Tag Archives: Airbus

Virgin America produces its first full-year profit of $10.1 million for 2013

Virgin America (San Francisco) today reported its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2013:

Fourth Quarter 2013 Financial Highlights:

Net Income: $14.2 million in net income, compared to a year ago quarterly loss of $25.0 million, an improvement of $39.1 million.
Operating Revenue: Total operating revenue of $359.9 million, an increase of 2.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012.
Revenue per Available Seat Mile (RASM): RASM increased 4.1 percent, to 11.79 cents. Both increased load factor (up 1.6 points to 78.5 percent) and yield (up 2.4 percent) contributed to the RASM improvement.
Cost per Available Seat Mile (CASM): CASM excluding fuel costs remained the same year-over-year. Total CASM decreased 1.3 percent to 11.02 cents.
Operating Income: $24 million in operating income, increased by $18.4 million year-over-year. Operating margin was 6.6 percent, an increase of 5.1 points from the fourth quarter of 2012.
Capacity: Available seat miles (ASMs) decreased 1.3 percent during the fourth quarter. Stage length decreased 8.1 percent, to 1,426 miles.

Full Year 2013 Financial Highlights:

Net Income: 2013 net income of $10.1 million increased $155.5 million, from a loss of $145.4 million in 2012. 2013 was Virgin America’s first full year of profitability.
Operating Revenue: Total operating revenue for 2013 was $1.425 billion, a $92 million increase and 6.9 percent improvement over 2012.
RASM: Total RASM increased 9.3 percent over 2012, to 11.64 cents. Virgin America achieved the highest year-over-year percentage increase in RASM of all major U.S. airlines in 2013.
CASM: Excluding fuel costs, CASM increased 3.3 percent, to 6.83 cents. This modest increase was largely driven by network changes that reduced aircraft utilization by 6.7 percent. Total CASM increased by 0.5 percent to 10.96 cents.
Operating Income: $80.9 million, an increase of $112.6 million from 2012’s operating loss of $31.7 million. 2013 operating margin was 5.7 percent, an increase of 8.1 points over 2012.
Capacity: Network changes led to a 2.2 percent decrease in ASMs for the full year. The average length of a flight (stage length) decreased by 5.9 percent, to 1,474 miles.
2013 Restructuring: The Company completed a debt restructuring in May 2013, eliminating more than $300 million of debt and accrued interest and reducing interest rates on a majority of the remaining debt.
Liquidity: Year-end unrestricted cash balance was $155.7 million. Virgin America generated strong operating cash flow in 2013 of $51 million.

Fleet Plan:

2013 Additions: The airline took delivery of one additional A320 aircraft in the first quarter of 2013, increasing the total operating fleet to 53 Airbus A320-Family aircraft.

Future Deliveries: The airline’s total order with Airbus remains at 40 A320-Family aircraft, with five scheduled for delivery in the second half of 2015, five in the first half of 2016, and 30 scheduled for delivery starting in 2020.

Copyright Photo: Wingnut/AirlinersGallery.com. Taken from a different perspective at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Airbus A320-214 N854VA (msn 5058) taxies to the terminal.

Virgin America:

EasyJet to launch five new routes from London’s Gatwick Airport

EasyJet (UK) (easyJet.com) (London-Luton), the UK and London Gatwick’s largest airline will see the launch of five new year-round services from London Gatwick this month.

The airline’s inaugural flights to Brussels, Paris (Charles de Gaulle), Jersey, Newcastle and Strasbourg take off for the first time on March 30, 2014.

The frequency of EasyJet’s services between Gatwick and Inverness will also double from one to two return services each day with the launch of EasyJet’s first evening flight from London Gatwick to Inverness and early arrival into London Gatwick. This will further strengthen the airline’s comprehensive network of routes from the airport and is expected to be popular with business travellers.
2.3 million passengers flew easyJet on business in and out of London Gatwick in 2013 and over 800,000 passengers are expected to use the five new services annually. This will increase the number of passengers who fly easyJet to and from the airport by 5% and to a total of 108 destinations to further extend the airline’s ongoing commitment to providing easy and affordable business links across Europe.

Previously on March 19, EasyJet commemorated the deal it agreed to last June with Airbus for 135 Airbus A320 aircraft in Paris, with an official signing ceremony.

EasyJet is the fourth largest airline in Europe with a current fleet of 217 Airbus A319s and A320s and has taken delivery of 245 Airbus aircraft in total. EasyJet’s Airbus order is the largest placed by any European airline to date.

Copyright Photo: Keith Burton/AirlinersGallery.com. EasyJet is saluting William Shakespeare with this newly painted Airbus A319-111 registered G-EZBI (msn 3003). G-EZBI is appropriately named “Romeo Alpha Juliet”.

EasyJet (UK):

LATAM Airlines Group’s 2013 operating profit increases by 605% to $643.9 million

LATAM Airlines Group (LAN Airlines and TAM Airlines) (Santiago) reported operating income of $234.9 million (US) for fourth quarter 2013, a 166% increase compared to the $88.3 million (US) operating income in fourth quarter 2012. Operating margin reached 6.9%, an increase of 4.4 points compared to 2.5% in 2012. This strong expansion in margins was driven by significant improvement in the financial results of the domestic Brazil operations and the rationalization of international passenger operations, as well as the continued progress of the integration process, synergy and efficiency initiatives.
During the fourth quarter of the year, and in line with the capacity cuts we had anticipated, we strongly decreased our total capacity as measured in ASKs by 4.5% as compared to the same period in 2012. This capacity rationalization was mainly a result of a strong decrease in capacity in our international network, which decreased by 6.5% as compared to the same period in 2012; and the continued rationalization of our domestic Brazil operations.
For full year 2013, LATAM reported operating income of $643.9 million (US), a 605% increase compared to the $91.4 million (US) in full year 2012 (pro forma). Operating margin reached 4.9% an increase of 4.2 points compared to 0.7% in 2012, in line with the guidance provided by the Company.

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

Top Copyright Photo: Alvaro Romero/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-233 CC-CQN (msn 3319) of Lan Airlines (Chile) arrives at Aeroparque (Jorge Newbery) (AEP) in downtown Buenos Aires.

LAN Airlines:

TAM Airlines:

Bottom Copyright Photo: Alvaro Romero/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-232 PR-MBH (msn 2904) taxies at Buenos Aires downtown airport, Aeroparque (Jorge Newbery).

QANTAS Airways has its best on-time monthly report in more than 10 years

QANTAS Airways (Sydney) has had the best monthly result for on-time flight arrivals and departures for any major airline in more than a decade. The February report from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics showed the flag carrier had a record 92.5 percent in on-time departures and 91.7 percent in on-time arrivals. Punctuality records were broken in both Perth and Darwin, while Brisbane, Adelaide and Townsville recorded their best results in seven years. Record punctuality was also made on return flights to Perth from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

QANTAS’ reputation as the most punctual and reliable major domestic airline was cemented in 2013 when the airline lead the competition in 12 out of 12 months of the year in both arrivals and departures. It was the first time QANTAS, or any other airline, had been able to lead by that margin. 2013 also marked the fifth year in a row QANTAS has recorded the best results. QANTAS Domestic had less than one per cent of their flights cancelled for the month of February.

QANTAS Airways:

Qatar Airways to add Djibouti on July 27

Qatar Airways (Doha) has announced a further expansion of its route network in Africa with Djibouti joining its ever-growing list of destinations served direct from the airline’s Doha hub.

Thrice-weekly nonstop flights will operate from Doha to Djibouti beginning on July 27, 2014.

The fast-growing airline will launch scheduled flights to Philadelphia and Larnaca in April; Edinburgh and Istanbul (Sabiha) in May; Miami and Tokyo (Haneda) in June and Dallas/Fort Worth in July.

Bordered by Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, Djibouti has an economy that is largely concentrated in the service sector and the country has limited international air services – a void Qatar Airways is set to fill with its huge international network of routes via its Doha hub.

The Doha – Djibouti route will be served with an Airbus A320 featuring up to 12 seats in Business Class and up to 132 seats in Economy.

Qatar Airways:

Tigerair signs MOU for 37 Airbus A320neo aircraft + 13 options

Tigerair (Singapore) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Airbus for the purchase of up to 50 A320neo aircraft for future fleet renewal and growth. The deal covers 37 firm orders plus 13 options. The aircraft will be powered by Pratt & Whitney PW1100 engines and will be operated by the airline across its Asia-Pacific route network.

Tigerair, established in 2004 as Tiger Airways, comprises three airlines – Tigerair Singapore, Tigerair Mandala (Indonesia) and Tigerair Australia. Collectively, the Group’s network extends to over 50 destinations across 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The Group currently operates an all-Airbus fleet of 48 A320-family aircraft, averaging less than three years of age.

Image: Airbus.

Tigerair (Singapore):

TransAsia Airways unveils a new black bear logo for V air and two new Airbus A321 liveries

TransAsia Airways (Taipei) as we previously reported, in January 2014 announced the name of its new low-fare subsidiary. The name V air (Wei Hang) was selected through a contest. The new logo featuring a black bear has just been unveiled today in Taipei.

The “V” is representative of the word “victory” and the well-known “V” hand signal according to the press release written in Chinese.

TransAsia unveiled today at a press conference two Airbus A321 models fitted with Sharklets sporting two variant liveries.

The first A321 will arrive in a few weeks and will initially be operated under TransAsia name and brand however it will be repainted in September into the new V air livery featuring a black bear tail logo.

Wizz Air to open a new base at Riga, Latvia

Wizz Air (Budapest) has announced that it will open a new Riga base with one new Airbus A320 on 19 June 2014. Coinciding with the delivery of the aircraft the airline will start operating 4 new routes from Riga to Barcelona, Doncaster/Sheffield, Dortmund, Beauvais (near Paris) and increase frequencies on the services to London (Luton) and Torp (near Oslo).

With the new destinations Wizz Air is now offering 25 weekly flights on 8 routes from Latvia’s capital, representing 85% capacity growth year on year (July 2014). The airline believes its expansion in Riga will also stimulate the local job market in aviation and tourism sectors as consumers will have access to more low cost services. Seats on the new Riga routes are already on sale from just EUR 19.99** and can be booked on wizzair.com.

WIZZ AIR’S NEW ROUTES FROM RIGA:

To	Days	Starts	Fares from**
Barcelona	Wed, Sun	22 June	39.99 EUR
Doncaster Sheffield	Mon, Fri	20 June	29.99 EUR
Dortmund	Wed, Sun	22 June	19.99 EUR
Paris Beauvais	Tue, Thu, Sat	19 June	29.99 EUR

WIZZ AIR’S INCREASED FREQUENCIES FROM RIGA:

To	Flights per week
Oslo Torp	from 2 to 3
London Luton	from 7 to 8

Wizz Air started operations in Riga 4 years ago and already carried 200,000 passengers in 2013.

Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-232 HA-LWV (msn 5660) with Sharklets lands at EuroAirport serving the Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg area.

Wizz Air:

Routes from Riga:

Asiana Airlines to introduce the Airbus A380 on June 13

Asiana Airlines (Seoul) has announced it will begin Airbus A380 service on June 13 between Seoul (Incheon) and Bangkok, Hong Kong, Osaka and Tokyo. Service to Los Angeles will begin later on August 15.

The new wide-body type will have 12 First Class seats, 66 Business Class seats and 417 Travel Class seats along with “First Suite” in the upper deck.

A380 Flight Schedule

Period of Operation: June 13 ~ July 23, 2014

A380 Flight Schedule
Route	Flight Number	Frequency	Departure/Arrival(Local time)
Seoul(Incheon)/ Tokyo(ICN/NRT)	OZ102/101	Daily	ICN 09:00 → NRT 1110 NRT 1310 → ICN 15:40
Seoul(Incheon)/ Hong Kong(ICN/HKG)	OZ745/746	6 Times a Week (Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun)	ICN 19:50 → HKG 2240 HKG 0040+1 → ICN 0510+1

+1 indicates the day after date of departure
Above schedule is subject to change without prior notice

Period of Operation: July 24 ~ August 14, 2014

A380 Flight Schedule
Route	Flight Number	Frequency	Departure/Arrival(Local time)
Seoul(Incheon)/ Tokyo(ICN/NRT)	OZ102/101	Daily	ICN 09:00 → NRT 11:10 NRT 13:10 → ICN 15:40
Seoul(Incheon)/ Hong Kong(ICN/HKG)	OZ745/746	Daily	ICN 19:50 → HKG 22:40 HKG 00:40+1 → ICN 0510+1
Seoul(Incheon)/ Osaka(ICN/KIX)	OZ112/111	Daily	ICN 10:45 → KIX 12:25 KIX 14:25 → ICN16:15
Seoul(Incheon)/ Bangkok(ICN/BKK)	OZ741/742	5 Times a Week (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun)	ICN 18:30 → BKK 22:05 BKK 01:10+1 → ICN 08:45+1

+1 indicates the day after date of departure
Above schedule is subject to change without prior notice

Effective August 15, 2014

A380 Flight Schedule
Route	Flight Number	Frequency	Departure/Arrival(Local time)
Seoul(Incheon)/ Los Angeles(ICN/LAX)	OZ202/201	Daily	ICN 14:50 → LAX 09:50 LAX 12:20 → ICN 17:20+1
Seoul(Incheon)/ Hong Kong(ICN/HKG)	OZ745/7463	5 Times a Week (Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sun)	ICN19:50 → HKG 22:40 HKG 00:40+1 → ICN 05:10+1

+1 indicates the day after date of departure
Above schedule is subject to change without prior notice

A380 seat map

Images: Asiana Airlines.

Asiana Airlines:

AirAsia India takes delivery of its first Airbus A320

AirAsia India (Chennai) has taken delivery of its first aircraft, an Airbus A320 (A320-216 VT-ATF, man 6015) equipped with Sharklets, becoming the newest operator of the type. VT-ATF was handed over yesterday (March 21). AirAsia India will take delivery of an additional nine aircraft for its initial fleet of 10 A320s, to serve India’s rapidly growing domestic air traffic. Powered by CFM engines, the aircraft is configured in an all economy layout with 180 seats.

The new airline is a joint venture between AirAsia Group, Tata Sons and Telstra Tradeplace.

AirAsia India’s fleet will be drawn from the 475 A320 Family aircraft ordered by the AirAsia Group. To date, almost a third of the aircraft on order have already been delivered and are flying on AirAsia Group’s operations out of Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila and now Chennai. The AirAsia Group has also ordered 51 A330s and 10 A350 XWBs for its long haul affiliate AirAsia X.