06-Aug-2010 4:54 PM

SAS world’s most punctual carrier; British Airways premium numbers improving

European airline shares were mixed on Thursday (05-Aug-2010) as wider markets ended the day marginally lower as investors awaited the US Jul-2010 employment report. However, some airline shares performed slightly better due to another decline in oil prices (-0.6%), to USD82.01.

In key markets, UK’s FTSE (-0.4%) slipped, Germany’s DAX was flat and France’s CAC (+0.1%) rose only marginally.

easyJet and finnair report improved traffic, airberlin load falls

easyJet (+0.3%) was up marginally after reporting a 0.5 ppt year-on-year increase in load factor for Jul-2010, to 90.9%.

Elsewhere, Finnair (+0.2%) edged marginally higher as load factor rose 0.4 ppts for Jul-2010, to 82.2%, but only due to a 0.9 ppt improvement in Asia Pacific loads. Domestic, European and trans-Atlantic loads were all lower. Passenger numbers for the period also declined, down 1.2%, to 663,100. More positively, cargo traffic was up 54.4% for the month, to 11,651 tonnes.

Senior Vice President, Christer Haglund, stated growth in the carrier’s main strategy area, Asia-Europe, is “good” and it aims to further increase this performance.

Meanwhile, airberlin was flat after reporting a 2.1 ppt decline in load factor for the month, to 81.2%.

British Airways premium numbers improving

British Airways (-1.1%) declined after reporting a 0.6 ppt reduction in load factor for Jul-2010, to 84.0%, the day prior. Passenger numbers for the month also fell, down 0.4%, to 3.2 million. However, premium passenger numbers for the month rose 0.8%, indicating a possible improvement in operating revenue.

See related CAPA Profile: Traffic and Capacity

SAS world’s most punctual carrier

SAS Scandinavian Airlines was flat. The carrier announced during trading it was the world's most punctual carrier in Jul-2010 with 90.35% (14,312 of 15,840 flights) on time. In May-2010, the carrier's on-time performance was 91.30%, and 90.62% in Jul-2010. Other major European carriers OTP for Jul-2010 include:

KLM, 84.50%;
Norwegian (-0.5%), 83.25%;
Air Berlin, 72.58%;
Ryanair (-0.5%), 69.18%;
easyJet, 52.45%;
Iberia (-1.2%), 45.92%.

See related CAPA Profile: On-time performance & Delays

Elsewhere, Aegean Airlines (-2.0%) and Iberia (-1.2%) were also down for the day. Dart Group (+3.4%) was meanwhile the day’s biggest gainer, with Thomas Cook (+2.8%) and Turkish Airlines (+1.8%) also rising.

Europe selected airlines daily share price movements (% change): 05-Aug-2010