Delta First to Announce Q2 Earnings, Posts “Profit”
Delta Air Lines is the first U.S. airline to release its Q2 financials, and the airline announced it turned a profit for the first time since 2019… thanks to federal aid covering the majority of its payroll costs.
Q2 ended up $652 million in the black for Delta as total revenue smashed expectations coming in at $7.13 billion vs. a forecast of $6.22 billion. Delta actually posted a loss of $881 million when it excludes the $1.5 billion in payroll assistance it received from the government. Capacity in Q2 was down 32% when compared to Q2 2019, and it expects Q3 to be down between 28 and 30% from two years ago.
Expenses were down to $6.3 billion, a 43% drop from 2019. Savings came mainly from an $811 million reduction in fuel expense and 34% reduction in maintenance expenses. Much of the fuel savings are tied to having less weight on its airplanes due to the airline removing crazy passengers who try and start fights on-board.
Delta closes the quarter with $17.8 billion in liquidity, most of which is tied up in Biscoff and Woodford Reserve futures. The airline has debt and lease obligations of $29.1 billion, nothing it can’t pawn off on Virgin Atlantic or LATAM if it feels like it.
Flydubai Reduces MAX Order by 65 Aircraft
Flydubai, which had about 250 B737 MAX aircraft on order from Boeing, reduced its order by 65 this week after coming to an undisclosed agreement with the manufacturer. The airline made the decision to reduce its order due to a slowdown in its growth strategy related to the pandemic.
Flydubai exclusively operates the B737 and placed orders in 2013 and 2017 for a combined 250 MAX aircraft – 130 MAX 8s, 70 MAX 9s, and 50 MAX 10s. The airline has already taken delivery of 16 planes from the order — including two MAX 8s last month — with 11 more expected to be delivered before the end of the year. The decision comes after the airline announced a loss of $194 million for its 2020 fiscal year which ended in May. And apparently flydubai is one airline that actually minds losing money.
Flydubai’s current fleet consists of just over 50 planes. When delivery of this order is completed, even with the reduction of 65 planes, it will still have over 200 – four times what it has now.
Air Arabia to Launch Flag Carrier for Armenia
United Arab Emirates-based Air Arabia signed an agreement with a state-owned investment group in Armenia to establish a joint venture to become a flag carrier in the country.
The new airline does not yet have a name, but the government will pick a name from a list of proposals submitted by Armenian citizens through August 14. Anyone who’s been on the fence about earning Armenian citizenship and who’s also wanted to name a start up airline has a golden opportunity on their hands. Despite the contest to name the airline, the country is expected to go with the obvious choice of Airmenia. They can thank us later.
Airmenia will be based out of Yerevan (EVN) and will take on an LCC structure. Because it does want to fly at some point, the airline will wisely begin its campaign for an AOC soon. The last state-owned flag carrier in the country was Armenian Airways which went out of business in 2003, mostly because people were mad it wasn’t named Airmenia.
KLM’s Caribbean and South American Network Back to 2019 Levels
KLM has resumed flying to the Caribbean and to South America at the same levels from prior to the pandemic with 17 destinations seeing service and two more — Port of Spain (POS) and Bridgetown (BGI) — to be added this winter.
Of the 17 destinations KLM operated to in 2019, 15 are the same. Havana and Fortaleza, Brazil (FOR) are currently suspended, and have been replaced by San Jose and Liberia in Costa Rica after a deal was struck for the Costa Rican government to buy all the tiny, liquor-filled Delft houses for KLM’s business class passengers on the flights. Both destinations were seasonal prior to the pandemic but have been increased to year-round service.
Much of the frequency from KLM to the Caribbean operates to the ABC islands: Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao. The airline operates 24 weekly round trips total to the self-governing constituent countries of the Netherlands.
On-Board Food Sales Returning to BA
British Airways is bringing back the option to buy food and drink on-board from its website during flight for departures from London/Heathrow with the exception of flights it deems “express routes,” which includes flights to Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Paris, UK destinations, and whatever else it damn well pleases.
The option is for drinks and shelf-stable food options. More hearty meal options will still need to be ordered ahead of time from BA’s website. Regardless of if food is ordered on-board the aircraft or ahead of time, passengers can expect to be disappointed in bland taste and mediocre quality of the on-board offerings.
The new ordering system is available on BA’s website accessed on mobile devices through in-flight WiFi. Options to purchase from flight attendants during service are not yet available as they will be busy explaining to pre-paid customers why their option wasn’t catered.
- Air Astana earned a profit of $4.9 million for the first half of 2021.
- Allegiant flew 2.3% more passengers in June 2021 than it did in June 2019.
- American has asked its flight attendants to stop leaving cash tips for hotel staff during layovers in Sydney because a handful of new COVID-19 cases have been traced to hard money changing hands in New South Wales.
- Austrian had its state aid from the Austrian government upheld as the European General Court threw out Ryanair and Laudamotion’s suit against the aid.
- Comair – the South African version – is looking for a cash infusion to sustain the business while it remains grounded through at least August 31.
- Delta has relocated from Terminal B to Terminal A in Burbank.
- flyDubai is adding 3x-weekly service to Sohag (HMB) beginning July 25 via Sharm El Sheikh (SSH).
- Global Crossing signed a lease for a fourth aircraft – an A320-214.
- SAS‘s Irish subsidiary resumed passenger operations.
- SCAT Airlines added its first B737-800 aircraft.
Who spends an entire party in the bathroom? A party-pooper.