Aegean Airlines forced to cancel flights; TUI net income plummets; Lufthansa, Air France-KLM gain
Aegean Airlines (-1.9%) was among the biggest falls in another day of mixed trading for European airline shares on Tuesday (14-Dec-2010). The carrier fell after cancelling all flights for 15-Dec-2010, due to a planned 24-hour strike by Greek civil aviation staff and air traffic controllers, as part of a general strike.
See related CAPA Profile: Air Traffic Control
TUI net income plummets
TUI Travel (-0.6%) slipped after TUI AG reported a 44.9% year-on-year decline in net profit for the 12 months ended 30-Sep-2010 to EUR113.6 million. The result came on a 15.1% fall in revenue, to EUR16,350 million.
TUI Travel's revenue was also down, falling 1.4% to EUR15,728 million. However, the company's underlying sector EBITDA was up 10.7% to EUR506.0 million.
See related CAPA Profile: Financial Results
Finnair (-2.4%) and Air Berlin (-2.3%) were also down for the day.
Cimber Sterling narrows losses
Cimber Sterling (+0.6%) made a marginal gain for the day, after narrowing its loss for the three months ended 31-Oct-2010 to EUR93,917, compared with a loss of EUR3.9 million in the previous corresponding period. It also reported an operating loss of EUR295,169 compared with a loss of EUR5.6 million in p-c-p.
The result was on a 29% year-on-year improvement in revenue for the quarter to EUR73.4 million. Operating costs were up 26% for the period to EUR46.3 million.
Cimber's yield also rose for the quarter, up 9.4% to EUR 12.48 cents, on a 7.1% increase in revenue per ASK to EUR 8.05 cents.
Despite the improved 2Q2010-11 results, Cimber reiterated its previous forecast of an EBIT loss of DKK20-80 million (EUR2.7-) before special items
Lufthansa, Air France-KLM gain on Credit Suisse upgrade
Lufthansa (+1.7%) and Air France-KLM (+1.4%) were among the biggest gainers for the session after upgrades of their shares from Credit Suisse Group AG. Both were upgraded from "neutral" to "outperform".
Turkish Airlines (+4.0%) and Dart Group (+3.9%) also rose.
Europe selected airlines daily share price movements (% change): 14-Dec-2010
Source: Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, Yahoo! Finance and Reuters