TOM GILL / LONDON
But Air Dolomiti unveils new routes as Lufthansa affiliate Air One plans fleet expansion
National Jets Italia (NJI), the Rome-based British Airways franchise carrier, has suspended operations amid a credit crunch in the transition to yet another owner, Dutch group Nikoram Holding.
The ending of flights using British Aerospace 146s from Rome to Catania, Genoa, Palermo and Verona follows the grounding last month of both leased Boeing 737-400s serving its Rome-Nice and Rome-Athens routes. NJI has gone through several ownership changes since its start-up in 1999, with the latest prospective owner acquiring the airline from Aviation Partners Worldwide, which itself took over NJI in August.
NJI was grounded when banks cut its credit lines, but the company insists it is not bankrupt. Talks with creditors, principally Rome, Catania and Palermo airports. have raised hopes it will restart operations in December.
The current picture for Italian regional airlines is mixed. Lufthansa affiliate Air One, which feeds traffic from Rome to Lufthansa's key hub in Frankfurt, is expected to show strong third-quarter financial results and plans to boost its fleet from 13 to 17 Boeing 737s by year-end. Trieste-based Air Dolomiti, in which Lufthansa holds a 26% stake, is strengthening its role in the lucrative market for Northern Italian premium traffic to the German airline. Next month it will add 12 weekly flights between Genoa and Frankfurt, and a third daily flight from Frankfurt to Milan-Linate. The increase roughly balances a 2-3% capacity cut by Lufthansa to Italy since October.
Fairchild Dornier 328JET operator Gandalf Airlines continues to struggle. After shedding routes to Germany in the summer, last week it reported gross operating losses that have widened in the first nine months of this year to L27.4 billion ($13 million) from L24.2 billion for the same period last year.
This fall, which came as passenger numbers rose to almost 233,000, nearly 40,000 higher than for the whole of last year, makes Gandalf's bid to increase its capital by €15.5 million ($13.7 million) all the more urgent. The process, has so far only delivered €900,000 of around €3.6 million core shareholders have promised by 15 December.
Closer ties with Air France, via codeshare deals between France and Italy, had boosted hopes. However, the start last week of a passenger and cargo codeshare agreement between Alitalia and the French flag carrier does not augur well for Gandalf. Alitalia's move, part of membership in the global airline alliance SkyTeam, will see them jointly operating 82 flights between France and Italy.
The fate of Swissair's loss-making partners in the country, meanwhile, hang in the balance. The shareholders of Volare Group, which comprises leisure-market carriers Air Europe and Volare Airlines, last week agreed an L47 billion increase in capital to fund existing operations. This was "a signal of confidence to the market", says the airline. But future plans remain on hold while discussions are "finalised" on an offer made in October by the holders of the 50.2% stake not owned by Swissair to buy the Swiss carrier's stake.
The company has not released results this year, but last year Volare posted an operating profit of L800 million, while Air Europe made losses of L18 billion.
Source: Flight International
