy; idea is supported by major shareholders CENTAURUS CAPITAL and PAULSON & CO, who together own over 20%.

AEM, UK acquired AEROMEDIC INNOVATIONS, UK (onboard medical kits) from founder and sole shareholder.

ASSOCIATED AIR CENTER, TX has agreements to complete two green BBJs in 2006/07; it has to date done 14.

BOEING began final assembly of the third of four 767-200ERs to be modified into KC-767A tankers for Italy. It says if 767 is selected for USAF tanker program, it could possibly open assembly line at current C-17 facility in Long Beach.

CARGO DATA MANAGEMENT, TX was selected by Aloha to provide Web-based cargo management system.

IVIATION, TN and ADVANCED DATA RESEARCH (ADR), MI have formed a joint venture to offer ADR customers a single source for training, consulting, sales and financing for its EFBs and related products.

IBERIA put its 29th A340 into service, a 352-pax A340-600, its 11th. It plans to take delivery of two more in 2006.

CAE says it has reduced time to manufacture, deliver and certify A320 full-flight simulators from 20 to 14 months through new strict change-control process and standardization. It plans to apply processes to other simulator programs.

EADS TEST & SERVICES has Ameco Beijing order for ATEC Series 6 test equipment for delivery in Sept. 2006.

AEROSIM TECHNOLOGIES, MN has Air Nippon order for dual screen FMST and Virtual Flight Deck for 737-700.

RAMCO SYSTEMS, CA was selected by Virgin America to supply maintenance and engineering (M&E) software.

ONEAERO, UT has launched TrueBook program that identifies misidentified part numbers, nomenclatures, aircraft applicability, ATA Chapter applicability and interchangeability in commercial aircraft surplus spare part inventories.

ARINC has Finnair order to provide VHF Digital Link Mode 2 (VDLM2) for 11 A319s, 12 A320s and six A321s for Link 2000+ ATC program.

PACE AEROSPACE ENGINEERING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, Germany licensed its Pacelab design optimization software to Georgia Tech's Aerospace Systems Design Lab for student use on their design projects.

CHAMELEON, UK was selected by Alsa as sales rep for its surface decoration products for aviation aftermarket.



Profit & Loss

CATHAY PACIFIC flew 6.1b RPKs in January, up 12.5% vs January 2005. Capacity rose 11.4% to 7.6b ASKs.

IBERIA, Spain flew 3.9b RPKs in January, up 3.1% vs January 2005. Capacity rose 0.4% to 5.3b ASKs.

TAM, Brazil had R$187m net income on R$5.6b revenues in 2005 vs R$341m on R$4.5b in '04; domestic market

share rose to 43.5% in 2005 (69.9% PLF) from 35.8% in 2004 and intl. market share to 18.9% (72.8%) from 14.5%.

TAMPA CARGO, Colombia carried 177k tonnes cargo in 2005, up 2.3% vs 2004; revenues rose 17% to $160.7m.

SAS GROUP plans March 1 to transfer its short-haul pilots to its individual airlines in Denmark, Norway, and

Sweden. It also mandated each airline be responsible for its own negotiation of CBAs with their pilots.



DELTA AIR LINES reported net losses of $1.2b in 4Q05 (vs $2.2b loss in 4Q04) and $3.8b in 2005 (vs $5.2b loss in 2004); revenues totaled $3.9b in 4Q05 (vs $3.7b) and $16.2b in 2005 (vs $15.2b). It had $2.9b cash on December 31.

QANTAS had A$352.6m net profit on A$6.8b revenues for half year ended December 31 vs A$458.4m on A$6.4b a year ago; mainline operations earned A$404.4m (vs A$467.9m), Jetstar earned A$27.7m (A$19m), QantasLink earned A$35.8m (A$29.2m) and Australian Airlines lost A$6.9m (vs A$8.5m profit). Qantas also announced a new executive structure organized around three groups: flying businesses, non-flying businesses and corporate support.

FINNAIR earned Û87.5m in 2005 vs Û30.6m in 2004; revenues rose 11.2% to Û1.87b. Its pax traffic increased 10%.

AIR FRANCE-KLM had Û77m net income on Û5.43b revenues in third quarter ended December 31 vs Û23m on Û4.83b a year ago. Cargo revenues rose 14.5% to Û813m; third party maintenance revenues rose 24.7% to Û237m.

ACE AVIATION (Air Canada) had C$258m net income on C$9.8b revenues in 2005 vs C$880m loss on C$8.9b in 2004; it plans to pay out C$54.8m to employees through Profit Sharing. It also announced plan in 1H06 to reduce non-union staff by 20%, primarily at Air Canada, Air Canada Cargo, ACGHS and ACTS.

THAI AIRWAYS INTERNATIONAL had 3.8b baht net income on 45.9b baht revenues in first quarter ended December 31 vs 5.7b baht on 43.1b baht a year ago.

NORTHWEST and its pilots and flight attendants unions were given to February 24 by US Bankruptcy Court to reach new labor deals before it rules on airline's motion under 1113(c) to reject all current collective bargaining agreements.

NORTHWEST pilots began voting on whether to authorize strike if airline management imposes terms and conditions of employment on the group under 1113(c) of bankruptcy code. The ballots are to be counted on February 28.

ANA, Japan plans public offering in early March of up to 250m shares; it has not yet announced an offering price.

UNITED plans by June 2006 to increase daily operations at Denver by 7% to 455 flights using its new resource optimization program to more efficiently use gates/aircraft. It expects to reduce average turn time by eight minutes.

SITA and AIRSERVICES AUSTRALIA teamed to offer ADS-B technology in Australia (>30,000 ft) starting 1H07.

CAE had C$17.6m net profit on C$276.6m revenues in third quarter ended Dec. 31 vs C$347m loss on C$257.5m a year ago; it has booked orders for 17 full-flight civil aircraft simulators in April-December, and is expecting 20 for year.

CURTISS-WRIGHT, NJ had $75.3m net income on $1.1b sales in 2005 vs $65.1m on $955m in 2004.

CYTEC ENGINEERED MATERIALS earned $103m on $541.6m sales in 2005 vs $83.4m on $487m in 2004; it expects $590m-$620m sales in '06, due in part to continuing development of applications for advanced composites.

FAIRCHILD Aerospace earned $.57m on $17m sales in first quarter ended Dec. 31 vs $1.4m on $21m a year ago.

ATA members flew 2.29b RTMs cargo in December 2005, up 1.8% vs December '04; and 25.3b RTMs cargo in 2005, up 1.3% vs 2004. Intl. traffic rose 4.9% in December and 3.7% in '05; domestic fell 1.1% in December and 1.2% in '05.

AITAL (Latin American Airline Assn.) members flew 119.5b RPKs in 2005, up 12.1% vs 2004; capacity rose 8.1%.

AIR CANADA JAZZ had C$33.8m operating income on C$304.1m revenues in 4Q05 vs C$21.7m on C$187.5m a year ago; it reported C$117.9m net income on C$1b revenues for 2005. It now has fleet of 127 CRJs and Dash 8s.

DASSAULT AVIATION had Û305m net profit on Û3.43b sales (48% Falcon) in 2005 vs Û313m on Û3.46b (61%) in 2004; it delivered 51 Falcon jets in '05 vs 63 in '04 and booked orders for 123 worth Û4.1b vs 69 worth Û2.2b in '04.

REPUBLIC AIRWAYS HOLDINGS had $60.6m net income on $905m revenues in '05 vs $38.9m on $646m in 2004; it increased fleet from 111 aircraft at end 2004 to 142 (48 Delta; 40 US Airways; 35 United; 15 American; four charter).



Regionals & Business Jets

BOMBARDIER delivered 337 aircraft (149 regional/186 business) in year ended January 31 vs 329 (200/128):

TECHNOSPECSTAL-ENGINEERING, Russia ordered 30 Il-114s from TAPO, Uzbekistan for delivery in 2006-2007.

AIR BAGAN, Myanmar leased ex-Atlantic Southeast ATR 72-200 (458) from Phoenix Aircraft Leasing, Singapore.

EASTERN AIRWAYS, UK purchased three ex-Atlantic Coast J41s (015/017/019) from Banc of America Leasing.

AIR CREEBEC purchased two Dash 8-100s (059; ex-Air Jamaica/138; ex-Air Canada Jazz) from CIT Aerospace.

TRANS EXECUTIVE AIR, HI purchased ex-Air Santo Domingo Shorts 360 (3729) from Banc of America Leasing.

MIKADO CAPITAL, Iceland purchased ex-Atlantic Coast 328JET (3147) from HSH-Nordbank in deal arranged by G.O.A.L., Germany. 328 SUPPORT SERVICES (formerly AvCraft) is to perform maintenance at Oberpfaffenhofen.

JOB AIR, Czech Republic purchased second/third ex-Chautauqua Saab 340As (101/108) from Metlife.

NETWORK AVIATION, Australia purchased EMB 120ER (034) from SkyWest; SkyQuest International arranged.

CKA, Czech Rep. shortlisted six consortia as final bidders to purchase AERO VODOCHODY; bids are due April 21.

KSAMC (Kharkov) and AVIANT, Kiev agreed to cooperate in aircraft production, initially on the An-148 program.

GAMA says 3,580 general aviation airplanes (2,465 pistons; 365 turboprops; 750 jets) worth record $15.1b were delivered worldwide in '05 vs 2,963 (2,051; 321; 591) worth $11.9b in '04:

DECISION STRATEGIES, TX was retained by Caribbean Sun and Caribbean Star Airlines to assist in developing several different strategic business plans that include multiple route and corporate structures and aircraft deployment

among other initiatives. One plan will be selected from these multiple options to serve as blueprint for future growth.

EMBRAER received Brazilian (CTA) and European (EASA) approval for CAT IIIa approaches with EMBRAER 170s.

LUFTHANSA TECHNIK has Total Component Support contracts from Cimber Air, Denmark for seven CRJ200s and from Air Nostrum, Spain for its CRJ900.

CIMBER AIR MAINTENANCE CENTER completed part out of two ex-Necon Air ATR 42s (129/144) for ATR.

AERO VODOCHODY, Czech Rep. has contract from JetClub, Switzerland to perform strip and paint of a Learjet 60.

HARBOR AVIATION, WA developed patent-pending technology to enable an aircraft (2-50 seats) to operate from water and conventional runways, and is offering to OEMs for future projects; KENMORE AIR is strategic partner.

HAWAIIAN AIRLINES filed lawsuit seeking to block MESA from forming an inter-Hawaiian Island regional airline.

BOMBARDIER restarted production of CL-215T conversion kits (CL-215 reengined with PW123AFs), after booking new orders for nine worth $85m from AeroFlite, Buffalo Airways, and the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

NETJETS announced plan to hire 450 new pilots in '06, increasing staff by 19%. It currently operates >420 aircraft.

RAISBECK received Brazilian certification for ZR LITE system (batwings; extended-chord/twisted composite wing trailing edge flaps; wing leading edge vortilons) for Learjet 35/36; Lider Signature is authorized installation center.

FLIGHTSCAPE, Canada was selected by Sikorsky Aircraft to provide flight data analysis and animation software.

AEROCENTURY, CA had $.19m net income on $13.5m revenues in 2005 vs $.27m on $10.9m in 2004.

FINNAIR plans March 30 to begin weekly Helsinki-Kiev, Ukraine (EMBRAER 170); UKRAINE INTL will code-share.

ISLAND AIR plans to begin Kahului, Maui-Lanai on April 2 and Kapalua, Maui-Lihue on June 1 (Dash 8).

SKYWEST/ASA flew 1.1b RPMs in January, up 126.5% vs January 2005; capacity rose 116.9% to 1.5b ASMs.



Traffic, Airports & Routes

CHAMP CARGOSYSTEMS (SITA) has 5-year, $1.2m Air Algerie contract to automate its cargo operations. It also formed partnership with Global Freight Exchange (distribution/e-booking) to offer turnkey solution to its customers.

LUFTHANSA SYSTEMS has Royal Jordanian Airlines contract to provide SIRAX revenue accounting software.

AITAL (Latin American Airline Association) added Cielos Airlines and Cayman Airways as members; it now has 29.

CONSORTIUM TWOONE, Austria purchased 66% of Bratislava and Kosice airports for Û299m from Slovakian Republic, and plans to invest Û240m into Bratislava (including building rail link to Bratislava City and Vienna) and Û10.7m into Kosice. TwoOne members include Flughafen Wien (Vienna Airport), RZB, and Penta (Slovakian equity group).

MEGADATA, CT was selected by MASSPORT to supply Web-based PASSUR Pulse program for use by Boston Logan Intl. Airport (BOS) to replace airline self-reporting of landing fees with airport-managed system of direct billing.

PHOENIX SKY HARBOR INTL AIRPORT (PHX) handled record 41.2m pax in 2005, up 4.3% from 39.5m in 2004.

FRANKFURT AIRPORT (FRA) handled 3.7m pax in January, down 0.5% vs January 2005. Cargo rose 7.1%.

AIR, GA says US airlines hired 762 pilots in January vs 764 in January 2005; 8,531 were on furlough vs 9,297.

WESTJET plans in April/May to begin Vancouver-Hamilton; Toronto-St. John's; and Edmonton-Abbotsford (737), plus seasonal Calgary-Halifax and Toronto-Victoria. It plans to operate about 1,975 weekly flights in Spring 2006.

CONDOR plans May 2 to begin twice-weekly Munich-Genoa, Italy (A320).

EASYJET plans to begin daily Glasgow-Berlin Schönefeld on May 3; and Glasgow-Alicante/-Malaga on July 7 (A319).

EASYJET plans May 20 to begin weekly Glasgow-Palma de Mallorca, Spain (A319).

SPIRIT AIRLINES plans May 25 to begin daily Detroit Metro-San Francisco, CA (A319).

US AIRWAYS plans in May/June to begin Philadelphia-Milan, -Lisbon and -Stockholm (757-200/767-200).

NORTHWEST AIRLINES plans June 1 to begin daily Indianapolis-San Francisco, CA (A319).

DELTA plans June 8 to begin Atlanta-Quito-Guayaquil (757) to total 25 Caribbean/Latin American cities served.

DELTA plans in December 2006 to begin Atlanta-Dakar, Senegal-Johannesburg, South Africa (777-200).

SKYEUROPE is establishing a base at Prague with two 737-700s serving seven cities starting in April; it plans to reduce certain flights out of Poland. It flew 133,309 pax (63.3% PLF) in January vs 85,543 (61%) in January 2005.