Airline Finance News - North America

AirGuide Business, July 14, 2008

SkyWest Airlines, Atlantic Southeast Airlines

SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines flew a combined 1.55 billion RPMs in June, down 4.6% year-over-year, against a 2.5% fall in capacity to 1.94 billion ASMs. Load factor decreased 1.7 points to 80%. 7/9/2008

Southwest Airlines, WestJet Airlines

Southwest Airlines and WestJet Airlines said they plan to introduce a distribution plan later this year with the aim of launching the codeshare agreement, which is subject to US and Canadian government approval, by the end of next year. A WestJet spokesperson conceded that the carrier's reservation system is "not sufficient" to handle the anticipated codesharing, adding, WestJet abandoned installation of the airRES reservation system, which was intended to offer more complete codeshare and interline capabilities, last year. WestJet founder Clive Beddoe has noted that he studied Southwest Airlines closely. A key player in WestJet's launch was JetBlue founder David Neeleman, who also co-founded Morris Air and briefly served as an Southwest executive following the Dallas-based airline's purchase of Morris in December 1993. Neeleman signed a five-year noncompete agreement upon leaving Southwest in 1994, which led him to Canada to help start WestJet. 7/8/2008

Spirit Airlines, Airbus

Spirit Airlines last week announced a plan to reduce nonfuel expenses by 15% through the retirement of five aircraft, schedule adjustments and layoffs. The LCC, which warned of job cuts last month, said it will retire five Airbus A319s by September and reduce its workforce "to coincide with these capacity adjustments." It now expects full-year capacity to remain flat year-over-year. It originally planned a 10% increase. 7/7/2008

Trans States Airlines

Trans States Airlines, which provides regional lift as AmericanConnection, US Airways Express and United Express, will furlough 58 additional pilots by the end of next month and reduce its fleet to 43 aircraft from 50, a spokesperson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It let 45 pilots go in June and will employ 422 this fall. Trans States serves 46 destinations and is based it St. Louis. 7/18/2008

United Airlines

United Airlines and other big carriers are cutting domestic flights as well as the jobs needed to operate and support them to address a 50 percent increase in jet fuel costs this year. United has previously announced plans to trim 950 pilots, about 600 flight attendants and 1,500 salaried workers. Industry officials project that airline financial losses could top USD$10 billion this year without relief from fuel price increases, possibly leading to more bankruptcies. 7/12/2008

United Airlines

United Airlines plans to eliminate up to 400 more jobs as it continues to shrink its operations due to rising fuel costs, the company said on Friday. United said in a statement it had reached an agreement with the International Association of Machinists for a voluntary retirement program for veteran ground workers, including customer service agents and bag handlers. United said it would continue to explore "viable alternatives" to lay offs but did not rule them out if the early-out measure did not reach its goal of up to 400 employees. 7/12/2008