Air France-KLM tips

Aviation investors will have to wait a little bit longer to get a piece of TAP Air Portugal. The carrier’s long-awaited privatization is delayed up to a year following the recent sudden resignation of Portugal’s prime minister.

Late last year, SAS said it would leave the Star Alliance group of airlines – but it didn’t say exactly when or how. 

KLM generated 12.1 billion euros in revenues in 2023, with operational profits of 650 million euros. This is a record turnover despite profits being under pressure compared to 2022.

As one of Europe’s largest airline supergroups, what’s happening at Air France-KLM matters.

Atlanta will have a new transatlantic option this summer. From June 17, SAS Scandinavian Airlines will fly nonstop daily between Copenhagen and the Georgia hub. The timing of the announcement is notable for one main reason. 

As part of the expanded partnership announced in September 2023, Air France-KLM and Etihad Airways customers now have access to more than 60 new routes beyond Abu Dhabi, Paris and Amsterdam.

Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss looks forward to a good winter. Bookings are strong and leisure travelers, especially those paying top dollar for the seats in the pointy end of the plane, are eager to travel to the airline’s many warm-weather destinations.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, October 4. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Portugal’s Finance Minister Fernando Medina kicked off the long-awaited sale of TAP Air Portugal Thursday with the announcement that the government would sell a 51% stake in the state-owned airline to the highest bidder.

Air France-KLM will add up to 90 new long-range Airbus A350 aircraft to its fleet in the coming years, under an order unveiled Monday.

Portugal’s flag carrier TAP said on Wednesday that it swung to a net profit of $25 million (23 million euros) in the first half of 2023 on strong revenue growth, boosted by booming tourism, and forecast a strong performance for the remainder of the year.

Aviation contributes only about 3 percent of the greenhouse gases that worsen climate change, but airplanes don’t have good options to switch away from hydrocarbons. So aviation risks becoming a target for anger among green activists, threatening the long-term viability of mass-market leisure flights.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, November 17. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, November 29. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

The Lufthansa Group has made an offer to buy a 40 percent stake in Italy’s state-owned ITA Airways, it said Wednesday. The bid comes after a multi-year process, or “beauty contest” as it has been called, to find a strategic partner for ITA, and a dramatic change of fortune for Lufthansa after being counted out last August.

The head of Air France-KLM hit out on Thursday at a Dutch decision to cut airline slots at Amsterdam’s Schiphol to reduce air and noise pollution, saying it disrupted planning for the arrival of efficient new jets better able to curb emissions.

Portugal’s government has sacked the CEO of the state-owned airline TAP in the wake of a scandal involving an irregular severance payment of €500,000 ($532,945) to a former executive board member, finance minister Fernando Medina said on Monday.

Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport plans to cut late-night flights as part of attempts to reduce noise pollution, newspaper Het Parool reported on Monday, citing the airport’s CEO.

Blaming Twitter for changing its terms and conditions, Air France said on Friday it would stop offering customer support via the social media platform’s direct messages for its accounts worldwide. KLM, a sister brand, has yet to make a similar move.

Global aviation leasing watchdog Aviation Working Group — that monitors leasing and financing laws on behalf of planemakers and lessors — has placed India on a watchlist with a negative outlook. Citing India’s failure to comply with international aircraft repossession norms after cash-strapped airline Go First was granted bankruptcy protection, the UK-based entity’s outlook falls under the Cape Town Convention, an international treaty on plane repossessions. India’s score has been reduced to 3 from 3.5 earlier. The move could translate into higher leasing costs for other Indian carriers. India’s inability to process deregistration applications for aircraft, whose leases got terminated before a freeze was imposed, resulted in a negative outlook, the watchdog said in a notice. Go First’s lessors include SMBC Aviation Capital, CDB Aviation’s GY Aviation Leasing, Jackson Square Aviation and Bank of China Aviation. The inability to repossess Go First’s planes in a timely manner comes as Indian air travel is booming and local carriers, which regularly turn to lessors to help finance plane purchases, have ordered hundreds of new jets. Go First filed for bankruptcy protection last week, blaming “faulty” Pratt & Whitney engines for the grounding of about half its 54 Airbus A320neos. The airline is only the latest — after the failures of Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines — struggling to stay afloat in an increasingly competitive market.

Lufthansa finally has a deal. For ITA Airways that is, and according to reports.