July 2010 Archives

Airlines may have been pounded financially for the past decade, but changes to their business models over the past couple of years helped make the second quarter one of the best earnings seasons in the industry’s history.

Southwest Airlines said Thursday that its second-quarter profit rose 34% from the year-ago period, as increased demand and disciplined seat-capacity management helped to drive ticket prices higher.

US Airline companies have reported their June 2010 traffic results. Airlines traffic, measured in billions of revenue passenger miles, increased from an improvement in the global economy, improved business travel, international traffic and rising fares. Airlines are increasing their capacity in order to restore profitability and posted higher unit revenue growth for the month of June.

Republic Airways Holdings Inc.announced today it has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Embraer to acquire 24 new Embraer 190 aircraft with the option to convert any of the aircraft in the order to the larger Embraer 195 model. The LOI is subject to final documentation, including final commercial terms.

American Eagle Airlines sent their best Pilot Recruiters to ATP Flight School’s Corporate Headquarters yesterday to speak with a packed room of ATP Flight Instructors, Students and guests.

United Airlines turned in its best quarter in years, a $273 million moneymaker that benefited from returning business travelers and tight cost controls.

American Airlines orders 35 Boeing jets to upgrade its fleet and phase out some gas-guzzling planes.

Boeing Company, the World’s largest manufacturer of airliners, released its 2010 Current Market Outlook estimating a $3.6 trillion market for new commercial airplanes in the next 20 years. Boeing’s projection of growth is based on the recovery witnessed in world economies and strong demand for fleet addition and replacement.

Delta Air Lines Inc. reported its largest quarterly profit in a decade on Monday.

Republic Airways Holdings Inc. announced June total traffic of 1.97 billion revenue passenger miles, compared to 0.90 billion revenue passenger miles last year. Capacity for the period was 2.29 billion available seat miles, compared to 1.14 billion available seat miles last year. System load factor for the month rose to 86.0% from 79.0% in the year-ago period.

The recovery in the global economy is expected to benefit the airline industry with unit revenues slated to rise in the second quarter of 2010. Rising fares, an improvement in international traffic and an overall recovery is expected to drive this growth. Last year's economic downturn and the preceding year's steep oil prices had adversely affected the airline industry. We believe that this news will have a positive impact on share price movements of airline companies in the near future.

As airline hiring rebounds in 2010, ATP Flight School is the first place airline recruiters turn to for pilots. A major recruiting event will be held at the Hampton Inn, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, and all ATP Flight School Instructors, Students, and Graduates are welcome.

Colgan Air held a recruiting event at New York’s La Guardia airport exclusively for ATP Flight School Instructors and Graduates to attend. The event was held on July 6^th and 7^th, and over 20 pilots were offered First Officer Positions by Colgan.

AMR Corp. Tuesday said its load factor for June improved 1.6 points for its principal subsidiary, Airlines, while traffic grew 3.2%. Traffic for American Eagle in June increased 5.3%.

Southwest Airlines Co. said Wednesday its total June traffic rose 5% to more than 7 billion revenue passenger miles from 6.7 billion revenue passenger miles a year ago. A revenue passenger mile is equal to one passenger flown one mile. Total June capacity rose 1.9% to 8.6 billion available seat miles from a year ago. Load factor, or the percentage of available seats filled with passengers, in June rose to 81.9% from 79.5% last year.

Republic Airways Holdings, today reported preliminary passenger traffic results for June 2010. The Company generated 1.98 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs), a 118% increase from the same month last year, while available seat miles (ASMs) increased 101%.

Some of the details about the sale of Mesaba to Pinnacle have come to my attention via communications sent from Pinnacle. This is long but very interesting. Here are the highlights:

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, Inc., announced Thursday that it has agreed to sell two of its wholly owned regional airline subsidiaries, Eagan-based Mesaba Airlines and Minneapolis-based Compass Airlines, for a combined $82.5 million.

Continental Airlines, the first U.S. carrier to report June traffic, said Thursday that it filled 87.3 percent of its seats, setting a record for load factors for the month.