Pinnacle Airlines Corp. reported increases in March traffic for its Colgan and Pinnacle Airline subsidiaries. Both companies reported an increase in passenger traffic: Pinnacle’s passenger count increased 1 percent to 888,206 while Colgan’s count grew 15 percent to 224,649 passengers flown.
Hawaiian Airlines exceeded analyst’ estimates in the first quarter and posted a profit of $23.5 million. A 44.9 percent year-over-year decline in fuel prices more than offset weaker demand for Hawaii vacations.
Yesterday I picked up the latest edition of Plane & Pilot Magazine and came across a great article about flying the Diamond DA40 Diamond Star. The Diamond Star has always been an airplane on the cutting edge of aircraft design. It has continued to evolve since its original certification over a decade ago. The DA40 now comes with an all glass cockpit – thanks to its Garmin 1000 avionics package – which is as advanced as any I have used in today’s modern airliners.
AirTran last week reported its highest first-quarter profit ever at $28.7 million and projected a profit for every quarter this year. On Friday AirTran announced that it is recalling all of the remaining pilots and flight attendants it had furloughed in 2008.
JetBlue Airways posted a first-quarter profit of $12 million, compared to a net loss of $10 million in the year-ago period, and predicted it will “earn a profit every quarter this year.” AirTran Airways posted a company record first-quarter profit of $28.7 million, reversed from a $35.4 million loss in the same period a year ago, signaling “the first steps in a long recovery for our company and our industry,” Chairman, President and CEO Bob Fornaro said.
As the airline industry returns to profitibility and begins to expand, there will be new oppurtunities for those who are trained and ready to take advantage of them. Look to the regional carriers to lead the way back to prosperity though according to Andrew Snyder of Today’s Financial News.
Allegiant Air reported a first-quarter profit of $28.3 million, nearly three times the $9.7 million earned in the year-ago period. “We held our own in a challenging revenue environment, more than offsetting fare weakness with increased load factors,” CFO and MD-Planning Andrew Levy said. “At the right price we continue to find strong demand for our product.”
ATP welcomes three of its Airline Career Pilot Program Graduates as new CFIs:
Skywest Inc., the parent company of Skywest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, reported that despite the cancellation of 750 flights this quarter it will report a first-quarter profit of $4.5-7.5 million dollars.
Bucking the trend of storing planes in the desert while riding out the global recession, American Airlines introduced the first of 76 new Boeing 737s it has just purchased. The new aircraft will fly on dozens of routes passing through Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.