It’s been a very slow start to the week with no major breakout stories taking place.
However, when lots of little developments occur it always makes for a good Aviation
News Weekly which has now turned almost daily given one was also published yesterday.
With that being said for plane spotting images and general discussion feel free to head Over
to my Twitter which is @djsaviation.
Beginning today aviation newsweekly with some dire financial results over at Delta who announced
their Q3 results which are pretty bleak, this is something you’d be already able to imagine
however now we have firm confirmed with the numbers it truly highlights that.
Delta has announced a pre-tax loss of some US 6.9 billion on revenue that totals at US
3.1 billion.
However, with an adjusted pre-tax loss of US 2.6 billion.
Ultimately the adjusted revenue which is at US 2.6 billion Is a decline of 79% over the
prior year.
Delta is slowly improving over their Q2 results, however, the situation is still as mentioned
earlier bleak.
It’s not an exactly pleasant position that they find themselves in to say the least.
The carrier is lucky though that it has something a number of airlines aren’t able to have
and that's a solid amount of liquidity which stands currently at the end of the September
quarter so Q3 at US 21.6 billion.
However, cash burn each day averaged at US 24 million for Q3 together but just for each
day in September it was at US 18 million.
Delta also provided a spreadsheet that highlights when specific types will be leaving the fleet
and at the time of recording and time of the press release how many of each is remaining.
The carrier will have phased out some 383 aircraft come the end of 2025 with aircraft
types like the 777, 767, MD-90, A320, CRJ-200, and more all on the chopping board in order
to keep the airline as efficient as possible moving forward with the adjusted demand.
The Delta CEO said While our September quarter results demonstrate the magnitude of the pandemic
on our business, we have been encouraged as more customers travel and we are seeing a
path of progressive improvement in our revenues, financial results, and daily cash burn.
The actions we are taking now to take care of our people, simplify our fleet, improve
the customer experience, and strengthen our brand will allow Delta to accelerate into
a post-COVID recovery.
Lufthansa has announced some changes to its winter timetable which runs through to the
end of March in 2021 and this will see 4 Airbus A350-900s that are parked be brought back
to life to serve destinations in the United States from its hub in Frankfurt.
These flights that will see the a350 are replacing the Boeing 747-8 which would’ve been flying
these routes for the period of time as mentioned through to March of 2021.
Finally, on top of this, the A350 will also be placed on the Frankfurt to Tokyo service
in place of the A340.
Decisions that while highlighting the return of some services for nationals and permitting
restrictions on international travel the absentees are the likes of the A340 which has been retired
and the 747-8, which while is staying on is deemed like the A340 and A380 as not the most
efficient option for these services moving forward, especially in a tike where the global
pandemic is very present.
The A350 fleet consists of 16 Munich based aircraft, however, as they note in their press
release due to the massive reduction in travel demand they will initially fly short of half
of that, at just 7 A350s out of Munich to North America and Asia.
Moving across to now the Canadian aviation sector, there’s been an update surrounding
the purchase of Air Transit by Air Canada.
This was announced back in June of 2019 and at the time Air Canda was going to be paying
some 13 dollars per share with a total purchase price of around 520 million dollars.
However, that was only their initial offer and this was eventually upped to some 720
million with them paying 18 dollars per share.
With the global pandemic now impacting things greatly Air Canada is saving quite a lot of
money.
They’ll be wiping some 8 dollars off each share from their initial for Air Transit and
now pay $5 per share with a total value of the purchase of Air Transit being at 190 million.
The negotiations are natural as Air Canada had not actually finalized the deal so there
was always going to be room for things to adjust, however, without the global pandemic
I think personally it’d be pretty safe to assume that the savings naturally would not
amount to what they have done.
The Air Canada CEO commented on the deal saying the following in a press release COVID-19
has had a devastating effect on the global airline industry, with a material impact on
the value of airlines and aviation assets.
This combination will provide stability for Transat’s operations and its stakeholders
and will position Air Canada, and indeed the Canadian aviation industry, to emerge more
strongly as we enter the post-COVID-19 world.
It’s a move that seems to benefit Air Canada and obviously the staff at Air Transat as
many would ponder just how the airline would survive by itself.
As for how Air Canada uses this new acquisition is still remains to be seen officially but
if you have any thoughts don't hesitate to drop them below.
Moving back to Australia, the country has announced that its planning on remaining closed
essentially at the most for another year, that meaning they’ll keep all international
borders closed through to the end of 2021 while allowing citizens coming back home in
gradually but again that will depend greatly on the caps being set and the actual ability
for passengers to get back home.
The country closed its borders back in March of 2020.
Travel bubbles are likely though going to occur between the likes of Australia and New
Zealand but other than that say tourists coming from America or Europe will be refused entry.
Thank you very much once again for the continued support you’ve been showing here on the
channel and especially on Aviation News Weekly, I do quite enjoy making this type of video
for you all so just by you tuning in and nothing else it does mean a lot.
I hope you’re all continuing to stay safe and so on, if you ever need someone to talk
to you’re more than welcome to drop me a tweet or email and Ill get back to you as
soon as I can.