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Aer Arann: Aer Arann has indicated to Southend airport that it would like to base an aircraft there and could introduce five or six new routes in the near future. It says that it could deliver about 300,000 annual passengers but with one aircraft this seems overly ambitious. However while the airport always needed an anchor tenant it looks like easyJet is now set to fill that role (see easyJet). Both airlines’ operations should receive a boost by the improvements taking place there. With the opening of the airport’s train station passengers can reach Liverpool Street Station in 53 minutes. The rail line also serves Stratford, the site of next year’s Olympics. The new control tower opened on 18th July and the new terminal building is due to be completed by the autumn. A new travel partnership has been announced between Aer Arann, Waterford Airport and the Wexford Opera Festival for the milestone 60th Wexford Festival Opera which will take place from 21st October to 5th November.  Aer Arann is offering Wexford Festival Opera goers 10% off the cost of their flights from London Southend, London Luton, Manchester and Birmingham direct to Waterford as well as a dedicated complimentary bus transfer to Wexford provided courtesy of Waterford Airport.

AirBaltic: AirBaltic incurred losses of more than 30 million Latvian Lats (€42.3 million) in 2010 and has requested more than 60 million lats (€84.7 million) in capital as its losses continue to mount. AirBaltic’s financial situation is “serious,” the Transport ministry said in a statement on 17th August. AirBaltic president Bertolt Flick, who has been connected to a major anti-corruption investigation, said that the government's failure to immediately increase the airline's capital was "destructive". The Latvian airline has the lowest core capital ratio of all European airlines and needs cash to continue to operate and develop. This comes after the carrier announced plans to drop a number of routes for the winter season 2011/2 including Dublin from its Riga Base and accelerate the phase out of its Fokker F50 fleet over the winter. It had already reduced frequency on the route from five per week to three per week with effect from 1st August. It had hoped to resume the route in March 2012. Ironically, the airline had the best month in its history in July carrying 377,914 passengers up 3%, with a load factor of 80% up 4%. In spite of its difficulties as AirBaltic is in the process of evaluating up to 20 narrow bodies to renew its medium-haul fleet and replace its current six 737-500s, eight 737-300s and two 757-200s all leased. Two former Aer Lingus 737-548s, YL-BBH (ex EI-CDC) and YL-BBF (ex EI-CDA) were disposed over the summer going to AeroSvit Airlines as UR-AAK and UR-AAL respectively. Finally, AirBaltic has also become the first airline in the world offering discounted tickets for passengers during the flight which will secure discounted future flights for loyal customers. Tickets purchased onboard can be used for the next flight, or given as a gift. The tickets will be on sale on all airBaltic flights with one-way fares starting at €30, including airport fees.

Air Contractors: A report in Scramble magazine stated that Air Contractors are to receive thirteen Airbus A300-600 freighters to replace their existing A300B4-200Fs which are operated on behalf of DHL. However, it appears that the fleet of 13 former Japan Air Lines Airbus A300-622Rs will be operated by European Air Transport EAT Leipzig and be placed on the German Register after freighter conversion. US lessor GA Telesis has acquired 18 former JAL A300s, which were initially re-registered to Wells Fargo Bank Northwestern NA Trustee in the US. The first A300-600F is planned to join the fleet in October 2011 after conversion to freighter by EADS Elbe Flugzeugwerke in Dresden. Following storage at Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrénées Airport in south-west France a number of aircraft have already been ferried to Dresden and they are expected to be placed into service on DHL operations as soon as they become available. Air Contractors has also added two ex-CSA Czech Airlines ATR 72-200s to its fleet which will be converted to freighters. OK-XFA and OK-XFD were ferried to Edinburgh on 14th July and they were re-registered EC-LNP and EC-LNQ prior to delivery Helitt Lineas Aereas. ATR 42-300, EI-SLI has become EC-LMX on lease to CanaryFly and will be used for scheduled passenger charters from the Canary Islands to Mauritania and Morocco.

American Airlines: American Airlines is to close its International Reservations Office in Dublin with the loss of 130 jobs. The airline said it was its intention to outsource the work currently handled in Dublin which it believed would result in “significant savings”. It said the proposed savings “are unlikely to be matched by efficiency gains within the existing operation”. Its announcement set no date for the closure as it was entering into a consultation period with the workers' union. It has also confirmed that although previously indicating that it planed to maintain Chicago-Dublin for the winter, it would not now do so and it will remain seasonal. The cutbacks come as American Airlines placed on the 20th July what it says is the largest aircraft order in aviation history. American plans to acquire 460 narrow body, single-aisle aircraft from the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 families beginning in 2013 through to 2022. Under the agreement with Boeing, American plans to acquire a total of 200 additional aircraft from the 737 family, with options for another 100 737 family aircraft. American has the flexibility to convert the new deliveries into variants within the 737 family, including the 737-700, 737-800 and 737-900ER. American also intends to order 100 of Boeing's expected new evolution of the 737NE and is pleased to be the first airline to commit to Boeing's new 737 family offering. American also will acquire a total of 260 Airbus aircraft from the A320 Family and will have 365 options and purchase rights for additional aircraft. American has the flexibility to convert its delivery positions into variants within the A320 Family, including the A319 and A321. American Airlines has also entered into a sale-leaseback arrangement with AerCap, located in the Netherlands with offices in Shannon, to finance up to 35 Boeing 737-800 Next Generation aircraft, including 29 firm deliveries, scheduled to be delivered to American. Of the 29 firm deliveries, 26 are previously ordered aircraft and three are newly ordered aircraft. The arrangement also covers six Boeing 737-800 Next Generation aircraft subject to purchase rights that, if exercised by American, would be scheduled for delivery in 2013 – 2014.

Cimber Sterling: Cimber Sterling is suspending its four times a week Billund-Dublin service operated by Canadair CRJ200s for the winter. It plans to resume the service for summer 2012 but the airline has been having financial difficulties. On 1st August, it said its majority shareholder Mansvell Enterprises which also owns Swedish regional carriers Skyways and City Airline would make a mandatory public takeover offer for the group by the end of the month. In June Cimber entered into a non-binding agreement with Mansvell Enterprises, 75%-owned by Ukrainian billionaire Igor Kolomoisky, in order to strengthen its capital base. Kolomoisky already owns three carriers in Ukraine – Aerosvit, Dniproavia and Donbasaero and together they constitute 48.5% of the Ukrainian market. He is also believed to own another Ukrainian carrier, Windrose, which he denies!!  Chief Commercial Officer, Stefan Vilner, resigned on 29th July, but remained in place until 15th August. Due to the ongoing restructuring of the company the COO position will not immediately be replaced, the responsibility for the commercial activities will be taken over by CEO Jacob Krogsgaard.

Cityjet: On the 10th May, Fokker 50, OO-VLE was preparing for a pre-flight check at Rotterdam when its main undercarriage collapsed. There were no injuries but aircraft sustained serious damage. The aircraft had its titles and logos removed and received some patching before it was ferried all white to Norwich on 17th July for scrapping having been declared a write off. 14 Fokker 50’s remain in service. Avro RJ85, EI-RJL was rolled out at Norwich freshly painted in the colours of Lamia (Venezuela) on 19th July prior to lease. It had been in storage since it came back off lease from Blue 1 in October 2010. EI-RJK, EI-RJM and also in store there together with EI-WXB which is still in Northwest colours.

Delta Airlines: Delta has a Boeing 767-300ER new interior refurbishment programme underway which includes the installation of 36 Business Elite seats in 1x2x1 layout which become fully flat beds. The reconfiguration also features 29 Economy Comfort slim line seats at 35" pitch 2x3x2 and 143 Economy slim line seats at 31-32 inch pitch, also 2x3x2.  The first aircraft is in service and seven aircraft are due to be in service by the end of the year with Dublin being one of the routes selected for these aircraft. Delta’s fleet in common with other US carriers are continuing to age with the Delta being 16 years old on average. Delta is suspending its JFK-Shannon service for winter 2011/12, having operated a four per week schedule in winter 2010/11 using Boeing 757s.

Germanwings: Germanwings has introduced a section of more comfortable seating on its aircraft with a more spacious seat pitch offering an extra three inches in the first 10 seat rows on all its 30 A319 aircraft. The airline operates on the Dublin Cologne route, three times per week and this option can be booked on the their website or through their call centre at a premium of €15. This compares to regular seat selection which costs €8. The ‘Best Seat’ is included in their best tariff bundle which includes a seat reservation, snack and drink while flying and one item of luggage. This bundle can save passengers 35% if they book in advance, rather than booking each of these features separately once on the aircraft. Other Germanwings options include Flex fare which allows up to five pieces of baggage and change reservations within certain limits. Their ‘Private Seat’ product allows you to buy the seat next to you for the same price, or for the going rate if you choose this later than your reservation.

Lufthansa: Lufthansa will begin levying a credit card surcharge on tickets issued on or after 2nd November for flights departing from airports in six countries Germany, Belgium, Finland, U.K., the Netherlands and Switzerland. The charge per ticket will be €5 on domestic routes, €8 on intra-European routes and €18 on long-haul routes. Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, BMI, Brussels Airlines and Swiss-also will roll out surcharges of varying levels, in some cases on 5th September. Since 2006, Lufthansa has levied a credit card surcharge on bookings made through its direct channels, such as its website, call centres and ticket counters. The Lufthansa group reported a Q2 operating profit of €230m, up 45% on last year but significantly below what was expected.   Net profit was €301m, up 55%.  Within the group, Lufthansa Passenger Airlines' revenue increased 15%, Swiss increased 18%, Austrian Airlines' revenue fell 2% (due to major exposures in troubled areas), bmi's fell 5% and Germanwings' increased 10.2%. The MRO business suffered a 50% decline in operating result in the quarter reportedly due to provisions relating to Middle East/North African customers and to preparations for adding new aircraft types. In the first six months of 2011, Lufthansa carried 50.2 million passengers a 10.1% increase year on year in the number of passengers opting to fly with carriers in the Lufthansa Passenger Airline Group. Lufthansa itself carried 31.2 million, SWISS around 7.8 million 5.1 million flew with Austrian Airlines; around 2.8 million flew with bmi and around 3.4 million with Germanwings.

Lufthansa Italia: Lufthansa Italia weekend charters to Dublin from Milan Malpensa, began on 18th June with Airbus A319-112, D-AKNI operating the flight the DLH3740/1 on Saturday evenings. D-AKNH operated the flight on 13th August and unfortunately the airline will cease operating at the end of the summer schedule and its eight Airbus A319 aircraft will be redeployed.

Luxair: Following the announcement that Luxair would terminate its four times a week service from Dublin to Luxembourg from the end of the summer season, a ‘Twitter’ lobby group called Savetheluxdubroute.com has attracted support from among the 1,500-strong Irish community living there as well as with members of the financial sector. The is also support from Fine Gael MEP and presidential candidate Gay Mitchell, Mayor of Luxembourg Paul Helminger, and the Luxembourg Bankers Association, to retain the route. However at a meeting on 28th July 2011 Luxair shared some financials with the lobbyists. “It [Luxair] would need a much larger plane running a daily morning and evening flight to capture the lucrative business market in order to be sustainable,” Luxembourg-based Irish woman Hilary Fitzgibbon said in an e-mail to other campaigners adding “unfortunately Luxair has a very small fleet and cannot provide this service”. While the disposal of its two Embraer ERJ 135s has been linked to the decision to terminate the service, it was usually operated by the larger 145s. Other types such as the airline’s Dash 8s would struggle to sustain a daily, let alone a twice daily service which averaged some 30 passengers. The route carried 12,685 passengers in the year to May 2011 split roughly 51/49% between inbound and outbound passengers. The lobby group has stated that they will now canvass other carriers to come onto the route, and CityJet’s executive Christine Ourmieres has confirmed that the airline would be meeting the Dublin Airport Authority in the next couple of weeks to see if starting this route would be a “financially viable option” for them.

Malév: As we closed for press Malév had until 25th August (90 days from the approval of balance sheet) to raise the necessary equity in the airline to some 22.5 billion forints (€83.24 million). A shareholders meeting in early August did not discuss a proposal to settle the company's capital position “because not all of the decisions to ensure the necessary funds had been taken”, according to the Hungarian National Asset Management Company (MNV). China's Hainan Airlines Group (HNA) is reported to be considering investing in Malév, with negotiations already ongoing while Managing director of Travel Service Attila Farkas confirmed had expressed their intention to buy Malév in an 80-page letter to the government.

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS): In an amazing turnaround the SAS Group reported the best second quarter since 2008 as it swung into profit as a result of cost saving measures and higher revenue. Its net profit of 551 million kronor (€60 million) for the three months to the end of June compares to a 502 million kronor (€54.6 million) loss a year earlier. Between January-June 2011 traffic continued to grow and SAS noted the highest customer satisfaction in 11 years and SAS was the most punctual airline in Europe in that period. Cost reductions of approximately SEK 7.6 billion (€826.5 million) have been implemented and under ‘Core SAS’, the unit cost has been reduced by approximately 23%. It expects a further reduction of 500 million kronor (€54.4 million) in the second half of this year and 500 million kronor in 2012 as a whole. Over the past three years revenues and profits tumbled and in response SAS has cut staff numbers by about 4,000, renegotiated other staff contracts, sold or reduced stakes in some unprofitable airlines and improved the utilisation of its aircraft. It has placed considerable focus on more profitable business-class customers, improving punctuality and customer service. In a comment, SAS President and Chief Executive Rickard Gustafson said; "A lot of things are pointing in the right direction right now, and while costs are falling, it is heartening to see that our topline is improving".