Lufthansa to buy stake in jetBlue

jetBlue announced earlier today that Lufthansa would "make a minority equity investment" in jetBlue. The agreement between the two airlines states that Lufthansa will buy about 42 million newly issued shares of jetBlue (19% of the airline) at $7.27 a share, about $300 million. Lufthansa would also get a seat on jetBlue's Board of Directors. (Per US law, Lufthansa would be limited to under 25% voting rights.)

Lufthansa CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber said that Lufthansa was "very pleased to become an investor in JetBlue" and that "this investment presents Lufthansa with a compelling opportunity to invest in the U.S. point-to-point carrier market as the industry continues to evolve." Dave Barger, jetBlue CEO, was pleased with "this significant endorsement of JetBlue's franchise from one of the most respected leaders in global aviation" and said that the investment "will also improve our balance sheet and give us greater financial flexibility as we move into 2008."

In a conference call this afternoon, it was revealed that Lufthansa was the one that approached jetBlue (sometime during the late summer). The deal should close sometime during the first quarter in 2008. This seems to have been the right time for Lufthansa to move in for a deal; shares of jetBlue are relatively cheap at the moment, and the airline could use some extra cash. jetBlue has had some trouble over the past years with high oil prices and increased competition (especially now that Virgin America's competing in the transcontinental market). Shares of jetBlue have fallen by half since last February's mess at JFK involving passengers stranded on planes for several hours, an event which damaged the airline's reputation. In addition, with the low value of the dollar versus the euro, Lufthansa's getting a pretty good bargain.

As of now, the two airlines haven't said that they would cooperate in any areas other than "operation cooperation". No code-share deal was announced, either, and besides, jetBlue's reservation system doesn't allow for code-sharing (at least not yet). If the airlines were to integrate schedules, Lufthansa would certainly benefit from US domestic feed at JFK. Then again, Lufthansa's premium passengers might not want to go from Lufthansa's premium classes of service to jetBlue's all-economy service (even if they do have DirecTV).

But there are still a few unanswered questions. Lufthansa is close partners with United Airlines and US Airways, all three of which are Star Alliance members. It's unknown if Lufthansa's US partners had any say-so in the deal or not, or what the potential ramifications of the deal are for the two. And there's no word yet if this could eventually lead to jetBlue becoming a Star Alliance member. United has been rumored to be interested in jetBlue as a potential merger partner, and if Lufthansa were to increase their stake to 25% and if United were to buy 26%, then the two airlines would have a controlling interest in jetBlue. Right now Lufthansa is limited to 25% ownership, like all foreign carriers, but if this cap is lifted (and with the Open Skies deal announced earlier this year, it might be soon), then Lufthansa might eventually purchase a controlling stake in jetBlue.

A319 service to Antarctica

© Australian Antarctic Division 2006

The Australian government has started air service from Hobart, Australia to the Wilkins Runway in Antarctica. The route is flown by a single Airbus A319-115LR, which is capable of flying from Hobart to Antarctica and back without refueling (the flight takes about 4.3 hours). The first flight, which was made earlier this week, was a proving flight and only carried operational personnel - regular passenger flights will hopefully get approval from authorities to commence soon. (View a video of the landing here.)

According to the website of the Australian Antarctic Division, the service will operate during the summer months only (too cold during the winter!). The Wilkins Runway is basically 'paved snow' on top of blue ice, but is still capable of handling an Airbus A319. If all goes well, the flights will take about 19 passengers in a highly flexible configuration, which allows it to transport a combination of both passengers and cargo. It can also serve as a medical evacuation plane, too.

ATA to challenge NY's passenger bill of rights

The Air Transport Association (ATA), the US airline industry trade group, is going to try to block New York state’s airline passenger Bill of Rights. Scheduled to take effect January 1, it would require airlines to provide adequate food, water, and access to waste removal if a New York-based flight has to wait more than three hours for take-off. According to the law, the state can fine airlines up to $1000 per passenger.

Airlines leaving passengers stranded on planes for hours is nothing new; winter weather at JFK airport this past February resulted in thousands of stuck travelers on planes for hours (as well as jetBlue’s much-publicized ‘Feburary meltdown’). Local politicians supported the move. "Airlines are not doing their job, and the federal government has dropped the ball," said New York senator Charles Fuschillo. "I hope other states follow." And New York state, with such airports as JFK and LaGuardia, is especially prone to long delays.

The ATA, however, maintains that long waits on the plane, like what happened back in Feburary, are a rare occurrence (not to mention unavoidable), and that if other state legislatures pass laws that change from state to state, it could lead to confusion among airlines. They also state that only federal authorities, not state legislatures, can regulate the airlines.

This move by the ATA isn’t surprising. It’s true that some events, like winter storms, are certainly out of the airlines’ control. But maybe airlines should take measures to ensure that passengers who are stranded on board planes have access to these critical “amenities”, because it only takes one ‘fiasco’ involving passengers stuck on a plane to result in some pretty negative PR.

United pays investors while unions upset

United Airlines on Friday announced a $250 million onetime payout to shareholders, with management lauding the move highly. CEO Glenn Tilton announced that the payment, which will be given out at $2.15 a share, shows the airline’s “commitment to creating value for our investors… [United must] “compete for shareholders, just as we compete for customers.”

Unions, rather unsurprisingly, gave a dim view of the payout, and said that the airline should be spending the extra cash on employees, rather than give it to investors. Mark Bathurst, head of the pilots union at United, said that “the battle lines have now been drawn…by its actions, [United management] has abandoned any pretense of working in partnership with its employees to make United strong and profitable.”

While it’s nice that United is in a financial situation that’s stable enough to be able to make these payouts, management ought to keep an eye on the unions, too. They have a valid point – United’s workers did sacrifice quite a bit during the airline’s stay in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It’s time that employees got a little something back. Even a relatively small sum could be seen as a nice gesture on the part of management and would certainly be money well spent. United has had a history of antagonistic labor-management relations, and taking some money and spending it on employees could help improve things a bit.

MAXjet suspends shares

“Boutique airline” MAXjet Airways today requested that its shares be suspended in advance of a statement from the airline about its rather precarious financial situation. MAXjet flies five Boeing 767-200s from London-Stanstead to three US cities (JFK, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles) with around 100 leather seats apiece and four-course meals (not to mention champagne cocktails and canapés). The airline went public in June, but has since flown into a rough patch (their stock has fallen 50% and new route from London to Washington was axed, in addition to planned service to Miami starting next February).

Not all the news is negative, though. MAXjet carried 47% more passengers last month than it did last November, while the airline’s load factor increased 11% to 69%. But although more seats are being filled, MAXjet is finding it harder to make money. Lots of factors – increased competition with carriers like Silverjet and EOS, high oil prices, and a weak US dollar (which particularly affects an airline with so much UK-based traffic) could be to blame. The airline’s loss increased to $49.5 million in the first half of 2007, up from $30.4 million in the same period a year ago.

According to MAXjet, everything is business as usual, for now. The airline’s announcement about its finances, according to a statement released by the airline, will “be made as soon as possible”. “The company wishes to confirm to its employees, customers and suppliers that business continues to function as normal.” Whether or not MAXjet will be able to get over this remains to be seen – the transatlantic business travel market is notoriously competitive, and with British Airways getting in on the game soon, things aren’t likely to ease up. If BA arch-rivals Air France or Lufthansa also consider entering the premium transatlantic market at a more competitive rate (and Lufthansa has already made moves towards doing this), they could seriously jeopardize the futures of all-business class airlines like MAXjet.

Olympic Airlines under pressure

photo by caribb

Greek flag carrier Olympic Airlines appears to be flying into even more turbulence. The Greek transport minister, Costis Hadzidakis, said that although the government was dedicated to keeping Olympic afloat, "the situation for Olympic has become even more difficult," especially after Ryanair complained to the EU that Olympic has not repaid over 700 million euros ($1.2 billion) of illegal state aid that it received between 1998 and 2002. The government has said before that calls for repaying the money is making it impossible to find investors interested in a possible privatization of the airline.

If Olympic is forced to close, Hadzidakis said, then none of the airline's 8,500 employees would lose their jobs, and none of the Greek islands would lose air service to the mainland. But the fact that the country's transport minister is issuing such a dire projection of Olympic's future is widely regarded as a sign that the airline might have to close down soon. According to the Greek government, Olympic costs Greek taxpayers 300,000 euros ($442,830) a day.

Skybus VP: we're "best financed" US airline

According to Skybus vice president Dennis Carvill, Ryanair-imitator Skybus is "the best-financed airline in the history of the aviation industry in the United States... We are capitalized to $160 million of initial startup capital, and that has given us the ability to do what we are doing, that is to grow rather quickly." By comparison, jetBlue, which started out a few years ago with quite a lot of cash, had an initial capitalization of $128 million.

Although initial capital is indeed important (and it certainly helped out jetBlue), Skybus' lack of amenities (e.g. no in flight entertainment, no food or drink, no telephone number to call) might not sit well with some passengers, and Skybus will have to focus on keeping its flights prompt in order to make up for the often out-of-the-way airports that they service.

Airbus could build plants in US, Russia

photo by mathoov

According to a story in the German business weekly WirtschaftsWoche, Airbus is considering building assembly plants in the US or Russia. This is due to the strong euro, which Airbus parent company EADS head Louis Gallois said is threatening the long-term existence of the company.

The story said that if a plant were built in the US, it would probably be in Mobile, Alabama - this is also important because the company has long been seeking a contract with the US military to build tanker airplanes. An Airbus official pointed out that if the company were to build the tankers in the US, it would be more difficult for the military to reject Airbus' offer because they are a European company.

Three interested in Alitalia

photo by WTL photos

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi recently said that Air France/KLM, Lufthansa, and Italian domestic carrier Air One were interested in making a bid for struggling Alitalia. (Previously interested Aeroflot has already quit the bidding.) All bidders have until December 6 to make a non-binding offer. In an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Lufthansa CEO Wolfgang Mayrhruber said that "Alitalia has big and barely manageable problems. We are studying whether we can find a recipe (to fix these) and make a bid."

It should be pointed out that Alitalia is losing about 1 million euros a day and is affected by frequent strikes (both inside and outside of the company). If one of those airlines is going to make a bid for Alitalia, they'll have to deal with "big and barely manageable problems" indeed.