OIL PRICES PUSH LUFTHANSA TO FLEET RENEWAL
COSTS Lufthansa is determined to renew its fleet in anticipation of an oil price surge over the next two years. Chief financial officer Stephan Gemkow told investors that a timelag between economic recovery and new oil exploration activity will lead to overdemandand that the situation will be exacerbated by financial speculators."We are certain that, within the next recovery, the oil price will explode,"he says. Lufthansa issueda profits warning in June and introduced a new surcharge structure to cope with increasing fuel prices.
GOODRICH OPENS TIANJIN SUPPORT CENTRE
MAINTENANCE Goodrich Aerostructures opened a 4,645m2 (50,000ft²) nacelle and thrust reverser maintenance facility at Tianjin Airport Industrial Park, which will also support the new Airbus A320 final assembly line in Tianjin. In 2010 the operation will move to a 15,790m2facility directly across from the Airbus assembly line.
DUCOMMUN GETS $120 MILLION CREDIT LINE
FINANCE US aerospace components manufacturer Ducommun has entered into a new, five-year $120 million unsecured revolving credit agreement with a syndicate of banks to replace a $75 million unsecured facility scheduled to mature in 2010. The new facility will be used to fund acquisitions and internal growth.
AIRBUS BREAKS GROUND AT CHINESE PLANT
MANUFACTURING Airbus and four Chinese partners broke ground last week on a plant in Harbin to make composite structures for the A350XWB. The Harbin Hafei Airbus Composite Manufacturing Centre will be operational by the end of 2010 and eventually provide 5% of the A350's composite content.
SENIOR SATISFIED DESPITE BUSINESS JET SLUMP
TRADING STATEMENT London-listed manufacturing group Senior said in a pre-close trading statement that trading was satisfactory during its six months to 30 June, though there was a "further weakening of the business jet market".
SUPERJET' TO SEEK FEDERAL FUNDING'
DEVELOPMENT Russia's Sukhoi Superjet 100 programme will seek Rb3.6 billion ($116 million) from the federal budget to prepare for serial productionand Rb5.2 billion for serial production of powerplants, saystrade and industry minister Viktor Khristenko.
UK'S NATS BIDS TO CUT COSTS AS TRAFFIC FALLS
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL UK air navigation service NATS is cutting its operating cost base by £45 million ($74 million) after forecasting up to a 15% traffic volume reduction over the next two years, to hold charges for 2011-15 "as low as possible".
CAE CHANGESNYSE TICKERSYMBOLTO'CAE'
TRADING CAE, the Montreal-based simulation, modelling and training provider, changed its New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol from "CGT" to "CAE", which it also uses on the Toronto exchange.
AUSTRALIA'S STRATEGIC BUYS OZ JET
AIRLINES Australian start-up Strategic Airlines has bought charter carrier OzJet, which went into voluntary administration in May, acquiring its air operator's certificate and some Western Australian routes. Strategic plans to operate Airbus A320s under the OzJet certificatestarting around September.
Source: Flight International
