Tag Archives: 1309

Finnair prepares for a national demonstration by labor unions

Finnair (Helsinki) has issued this statement for Friday, September 18:

The Finnish labor unions have announced an extensive, nationwide demonstration to take place in Finland on Friday September 18, 2015. The demonstration is expected to have a wide impact on different industries, including commercial aviation.

Finnair estimates the demonstration to have significant impacts on Finnair customer service, baggage handling and different processes and services related to flight departures at Helsinki Airport on Friday. These services are affected primarily between 11:00 and 13:00 EET, but the impacts can be visible to customers both prior to the demonstration period and after it – for example, transportation services at Helsinki Airport are impacted during 06:00-22:00 EET.

“We are extremely sorry about the disruption this demonstration causes to our customers’ travel plans. We will do our utmost to serve our customers in the best possible way in this difficult situation, and thus offer them the possibility to change their flights,” says Janne Tarvainen, Head of Finnair’s Operational Control Center. “We hope that despite this demonstration that is not dependent on Finnair, as many customers as possible will get to their destinations as planned.”

Friday is the busiest day in terms of passenger numbers for Finnair, and the demonstration thus impacts thousands of Finnair customers. The demonstration’s impacts are expected to cause flight delays, time table changes and possibly also flight cancellations during Friday. Even though the demonstration takes place on Friday, some impacts can still be expected in aviation over the weekend.

Finnair has started preparations to minimise the disruptions the demonstration causes on our customers’ travel plans. Customers who have reservations on Finnair flights during September 17-19, 2015, can change their trip to another time free of charge, and avoid traveling during the time when the demonstration causes delays and other disruption on Finnair traffic.

Finnair continues to estimate the detailed impacts of the demonstration, and will communicate possible time table changes and/or cancellations starting on Wednesday, September 16. Finnair advises customers to take the following action:

Customers who are travelling with Finnair on September 17-19, 2015 can already now change their travel dates free of charge, following instructions given at http://www.finnair.com/info
Please make sure that you have the correct mobile number and other contact information in your reservation.
Decisions on timetable changes and/or cancellations are made starting on Wednesday, September 16,2015, and we will communicate the changes directly to customers, and also on our webpages at http://www.finnair.com/int/gb/flights/flightlist
If a flight is cancelled, customers can change their travel date to an earlier or later date, get rerouted when possible, or seek a refund for the ticket price.
We advise customers to reserve enough time to get to Helsinki Airport, as the demonstration is expected to have impacts on public transportation as well as on transportation services near the airport.

We apologize if our customer service lines are busy during the next few days.

Finnair aircraft slide show:

Hawaiian Holdings produces record GAAP net income of $25.9 million for the first quarter

Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. (Honolulu), parent company of Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. (Honolulu), reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2015:

GAAP net income of $25.9 million or $0.40 per diluted share.

Adjusted net income, reflecting economic fuel expense and excluding loss on extinguishment of debt, of $24.7 million or $0.38 per diluted share, an increase of $25.6 million or $0.40 cents per diluted share year-over-year.

Adjusted pre-tax margin of 7.4% compared to (0.2)% in the prior year period.

Unrestricted cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $488 million.

Lowered leverage ratio to 3.6x.

The board of directors approved a share repurchase program authorizing the Company to buy back up to $100 million of its common stock.

“Producing these record results for the seasonally weak first quarter demonstrates the growing strength of our business,” said Mark Dunkerley, Hawaiian Airlines president and chief executive officer. “Low fuel prices and strong demand across our network combined to more than offset the impact of a strengthening U.S. dollar, declining fuel surcharges in some markets and an increase in industry capacity between North America and Hawai’i. Reflecting this performance we have announced a $100 million share repurchase program today. As always, our employees are at the forefront of our successes. Their performance makes our financial success possible and they have my undying thanks.”

Statistical data, as well as a reconciliation of the reported non-GAAP financial measures, can be found in the accompanying tables.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

As of March 31, 2015 the Company had:

Unrestricted cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $488 million.

Outstanding debt and capital lease obligations of approximately $962 million consisting of the following:

$693 million outstanding under secured loan agreements to finance a portion of the purchase price for 11 Airbus A330-200 aircraft.

$132 million outstanding under secured loan agreements to finance a portion of the purchase price for 15 Boeing 717-200 aircraft.

$100 million in capital lease obligations to finance the acquisition of an Airbus A330-200, two Boeing 717-200 aircraft and aircraft-related equipment.

$29 million outstanding under floating rate notes to finance the acquisition of two Boeing 767-300 ER aircraft.

$8 million of outstanding Convertible Senior Notes.

In the first quarter, the Company repurchased $63 million (principal balance) of convertible notes outstanding. Repurchases to date have totaled $78 million (principal balance) or 91%, thereby eliminating the need to issue 10 million shares when the notes may have otherwise converted to common stock.

First Quarter 2015 Highlights:

Product and loyalty

Introduced the first of its 18 refurbished Boeing 717 aircraft with a comprehensive interior retrofit and a standard consistent layout of 128 seats in March 2015. The refurbishment will provide more seats for the peak demand period and eliminate operational complexity arising from different seat counts. To date, seven aircraft have completed the refurbishment program with all remaining Boeing 717 aircraft in the Company’s fleet expected to be retrofitted by the end of the year.

Fleet and financing

Added one new A330-200 aircraft under lease financing.

Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A330-243 N391HA (msn 1309) taxies at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Hawaiian Airlines aircraft slide show: