Finnair's Asian strategy 'working very well'; Air France-KLM and Aeroflot continue to gain
- Finnair's Asian strategy is successful, leading to increased opportunities and plans to expand direct services to several Asian cities.
- Air France-KLM's shares received a positive rating from Credit Suisse due to improved Sep-2010 traffic results.
- Aeroflot's shares rose as the Russian Government announced plans to privatize part of its stake in the carrier.
- Aegean Airlines and Dart Group experienced gains in their share prices.
- Norwegian and Lufthansa faced significant declines in their share prices.
- France's CAC declined due to ongoing national strike action in the country.
In summer 2011, the carrier will operate a record 74 weekly services to 10 Asian cities: Hong Kong 12 flights per week, to Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok and Singapore daily and to Delhi with six times weekly frequency.
Air France-KLM (+0.7%) was also up for the day on further analyst comments. Credit Suisse Group AG raised its rating of the airline's shares from "underperform" to "neutral", due to an improved Sep-2010 traffic results across the industry. The gain was despite a 0.7% decline in France's CAC for the day, due to continued national strike action in the country.
Elsewhere, Aeroflot (+5.3%) continued to rise on news the Russian Government plans to privatise part of its stake in the carrier. Aegean Airlines (+3.9%) and Dart Group (+1.8%) also gained. Norwegian (-3.3%) and Lufthansa (-2.5%) suffered the biggest declines of the day.
Europe selected airlines daily share price movements (% change): 18-Oct-2010
Source: Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, Yahoo! Finance & Reuters