Tag Archives: A319132

The new Germanwings is launched today

Germanwings (2nd) (Cologne/Bonn) as a subsidiary of Lufthansa, relaunched operations today (July 1) as a re-invented airline, taking over many former Lufthansa routes and offering three levels of fares and services.

The airline issued this statement:

Today sees the launch of the new Germanwings offering a wider selection of flight services. As well as our popular BASIC and SMART fares, as of today you can book our new BEST fare. You can choose to book a flight by itself with no extra services or our premium offer with everything included. The choice is yours. One thing won’t change, though, and that’s our very low fares.

It doesn’t end there. Germanwings is expanding. Over the next few months we will be taking over a good deal of Lufthansa’s German and European routes. This means in the future you’ll have even more connections to select from, in particular from Berlin, Hamburg and Düsseldorf.

We will now be able to offer you even more destinations. All LH-flights from Stuttgart and Cologne have already been transferred, and over the coming year other flights from Hamburg and Berlin will follow. In 2014 more destinations from Düsseldorf will expand our network even further.

We hope to see you on board and experience Germanwings as it is reborn.

Copyright Photo: Ton Jochems/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-132 D-AGWN (msn 3841) awaits its takeoff clearance for the runway at Palma de Mallorca.

Germanwings:

Germanwings completes its makeover in time for the July 1 relaunch

Germanwings (2nd) (Cologne/Bonn), the lower-cost subsidiary of Lufthansa (Frankfurt), is preparing for its July 1 relaunch. Germanwings since January 1, 2013 has been taking over most of the former LH point-to-point European routes that are not flying to either the Frankfurt and Munich hubs.

As part of the relaunch, the airline has been rapidly rebranding. The last aircraft to be repainted, Airbus A319-132 D-AGWI (msn 3358), operated the last flight in the old livery on June 20 between London (Heathrow) and Cologne/Bonn. The aircraft has been ferried to Ostrava for repainting and should be back in service for the July 1 relaunch. All of the special liveries have been retired.

The airline is also going to three individualized levels of services like most budget airlines, i.e. you get what you pay for.

Here is the CEO letter to its customers about the relaunch:

Germanwings, your German budget airlines, is about to revolutionize the low-cost market in Europe by offering the highest-quality airline experience in this sector in Europe. On July 1, 2013 “new Germanwings” will introduce a completely new brand and product concept allowing passengers to fly “à la carte”.

Our passengers will be able to put together individualized packages ranging from budget, no-frills travel to a more refined passener experience with more advantages and extra services, all of which will be tailored to your specific needs. In the broader context of economy class, “new Germanwings” will have three fare brackets with differing services provided in each.

The “BEST” fare is our top category with business travellers in mind principally, but also non-business passengers. The “SMART” fare includes some extra services and the possibility to purchase others. The “BASIC” fare is the purely low-cost category.

As of January 1, 2013, the “new Germanwings” now includes Lufthansa’s decentralized European routes not operating out of our Frankfurt or Munich hubs. Our aim is a smart, dynamic and innovative service.

From July 1, 2013 the new airline will officially be launched. From that point onwards Lufthansa aircraft to be incorporated into “new Germanwings” will gradually be re-equipped and transferred.

Our logo is also going to change to reflect this new brand and product concept. The key element will be a stylized burgundy and yellow ‘W’, transforming the wings in Germanwings into a succinct icon (see photo above). All of the airline’s aircraft will be painted in the new livery when the brand is officially launched on July 1, 2013.

“New Germanwings” aims at being even more attractive to our customers. We will be deveoping our mobile booking and information systems, thereby ensuring direct and spontaneous interaction with passengers. All our fares will be displayed fairly with no hidden costs and our new cheaper 0180 number has already replaced the old 0900 number. Germanwings will continue to offer our enticing 33 € starting fare for one-way tickets.

Yours,

Thomas Winkelmann
(CEO Germanwings)

Germanwings (see all of the previous logojets):

Videos:

Routes from Cologne/Bonn:

Tiger Airways will offer nonstop Hong Kong-Jakarta flights starting on July 25

Tiger Airways (Singapore) will start nonstop flights between Hong Kong and Jakarta on July 25. Tiger Airways will fly to the capital of Indonesia four times weekly on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, with an increase to daily flights from September onwards.

Tiger Airways has been rapidly expanding its network in Indonesia this year. Domestically within Indonesia, the airline flies between Jakarta and key cities including Bali (Denpasar), Medan, Surabaya, Padang, Pekanbaru and Yogyakarta.

Top Copyright Photo: Jens Polster/AirlinersGallery.com All others from Tiger Airways). Airbus A319-132 9V-TRB (msn 3801) prepares to land at Bangkok.

Tiger Airways (Singapore):

Route Map:

Adria Airways loses $7.3 million in the first quarter, will be privatized

Adria Airways (Ljubljana) reported a reduced loss of $7.3 million in the first quarter. The struggling carrier intends to lease out its two Airbus A319s to Jat Airways (Belgrade) next month according to Balkans.com. However the airline will lease in two older (and cheaper) A319s in order to maintain its summer schedule and main routes according to the same source.

The government of Slovenia is planning to privatize around 15 state owned companies including Adria Airways according to Telecompaper.

Video: Adria Airways’ Cabin Crews:

Adria Airways:

Current Routes:

LATAM Airlines Group reports 1Q net income of $42.7 million, down 48.9%

LATAM Airlines Group (LAN Airlines) (TAM Linhas Aereas) (Santiago and Sao Paulo) has reported its financial results through March 31, 2013 for the first quarter:

HIGHLIGHTS

LATAM Airlines Group reported operating income of $114.2 million (US) for first quarter 2013, a 149.8% increase compared to the $45.7 million pro forma operating income in first quarter 2012. Operating margin reached 3.4%, an increase of 2.0 points compared to 1.4% in 2012. This result reflects a steady recovery in business operations as we advance in the process of achieving the expected synergies from the merger between LAN and TAM.

Net income reached $42.7 million for first quarter 2013, compared to a pro forma consolidated net income of $83.7 million for the same period in 2012, which represents a decrease of 48.9% mainly due to a foreign exchange gain of $133.4 million recognized at TAM during the first quarter 2012.

TAM continues to make significant progress in the turnaround of the domestic Brazil passenger operations, maintaining capacity discipline with a 9.2% reduction in ASKs during the first quarter 2013 as compared to the first quarter 2012. Healthy traffic growth of 3.4%,as well as improved market segmentation and revenue management practices have resulted in strong load factor improvements of 9.5 percentage points as compared to the first quarter 2012,reaching 77.7%. This led to a significant increase in revenue per ASK,as measured in Brazilian reais. Results in U.S. dollars were affected by a 13% depreciation of the Brazilian currency during the quarter as compared to the first quarter 2012. We remain convinced that capacity discipline and an adequate segmentation of the market will provide the basis for continued healthy load factors and a significant improvement in operating results in 2013.

We remain confident in our synergy target of between $600 and $700 million, to be fully achieved by the fourth year after the merger (June 2016). Important progress was made in recent months with the code share agreement signed between TAM and American Airlines as well as with LATAM’s election of oneworld as its global alliance. We have begun to harmonize the airlines’ frequent flyer programs,as well as advanced on cost initiatives related to contract renegotiations and process standardization. Furthermore, important synergies have been achieved through the coordination of the LAN and TAM cargo operations. We expect merger synergies to be between $250 and $300 million during 2013. However,we expect to continue to incur certain costs related to the integration process.

Total revenues in the first quarter 2013 reached $3,409.0 million compared to pro forma revenues of $3,360.2 million in first quarter 2012. The increase of 1.5% is a result of a 1.5% increase in passenger revenues and a 38.6% increase in other revenues, partially offset by a 3.2% decrease in cargo revenues. The slight increase in revenues reflects capacity reductions in the domestic Brazil passenger operations and a more challenging environment for international passenger operations, as well as weak market demand in the cargo business. Passenger and cargo revenues accounted for 84.2% and 13.5% of total revenues, respectively, in first quarter 2013.

During the first quarter 2013, LATAM received a total of 5 Airbus A320 family aircraft and 1 Boeing 767-300 passenger aircraft. Furthermore, the Company returned 1 Airbus A320-200 and sold 2 Airbus A318 aircraft.

Top Copyright Photo: Alvaro Romero/ModoCharlie.com. LAN Airlines’ Airbus A318-121 CC-CVR (msn 3390) carries special Telethon 2011 logo at Santiago. The snow-capped Andes Mountains are in the background.

LAN Airlines:

TAM Linhas Aereas:

Bottom Copyright Photo: Bernardo Andrade. TAM’s Airbus A319-132 PT-TMD (msn 4192) in the retrojet color scheme climbs away from Santos Dumont Airport in downtown Rio de Janeiro. Please click on the photo for the full-size view.

Spirit Airlines reports a 1Q net profit of $32.8 million

Spirit Airlines (Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood) issued the following financial report:

Spirit Airlines, Inc. reported first quarter 2013 financial results.

Adjusted net income for the first quarter 2013 was $32.8 million, or $0.45 per diluted share¹. GAAP net income was $30.6 million, or $0.42 per diluted share.
For the first quarter 2013, Spirit achieved an operating margin, excluding special items, of 14.4 percent¹. Operating margin on a GAAP basis was 13.4 percent for the first quarter 2013.
Spirit ended the first quarter 2013 with $483.5 million in unrestricted cash.
Spirit grew total available seat miles (“ASMs”) 20.8 percent as compared to the first quarter 2012.
Spirit’s return on invested capital (before taxes and excluding special items) for the last twelve months ended March 31, 2013 was 28.0 percent. See “Calculation for Return on Invested Capital” table below for more details.

Revenue Performance

For the first quarter 2013, Spirit’s total operating revenue was $370.4 million, an increase of 22.9 percent, compared to first quarter 2012.

Total revenue per available seat mile (“RASM”) for the first quarter 2013 was 11.85 cents, an increase of 1.7 percent compared to the first quarter 2012 driven by strength in operating yields. The calendar shift of Easter occurring in March this year compared to April in 2012 contributed to the strong first quarter 2013 results.

Passenger flight segment (“PFS”) volume grew 17.8 percent year-over-year in the first quarter 2013. Average non-ticket revenue per PFS for the first quarter 2013 increased 5.9 percent year-over-year to $54.75 and average ticket revenue per PFS for the quarter increased 3.2 percent year-over-year to $79.09. The growth in non-ticket revenue per PFS during the first quarter 2013 was primarily driven by the introduction of advance purchase restrictions on bags as well as other various changes in our pricing structure for optional services.

Cost Performance

Total operating expenses in the first quarter 2013 increased 21.4 percent year-over-year to $320.8 million on a capacity increase of 20.8 percent.

Cost per available seat mile excluding special items and fuel (“Adjusted CASM ex-fuel”) for the first quarter 2013 was 6.04 cents, up 0.8 percent year-over-year. The increase in Adjusted CASM ex-fuel was primarily driven by depreciation and amortization expense related to amortization of heavy maintenance events. Due to an increased number of severe winter storms during the quarter, the Company experienced a higher number of weather-related flight cancellations compared to the same period last year. The CASM pressure associated with the resulting decrease in ASMs as well as other weather-related expenses such as higher deicing expense, also contributed to the increase in Adjusted CASM ex-fuel. The impact of these items was partially offset by efficiency benefits resulting in lower labor expense per ASM, lower distribution expense per ASM, and an increase in average stage length.

Selected Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Items

As of March 31, 2013, Spirit had $483.5 million in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents, no restricted cash, no debt on its balance sheet, and total shareholders’ equity of $614.8 million.

During the first quarter 2013, Spirit incurred capital expenditures of $10.6 million, which includes the purchase of a spare engine that was financed under a sale leaseback transaction after it was delivered. The Company paid $15.1 million in pre-delivery deposits (“PDPs”) for future deliveries of aircraft, and paid $6.8 million in maintenance reserves, net of reimbursements.

Fleet

In the first quarter 2013, Spirit took delivery of two used A319 aircraft and two new A320 aircraft, ending the quarter with 49 aircraft in its fleet. Spirit’s March A320 aircraft delivery was the carrier’s first aircraft to be delivered with sharklets. The Company has five additional new A320 aircraft with sharklets scheduled for delivery in 2013.

The carrier is expanding quickly. On April 25 started service on nine new nonstop routes and also resumed summer seasonal service on a variety of our customers’ favorite routes.

Nine New Spirit Airlines Nonstop Routes Starting April 25, 2013:

Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) – Cancun, Mexico (CUN)
Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) – Oakland/San Francisco (OAK)
Philadelphia (PHL) – Las Vegas (LAS)
Philadelphia (PHL) – Myrtle Beach (MYR)
Baltimore/Washington (BWI) – Myrtle Beach (MYR)
Baltimore/Washington (BWI) – Las Vegas (LAS)
Houston (IAH) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Denver (DEN) – Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP)

In addition, Spirit resumes the following summer seasonal routes:

Atlantic City (ACY) – Detroit (DTW)
Atlantic City (ACY) – Chicago O’Hare (ORD)
Atlantic City (ACY) – Atlanta (ATL)
Atlantic City (ACY) – Boston (BOS)
Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) – Myrtle Beach (MYR)
Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) – Portland, Oregon (PDX)
Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) – Boston (BOS)
Boston (BOS) – Chicago O’Hare (ORD)
Detroit (DTW) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Orlando (MCO) – San Juan, Puerto Rico (SJU)
Fort Lauderdale (FLL) – Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (PUJ)
Fort Lauderdale (FLL) – Kingston, Jamaica (KIN) – starts May 9, 2013

The following new nonstop routes start in June:

Houston (IAH) – Denver (DEN) – starts June 13
Houston (IAH) – Detroit (DTW) – starts June 13
Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) – Los Cabos, Mexico (SJD) – starts June 13
Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) – Latrobe/Pittsburgh (LBE) – starts June 14

Copyright Photo: Bruce Drum. Airbus A319-132 N506NK (msn 2490) taxies to runway 9L at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Spirit Airlines:

Spirit Airlines adds new service to Philadelphia

Spirit Airlines (Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood) has added Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) to its route network offering daily nonstop ultra low fare service between PHL and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). In addition, daily nonstop service between Philadelphia and Las Vegas starts on April 25, 2013, and daily nonstop seasonal service between Philadelphia and Myrtle Beach starts on April 26, 2013.

Today Spirit offers nonstop service to 21 destinations from DFW, including Atlanta, Baltimore/Washington, Boston, Chicago-O’Hare, Denver, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Houston-Bush Intercontinental, Las Vegas, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Myrtle Beach, New Orleans, New York-LaGuardia, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix/Mesa, Portland (Oregon), San Diego, Tampa, Toluca/Mexico City. In addition, Spirit is adding nonstop service to the following cities bringing the total number of nonstop destinations from DFW to 26 by this summer:

Los Angeles – April 25, 2013
Oakland/San Francisco – April 25, 2013
Cancun, Mexico – April 25, 2013
Los Cabos, Mexico – June 13, 2013
Latrobe/Pittsburgh – June 14, 2013

Spirit currently offers daily nonstop service to Las Vegas from Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Oakland/San Francisco, San Diego, and Portland, Oregon.

Spirit currently offers year-round daily nonstop service to Myrtle Beach from Atlantic City, Boston, Fort Lauderdale and New York LaGuardia, as well as seasonal service to Chicago O’Hare, Detroit, Latrobe/Pittsburgh, the Niagara Falls, New York/Toronto area, and Charleston, West Virginia.

Copyright Photo: Bruce Drum. Airbus A319-132 N505NK (msn 2485) prepares to touch down on runway 9L at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Spirit Airlines:

Route Map:

Ailing Cyprus Airways is in talks with Chinese investors

Cyprus Airways (Larnaca) is struggling to survive in a harsh environment. The flag carrier announced yesterday it is in discussions with the Beijing Yi Xiang Da Investment Company Limited according to this report by the Cyprus Mail. No agreement has been reached on a possible investment. The airline has been kept alive by previous loans of the Cypriot government which has come under the scrutiny of the European Commission.

Cyprus has also been the center of a banking crisis with citizens waiting in line to withdraw their limited funds.

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

Cyprus Airways:

Spirit Airlines starts Detroit-Denver and Houston-Orlando flights

Spirit Airlines (Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood) started new nonstop service between Detroit and Denver on February 14. The initial service is operating daily except Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and increases to daily service starting on March 1, 2013.

Spirit currently offers daily nonstop service from Denver to Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, and Phoenix/Mesa (seasonal), as well as a variety of connections throughout the Americas.

Spirit currently offers nonstop daily service from Detroit to Cancun, Dallas/Fort Worth, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Las Vegas, Myrtle Beach, New York LaGuardia, Orlando and Tampa, as well as convenient connections throughout the U.S., Caribbean and Latin America.

In addition, Spirit Airlines also started daily nonstop service between Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Orlando International Airport on February 14.

The flight will also operate as new one-stop continuation service via Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) as DFW-Houston-Orlando and Orlando-Houston-DFW, complementing Spirit’s existing non-stop service between DFW and Orlando.

Spirit introduced its ultra low fare service to Houstonians in September with twice daily nonstop service to Dallas/Fort Worth, and started daily nonstop service from Houston to both Chicago O’Hare and Las Vegas in October. Spirit offers connections from Houston to 12 destinations throughout the Americas, including Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Fort Myers, Las Vegas, Myrtle Beach, Oakland/San Francisco, Phoenix/Mesa, Portland (Oregon), Tampa, and Toluca/Mexico City.

Spirit offers Orlando customers nonstop service to Atlantic City, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Latrobe/Pittsburgh, and now Houston.

Spirit Airlines:

Route Map:

Please click on the map for the full-size image.

Bankruptcy trustees: Batavia Air owes over $123 million

Batavia Air (Jakarta) ceased operations on January 31 and went into bankruptcy protection. The trustees appointed to oversee the bankruptcy estimate the bankrupt carrier owes over $123 million to its creditors including its lessors, employees, passengers and other businesses according to this report by the Jakarta Post.

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

Top Copyright Photo: Kenneth Wong. Airbus A319-132 PK-YVC (msn 2660) prepares to land at Singapore.

The cabin of the Airbus A330-202 (Batavia Air):

Copyright Photos: Batavia Air. Batavia Air also operated two Airbus A330-202s (PK-YVI and PK-YVJ), Airbus A319s, A320s and an A321 and a large Boeing 737-300/400 Classic fleet.