Airline Finance News - North America

AirGuide Business, June 23, 2008

Pleasant Holidays, Virgin America

Pleasant Holidays has added Virgin America flight options to its vacation package product line. Pleasant Holidays customers can now book Virgin America's nonstop flights from San Francisco to Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Diego; as well as New York City to Las Vegas, Los Angeles or San Francisco. Virgin America features include mood-lit cabins, custom leather seats, power outlets, video-touch screen at every seat featuring 25 on-demand movies, live TV, a food-ordering system and a seat-to-seat chat option. Jun 16, 2008

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines will post a modest profit on record revenue despite the difficult environment for U.S. airlines, CEO Gary Kelly said. However, he noted that soaring fuel prices will force the carrier to postpone its aggressive growth plans. "At this time, we are not thinking seriously about an acquisition," Kelly said. Jun 19, 2008

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly said the carrier may expand its fleet next year. Meanwhile, soaring fuel prices are forcing other airlines to scale back capacity. "We're all curious to see what the effects of the cutbacks in the fourth quarter will be," Kelly said. "We're willing to grow the fleet, and that's very different than what's going on with most of our competitors." Jun 18, 2008

Travelport, Southwest Airlines

Travelport GDS announced an exclusive booking capability for Southwest Airlines to U.S. and Canadian customers using the Apollo system, in which automatic return of Southwest ticket numbers and the ability to input Rapid Rewards frequent flyer numbers enhance the operations. The new booking capabilities are unavailable on any other global distribution systems. Travel agents subscribing to the Apollo system now have access to exclusive tools to increase their efficiency in booking Southwest Airlines through the GDS. The ability to automatically return a ticket number with each booking made in the Apollo system remains a key productivity enhancement for agency reporting and reconciliation. Consequently Apollo agencies can now provide an increase in accurate and efficient reporting, improving service levels to their customers through. In addition, subscribers can enter the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards numbers of their travelers so that this information can be automatically transferred from the GDS to Southwest with each booking, ensuring precise collection and tracking. Jun 19, 2008

United Airlines

United Airlines expects its 2008 fuel bill to climb to $9.5 billion, up $3.5 billion from year-ago levels. The airline is among the carriers supporting legislation that would allow for the regulation of fuel trading and made the forecast in a statement backing the measure. The airline also said it expects to record significant charges in the second quarter. Jun 19, 2008

United Airlines

United Airlines parent UAL Corp. said in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it expects second-quarter revenue to increase over the year-ago period as both capacity and traffic fall. Second-quarter mainline passenger RASM is expected to rise 4%-5% year-over-year, with consolidated PRASM lifting 3.5%-4.5%. At the same time, mainline and consolidated capacity are expected to decline 1.4% from the year-ago period. Mainline traffic will fall 4%-4.5% and consolidated RPMs will decline 4.25%-4.75%. It said it expects unit revenue to "continue to grow modestly" in the third quarter. Jun 18, 2008