Airline Finance News - Europe.

For more airline finance news, data and analysis, please go to: http://www.airguideonline.com/professional.htm Jul 17, 2006

Germany's leading carriers, in an effort to strengthen their lobbying position with political and economic institutions, have transformed the old Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Luftfahrtunternehmen into the Bundesverband der Deutschen Fluggesellschaften. The new association includes Air Berlin, Condor Airlines, dba, Eurowings/Germanwings, Germania, Hamburg International, Hapagfly, LTU German Airlines and Lufthansa. The carriers operate more than 500 aircraft, employ approximately 100,000 and serve nearly 100 million passengers annually. Air Berlin CEO Joachim Hunold was named BDF president. Jul 13, 2006

Air France

Air France CEO Summoned In Security Firm Probe. Air France Chief Executive Jean-Cyril Spinetta will be summoned next week before a judge who is investigating suspected misappropriation of funds at a security firm that worked with the airline, his lawyer said on Wednesday. Jul 12, 2006

Air France-KLM

Air France-KLM flew 16.92 billion RPKs in June, a 7.1% increase over the year-ago month. ASKs increased 5.8% to 20.53 billion and load factor rose 1 point to 76.2%. Jul 13, 2006

Alitalia

Alitalia May See Management Shake-Up. Alitalia may see a management shake-up in the coming days as part of a review of some state-controlled firms by the new government, Economy Undersecretary Massimo Tononi said. Jul 13, 2006

Cyprus Airways

Cyprus Airways finalized the sale of charter subsidiary Eurocypria to the government, according to press reports. The deal, worth CYP13.5 million ($29.9 million), is part of the carrier's restructuring. The government said that the acquisition and spinoff of Eurocypria were designed to create a second, debt-free scheduled carrier. Eurocypria took delivery of its fifth 737-800 last month. Jul 12, 2006

Iberia

Iberia pilots strike ends. Iberia pilots agreed yesterday to end their strike, which started Monday and was to have lasted through Sunday, after winning guarantees from the carrier that new LCC Catair, in which Iberia is one of five shareholders, will not lead to job losses. Jul 13, 2006 Iberia

Resolution to the Iberia pilots' strike remained elusive yesterday as the carrier cancelled more than 200 flights for a second straight day and hinted it will seek to have the work action declared illegal. The airline said it attempted to present pilots with a letter guaranteeing their job security but the SEPLA pilots union refused to accept the document. The pilots began a weeklong strike Monday to protest Iberia's plans to launch an LCC, which the pilots say would threaten their jobs. SEPLA said that IB "refused to budge in its position" and offered nothing new. The airline said it would ask Spain's National Court to declare the strike, estimated to be costing more than $6 million daily, illegal. Jul 12, 2006

Iberia

Iberia Reaches Deal To End Pilots' Strike. A strike by Iberia pilots was called off on Wednesday after the Spanish airline guaranteed that the launch of a new low-cost carrier would not threaten their jobs. Jul 12, 2006

Iberia

Iberia accuses pilots of 'aberrant' demands, cancels 220 flights. Iberia cancelled some 220 flights yesterday on the first day of an expected weeklong strike by pilots who are protesting the carrier's plans to establish a low-cost airline at Barcelona International later this year. Jul 11, 2006

Iberia

Iberia braces for weeklong pilots strike. Iberia said a strike called by the SEPLA pilots union, scheduled to start today and last through July 16, will force the cancellation of 200 daily flights and affect more than 200,000 passengers during the week. Jul 10, 2006

Lufthansa

Lufthansa flew 9.83 billion RPKs in June, a 0.5% drop from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 0.7% to 12.6 billion ASKs and load factor rose 0.2 point to 78%. Jul 12, 2006

South African Airways, Lufthansa

South African Airways and Lufthansa were fined yesterday by South Africa's Competition Tribunal for anticompetitive behavior. SAA agreed to the fines in May for allegedly colluding with LH to fix ticket prices on flights between Cape Town, Johannesburg and Frankfurt. SAA will pay ZAR40 million ($5.6 million) while Lufthansa agreed to pay ZAR8.5 million. In a separate case, SAA was fined ZAR20 million by the tribunal for allegedly colluding with South African carriers SA Express, Comair and SA Airlink to fix fuel surcharges on domestic flight tickets. Jul 13, 2006

Swiss International

Swiss International succeeded in increasing its seat load factor slightly during the first six months of 2006. Systemwide, the average seat load factor (SLF) stood at 77.7%, compared to 76.9% in for the same period a year ago (+0.8 percentage points). On intercontinental routes first-half year SLF decreased slightly by 0.9 percentage points to 82.3%. On European routes the SLF rose 4.3 percentage points to 68.1%. Compared to the first half of last year, the number of passengers carried grew by 5.7% to 5 million. Jul 11, 2006

Virgin Atlantic Airways

Virgin Not To Sell Its UK Air Traffic Stake. Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways said on Sunday it was not about to sell its stake in National Air Traffic Services after a report said seven airlines, including Virgin, had put their stakes up for sale. Jul 10, 2006