DUTCH AIR TAXI OPERATOR GOES BUST
Europe's first low-cost air-taxi company, Bikkair, has collapsed, citing inability to secure finance. The Rotterdam-based operation had been flying two Cessna Citation Mustangs since last March, but slow business led it to sell its position on a third Mustang, due for delivery next month. A fourth was set to arrive in June, and Bikkair had at one point envisaged a partly owned network of up to 100 very light jets flying from 15 bases by 2012.
BA'S NINE-MONTH OPERATING PROFIT FALLS 88%
British Airways has turned in an 88% drop in operating profit to £89 million ($131 million) for the first nine months of this year, and generated a pre-tax loss of £70 million for the period. Nine-month revenues were up by 6.2% to just over £7 billion, but BA had to absorb a 48% fuel bill increase to £2.2 billion and maintains its full-year expectations of a £150 million operating loss.
TURBULENT QUARTER HITS JAPANESE CARRIERS
A sharp drop-off in international passenger and cargo traffic in its fiscal third quarter to the end of December has led Japan Airlines to change its full-year forecast to a net loss of ¥34 billion ($373 million). The carrier had been expecting a profit of ¥13 billion. JAL lost ¥38.5 billion in its third quarter, compared with a ¥13.1 billion profit during the same period last year. Separately, All Nippon Airways is reportedly looking to cut staff wages by 3% and managers salaries by 15-20% after nine-month profits fell 92% to ¥9.4 billion.
BOEING CONSIDERS 'MODEST' 2010 DELIVERY CUTS
Worsening economic and financing trends may lead Boeing to make "modest production cuts starting in 2010". Last month the airframer predicted it would deliver 480-490 aircraft in 2009, a sharp increase over strike-depleted deliveries of 375 aircraft last year. But chief financial officer James Bell says Boeing is quoting "some" open positions in 2010 on previously sold-out production lines for both narrowbody and widebody jets.
787 LESSOR LCAL ANNULS 16 ORDERS
Boeing confirms that Dubai-based specialised Boeing 787 leasing company LCAL has cancelled 16 of the 21 aircraft it had on order, the second large-scale loss to the 787 backlog within a week. LCAL had previously identified Royal Jordanian Airlines as a customer for some of its aircraft. Boeing's 787 programme suffered its first major cancellation in January when Russian carrier S7 Airlines scrapped an order for 15 of the type, and the airframer's total net orders stand at minus 13 aircraft so far for 2009.
SPACE STATION REMAINS OPEN TO TOURISTS
Russia's Federal Space Agency has confirmed its interest in flights with "two tourists and one professional commander" in a Soyuz spacecraft. With the International Space Station's imminent crew increase to six, tourist visits were expected to end. The Russian agency's statement however confirms its interest in US company Space Adventures' plan for a private flight to the ISS.
FLORIDA BIRDS TAKE HIT AFTER HUDSON CRASH
After a birdstrike caused last month's US Airways Hudson river ditching, Florida legislators may change state law to help airport operators enact wildlife hazard management plans without fear of prosecution if a protected animal is accidentally killed.
Source: Flight International
