Ryanair post Q1 profit of €137m

Ryanair today posted a Q1 profit of €137m, a 550% increase on the same period last year. At €775m, revenue for the period was static as an 11% increase in traffic was offset by a 13% decrease in average fare.

In announcing the results, Ryanair's chief executive, Michael O'Leary said that the results were distorted by a 42% reduction in fuel costs over the same period last year when the airline admitted that it got it's hedging policy wrong. For the quarter, the airline's net profit margin grew to 18% which helped boost cash reserves to €2.5bn at quarter end. Ancillary revenue also grew to €165.3m, an increase of 13%.

In relation to the €10 travel tax imposed by the Irish Government this spring, Mr. O'Leary said that the airline expects to see the full impact of the measure this winter when it foresees traffic in the Irish market declining by 20%. On the same subject, the airline's deputy chief executive Michael Cawley, speaking on RTE Radio's 'Morning Ireland' said that it would be a further two weeks before the winter schedules were completed, adding that significant reductions in service at Dublin and Shannon could be expected, directly attributable to the travel tax.

Looking forward, Ryanair's guidance on full year profits for fiscal 2009 is closer to the bottom end of €200m to €300m than previous indications. The airline's share price fell 8.5% as a result.

Aer Lingus must shed 800 jobs

Bloxham Stockbrokers have warned that Aer Lingus must shed 800 jobs or 20% of it's workforce as the airline faces steeper than predicted losses of €150m for the current year.

Bloxham said that in order for the airline to avoid a financial crises a non fuel related saving of €250m is required.

In the downgrading of Aer Lingus, Bloxham also said that the airport departure tax of €10 introduced by the government his spring will have a detrimental impact on load factor this coming winter, a period which the broker forecasts will see Aer Lingus 'sharply cutting fares' in the face of intense competition. "As a result, yields on short-haul could fall 15% alongside a 20% drop in long-haul yields," it said.

The once famed Aer Lingus cash pile is also now under serious threat. From a high of €757m in late 2007, the war chest is forecast to shrink to less than €300m by early next year. If the rate of decline in cash reserves is not stemmed beyond that date, Aer Lingus will have just 18 months to survive without external intervention.

N778UA diverts to Shannon

Today's United Airlines flight UAL 967 from Rome Fiumicino to Washington Dulles diverted into Shannon. The flight, operated by B777-200 N778UA was approximately one hour west of Shannon when the crew elected to turn around and divert to Shannon due to a technical problem. The aircraft landed at 14:40 utc. After 3 1/2 hours on the ground the flight departed for London Heathrow at 18:11.

EI-SFB delivered through Shannon

The much delayed delivery of Cessna Mustang EI-SFB finally took place this evening. The aircraft, msn 510-0145 arrived in Shannon tonight on it's delivery flight to Italy. Registered to Star Fly CJM, EI-SFB wears hex code 4CA79F.

Globemaster 03-3119 visits Shannon

Same as last year the Mississippi Air Guard provided a C-17 Globemaster to perform a flypast at the Bray Airshow. This year, aircraft serial 03-3119, msn P-119 performed the honours. The aircraft was based in Shannon for the weekend, arriving lunchtime Saturday and departing on Sunday afternoon. Pictured above 03-3119 of the 172nd AW 'Spirit of G.V. 'Sonny' Montgomery' is seen on finals for R24 at Shannon. Gillespie V. Mitchell who died in 2006 was a Democrat who served Mississippi in the US House of Representatives from 1967 to 1997.

EI-EFO, EI-EFP delivered to Ryanair

Ryanair's latest B737-8As aircraft arrived in Dublin on delivery from Seattle on Saturday.

The aircraft are EI-EFO, msn 37539, hex code 4CA76A and EI-EFP, msn 37540, hex code 4CA7A7. Pictured above in the copyright pictures by Michael Kelly, EI-EFO (top) and EI-EFP (bottom) are seen on finals to Dublin's R10.

SX-OAJ arrives in Shannon for paint

It was certainly a rare combination - an Airbus A319 in full Mexicana titles with a Greek registration. That wasn't the rare bit - the rare bit was that the sun shone in Shannon when it landed ! Olympic Air's new fleet acquisitions are growing apace with several aircraft scattered throughout Europe being painted in readiness to enter service with the newly revitalised Greek carrier which carries the legacy of the original 'Olympic' name. This evening, A319-112, msn 3905 and registered SX-OAJ arrived from Hamburg to be painted in Olympic Air's colours at the Lufthansa Shannon Paint facility. The aircraft was originally ordered by Mexicana and would have been registered XA-MXR, had it been delivered but now wears Greek registration SX-OAJ. The aircraft carries hex code 46BC2A and is seen above on finals to R24.

Defamation case stopped in court

A defamation action against Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary brought by IALPA (Irish Airline Pilots Association) leader Evan Cullen was stopped in the High Court yesterday. The claim relates to a statement made by Michael O'Leary on RTE television's 'Prime Time' program in which he described Cullen as a 'failed Aer Lingus pilot'. Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne discharged the jury and ruled that the case would have to be heard in front of a new court after lawyers for Mr Cullen had failed to include in their claim that the alleged defamatory remark had been rebroadcast on the internet and on RTE Radio's 'Pat Kenny' program.

She said the claim of re-broadcasting had "landed on front of a jury in a way that seems to be unjustified" and she could see no way of trying to instruct the jury to put this additional claim out of their minds.

The court was told that the untrue and defamatory remarks were made by Mr. O'Leary on RTE's 'Prime Time' program on September 12 2006. Mr. Cullen claimed that the comment had inferred that he was not competent to fly and that although he had ceased flying duties he was still a highly regarded pilot within the airline.

The jury were shown the RTE program which had included reports which claimed that Ryanair's flying roster were leading to pilot fatigue. A studio debate ensued in which the Ryanair boss refuted the claims. When the presenter Miriam O'Callaghan decided to call it a day Michael O'Leary had added 'More scare stories from a failed Aer Lingus pilot'.

The remarks by Mr. O'Leary were of sufficient newsworthiness to be repeated the next day on RTE Radio's 'Pat Kenny' program.

In the intervening time frame, lawyers for Evan Cullen have attempted to elicit an apology from Michael O'Leary but the affair ended up in the High Court where the story has yet to run to it's end.

Ryanair Chairman Bonderman appointed to GM board

Ryanair Chairman David Bonderman has been appointed to the board of General Motors. Mr Bonderman, along with Carlyle Group's Daniel Akerson were appointed by the US Government as the auto maker restructures itself following bankruptcy. Today's appointments rounded out a 13 member board headed by Chairman Ed Whiteacre, former CEO of AT&T. The US treasury owns 61% of GM, the governments of Canada and Ontario have 11.7%, a union trust holds 11.7% and the old GMC holds the balance.

Queuing issues continue at Dublin Airport

Ryanair today called on Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey to investigate the problems with security screening which continue to dog Dublin Airport. The airline has highlighted 4 separate occasions in recent weeks when passengers missed flights due to the abnormally long queues at security screening. This week alone, on Monday and again this morning, 60 passengers in total missed flights when the security screening queue stretched outside the departures entrance into the check in area.

The airline questioned why passengers are missing flights when the airport handling fee is €15 per passenger and the airport departure tax is €10.

Whilst land side delays have tended to be highlighted due to the impact on departing passengers, the air side situation for those arriving is no better.

The picture above gives an indication of the situation which arose on Monday afternoon last when moving pavements had to be switched off and taken out of service due to the volume of passengers attempting to get through immigration. Automatic announcements were played to the effect that delays at immigration were due to passenger volume although it is believed that the increase in passenger volume in this instance was due to Pier A being unserviceable due to a roof problem and arriving passengers being funnelled through Pier D. The picture also shows a marked lack of DAA staff to 'meet and greet' arriving passengers.

Since late last year passengers have experienced severe delays in clearing passport control in a continuing apparent go slow arising from a dispute over meal allowances for Gardai attached to the National Immigration Bureau at Dublin Airport. At the end of last year Garda management attempted to remove the €29 daily allowance which caused the apparent go slow, manifested by each and every passport being inspected.

In February, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said that he was looking at the possibility of using civilians to man the facility since 142 officers who could be better deployed elsewhere were required to operate the immigration service at Dublin airport.

PBB's for Dublin's T2 start journey to Ireland

JBT AeroTech of Utah are the supplier for the Passenger Boarding Bridges for Dublin's T2. By October the company's Utah facility will have delivered 19 of the structures, each 21m long by 3.7m square and weighing 28 tonnes. JBT have contracted TransGroup Worldwide Logistics to transport the PBBs from Utah to Portsmouth New Hampshire where they will ship to Liverpool.

Quality Freight Group will then transport the PBBs from Liverpool to Dublin using 60ft rear wheel steering trailers.

Courtesy of HeavyLift News ( http://www.heavyliftpfi.com/ ) the first of the PBB's is pictured above arriving at Portsmouth for the sea journey to Europe.

80,000 vote for standing room only

Proving that some people will do anything to get a freebie, Ryanair announced yesterday that 80,000 respondents to it's on line poll regarding 'standing seats' had replied to the effect that they would stand on a short one hour flight if the 'seat' were free.

Of the total 120,000 who expressed a preference, 72,000 said that airline passengers should have a choice of deciding whether they could sit or stand during the flight while 50,000 said that they would stand for the duration of the flight if the fare were half that or less of a seated passenger.

Ryanair says that it is sufficiently encouraged by the response to the survey to the point where it will enter discussions with Boeing along with regulatory authorities in the US and EU to explore the idea further.

100,000 opt for SMS alert with Ryanair

Ryanair announced today that 100,000 passengers had opted to avail of it's new SMS booking reference alert in the month of operation of the new service. The biggest users of the service which costs £1/€1 were Italy (16%), UK(15%), Spain (12%) and Ireland (5%). Ryanair launched the service in conjunction with 15Below to allow intending passengers receive their booking reference number by text so as to avoid having to print the email confirmation prior to airport check in.

It will be interesting to see if the idea is dropped when the airline migrates to a fully web based check in !

Competition Authority drop investigation into Ryanair

The Irish Competition Authority today announced that it was dropping it's investigation into complaints by Aer Arann concerning Ryanair's fare levels on the Dublin - Cork route.

The complaint was lodged 18 months ago by Aer Arann, claiming unfair competition due to the fact that Ryanair's fares were lower. Ryanair in it's defence proved to the Competition Authority that it's fares were profitable and that it was competing with higher priced (ground) based alternatives as opposed to Aer Arann which it saw as a high fares airline.

At the time of the complaint, Aer Arann's CEO Padraig O'Ceidigh had claimed that Ryanair was trying to put his airline out of business.

Responding to today's decision, Ryanair's Stephen McNamara said “Perhaps Aer Arann and Padraig O’Ceidigh will now admit that they can’t compete with Ryanair’s prices, our punctuality, or our passenger numbers. Ryanair would have to substantially increase its prices to compete with Aer Arann, which is a loss making PSO subsidy junkie. The reason why Aer Arann is losing money is not because of the one route (Cork-Dublin) where it tries to compete with Ryanair, but because its costs and fares are too high on the 39 other routes it operates where it doesn’t compete with Ryanair at all”.

Ryanair to slash Edinburgh capacity

Ryanair intends cutting capacity at it's Edinburgh base this winter by 30%. A total of 8 routes face the axe with a further 11 in danger after it emerged that forward bookings are very soft. the airline currently operates 29 routes from the airport which has seen Ryanair's Edinburgh presence grow at an explosive rate in recent months. The news is unwelcome in Edinburgh and comes on the back of the decision by Delta Airlines to drop it's New York flight in September.

EI-EEJ arrives in Shannon

Continuing today's Australian theme, a former SkyAirWorld Embraer 145 made a return visit to Shannon today. The aircraft msn 145408 had previously visited Shannon on March 30 / 31 when it was ferried from Milan to Alverca via Shannon on lease hand back to GECAS following the collapse of the Australian operator. Pictured above, EI-EEJ in full SkyAirWorld colours is seen on finals for R24. The hexcode for EI-EEJ is 4CA7A2. The exact fate of the aircraft is not immediately apparent but will no doubt become clear in the coming days.

XA-GRB on fuel stop at Shannon

Mexican Bombardier Challenger 604 XA-GRB made a fuel stop at Shannon this morning. The aircraft is msn 5375. Pictured above, XA-GRB is seen taxiing for departure off R24.

VH-EJT delivered through Shannon

Australian Cessna Mustang registered VH-EJT was a surprise visitor to Shannon this morning. The aircraft which is msn 510-0214 is operated by Maxem Aviation Pty Ltd and made a fuel stop before departing to Menorca on it's next leg. The hex code extracted from the Australian register sequence should be 7C1597 for -EJT but the aircraft was transmitting US hex code A4CA11 which corresponds to N40779.

Pictured above, VH-EJT is seen taxiing for departure off R24.

Aer Lingus to add third SNN-LHR flight

Aer Lingus announced today that from October 25 next it would be adding a third Shannon - Heathrow flight to compliment the early morning and late evening flights currently operated by the airline. The additional slot had been widely predicted due to the success of the reinstated Shannon - Heathrow service which had originally been terminated in January 2008.

The new flight EIN 384 will depart Shannon at 12.45, arriving Heathrow at 14.05. The return, EIN 385 departs Heathrow at 15.15, arriving Shannon at 16.35.

N741QS performs flapless landing at Shannon

Gulftsream 200 N741QS performed a flapless landing at Shannon this evening. The aircraft msn 212 was scheduled to arrive at the airport from Tel Aviv at 14.25 utc this afternoon but on hand over to Approach Control the crew discovered a hydraulics problem which prevented the flaps being extended. After holding for over an hour in an attempt to rectify the problem the crew elected for a flapless landing having burnt off sufficient fuel to attempt the maneuver which was well inside the aircraft's flight envelope and Shannon's runway length.

At 15.46 utc the aircraft landed on R24 with the Airport Fire and Rescue Service in attendance. The crew did not declare an emergency, probably unsure of the call out charge !

N741QS was delivered through Shannon, via Halifax to the Gulfstream Completion Center in Dallas on October 10 last year as N612GA. The aircraft had been back to the Israel Aerospace factory in TA for rectification of an engine problem and was scheduled to return to the US via Shannon.

The aircraft is in Net Jets Colours but is still registered to Wells Fargo Bank Northwest so it is possible that the aircraft has yet to be handed over.

Pictured above at top, N741QS touches down on R24 and at bottom is seen on the runway with the Fire and Rescue service vehicles waiting on Taxiway Alpha.

Ryanair to cut winter capacity at Stansted by 40%

Ryanair announced today that it was cutting capacity at it's London Stansted base this winter by 40%. The airline will be moving 16 aircraft to other bases in it's network as it cuts it's Stansted base to 24 aircraft. The number of weekly flights flown from the airport will be reduced by 30% which reduce passenger numbers by 2.5m between October and March of next year.

The airline blames a number of factors for it's decision :

1. Stansted is one of the airline's two most expensive bases, the other being Dublin.

2. The decision of the UK Government to persist with the APD tax of £10 which is due to increase to £11 in November.

3. The decision by BAA to increase it's airport charges in the face of falling passenger numbers and it's delay in selling Gatwick and Stansted airports.

By naming Dublin airport as it's other most expensive base it can only be a matter of days before a similar fate befalls that airport too.

XA-GMO on fuel stop at Shannon

An interesting visitor to Shannon this evening was Cessna Citation Sovereign registered XA-GMO. The aircraft is one of the first Sovereigns built with msn 680-0004 and stopped off for fuel on it's eastbound leg. Pictured above XA-GMO is seen on finals to Shannon's R24.

Aer Lingus loses HR boss

Aer Lingus have lost HR boss Liz White to insurer Hibernian Aviva. Liz who has been with Aer Lingus since 2002 and has seen the airline through several industrial relations situations in recent years has been appointed director of People and Leadership at the insurer.

Aer Lingus announce new CEO

Aer Lingus announced today that it had appointed Christoph Müller as the airline's new CEO to succeed Dermot Mannion who resigned in April of this year. Mr. Müller (47) who will join Aer Lingus on October 1 was most recently Aviation Director at TUI Travel PLC and will also be appointed to the Aer Lingus Board.

Cristoph Müller has extensive experience in the airline industry and has held senior positions with Daimler Benz Aerospace, Lufthansa AG, DHL/ Deutsche Post and Sabena.

Colm Barrington, Aer Lingus Chairman commented, "We are delighted to announce the appointment of Christoph Mueller as our new Chief Executive. We conducted a thorough and rigorous recruitment process and have chosen a candidate with a proven track record within the aviation industry. Christoph has the experience and the skill-set to lead the Aer Lingus team through what is an unprecedented operating environment and to make the changes that are required at Aer Lingus.

Ryanair announce Norway expansion

Ryanair has announced a route expansion at two of Norway's regional airports.

Commencing October the airline will commence seven new routes to / from Rygge airport which is 50km south of Oslo. The airport will be linked to Alicante, Girona, Charleroi, Bremen, London Stansted, Milan and Madrid. the airline forecasts that the new routes will bring 500,000 passengers through Rygge Airport. A total of 35 return flights will operate from Rygge as a result of the expansion.

From September the airline will add four new routes from Torp to Lodz, Beauvais, Rome Ciampino and Krakow which will bring it's passenger figure at Torp to 1.3m. An increase of 17 flights per week will operate from Torp arising from this expansion.

UK CAA June Passenger Figures

The UK CAA has published traffic figures for June 2009.

From Dublin, Gatwick traffic which is split between Ryanair and Aer Lingus showed a 4% YoY growth at 97,184 which was roughly 10% up on the May figure. Heathrow and Stansted both showed negative trends with LHR down 14% to 140,688 passengers and Stansted (a Ryanair preserve) down 18% to 70,745. Luton was up 3% YoY at 30,782. In total, Dublin's traffic to the 'Big 4' London area airports was down 8.9% which is a smaller YoY decline than that recorded in May at 13.8%.

At Cork, Gatwick traffic was up 1% to 9,880. Heathrow was down 9% to 42,992 while Stansted, a Ryanair route was down 2% to 25,916. In total, Cork's London traffic was down 5.6% YoY for the month, again a smaller decline than the 12.6% YoY reduction noted in May.

Shannon has fared similar to Dublin and Cork with Gatwick traffic down 2% YoY at 17,158 and Stansted down 16%, to 24,781.

On the reinstated Heathrow - Shannon route, a total of 12,370 passengers were carried for the month of June as against 11,838 in May which had one more calendar day.

In Belfast City Airport, passenger numbers on the Heathrow route, for a second consecutive month bucked many months of decline on the key LHR route (a BMI domain) with numbers growing 1% YoY to 45,314.

On the Belfast City - London Gatwick route, operated by FlyBe, passenger figures are up 26% YoY at 20,304 whilst the Belfast International - Gatwick route served by easyJet is down 22% YoY to 25,173.

Aer Arann's Cork - Belfast City route saw passenger numbers drop 21% YoY to 3,082. This route may be suffering as a result of the vastly improved road network linking Belfast-Dublin and Cork which has greatly reduced the driving time between the three cities.

At Belfast International, Aer Lingus LHR figures have shown a 13% gain YoY to 23,715.

Ryanair, Aer lingus figure in TPC top 10

Aviation Week & Space Technology has published it's TPC (Top Performing Companies) ratings for 2009. The ratings cover airlines under four categories - Legacy / Mainline Carriers, Low Cost Carriers, Regional Airlines and Freight Carriers.

This year's TPC analysis is intended to give an accurate measure of the airline's financial viability, under the headings of :

Liquidity

Financial Health

Earnings Performance

Fuel Management

Asset Management

In the Low Cost Category, Ryanair scored 45 out of a possible 100 points which placed it in 6th place, 3 places ahead of rival easyJet and 4 places ahead of mentor Southwest. The category is headed by air arabia (74), Allegiant (61) and Air Mauritius(52).

In the Legacy / Mainline class, Aer Lingus scored 51 out of a possible 100 which placed it in 9th place in a category which was headed by Singapore Airlines (75), Lufthansa (65) and Malaysian Airlines (63)

The regional airlines category covers only North American regional carriers.

Ryanair to install self service payment kiosks

Ryanair has announced that it is to install self service payment kiosk at airports to allow passengers pay for services at airports. The initial roll out will see 250 kiosks installed at London's Stansted Airport with the second phase covering Frankfurt Hahn, Marseilles, Barcelona and Belfast City. In total the airline intends to install 450 kiosks throughout it's network.

The kiosks which have been developed in conjunction with Ingenico covers the payment terminal, computer hosting and pin pads and are compliant with Visa and Mastercard's guidelines for payment security.

Primera TF-JXG flight diverts to Rome

Icelandic charter operator Primera's Dublin based B737-700 registered TF-JXG was involved in a diversion to Rome's Fiumicino airport last Friday, July 3. The aircraft was operating flight JXX 362 from Zakynthos to Dublin with 153 passengers and 6 crew when the crew requested an emergency landing due to a technical problem.

Two Italian Air Force Eurofighter aircraft were scrambled to escort the aircraft. According to reports TF-JXG had made an unauthorised decent, without declaring emergency from it's cruising altitude to FL200. With the G8 summit in Rome taking place the Italian Authorities would understandably have been sensitive to unusual aircraft flight patterns. Memories of the Helios B737 which crashed in Greece in 2005 may well have also played a role in the decision to deploy the Italian Air Force in this instance.

Initially the Italian authorities requested that the flight divert to Capodichino Airport, Naples in order to keep the aircraft away from Rome and the G8 summit. The aircraft commander refused the suggestion insisting that the longer runway length in Rome was required.

After burning fuel off the west coast of Italy the aircraft landed safely at Fiumicino. Passengers were held in Rome for ten hours while a replacement aircraft was sourced. The exact nature of the technical problem has yet to be identified although some passengers reported flaps being inspected which would be consistent with the commander requesting the longer runway length which was available at Rome.

TF-JXG has 'form'. The aircraft is currently the subject of an investigation by the Irish AAIU after an in flight engine shutdown in March of this year. The aircraft had departed the Air Atlanta hangar in Shannon on March 28 last on delivery to Primera when the crew declared 'Mayday' and returned to the airport. The March incident was previously reported here at : Primera.

Turkuaz Airlines takes delivery of TC-TCF

After just over 4 months with Shannon Aerospace, A321-211, msn 775 was delivered to Turkish operator Turkuaz airlines today. The aircraft which is formerly Air Jamaica's 6Y-JME has taken up Turkish registration TC-TCF and uses hex code 4BD066 with the new operator.

Pictured above, TC-TCF is seen back tracking R24 this evening for it's departure to Istanbul.