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Alaska lays out a logical framework to buy Hawaiian, will regulators push back?
07-Dec-2023

Alaska lays out a logical framework to buy Hawaiian, will regulators push back?

Although Alaska Air Group’s decision to acquire, and merge with, Hawaiian Airlines took many by surprise, the reality is that Alaska’s management has always taken a quietly adept approach to managing its business and looking for strategic opportunities. 

Alaska’s relatively smooth integration with Virgin America during the past decade, after the close of their merger, serves as a reliable framework for Alaska’s acquisition of Hawaiian, pending regulatory approval, which is a major wildcard. 

In a US market where scale is increasingly important outside certain niche airline models, Alaska is moving to ensure its relevance for the future, and Hawaiian attains a certain level of sustainability that was arguably not otherwise achievable. 

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EasyJet returns to annual profit, but lags Ryanair on growth and margin
11-Dec-2023

EasyJet returns to annual profit, but lags Ryanair on growth and margin

EasyJet returned to profit in the year ended Sep-2023 after suffering losses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its FY2023 revenue was 28% above that reported for FY2019. However, its profitability – both in absolute numbers and in terms of margins – did not match its performance in its last pre-pandemic year, in FY2019.

EasyJet remains one of Europe's leading airline groups, and the continent's number two low cost carrier after Ryanair. However, its seat share on intra-Europe routes is lower in 2023 than in 2019. Moreover, while Ryanair has resumed its pre-pandemic growth path, easyJet is not yet back to its 2019 passenger numbers.

Ryanair was approximately 50% bigger than easyJet by passenger numbers before the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas it now has more than twice easyJet's traffic.

Unit cost and unit revenue have risen for all operators since COVID-19. However, easyJet now has only a 7% discount to Lufthansa Group's network airlines' revenue per passenger on Europe routes, compared with Ryanair's discount of 36%.

Ryanair's low costs and low fares are not only driving stronger traffic, but also better profit margins than easyJet.

Premium Analysis
Ferrovial offloads London Heathrow stake – part two: 'fully committed' to airports business and UK
11-Dec-2023

Ferrovial offloads London Heathrow stake – part two: 'fully committed' to airports business and UK

London’s Heathrow Airport was once steeped in glamour, as businesspeople, captains of industry and ‘celebrities’ waltzed in and out, transferring from limousines to classic aircraft like the Boeing 707, 747, Vickers VC10 and Concorde. If you weren’t one of them you would regularly rub shoulders with them.

But just as the airline industry lost its glamour completely to the new wave of mass travel on ‘low cost’ airlines, Heathrow has become, despite some reasonable investment, run of the mill. More Walmart than Harrods.

And that has taken place during decades when public ownership was transferred to the private sector – one that might be expected to ensure its assets were draped in ‘luxury’ (as many publicly owned Middle East airports are today).

The nature of that ownership at Heathrow has changed dramatically from public, to public floatation, and then to full private sector ownership, with 90% of it in foreign hands.

The recent transfer of Ferrovial’s 25% stake (yet to be ratified) to a French private equity firm and the Saudi sovereign wealth fund has emphasised that foreign ownership in Heathrow, and in other London airports, and throughout many other sectors in the UK,  and it has prompted a strong reaction in the UK media.

This is part two of a two-part report.

Premium Analysis
Ferrovial offloads London Heathrow stake – part one: 90% ownership remains in foreign hands
08-Dec-2023

Ferrovial offloads London Heathrow stake – part one: 90% ownership remains in foreign hands

London’s Heathrow Airport was once steeped in glamour, as businesspeople, captains of industry and ‘celebrities’ waltzed in and out, transferring from limousines to classic aircraft like the Boeing 707, 747, Vickers VC10 and Concorde. If you weren’t one of them you would regularly rub shoulders with them.

But just as the airline industry lost its glamour completely to the new wave of mass travel on ‘low cost’ airlines, Heathrow has become, despite some reasonable investment, run of the mill. More Walmart than Harrods.

And that has taken place during decades when public ownership was transferred to the private sector – one that might be expected to ensure its assets were draped in ‘luxury’ (as many publicly owned Middle East airports are today).

The nature of that ownership at Heathrow has changed dramatically from public, to public floatation, and then to full private sector ownership, with 90% of it in foreign hands.

The recent transfer of Ferrovial’s 25% stake (yet to be ratified) to a French private equity firm and the Saudi sovereign wealth fund has emphasised that foreign ownership in Heathrow, and in other London airports, and throughout many other sectors in the UK,  and it has prompted a strong reaction in the UK media.

This is part one of a two-part report.

Premium Analysis
ANA faces macroeconomic and fleet challenges in next stage of recovery
06-Dec-2023

ANA faces macroeconomic and fleet challenges in next stage of recovery

All Nippon Airways (ANA) expects Japanese outbound traffic will continue to recover slowly through 2024, although the airline’s plans for next year (2024) have been complicated by fleet availability issues.

Japan’s outbound travel was an important traffic flow for many airlines before the COVID-19 pandemic, so it has been closely watched during the post-pandemic period. It has not rebounded as quickly as in other markets, and a full return to 2019 levels is not expected to occur until well into 2024.

The Japanese government was slower than others to remove travel restrictions, and there was also some early reluctance in Japan to travel abroad. However, both these constraints have eased, and the main influence on demand now is the higher cost of travel.

Some overseas markets, such as Hawaii, are performing more strongly, and this is a positive sign for the overall international outlook.

ANA faces the extra problem of grounded aircraft due to the Pratt & Whitney engine issues that are affecting many airlines around the world. This impacts domestic more than international services for ANA, although it is occurring just when the airline is looking to ramp up its overall capacity and improve its earnings.

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Granada: CAPA Airline Leader Summit - Airlines in Transition 2024

The lead event in CAPA’s 2024 global summit series, the Airline Leader Summit - Airlines in Transition examines the most challenging aspects of the global aviation recovery as air travel exits the pandemic era.

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The CAPA Airline Leader Summit - Americas is part of CAPA’s benchmark regional summit series, exploring the key strategic issues facing airlines, airports, and the wider travel industry in North America.

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AirAsia Berhad, CEO, Riad Asmat, at the CAPA Asia Aviation Summit 2023
Recorded at CAPA Asia Aviation Summit & Sustainability Awards, 2-3 Nov 2023

AirAsia Berhad, CEO, Riad Asmat, at the CAPA Asia Aviation Summit 2023

AirAsia Berhad, CEO, Riad Asmat, spoke to CAPA TV at the CAPA Australia Pacific Aviation Summit 2023 in Brisbane about latest industry trends and company developments. 

CAPA Events are hosted in key markets around the world and attract the highest calibre of thought leaders and decision makers in the aviation and travel industry. Delegates are provided with unprecedented access to the latest data, insights and trends from our global team, in addition to valuable networking opportunities with executives across all sectors of the aviation and travel industry. Review CAPA’s full events calendar here.   

Latest News Headlines

115 news items were published to CAPA Members in the past two days. What could you be missing?
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Alaska Air Group and Hawaiian Airlines entered (03-Dec-2023) a definitive agreement under which Alaska Airlines will acquire Hawaiian Airlines for USD18 per share in cash for a transaction value of approximately USD1.9 billion. Features of the acquisition will include:

  • The combined airline will maintain both Alaska Air and Hawaiian Air brands while integrating into a single operating platform;
  • The combined organisation will be based in Seattle under the leadership of Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci;
  • The airline will serve 138 destinations with a fleet of 365 aircraft;
  • Honolulu will become a "key" Alaska Airlines hub;
  • The company will maintain and grow union represented jobs in Hawaii, including preserving pilot, flight attendant, and maintenance bases in Honolulu and airport operations and cargo throughout the state;
  • No anticipated material impact on long term balance sheet metrics with return to target leverage levels expected within 24 months.

Hawaiian Airlines president and CEO Peter Ingram said: "In Alaska Airlines, we are joining an airline that has long served Hawaii, and has a complementary network and a shared culture of service. With the additional scale and resources that this transaction with Alaska Airlines brings, we will be able to accelerate investments in our guest experience and technology, while maintaining the Hawaiian Airlines brand". The acquisition is conditioned on required regulatory approvals, approval by Hawaiian Holdings shareholders and other customary closing conditions, with closing expected between Dec-2024 and Jun-2025. [more - original PR - Alaska Airlines] [more - original PR - Hawaiian Airlines]

SAS confirmed (30-Nov-2023) it "intends to eventually exit the Star Alliance and join the SkyTeam Alliance, of which Air France-KLM is a founding member". The carrier stated: "This move towards a partnership with SkyTeam determines a clear path forward for the company", and expects to "be able to further enhance SAS' offerings for the benefit of our colleagues, customers and communities" as a result. SAS noted "nothing is changing immediately", and it is still part of Star Alliance. [more - original PR]

CAPA - Centre for Aviation announced (29-Nov-2023) the following winners of the CAPA Aviation Awards for Excellence at the CAPA World Aviation Summit & Awards for Excellence in Abu Dhabi on 28/29-Nov-2023:

SunExpress CEO Max Kownatzki, speaking at the CAPA World Aviation Summit & Awards for Excellence, stated (28-Nov-2023) "We've been profitable for three years in a row and will have one of the best results in 2023".

Air Serbia announced (29-Nov-2023) plans to host the CAPA 2024 World Aviation Summit, together with the City of Belgrade. CAPA Airline Leader Summit World & Awards for Excellence will take place on 21/22-Nov-2024, bringing together more than 250 global leaders from the aviation industry, including CEOs and high ranking representatives of the most significant global and regional airlines, airports, and other participants in the passenger and cargo air transport, tourism, and conference travel sectors from around 40 countries. [more - original PR - English/Serbian]

Etihad Airways announced (29-Nov-2023) plans to deploy A380 equipment on one of two daily New York JFK frequencies from 22-Apr-2024. The other daily flight will be operated with Boeing 787-9 featuring first, business and economy cabins. The introduction of the A380 marks a significant enhancement to Etihad's capacity in the US market, connecting to the broader GCC and Indian subcontinent. It will further attract an increased number of visitors to Abu Dhabi. The US route becomes the second destination after London to enjoy the remarkable A380 experience. The aircraft offers economy, business and first class seats, as well as a three room suite. [more - original PR]

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CAPA-Envest Global Airline Sustainability Benchmarking & Rating Report 2023

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