Market News
Alaska Air Group Inc. (ALK)
Alaska Airlines (NYSE: ALK) Announces Marketing Leadership changes. Joe Sprague, a 10-year veteran at Alaska Airlines, has been named vice president of marketing. Sprague will be responsible for the carrier's overall marketing strategy as he oversees marketing communications, sales, reservations, food and beverage, customer care, the Mileage Plan frequent flier program and Board Rooms. Sprague will also retain responsibility for Alaska Air Cargo, a division he has led for the past two years.
Steve Jarvis, formerly Alaska's vice president of marketing, sales and customer experience, will assume the new role of vice president of customer innovation and alaskaair.com. In this position, Jarvis will oversee the airline's Web site and efforts across the company to continue developing customer-facing technology, such as online and mobile phone applications.
In the extraordinary juggle of airlines clamoring to stay on top and at the very least competitive, Alaska Airlines changes its marketing team and redesigns its communications and branding to stay steps ahead of the legacy carriers and in step with the LCC, low cost carriers. Even though the financial crash played a big part in the crunch of the airline industry, we are starting to see signs of re-growth with more people traveling for both business and leisure. We will continue to see innovative ways that airlines will re-brand themselves and promote themselves.
Mar 16 · 11:57:00 AM · Source: Company Press Release
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by Steve Wieczorek
Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.a. (GOL)
Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA, (NYSE:GOL), Brazil’s second-biggest airline, swung to a profit in the fourth quarter after one-time gains and an economic rebound that spurred travel, according to Business Week. Net income was 397.8 million reais ($225.5 million) in the three months ended December, compared with a restated 541.6 million reais loss a year earlier, Sao Paulo-based Gol said in a filing late yesterday.
Profit included one-time gains from foreign exchange and tax credits, Chief Executive Officer Constantino de Oliveira Jr. said on a conference call. Air travel rebounded as Latin America’s biggest economy expanded 2 percent in the quarter from the previous three months, the fastest pace in two years.
Mar 12 · 2:07:00 PM · Source: Business Week
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by Steve Wieczorek
China Southern Airlines Company (ZNH)
China Southern Airlines’ (NYSE:ZNH) shares soared 7.1% in Hong Kong to their highest level since Jun-2008 (as trading resumed after a two-week suspension), following the carrier's announcement of a much bigger than expected capital raising plan – supported by Beijing – to help it improve its balance sheet, according to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Clearly a return to profitability in 2009 and soaring rates of traffic growth in 2010 were not enough. Beijing is again dipping deeply into its pockets to support the “big three” airlines following a flawed industry consolidation programme and massive debt-fuelled expansion last decade, as well as natural disasters and wrong-way bets on derivatives in 2008 and the global economic morass of 2009.
HSBC Securities raised its rating on China Southern from “underweight” to “overweight”. Beijing is clearly keen to improve the balance sheets of its big three airlines, as the Chinese economy gets back into stride in 2010. But it is not good news for rival private airlines – and it will probably not help the "big three" over the long run. As Beijing sends around the rescue boat every few years, the state-owned carriers lack any real incentive to become efficient.
Mar 12 · 1:57:00 PM · Source: Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation
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by Steve Wieczorek
UAL Corp. (UAUA)
United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAUA) has formalized a commitment originally announced in December 2009, signing a firm order for 25 A350-900 XWB aircraft, the newest twin-engine widebody from Airbus. The aircraft will be powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines. Deliveries of the aircraft will begin in 2016 and run through 2019.
"The A350 XWB will also help us reduce fuel burn and our overall environmental footprint in comparison to older technology aircraft." said John Tague, President of United Airlines. The signing with Airbus comes on the heels of United having finalized an order for 25 Boeing 787-8 jetliners in February with an option for an additional 50 aircraft, as previously reported in MarketBeast. The Airbus and Boeing orders reflect a need to replace its fleet of outdated and expensive to operate older aircraft.
Mar 12 · 1:43:00 PM · Source: Company Press Release
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by Steve Wieczorek
Republic Airways (RJET)
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is going to court to prevent what the union says is an attempt by Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:RJET) to strip Frontier Airlines mechanics moving to Milwaukee of their union representation, according to The Business Journal.
The union’s airline division late Wednesday filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee requesting a preliminary injunction against Indianapolis-based Republic Airways — parent company for Denver-based Frontier Airlines and Midwest Airlines of Oak Creek — for allegedly abrogating its collective-bargaining contract with Frontier mechanics.
The request indicates that Republic officials intend to make Frontier mechanics at its heavy maintenance operation in Milwaukee nonunion. It requests that Frontier and Republic Airways Holdings, their officers, agents and subsidiaries maintain the status quo as it existed prior to the transfer of work from Frontier to Republic Airlines and comply with the terms of the Frontier-IBT collective bargaining agreement.
Mar 12 · 1:19:00 PM · Source: The Business Journal
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by Steve Wieczorek
Retail Sales
Retail sales rose in February, the government said Friday, surprising economists who expected a decline.
The Commerce Department said total retail sales edged up 0.3% to $355.5 billion last month. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had anticipated that February sales would drop 0.2%.
February's increase showed that Americans were still making it to the stores despite the snow and cold weather last month and customers were splurging on electronics for the Super Bowl, said Chris Donnelly, a senior executive at consulting firm Accenture.
February retail sales jumped 3.9% compared to the same month in 2009.
Mar 12 · 12:28:00 PM · Source: CNN Money
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by Michael Oliveto
AMR (AMR)
AMR (NYSE:AMR), parent company of American Airlines and American Eagle, faces a possible strike after its biggest labor bloc, the Transport Workers Union, asked federal mediators to declare a deadlock in contract negotiations, according to Investors.com. The carrier's flight attendant union said last week it'll do the same. AMR contends that talks are progressing.
In addition to the the failing talks with the TWU and the flight attendant's union, the airline's CFO Thomas Horton acknowledged that American and its pilots' union are "far apart" on a new labor contract, with American arguing that its labor costs are higher than those of rival carriers. Horton said American wants its pilot costs to be "competitive." The 2 sides are currently in negotiations overseen by a federal mediator. Fighting a war on three fronts does not leave American with the ability to really look at what is the real cost of flying. If the legacy carriers want to be competitive, it's time they reinvented and redesign their models and take the consumer into account and not just charge for everything to make-up costs due to their stuck-in-the-mud thinking.
Mar 12 · 11:46:00 AM · Source: Investors.com
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by Steve Wieczorek
Citigroup (C)
On Bloomberg this morning, Citigroup Inc. CEO Vikram Pandit said the Treasury Department will be free to sell its 27% stake in the bank starting next week and that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the government were considering a sale. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they would actively think about something,” given where the stock is trading, he said.
The stock closed yesterday @ $ 4.18. The past few days have seen massive volume, an average of 1.2 billion shares. The Treasury was caught napping last October when the stock traded @ $5.00. They could have made a move to sell it all then, for a $13 billion profit!
Mar 12 · 8:28:00 AM
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by Jerry Byrne
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