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LATEST NEWS
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Friday, November 25th, 2022
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One day after Qantas raised its profit forecast for the second time in six weeks, the largest section of its workforce, flight attendance, have voted almost unanimously to take protected strike action unless a better pay deal is put on the table. No specific dates for such action have yet been set. The escalation of the pay dispute has occurred as a direct consequence of Qantas’ ASX announcement on November 23, of a AU$150 million upgrade to its profit forecast, to between AU$1.35 billion and AU$1.45 billion in underlying profit before tax, in the first half of its financial year. The carrier’s debt is now expected to fall to between AU$2.3 billion and AU$2.5 billion by December 31, about AU$900 million more than forecast.
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This will be the first time flight attendants have taken strike action at Qantas, though the Flight Attendant Association’s Teri O’Toole has been keen to point out that every effort will be made to minimise passenger disruption. O’Toole has also been frustrated by a comment made by Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce’s that the bulk of Qantas employees receive AU$100,000 a year.
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“Cabin crew are the airline’s biggest work group and receive AU$48,000 on average, just above the modern award,” O’Toole said, adding that “We are not asking for too much to be compensated for taking a two-year wage freeze while serving the airline during conditions which required us to learn each state’s ever-changing restrictions mid-air, risk our health daily and be consistently abused by passengers.” O’Toole also commented that “The crew and the public have had enough, but we are at breaking point. You can’t post a AU$150 million profit upgrade and expect crew to take a pay cut,” she said.
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Qantas has disputed the union’s position that the pay offer was a pay cut when accounting for their two-year wage freeze. (£1.00 = AU$1.79 at time of publication)
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Scoot, the low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines Group, has attained full International Air Transport Association (IATA) membership. Only airlines that meet IATA’s Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) standards for safety in airline operations are eligible for IATA’s membership.
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As a member of IATA, Scoot will have opportunities to help drive priorities within the aviation industry and participate in member conferences that bring together representatives from leading international airlines.
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Scoot will also gain access to IATA training in aviation safety and security, operational efficiency and excellence and sustainability, as well as programmes that help strengthen the capabilities of aviation industry professionals.
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Lilium, developer of the all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) Lilium Jet, has announced the successful closing of a US$119 million (£100 million) capital raise from existing shareholders, new investors and strategic partners. Participants include Honeywell and Aciturri as well as LGT and its affiliated impact investor Lightrock, Tencent, B. Riley Securities and certain affiliates thereof. The closing of the capital raise occurred in part on November 22, with closing for certain investors occurring shortly thereafter. Lilium’s new CEO, Klaus Roewe, as well as three additional board members, Barry Engle, David Wallerstein and Niklas Zennström, also participated.
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“We are pleased to have such a high-quality group of supporters in a challenging macro environment. These proceeds are expected to strengthen our balance sheet and advance our commercialisation efforts including signing of customer agreements with pre-delivery payments, reaching an agreement with EASA on our Means of Compliance and commencing assembly of the type-conforming aircraft for the final manned flight test campaign,” CEO Klaus Roewe said.
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The capital raise was a concurrent private placement and registered direct offering (RDO). Citigroup, B. Riley Securities and Piper Sandler acted as placement agents for the offerings. Lilium intends to use the net proceeds from the offerings to continue to fund its operations, develop the Lilium Jet, and for general corporate purposes, which may include payment of Lilium’s suppliers and working capital uses.
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On February 9, 2023, SAS will launch its new route between Copenhagen Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. The new route will enable SAS customers to travel easily from both the West and East side of New York as SAS continues to offer departures from Scandinavia to Newark.
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Through the launch of its new route to JFK International Airport, SAS will offer its customers frequent departures to this convenient and efficient airport with easy access to and from New York as well as many connecting flights to choose from.
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The JFK service will begin with five weekly flights from Copenhagen, ramping up with daily flights for the summer schedule. SAS will be operating into Terminal 7 at JFK.
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In the presentation to shareholders at its Annual General Meeting, Regional Express (Rex) will reveal that its unaudited management accounts for October have reported a profit before tax for the domestic jet operations of about AU$2 million, following the marginal profitability reported for the month of September which was the first time that the jet operations reported a monthly profit.
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Its regional Saab operations are still loss making for October, but its EBITDAR was a positive AU$1 million for the month, having been EBITDAR-positive since September. The company believes that the regional Saab operations will return to monthly profitability by Q3 of FY 2023.
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The Rex Board will reaffirm its expectations that the group will make up for the accumulated losses incurred in the first four months of the FY to emerge profitably overall for the entire FY. (£1.00 = AU$1.79 at time of publication)
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Dublin-based global aircraft lessor Goshawk has announced the delivery of one A320 aircraft to Heston Airlines. The A320 was successfully delivered to the Lithuanian ACMI operator on November 22.
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Heston Airlines is an A320- and A330-family fleet operator, with a focus on charter and ACMI markets, offering competitive, flexible solutions to customers during the recovery phase of the travel markets. Heston Airlines is part of Heston Aviation group, focused on ACMI/Charters aviation asset leasing, trading, maintenance, repair and overhaul.
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Lufthansa Cargo has added Hanoi as a new destination to its global B777F route network for the winter flight schedule 2022/2023.
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The inaugural flight took place on November 2 from Frankfurt. With a stop in Mumbai, the Boeing 777F reached Hanoi on schedule on November 3. Lufthansa Cargo has been flying to Hanoi twice a week since then. In view of the existing twice-weekly flights to Ho Chi Minh City, the cargo airline is thus doubling its capacity to Vietnam and is the only carrier to connect the capital Hanoi with Frankfurt.
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All freighter services to Vietnam are operated by AeroLogic with Boeing 777F aircraft. AeroLogic has been a joint venture between DHL Express and Lufthansa Cargo since 2007. Lufthansa Cargo’s long-haul fleet consists of a total of 16 Boeing 777F aircraft and five of these aircraft are operated by AeroLogic, with all flights flown and marketed under a Lufthansa flight number. Each aircraft has a cargo capacity up to 103 tonnes, allocated to 27 container positions on the main deck and ten standard pallets on the lower deck, and a range of 9,045 km.
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