Airline Finance News - North America.

May 6, 2007

Airline stocks post gains on sharp drop in crude-oil futures. May 4, 2007

Regional airlines struggle to adjust to demands of major carriers Regional airlines are facing demands from major carriers to lower costs. Some major carriers operating under bankruptcy protection have lowered fee-for-departure payments for the regional airlines. Analyst Michael Boyd says some regionals are overstocked with 50-seat planes that are no longer in demand. May 4, 2007

Leaner airlines prepare for busy summer travel season While demand for air travel keeps growing, airline employment isn't nearly keeping pace. Additionally, the number of commercial and business jets is also on the rise, which strains an air traffic control system that lacks modern satellite tracking technology to let more planes fly safely in the same airspace. Airlines say they are prepared for the rush of summer travelers. However, summer thunderstorms could disrupt operations and create delays. May 2, 2007

American Airlines American Air Pilots Seek Raise, Signing Bonuses The 30.5% pay raise proposal unveiled by American Airlines' pilots, who are looking to recoup concessions they made in 2003, is a clear indication of the tug of war management and labor are likely to have during contract negotiations. May 3, 2007

American Airlines American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp.on Wednesday reported that traffic in April fell 3.3% as capacity decreased 3.7%. Load factor, or the percentage of the plane filled with passengers, rose 0.4 percentage points to 82.1%. Additionally, AMR's American Eagle said that traffic in April fell 2.6% while capacity dropped 2.4%. Load factor decreased 0.2 percentage points to 74.2%, the carrier said. May 2, 2007

American Airlines American Airlines, the world's largest airline, reported an April load factor of 82.1 percent -- an increase of 0.4 points compared to the same period last year. Traffic decreased 3.3 percent year over year as capacity decreased 3.7 percent. May 2, 2007

American Eagle Airlines American Eagle Airlines reported systemwide traffic for April decreased 2.6 percent from April 2006, on a capacity decrease of 2.4 percent. System load factor was 74.2 percent, down 0.2 points year over year. May 2, 2007

Compass Airlines Compass Airlines, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northwest Airlines operating under the Northwest Airlink banner, today completed its first revenue flight. Compass Airlines Flight 2002 left Washington's Dulles International Airport with 43 passengers and landed in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning. It arrived two minutes early. May 2, 2007

Delta Air Lines New Delta shares start trading Delta Air Lines' new shares started trading on the New York Stock Exchange today. The airline emerged from bankruptcy protection earlier this week. Delta CEO Gerald Grinstein this morning pushed an electronic button in Atlanta to signal the start of trading at the exchange. May 4, 2007

Delta Air Lines Delta says new accounting will reduce profit: Fresh-start accounting will reduce Delta Air Lines' annual pretax profit by $145 million, the airline said . May 4, 2007

Delta Air Lines Delta Shares Rise On Stock Market Return Delta Air Lines shares rose 7 percent in the carrier's return to Wall Street on Thursday after emerging from bankruptcy following a USD$3 billion restructuring, but the stock pared back most of its gains. May 3, 2007

Delta Air Lines Delta launches comeback ad campaign Delta Air Lines this week will launch a campaign aimed at restoring public confidence in its brand as it emerges from federal bankruptcy protection. The airline has hired Shepardson Stern & Kaminsky, which has done work for political candidates and for major companies. The new campaign, which features Delta's redesigned logo, promises that the carrier will continue to adapt to the needs of travelers. May 2, 2007

Delta Air Lines Delta employees receive lump-sum payments. About 40,000 Delta Air Lines employees received lump-sum payouts on Tuesday. The distribution was equal to 8% of the workers' earnings in 2006. Delta emerged from bankruptcy protection on Monday. Later this week, non-contract and management employees will receive equity payouts in the form of new shares in the company. May 2, 2007

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines said its April traffic grew 4.2 percent, as strong international growth on increased capacity offset a slight domestic decline. Overall traffic rose to 9.82 billion revenue passenger miles from 9.42 billion in April of last year. A revenue passenger mile is an industry unit measuring one paying passenger flown one mile. May 2, 2007

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines Inc. late Wednesday said that traffic in April rose 4.2% while capacity fell 0.7%. Load factor, or the percentage of the plane filled with passengers, increased 3.9 percentage points to 81.5%, the Atlanta-based carrier said. May 2, 2007

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines on Monday emerged from bankruptcy protection, and executives said the carrier is now in a better position to compete in the marketplace. "Through our restructuring, we have successfully repaired our balance sheet, improved the customer experience, expanded our international route system and built a platform for future success," CEO Gerald Grinstein said. The company has reduced its labor and pension costs, achieving annual cost savings of $3 billion. Apr 30, 2007

MAXjet Airways MAXjet Airways named Extra Space Storage CEO Kenneth Woolley as chairman, replacing Richard Sharp. It also named former Spirit Airlines CFO John Severson as CFO, George Paul as COO and Ceciley Bachnik as VP-people services. May 1, 2007

Northwest Airlines Northwest Airlines reaches agreement with bond holders Northwest Airlines Corp. said late Wednesday it has resolved outstanding issues with its bond holders stemming from its restructuring plans. The fifth-largest domestic carrier said the agreement clears the way for it to "promptly file" a supplement to its proposed plan for emerging from bankruptcy, which still needs the approval of the creditors committee. Northwest Airlines voluntarily sought Chapter 11 protection from creditors in September 2005. On Monday, Northwest estimated that valid claims filed against it in bankruptcy court have been whittled down to about $8.2 billion to $8.8 billion. May 2, 2007

Northwest Airlines Northwest Airlines posted a first-quarter net loss of $292 million, narrowed from $1.1 billion in the year-ago quarter, with the negative 2007 results owing to $393 million in reorganization costs as the carrier endeavors to exit bankruptcy during the second quarter. May 1, 2007

Northwest Airlines Northwest posts smaller Q1 loss. Northwest Airlines posted a first-quarter loss of $292 million, down from the loss of $1.1 billion reported a year ago. The airline, which operates under bankruptcy protection, said it incurred expenses related to restructuring. It also said fuel was its top expense in the quarter. May 1, 2007

Northwest Airlines, Bombardier Northwest Airlines reported a $90 million profit for March, reversed from a $226 million deficit in the year-ago month, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Revenue slipped 0.3% to $1.12 billion against a 9.4% fall in expenses to $934 million. Operating profit more than doubled to $174 million from $80 million. The company took $54 million in net reorganization charges during the month, nearly all of which came from rejection of aircraft, including a delivery cancellation claim for 13 Bombardier CRJ200s. May 2, 2007

Northwest Airlines, Compass Airlines New Northwest subsidiary starts operating Compass Airlines completed its first flight Wednesday, from Washington's Dulles International Airport to Minneapolis. Compass is a unit of Northwest Airlines and operates a single 50-seat Bombardier CRJ-200 regional jet. Northwest plans to eventually add 36 more regional jets to the Compass fleet. May 4, 2007

Northwest Airlines, Pinnacle Airlines Northwest Airlines will remove 17 Bombardier CRJ200s from regional partner Pinnacle Airlines and reassign them to Mesaba Airlines, which NWA acquired as part of its restructuring plan . Pinnacle is losing the aircraft because it failed to reach a new labor agreement with its pilots by March 31, a condition stipulated as part of its service agreement, an NWA spokesperson said. "As we renegotiated the Airline Services Agreement with NWA, one caveat was that we had to have a deal with our pilots by March 31 or these aircraft would be subject to return," a Pinnacle spokesperson confirmed "A contract was not completed on March 31 and NWA has exercised the right to remove two per month. They informed us this week." Apr 30, 2007

Republic Airways Republic Airways Holdings Inc. said Wednesday its April traffic rose 26.1 percent, as capacity grew by 24.4 percent. May 2, 2007 Republic Airways Republic Airways Holding slate Wednesday said that traffic in April rose 26% while capacity increased 24%. Load factor, or the percentage of the plane filled with passengers, rose 1.1 percentage points to 76.2%, the Indianapolis-based carrier said. End of Story May 2, 2007

SkyWest SkyWest sold 10,000 shares of common stock under a prearranged trading plan, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. May 2, 2007 SkyWest Airlines SkyWest Airlines, a subsidiary of SkyWest, Inc. and the nation's largest independently owned regional airline, is hosting a career fair Tuesday, May 8 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel, 3203 Quebec Street. Celebrating 35 years this summer, SkyWest has recently announced expansions in various locations throughout the United States, and just kicked off operations at the new United Express Jet Facility in Concourse B on Tuesday, April 24. May 3, 2007

SkyWest Airlines SkyWest Inc., parent of SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, reported first-quarter net income of $34.8 million, up just 0.6% from $34.6 million in the year-ago period. Operating revenue rose 6.3% to $789 million while expenses climbed 7.5% to $709.4 million, sending operating income down 4% to $79.6 million from $82.9 million. The fleet grew by 30 aircraft year-over-year to 425, including six new CRJ900s and 10 CRJ700s "from another operator" added during the recently completed quarter. SkyWest carriers flew 4.02 billion RPMs during the three months, up 10.4%. Capacity grew 12.6% to 5.29 billion ASMs, dropping load factor 1.6 points to 76%. Yield was down 3.5% to 19.4 cents, unit revenue fell 5.7% to 14.9 cents and CASM declined 4.1% to 14 cents. SkyWest Airlines flies as United Express, Delta Connection and Midwest Express while ASA flies for Delta. May 2, 2007

United Airlines United Airlines said Thursday its traffic rose 0.8 percent in April, despite a modest reduction in capacity. The carrier said its overall traffic grew to 9.89 billion revenue passenger miles from 9.81 billion in last year's April. A revenue passenger mile is an industry unit measuring one paying passenger flown one mile. May 3, 2007

United Airlines US Airline Shares Drop After Downgrade US Airline shares were broadly weaker on Tuesday, led by United Airlines parent UAL, after UBS cut its ratings on several carriers, citing high fuel prices and softening demand. May 1, 2007

United Airlines United Airlines Union Coalition, comprising the Air Line Pilots Assn., Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn. and Professional Airline Flight Control Assn., issued a statement Friday calling UAL Corp's $152 million first-quarter loss "unacceptable" and a "failure by management." The coalition warned that "employees must be engaged in the success of the airline" and called for management to move up contract negotiation dates, increase compensation, improve profit-sharing and address "quality of work-life" with each employee group. Apr 30, 2007

United Airlines, Aloha Airlines United Airlines is buying a minority stake in its codeshare partner, Aloha Airlines, and United said the investment "could expand over time." The announcement Thursday by Chicago-based United, which only recently regained some of its financial footing after more than three years in bankruptcy, has the potential to once again change the dynamics of the turbulent interisland airline market. May 3, 2007

US Airways PAR Capital Management, which played a key role in US Airways' emergence from bankruptcy and had been its largest shareholder when it sold 6.5 million shares to Goldman, Sachs & Co. in February, sold off nearly all its remaining shares Tuesday to UBS Securities. The 6.75-million-share transaction leaves PAR with just a 0.29% stake in US, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. PAR VP Edward Shapiro, who will retain his seat on the US board, told Reuters that the firm still has "tremendous confidence" in the carrier's leadership. The news service said the 6.75 million shares were worth about $250 million. May 3, 2007

US Airways US Airways and the Transport Workers Union have reached a final transition agreement moving pre-merger America West Airline's flight crew training instructors to the contract covering their counterparts at pre-merger US Airways. May 3, 2007

US Airways US Airways facing several challenges US Airways is facing slowing revenue, increasing fuel costs and union protests. Analysts expect competition to increase now that Delta Air Lines has emerged from bankruptcy protection. US Airways says it will give up seven planes next year to reduce capacity, and it will improve customer service by hiring more workers and replacing 600 self-service kiosks. May 2, 2007

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Apr 30, 2007