Buenos Aires Ministro Pistarini Airport

Qantas in a changing world: quantifies refocused international strategy and limits capital exposure

Qantas' withdrawal from a series of international routes promises the single largest benefit to its loss-making international division, delivering AUD100-120 million (USD101-122 million) in annual benefits, with the majority to be realised in FY2013. But with the international division reporting a loss of AUD216 million (USD219 million) in FY2012, Qantas will continue to operate a number of unprofitable routes, primarily to Europe and Asia.

Qantas expects to reduce those losses through the reconfiguration of its Boeing 747-400 and A380 fleets, which when complete towards the second half of FY2014 will deliver AUD70-90 million (USD71-91 million) of benefits annually. Qantas previously put those retrofit changes at a cost of AUD400 million (USD406 million). They include reconfiguring nine 747-400s to have no first class while 12 A380s have a reduced number of business class seats but more economy and premium economy seats.

Aeromexico continues to build partnerships outside SkyTeam

Aeromexico’s new codeshare agreement with Brazilian carrier TAM represents the second agreement Mexico’s largest carrier has signed with a non-SkyTeam carrier in the last two months. The partnerships reflect the need for both Star and SkyTeam carriers to access key markets in Latin and Central America that are not available through their respective alliance partners.

The Avianca-TACA relationship with Aeromexico, announced in Mar-2012, was surprising given that the Kriete family, which is a main shareholder in Avianca-TACA, is also a major holder in Aeromexico’s competitor Volaris. But Aeromexico has been pursuing a tie-up with Colombia’s largest carrier, Avianca, since it started Mexico City-Bogota flights in 2010. The chance was brushed aside once Avianca-TACA opted to join the Star Alliance, but now the agreement will include more connections than just Bogota as Avianca-TACA cited an ability to partner with Aeromexico on flights to Central and South America during the second half of this year.

United continues international network shifts and drops service to Accra in Ghana

United is moving international capacity around its largest hubs in what appears to be an effort to maximise its network now that a crucial passenger service system cutover is complete. The IT system cutover allows United and Continental, whose merger is now complete, to fully utilise the combined networks and properly cross-fleet to operate optimal-sized aircraft in United’s markets. One of the more prominent changes is the elimination of flights from United’s Washington Dulles hub to Accra, which was the carrier’s first point in Africa when the route was launched in 2010. Other changes include the seasonal elimination of flights from Washington to Moscow and from Newark to Rome.

The changes will support an overall revised capacity forecast for United this year. The carrier has refined its 2012 capacity guidance from an overall decrease of 0.5% to 1.5%, compared with a previous estimate of between growth of 0.5% and a drop of 0.5%. United’s international capacity is now projected to grow this year by 0.3% to 1.3%, but some of that will be driven by new long-haul flights from Washington Dulles to Doha beginning in May, followed by Dulles to Manchester and Dublin.

MAS will achieve its targeted 12% capacity reduction by February, to the delight of Gulf carriers

Gulf carriers and AirAsia will likely emerge as the main beneficiaries of the network restructuring at Malaysia Airlines (MAS). The Malaysian flag carrier has selected several routes to discontinue by early next month, resulting in a 12% reduction in system-wide capacity as it begins implementing its new business plan.

Aerolineas Argentinas continues to struggle as government protection from competition increases

Argentina’s aviation market has taken another step backwards as the country’s Government continues to come up with new measures aimed at protecting struggling flag carrier Aerolineas Argentinas. Aerolineas, which has not yet completed the restructuring it started three years ago after the carrier was renationalised, faces another challenging year while Latin America’s other leading carriers prosper without any government subsidies or protection.

In the latest example of protectionism, Argentinean civil aviation authorities last month decided to revoke LAN Argentina’s permits to operate international flights from Buenos Aires’ downtown airport, Aeroparque Jorge Newbery. LAN is vehemently protesting the decision on the grounds the Chile-based airline group, which has had an affiliate in Argentina since 2005, is being unfairly discriminated against. LAN currently operates two important international business routes from Aeroparque, Santiago and Sao Paulo Guarulhos.

Aerolineas Argentinas focuses on fixing highly unprofitable long-haul operation

Aerolineas Argentinas plans to pursue further capacity and fleet expansion as the renationalised carrier enters the next phase of its transformation. Aerolineas, however, has had to push back expectations for returning to profitability until at least 2H2012. With a highly unprofitable international operation and a roughly break-even domestic business, Aerolineas now stands alone in Latin America as the only loss-making major carrier in the region.