Tag Archives: Airbus A319100

IAG seeks to delist Vueling Airlines

International Airlines Group-IAG (London) is seeking to delist Vueling Airlines (Barcelona) from the Spanish stock exchanges as it nears complete control. The IAG has issued this statement:

International Airlines Group’s (IAG) subsidiary Vueling has called a general shareholders’ meeting on June 27, 2013 to approve the delisting of Vueling’s shares from the Spanish stock exchanges.

The delisting tender offer will be €9.25 per share. Vueling will be delisted from the Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid and Valencia stock exchanges upon successful completion of the offer.

Since April 26 2013, IAG Group has owned 90.51 per cent of Vueling. This follows a cash tender offer for the Vueling shares that were not already owned by IAG’s subsidiary Iberia which has a 45.85 per cent holding. Acceptance of the original cash tender offer of €9.25 euro per share was recommended by the Vueling board on April 9, 2013.

Vueling is a Spanish low cost carrier based in Barcelona. It will remain a standalone operating company within IAG with its chief executive Alex Cruz reporting into IAG chief executive Willie Walsh.

Copyright Photo: Rolf Wallner/AirlinersGallery.com. A nice ramp portrait of Airbus A319-112 EC-LRZ (msn 3700) at Zurich (click on the photo for the full-size view).

Vueling Airlines:

Video: Alex Cruz in a video interview (last Year):

Croatia Airlines gets back to normal operations after its unions end their strikes

Croatia Airlines (Zagreb) is getting back to normal operations after its pilots and later the flights attendants on May 21 ended their strikes. This settlement ended eight days of strikes against the airline which is attempting to reorganize and lower costs.

Copyright Photo: Dave Glendinning/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-112 9A-CTI (msn 1029) in the Star Alliance livery taxies to the gate at London (Heathrow).

Croatia Airlines:

Germania expands in the UK and Erfurt-Weimar

Germania Fluggesellschaft (Germania Group) (Berlin) is expanding in the United Kingdom for this summer season as part of its international strategy.

The airline issued this statement:

Germania to expand UK operations:

Berlin-based Germania Group is continuing the successful internationalization of its operations and is stationing two aircraft in the United Kingdom for summer of 2013. Aside from charter flights from London-Gatwick and Manchester to the Greek islands and Cyprus, Germania will operate a scheduled service from London to Pristina.

Gambia Bird, a sister airline of Germania, already operates twice weekly flights from London Gatwick to Freetown in Sierra Leone and Banjul in Gambia.

Germania will operate a regular service on Tuesdays and Fridays from London Gatwick (LGW) to Pristina. Flight ST 6478 will take off at 19:25 from LGW and reach the capital of Kosovo at 23:40. The return flight ST 6479 will depart at 00:25, arriving at LGW at 02:05 (local times).

For the winter season, Germania also operates full charter flights to Greece and the Greek islands, including Corfu, Crete, Mykonos and Samos, for tour operators such as Sunvil Holidays and Pure Crete.

For this purpose, the airline is stationing an Airbus A319 at London Gatwick. On behalf of Olympic Holidays, Germania also flies to the Greek mainland, Greek islands including Crete, Rhodes and Mykonos, and Cyprus from Manchester, the UK’s largest airport outside of London. Germania has stationed an Airbus A319 in Manchester in the colors of its West African sister airline Gambia Bird. The aircraft is available for use in Manchester, as the summer flight schedule in West Africa is adjusted to traditionally lower demand.

The airline is also expanding its operations at Erfurt-Weimar in Germany. Germania started a new weekly route to Palma de Mallorca on May 17. Flights to Ibiza, Corfu and Crete will be added in June.

Top Copyright Photo: Javier Rodriguez/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-112 D-ASTA (msn 4663) approaches Palma de Mallorca for landing.

Middle Copyright Photo: Terry Wade. The Gambia Bird A319 is now operating Germania flights from the UK. Airbus A319-112 D-ASTB (msn 4691) arrives at London Gatwick.

Gambia Bird:

Germania:

Route Map from Erfurt-Weimar:

Newsworthy Photo of the Day – May 24, 2013

First Nation Airways Airbus A319-113 5N-FNE (msn 660) DUB (Greenwing). Image: 912238.

First Nation Airways:

Frameable Color Prints and Posters:

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:

Newsworthy Photo of the Day – May 22, 2013

FlyFrontier.com (Frontier Airlines 2nd) Airbus A319-112 N954FR (msn 1786) (Bull Moose) LAS (Eddie Maloney). Image: 912205.

Frontier Airlines:

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:

EasyJet launches London Gatwick-Bergen, Norway flights

EasyJet (easyJet.com) (London-Luton) yesterday (May 20) launched its first ever services from London Gatwick to Bergen, Norway.

Norway is the 33rd country EasyJet flies to with the airline expecting to carry more than 100,000 passengers between Norway and the UK annually.

Copyright Photo: Ton Jochems/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-111 G-EJAR (msn 2412) in the Supporting UNICEF motif taxies at Amsterdam.

Video: The expanding easyJet:

EasyJet (UK):

Newsworthy Photo of the Day – May 19, 2013

Tatarstan Airlines (Tatarstan Aircompany) Airbus A319-111 VP-BDZ (msn 2446) (RusLine colors) DXB (Paul Denton). Image: 912185.

Tatarstan Airlines:

Frameable Color Prints and Posters:

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.