Easyjet : U2 : EZY..

easyJet : trafic passagers en hausse de 4,3% en juin

LONDRES, 6 août 2009 (AFP)

La compagnie aérienne britannique easyJet a vu son trafic progresser de 4,3% en juillet par rapport au même mois de 2008, à 4,661 millions de passagers, a-t-elle annoncé jeudi dans un communiqué.

2009 AFP

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La compagnie aérienne britannique easyJet a vu son trafic progresser de 5,3% en septembre par rapport au même mois de 2008, à 4,422 millions de passagers, a-t-elle annoncé mardi dans un communiqué.

...
EasyJet will launch 25 new routes this winter: Manchester to Marrakech (Oct. 29), Copenhagen and Munich (both Nov.6); Basel-Dusseldorf (Nov. 2); Liverpool to Fuerteventura (Nov. 2) and Lanzarote (Nov. 3); Lyon to Nantes (Nov. 2) and Brussels (Dec. 17); Rome Fiumicino to Lamezia, Amsterdam, Lisbon (all Nov. 2) and Dusseldorf (Feb. 1); Madrid-AMS (Nov. 2); London Gatwick to Porto (Nov. 2), Agadir (Nov. 4), Dusseldorf and Hamburg (both Feb. 2); London Luton to Tel Aviv (Nov. 2), Sharm El Sheikh (Nov. 3) and Paphos (Nov. 4); London Stansted-Fuerteventura (Nov. 4); Geneva to CPH (Dec. 12), Sharm El Sheikh and Toulouse (Dec. 15); Edinburgh-Lyon (Dec. 17).
...

LONDRES, 4 mars 2010 (AFP)La compagnie aérienne à bas coûts britannique easyJet a transporté 3,39 millions de passagers en février, soit 12,3% de plus qu'au même mois de 2009, a-t-elle annoncé jeudi dans un communiqué.

March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Airbus SAS, deciding whether to replace the engines on its best-selling A320 jets with more fuel-efficient ones, is debating whether it would be too expensive and not save enough to satisfy airline customers.

“Even inside Airbus, you have people saying, ‘Why spend money when we are earning so much money with the current airplane?’” Louis Gallois, chief executive officer of European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co., said at a New York briefing with reporters yesterday. “It’s a bestseller,” he said, so the choice “is not an easy one.”

Airbus and Boeing Co., whose respective A320 and 737 models dominate the commercial aerospace market, say they will decide this year whether to offer existing models with new engines that are about 15 percent more fuel efficient than current ones. The planemakers risk lowering the value of their total backlog of 4,500 narrow-body aircraft by putting better- performing versions on the market.

Still, it would give the two a product to compete with jets being developed by smaller rivals including Bombardier Inc. and China’s state-owned company, Comac, until they introduce their own all-new narrow-body planes. Bombardier’s CSeries and Comac’s C919 would offer engines that may boost fuel efficiency 15 percent, and Toulouse, France-based Airbus and Chicago-based Boeing have said they won’t sell new narrow-body models until the mid-2020s.

Some customers want a new plane sooner. US Airways Group Inc. will begin taking delivery of 54 Airbus aircraft by 2013 and doesn’t expect planes with the new engines to be available by then, said James Olson, a spokesman for the airline.

Justifying the Cost
“It’s up to the manufacturers to figure out whether they can put an engine on that can produce the savings required to justify the higher purchasing cost to airlines,” Olson said.

Replacing engines on current Boeing and Airbus models may not reach optimum efficiency because the combination would be heavier than an all-new plane. That might reduce improvement to less than 10 percent while the plane would still cost more than current models because of the new technology.

“If the CSeries does what it is supposed do, then a re- engined 737NG or A320 isn’t a good enough response,” said Hal Calamvokis, strategic planning manager at EasyJet Plc, which flies mainly Airbus A319s.

While EasyJet is having “ongoing discussions with Bombardier,” the CSeries’ current maximum capacity of 145 passengers is too small to meet the airline’s needs and its range is greater than the Luton, England-based company requires, Calamvokis said.

The A320 and 737 both seat as many as 200 passengers, depending on the model.

‘Full Evaluation’
If Montreal-based Bombardier stretches the CSeries and expands its seating to accommodate about 165 passengers, its range would decrease and the aircraft might work for EasyJet.

“At that point, we’d definitely have to do a full evaluation,” Calamvokis said.

Competition from the CSeries on the smallest versions of Airbus’s narrow-body planes, the A318 and A319, as well as China’s planned plane, is a factor in the company’s decision, Gallois said.

“Airlines will have a reference for engines, and they could consider that we may not have the best engines” on current narrow-body planes, Gallois said. “It could push us. On the other side, we also have to take into consideration the cost of re-engineing and amortizing the life of the airplane. And we have to see what kind of difference in price we have between that and the new airplane.”

Narrow-body Engine Market
Executives and analysts estimate redesigning an existing airframe to support a new engine would cost $1 billion, compared with $10 billion to develop a new plane. The market for a new, more fuel-efficient engine over the life of a narrow-body aircraft may be as much as $50 billion, manufacturers have forecast.

Bombardier’s CSeries, which will debut Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbofan engine, is slated to enter the market in 2013. Comac’s C919, with new engines from CFM International, is scheduled to arrive in 2016.

CFM, a venture of Fairfield, Connecticut-based General Electric Co. and Paris-based Safran SA, has said its Leap-X engine will boost fuel efficiency about 15 percent, similar to the improvement in Pratt & Whitney’s power plant.

Current Airbus models offer a choice of engines made by CFM or International Aero Engines, a venture led by Pratt & Whitney and London-based Rolls-Royce Group Plc. Current Boeing 737 models only offer CFM engines.

Pratt, Rolls-Royce
While Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce have yet to decide how to market a more efficient narrow-body engine, they said they prefer to do so through the IAE partnership in order to compete with CFM.

John Leahy, Airbus’s chief operating officer, said at a conference in Orlando this week the company only wants to offer engines for an upgrade via the two teams.

Airbus has said it may target 2024 for an all-new aircraft to enter service.

“We would like to know what choices are available to us at what periods of time,” said Mike Van de Ven, chief operating officer of Southwest Airlines Co., whose fleet is made up solely of Boeing 737s. Boeing is “going to have to have a product choice that competes” with Bombardier’s new model and a potential upgrade from Airbus, he said.

Boeing will consider technical and business vantage points before making its decision, Randy Tinseth, the company’s marketing chief, said in an interview this week.

‘What Our Customers Want’
“It’s more important that we look less at competition and more at what our customers want,” Tinseth said. “We want to have a plan at the end of the year, but doing nothing is always an option. Re-engineing is an option, and a new airplane is an option.”

EADS climbed 15 cents to close at 14.83 euros in Paris trading, and the shares have gained 5.3 percent this year. Boeing gained 59 cents to $71.46 at 2:17 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

LONDON, March 24, 2010 (AFP)

British budget airline easyJet is poised to appoint Carolyn McCall as its new chief executive, in a surprise move for the veteran media boss, reports said Wednesday.

2010 AFP

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LONDRES, 6 juillet (Reuters) -

EasyJet a transporté 9,4% de passagers en plus le mois dernier qu'en juin 2009, a-t-elle annoncé mardi.

Quelque 4,54 millions de passagers ont utilisé les services de la compagnie aérienne britannique à bas coûts, portant son coefficient d'occupation à 87,2%, une hausse de 0,9 point de pourcentage d'une année sur l'autre.

Comme ses concurrentes, EasyJet a souffert des conséquences du nuage de cendres s'échappant d'un volcan islandais qui a provoqué des perturbations dans le trafic aérien au mois d'avril.

Lundi, sa rivale Ryanair a annoncé que sa fréquentation avait augmenté de 15% en juin tandis que celle de British Airways a diminué de 11,1% en raison d'un mouvement de grève.

(Paul Sandle, Nicolas Delame pour le service français, édité par Pascale Denis)

Amentum Capital announced today that it has closed a sale and leaseback transaction with easyJet
for five Airbus A319 aircraft. The aircraft have been added to Global Aviation Fund I.
Neil Burgess, Senior Vice President Marketing & Sales, commented “We’re delighted to close this
sale and leaseback with easyJet, and welcome them as a new customer to Amentum Capital”, adding
“it also represents the largest multiple-aircraft transaction closed by Amentum Capital to date”.

EasyJet convertit des options d'achat de 15 A320 en commandes fermes

La compagnie aérienne britannique easyJet a annoncé mardi avoir converti en commandes fermes des options d'achat de 15 moyen-courriers A320 et pris des options pour 33 avions supplémentaires de même modèle auprès de leur constructeur, l'avionneur européen Airbus (groupe EADS).

Jeannot a écrit:EasyJet convertit des options d'achat de 15 A320 en commandes fermes et prend des options pour 33 avions supplémentaires

EasyJet convertit des options d'achat de 15 A320 en commandes fermes

La compagnie aérienne britannique easyJet a annoncé mardi avoir converti en commandes fermes des options d'achat de 15 moyen-courriers A320 et pris des options pour 33 avions supplémentaires de même modèle auprès de leur constructeur, l'avionneur européen Airbus (groupe EADS).

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• easyJet reste fidèle à Airbus, mais ne cherche pas le NEO ?
  
• Cette LCC (et "low-fare company") n'est , donc, pas tentée, aujourd'hui, par le CSeries ?
  
• easyJet reste constant sur son choix de l'A319, dans une config. "spéciale" de 150 places (y aura-t-il un refourbissement de la flotte avec des "sharklets" en "retrofit" -- possible en "new-build", ... mais en "retrofit?" -- et, par exemple, de la cabine, avec des sièges du type "Recaro", envisagé par Lufthansa)?
  
• Ne semble, donc, pas tenté par les moteurs LeapX (GE / CFMI) ou GTF (P&W), et resterait fidèle à la motorisation CFM-56, équipement majoritaire de la flotte easyJet, qui contient / contenait la composante "Go" (des A320 à moteurs V2500), filiale BA cédée dans une des premières 'réorganisations récentes' de BA.
  
• easyJet reste, peut-être, plus dans l'axe des possibilités à long-terme offertes par la robustesse de "l'airframe" actuel (vie à doubler jusqu'à -- au moins --120,000 heures de vol dans le projet "ESG" / "Extended Service Goal" )?
  
• Aussi, nous savons qu'easyJet compte dans son effectif des ingénieurs d'excellentr facture, qui sont favorables, surtout pour les opérations d'easyJet, au concept "Open Rotor". Peut-être que la Cie. vise la possibilité de la mise en ligne progressive et plus généralisée de ce concept, à partir de la période 2022-2024?
  

• seront assez proches (bien moins de 15 ans) des époques futures où l'on pourra commencer à voir la mise en ligne des airframes de technologie de toiute nouvelle génération (et non pas des "revampings" du genre retenu pour l'opération NEO), .....
  
• pour que cette opération d'easyJet, comme d'autres opérations d'acquisition de monocouloirs d'Airbus de la famille A3230 concernés, ....... exclue cette LCC de la perspective de l'offre NEO d'Airbus !
  

UK low-cost carrier EasyJet has exercised its options for 15 Airbus A320 aircraft to be delivered from 2012 to 2014.

It has also secured options over an additional 33 A320 aircraft, and converted 20 A319 deliveries to A320s, says the carrier. EasyJet now holds options for 42 aircraft in total.

"Today's announcement will ensure that EasyJet is able to continue to execute its strategy of carefully targeted growth and take advantage of opportunities for profitable market gain," says the airline.

It will acquire the aircraft through a combination of cash, operating leases and debt, it adds.
EasyJet says the list price for the 15 A320s is about $1.1 billion but adds that it has received "substantial confidential price concessions".
It will be able to exercise the additional 33 options up to March 2013, it adds.

As of end-2010, the carrier operates 193 aircraft, the majority of which are A320 family aircraft. It aims to operate an A320-only fleet by end-September 2012, and plans to grow its fleet to 220 aircraft by end-September 2013.

Continuous improvement in single-aisle airliner capability has been central to the development of low-cost airlines, according to Oliver Wyman consultant Blair Pomeroy.

He expects that the availability of a re-engined Airbus A320neo - and any counter-offer from Boeing - will provide further opportunities for airlines to expand their scope of operations.

Speaking in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] on low-cost carriers, Pomeroy said that airlines have used the increased range offered by the latest A320 family and Next Generation 737 aircraft to fly US and Australian transcontinental services and flights from western Europe deep into North Africa. "I think we'll see more of that as these planes continue [to be developed]," he said.

Airbus chief operating officer customers John Leahy thinks that the 15% reduction in fuel burn offered by the A320neo with its advanced turbofans from CFM International or Pratt & Whitney will be a major attraction to low-cost airlines.

"If you look at what fuel is becoming as a percentage of the overall cash operating costs of the airline, a 15% reduction [in fuel burn] is like a 7.5% reduction in your cash operating costs. It really means you can drive the ticket price even further down," he said.

The two engine suppliers on the A320neo told Airline Business that the specific requirements of low-cost airlines are key drivers when designing their new engines.

"Their key requirement is all about the cost of ownership and from an engine perspective, the first element of this is fuel burn," says CFM Leap-X programme manager Ron Klapproth.

"Low-cost carriers are really focused on moving passengers from one city to another, rather than operating and maintaining the equipment. So we have to look at our technology development to drive value so they can drive lower seat-mile costs," said P&W vice-president next generation product family Bob Saia. "These are things associated with improved fuel consumption, long time-on-wing between overhauls and really keeping the operation from flight to flight efficient."

easyJet, have marked becoming the world’s youngest and quickest airline to reach a fleet of 200 Airbus aircraft at a ceremony in Toulouse.
Carolyn McCall, easyJet CEO, Jean-Paul Ebanga, CFM International President and CEO, and Tom Enders, Airbus President and CEO were present at the event.

Stelios Launches New EasyJet Attack

The head of the EasyGroup, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, has launched another broadside against EasyJet’s fleet expansion plans as he tries to push the low-fare carrier to focus on profitability over expansion.
It is a long-running battle between the airline’s founder and major shareholder and management that has been waging for several years and has persisted even after major management changes at the airline.
In a letter to the airline, Stelios says the carrier should cease all payments on new Airbus narrowbodies on order until his concerns are addressed. In particular, he is attacking a move by the airline to exercise options for 15 additional A320 aircraft this year.
The airline is buying A320s when a prior shareholder approval was for A319s. The switch to the more expensive type was not approved by shareholder, and Stelios argues it needed to be. Given the purchase price of the new type is almost double the original price put to shareholders, Stelios says they should have been consulted.
“Until such time as satisfactory replies to our questions are received, we require that the company does not make any payments in relation to the latest Airbus order as announced on 4 January 2011,” Stelios says, adding “we expressly reserve our rights as shareholders against the directors individually for any actions from this point onwards.”
He stresses that “it is time for the company to stop buying aircraft until the full facts are disclosed to shareholders and shareholders’ consent is obtained.” Stelios argues in the letter that “the board [of directors] should stop pursuing a strategy of increasing the size of the fleet that has led to a halving of the profits after tax of each aircraft and the doubling of first half losses until the shareholders have approved the purchase of any new aircraft.”
And, Stelios adds “this ‘incestuous’ relationship with Airbus developed by the directors has to come to end and proper and transparent tenders have to be issued giving the opportunity to other aircraft manufacturers to compete for the company’s business.”
Stelios also complains that only a few days after the Jan. 4 deal was announced, the airline issued a profit warning on Jan. 20. The underlying financial difficulties should have been known when the A320 options were exercised, he maintains.
“The company is obliged to publish such price sensitive information on a timely basis and we believe that the board members failed to comply with this obligation. Indeed, we contend that the board showed utter contempt for the company’s shareholders in announcing a major transaction without giving the shareholders any opportunity to question the board about the transaction, whilst knowing that disclosures in the Interim Management Statement just a few days later would lead to a substantial fall in the share price. If the profits warning had been released sooner (and at the correct time), the impact on the share price would have necessitated a shareholder vote to approve the new aircraft order.”
Stelios now wants more detailed answers from the EasyJet board of directors, including what the cost implications were of the switch from A319s to A320s and what payments have already flowed to Airbus.

UK budget carrier EasyJet has received another letter from shareholder EasyGroup, this time requesting a meeting to vote on the removal of aviation consultant Rigas Doganis from its board.

In the letter, EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou - who heads up EasyGroup - called for the removal of Doganis on the grounds that the former Olympic Airways chairman voted to purchase 35 [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] aircraft earlier this year.

"We believe that his decision was value-destroying for shareholders because: a) these aircraft come at a much higher price (up to $85 million each) than the company has ever paid in the past for aircraft, and b) the directors have not identified the new routes [on which] these aircraft can be deployed profitably.

"As a result, the company will spend up to $3 billion with Airbus and will lose money as a result of this decision."

The letter goes on to accuse Doganis of failing to foresee the carrier's 20 January profit warning ahead of placing the aircraft order.

"Had the profit warning been announced before the aircraft order, we believe that the drop in the market cap would have necessitated a shareholder vote for the capital expenditure in circumstances where he would have known that the directors would have failed to obtain such approval."

EasyJet called the letter "a further unnecessary and costly distraction which is damaging to the company's reputation and undermines investor confidence".

Added EasyJet chairman Michael Rake: "We will encourage shareholders to reject this resolution and to demonstrate that the board has the support of the majority of shareholders. We will continue to encourage EasyGroup to meet with us in private to discuss their views on the business. We have made repeated efforts to do so in recent months."

EasyJet said EasyGroup's claims in its letter were "inaccurate", pointing out that the aircraft announcement in January "was for the exercising of options (agreed in 2007) for 15 new aircraft on terms substantially the same as those of previous EasyJet orders".

The carrier added that its 20 January trading statement "was not a profit warning" and that its "full-year expectations remained unchanged".

EasyGroup last month sent a letter to EasyJet, requesting the removal of deputy chairman David Michels.

Days later, Michels stepped down from the board with immediate effect, although EasyJet pointed out at the time that Michels and the carrier's board "entirely reject the allegations" made in EasyGroup's letter.

Today's letter is the latest in a series of hostile onslaughts against the carrier from Haji-Ioannou.

EasyJet founder to set up rival airline Fastjet

A new row has erupted between the easyJet board and the airline’s founder and largest shareholder after Stelios Haji-Ioannou revealed plans to launch a new airline.

Haji-Ioannou and his family own 37% of easyJet through the private investment vehicle easyGroup.

The two parties seemed earlier this month to have settled their differences on the strategy and expansion of the carrier after the easyJet board decided to return a dividend.

In a brief statement released Monday, however, easyJet said it had received notice from Stelios Haji-Ioannou that he intends to set up an airline branded Fastjet and that a website, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], had already been established.

EasyGroup registered a second website, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and both have a deep red background and the message “By Stelios. Coming soon!” As of Tuesday, no other information was provided on either site.

EasyJet threatened it would “take necessary action to protect the rights of easyJet and the interests of its shareholders.” EasyJet and EasyGroup in the past have been entangled in a lawsuit on the use of the “easy” name and reached agreement in October 2010. As part of the amended brand license, Haji-Ioannou agreed not to acquire an interest in any other airline licensed in any EEA country nor Switzerland for a period of two years (unless the interest is less than 10% and he is not involved in an executive capacity). He also agreed to not use his own name or a derivation of it to brand any other airline that flies to or from any country in Europe for five years.

But Haji-Ioannou said that easyJet breached the terms of the binding comfort letter and therefore the letter is no longer in force. “Sir Stelios strongly believes that the directors of easyJet, via a smear campaign conducted by off-the-record briefings to journalists, have repeatedly breached the clause, so he has terminated the effect of the letter for repudiatory breach and has rejected all payments offered under this letter since May 2011.”

Haji-Ioannou received a fee of £300,000 ($464,778) per annum (net) for a period for five years for the commitments.

EasyJet said it “emphatically rejects” these claims and continues to seek “constructive dialogue” with easyGroup and Haji-Ioannou.

EasyJet Evaluating NEO, MAX And CSeries

Although it still has 42 options and 32 purchase rights for Airbus A320s left, EasyJet has begun evaluating the latest narrowbody offerings now in the market, says Chris Essex, head of central and fleet procurement at EasyJet.

“We are now actively evaluating the reeengined Airbus [A320] NEO and Boeing [737] MAX families, as well as the Bombardier CSeries,” he said during an investor day. And, Essex adds, “we expect a combination of increased choice of suppliers and the attractiveness of an EasyJet order, given our strong balance sheet, will lead to a very competitive tender.”

Although Airbus has secured more than 1,200 firm NEO orders, and Boeing says it had commitments for around 1,000 MAX narrowbodies, Essex is not worried about slot available. “Our reading of the situation, though, is that manufacturers are not selling out their delivery slots consecutively,” he says, adding that “we still feel there is plenty of time and opportunity to place an order.”

A decision is likely to be made in the fourth quarter. The aircraft and engine programs have been under review since last year. The relatively economics of the different types will now be studied in the coming months; the business case will be reviewed in the April to June timeframe, including how to bridge the 2014 timeframe to when the new aircraft are available around 2017 or 2018.

Management also is weighing other fleet plans. EasyJet has until September to exercise the 42 options it holds for classic A320s under a 2002 commitment. The airline last year exercised options for 15 aircraft.

Currently, the airline operates 167 A319s and 35 A320s, with the latter to reach 75 aircraft in 2014.