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’Qantas flies the unfriendly skies
The dramatic decision by Qantas to ground its fleet on Saturday has ended well, so far — for passengers, at least.
The national workplace relations tribunal, Fair Work Australia, convened over the weekend and in the early hours of Monday morning gave Qantas what it was seeking:
Iceland’s second volcano e-raptures
Uh oh. Remember this time last year when Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano was causing £130m worth of losses a day for airlines?
Well, bang on time for the rapture, Iceland’s second and most active volcano Grimsvoetn has began erupting:
BAA’s Whitemare before Christmas
Some Monday morning hubris, courtesy of London Heathrow-operator BAA.
Heathrow’s army of snow ploughs stretch their wings as snow bites
29 November 2010
The cold snap may have only just bitten but Heathrow’s snow team has been working for months to ensure the UK’s hub airport will once again be prepared for the onset of winter.
A380 engine failure hits EADS, Rolls-Royce
Shares in European planemaker EADS fell as much as 2.5 per cent on Thursday after an Airbus A380 operated by Qantas, was forced to make an emergency landing in Singapore. It seems one of the plane’s four Rolls-Royce-manufactured engines exploded — causing the flight to be abandoned just 15 minutes after takeoff.
Icelandic volcano risk, again
As if the threat from radicalised printer ink cartridges wasn’t bad enough.
We wonder if airline investors are watching the following too (via Reuters):
Meltwater [is flooding] from the Grimsvotn glacial lake in Iceland and could signal the volcano underneath is about to erupt,
EasyDividend
EasyJet shares took off at Monday’s open in London:
That’s after the airline announced the resolution of its ‘easy’ brand licensing dispute with founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou — staving off costly High Court litigation later this year — and adding more good news to last week’s upgraded profit expectations.
CDS report: Fundamentals outweigh events
Global credit markets bounced back today as the strong fundamentals evident in recent weeks outweighed idiosyncratic risk. The Markit iTraxx Europe index was trading around 80.5bp, losing some of its gains from earlier in the day but still 3bp tighter than yesterday’s close.
The volcano’s impact on airline fuel hedges, jet storage
FT Alphaville noted earlier on Tuesday how Barclays Capital seemed convinced the volcanic ash cloud would not have a lasting impact on the global oil market balance via its depressive demand effect on jet fuel.
The volcano’s impact on European jet fuel prices is ‘meh’
The volcanically-induced no-flight ban over Europe is having some follow-through on European jet fuel prices.
Barclays Capital estimated on Monday that the ash cloud could be responsible for cutting up to 1m barrels a day of demand in the short term.
CDS report: Banks and airlines drag market down
Financials took over from sovereigns as the negative catalyst du jour, pushing spreads wider across the board. The bearish sentiment triggered on Friday afternoon by news that Goldman Sachs had been charged with fraud gathered momentum over the weekend and continued today.
BA versus the volcano
So British Airways CEO Willie Walsh took to the skies this weekend — Icelandic volcanic ash, and the small matter of its closure of Europe’s northern air routes, be damned.
Walsh might well try to convince European airspace regulators that flying through clouds of volcanic emissions is safe;
Ryanair and Gatwick guessing
Ryanair could shift many of its flights from Stansted to Gatwick if the Sussex airport’s new owner lives up to promises to improve its services and keep charges down . . .
That’s from the Evening Standard earlier this month,
CDS report: walking(out) on Air
Markit’s Otis Casey wrote this CDS report
Anxiety was high in Europe today not because of movement in the sovereign markets as has been the case but rather due to the airlines. Union strikes, particularly from pilots,
JAL’s kamikaze bankruptcy
It gives new meaning to the word kamikaze… In a move that the FT attributed to “self-inflicted wounds”, Japan Airlines formally nosedived into bankruptcy on Tuesday, filing with the Tokyo District Court for a court-led restructuring as its share price reached the miserable level of Y5.
Tiger Airways burning bright…
Meet Tiger Airways, a Singapore-based budget carrier set up in 2004 to serve the Australasian market.
Read Tiger Airways IPO prospectus, filed today, Tuesday, with the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Rescanning Smiths Group (updated)
On Monday we reflected on the recent performance of Smiths Group, the world leader in airport security and inspection.
Since the failed terrorist attack on a US-bound airplane over Christmas its shares have risen almost 10 per cent as investors have focused on the possibility of full body screening being introduced at airports globally.
Scanning Smiths Group
The elusive head and shoulders pattern emerges in Smiths Group — makers of X-ray body scanners — on Monday morning, after airport-operator BAA says it will introduce the equipment at Heathrow.
The economics of airline strikes
British Airways’ cabin crew are opting to strike (again).
This time around, however, they plan to do so over the Christmas period — one of the airline’s busiest times — for the very seasonal period of 12 days.
In pension trustees BA trusts
There’s a pretty big `if’ hovering over British Airways’ proposed merger with Iberia:
Iberia will be entitled to terminate the merger agreement if the outcome of the discussions between British Airways and its pension trustees is not,
BA/Iberia proposed merger terms announced
Here are the key details of the memorandum of understanding for a proposed “merger of equals” between BA and Iberia. And, my, does it look complex.
A new holding company (TopCo) will be created that will own both the existing airlines.
British Airways defies financial gravity
Hidden away in British Airways’ half-year results is this tidbit:
That means British Airways NAPS pension liabilities now stand at a whopping £2.66bn — more than twice the £1.17bn reported at the end of last fiscal year.
Evolution of an airport price
Watch that asset price drop!
BAA has (finally) agreed the sale of London Gatwick. The airport goes to Global Infrastructure Partners, the owners of London City, for £1.51bn.
It’s a decent price for GIP considering that Gatwick’s regulatory asset base (RAB),
Guest post: Lawrence Hunt on the all-biz class airline model
Lawrence Hunt was CEO of Silverjet, the British all-business class airline that operated between January 2007 and May 2008. Here he gives his thoughts on British Airways’ new all-business class service,
Bonfire of the Irish carrier
Just how badly is Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus doing?
Stinkingly. The Irish airline posted a €93m operating loss in the first-half of 2009 — up from a €23mm loss last year. More importantly, however,
Guest post: Steve Ridgway on the outlook for the airline industry
The Virgin Atlantic CEO writes:
Our industry has never seen anything like it. It’s been a year in which airline management teams have had to cope with major swings in oil prices and a swingeing cut in demand in recent months.
British Airways’ cash conundrum
Airlines are like grocery stores.
They have particular goods they need to sell before certain dates and at fairly fixed operating costs. The plane is going to leave with 100 people on board, or 50. It is up to the airline to fill enough seats — at high enough prices — to cover costs.
On aerospace over-supply
The Paris Air Show starts next week, on June 15, and is traditionally a chance for aircraft manufacturers to show off new wares while one-upping each other with aircraft order announcements. But with their major customers in turmoil,
Oil is the great unknown for airlines
The International Air Transport Association, IATA, has issued its latest industry earnings forecast and the outlook has deteriorated.
The world’s airlines are now forecast to lose $9bn this year. The newest 2009 forecast is double the level IATA predicted in March,
The art of aircraft ordering
Like the Japanese sport of sumo wresting, the art of placing an aircraft order is about two things — timing and bulk.
United Airlines may have perfected both aspects. From the Wall Street Journal:
United Airlines has asked Boeing Co.
Airline cycles, redux
We think this is proof that the vast majority of long-term airline investors are stupid irrational.
That’s from Goldman Sachs, who on Monday issued a note on European airports and airlines.
The thrust of the research is that though passenger traffic appears to be stabilising,