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Thursday September 14, 2006

Alitalia Group said this week that its full-year net result "should approach the level achieved in 2005," when it lost €167.6 million ($212.9 million). It had postponed making a full-year forecast following a difficult first quarter in which labor unrest and falling passenger revenues hit hard on its bottom line.

A more stable second quarter ended June 30 in which it showed "indicative and tangible recovery" and suffered a pre-tax loss of €53 million, plus a previously announced revision of its business plan (ATWOnline, Sept. 4), left the airline confident it could forecast "positive operating and net results" in the second semester. Second-quarter operating loss was €3 million. It not did not offer year-ago comparisons, but it marked an improvement from the first quarter when it posted an operating loss of €128.8 million. Second-quarter traffic revenue increased €54 million, or 5%.

For the semester, AZ lost a net €221.5 million, widened from €125 million in the year-ago period. Revenues dropped 1.6% to €2.24 billion owing to the spinoff of the Alitalia Servizi services company. Half-year operating loss was €131.8 million compared to €83.8 million in 2005. Passenger revenues increased 1.4% to €1.75 billion while the number of passengers transported climbed 3.1% to 11.7 million. Yield dropped 1.5% and load factor rose 3.6 points to 72%.

Rolls-Royce announced that Air China signed an $800 million deal for Trent 1000s to power its fleet of 15 787s scheduled to begin delivery in June 2008. The agreement includes a long-term TotalCare maintenance package.

Air Arabia, which celebrates its third anniversary this fall, achieved a breakeven financial result in its first year, made a profit in its second and expects to do so again for its third, CEO Adel Abdulla Ali told the World Low Cost Airlines Conference in London. The Sharjah-based low-fare carrier has a fleet of seven A320s operating around 140 flights per week to more than two dozen cities in the Middle East, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran and India. Ali said Air Arabia will add three aircraft before year end and a similar number in 2007. He expects to carry 2 million passengers next year, up from 1.5 million in 2006. The airline is co-owned by Sharjah International Airport and the Sharjah CAA.

Thales and Smiths Aerospace announced that Lufthansa selected the Topflight Flight Management System, a joint product of the two companies, for seven new A340-600s. The airline's decision represents a switch from Honeywell.

KLM will migrate its direct sales and reservations activities from the existing Corda system to Amadeus's Altea Reservation system. Partner Air France has been using Altea Reservation since 1992. "KLM expects that the migration will enable both airlines of the Air France KLM Group to better serve their customers through increased standardization and improved data exchange," it said. Implementation is expected in the first quarter of 2007.

Jat Airways will open a second base in Pristina, where it will operate flights to its Belgrade hub and other European destinations.

Iberia will add two weekly frequencies to its Madrid-Sao Paulo Guarulhos service from Sept. 20, bringing the number of operations on the route to 12. In the past six months, it has doubled seat supply to Brazil.

Air France KLM flew 18.1 billion RPKs in August, up 4.8% from the year-ago month. Capacity increased 4.5% to 21.47 billion ASKs, nudging load factor up 0.2 point to 84.3%.

Alaska Airlines flew 1.72 billion RPMs in August, a 4.8% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 6.1% to 2.13 billion ASMs and load factor fell 1 point to 80.8%.

Menzies Aviation announced the acquisition of Catamount Holdings, a cargo services business at Chicago O'Hare, and Integrated Airline Services Alliance, a ground handler specializing in low-cost carriers in Florida, Atlanta and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Singapore Changi Terminal 2 renovations have been completed. The upgrade includes new commercial areas in the arrival and departure halls, more natural lighting, an extensive curbside canopy, and 15 new retail and 10 new food and beverage outlets. The S$240 million ($152.2 million) renovation began in April 2003.