InvestIdeas

China Eastern, Southern say plan share placement

SHANGHAI, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Two of China's three biggest airlines said on Thursday they would place shares to raise 3.0 billion yuan ($437 million) each, as part of the government's cash injection into major airlines to ease their operational difficulties.

China Eastern (600115.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (0670.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(CEA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said it would issue both domestic A shares and Hong Kong's H shares to its parent to obtain the 3 billion yuan the government injected into its parent.

China Southern (600029.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (1055.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (ZNH.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said it would issue A shares to its parent to obtain 2.28 billion yuan. It would also issue H shares to the parent's overseas unit.

SIA must be relieved

From The TimesDecember 19, 2008

British Airways and Qantas halt merger talks
Ian King and Dominic Walsh
British Airways and Qantas on Thursday called off their merger plans after failing to agree terms.

The talks foundered after the two airlines, which had been in negotiations since August, could not agree on what proportion of a combined business would be owned by each set of shareholders.

The Times understands that, while BA had argued strongly for a 50-50 merger, Qantas had insisted that its shareholders should own 55 per cent of a combined business and BA's shareholders 45 per cent. This was despite the fact that, as of Wednesday night, the market capitalisations of the two airlines were almost identical.

Qantas had argued that, despite BA's revenues being larger than its own, its shareholders deserved a larger slice because of the size of BA's pension deficit. The Australian airline was also uneasy, as The Times reported last week, about BA's planned merger with Iberia, the Spanish carrier

nah ... one bad .. merge with another bad .. won't become better.

they continue to employ grannies to be stewardesses....merge also no use lah....hahaha...

if u see the average young briton girls... u know ..

alot of porky pigs there..

International airlines saw a huge 13.5% fall in cargo traffic in November and a drop of 4.6% in passengers as business shrank across the industry, the carriers' grouping IATA said on Tuesday.

The figures, reflecting what IATA has dubbed a "chronic crisis" with revenues tumbling and hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk, marked the sharpest declines since the months after the September 2001 attacks in the United States.

The November figures, issued from IATA's Geneva headquarters, showed airlines in the Asia-Pacific area – which accounts for nearly 45% of global air freight – seeing the largest regional cargo traffic drop, a whopping 16.9%.

Asia-Pacific, which includes the previously rapidly expanding China market, saw a decline of 9.7% in passenger numbers, also more than any other of the six world regions that IATA reports on separately.

– Reuters

Aviation News
Published January 20, 2009

Top carriers' premium-seat demand hit
Travellers using premium tickets fell a hefty 11.5% in Nov 2008: Iata
By VEN SREENIVASAN

(SINGAPORE) The International Air Transport Association (Iata) has confirmed officially what everyone in the industry already knows - that top carriers such as Singapore Airlines have been hit hard by a slump in demand for premium seats.

Iata said that the number of passengers travelling on premium tickets fell a hefty 11.5 per cent year-on-year in November 2008, after a 6.9 per cent slide the month before.

The December numbers are not ready yet but insiders said that they make for dismal reading.

Major long-haul markets withered in November - a 17.7 per cent plunge across the Pacific, a 9 per cent drop across the Atlantic and a 9.9 per cent decline from Europe to Asia.

Pacific premium traffic fared worst. And this has to be a worry for SIA, which gets almost half of its income from premium seats. The airline has already said that some of its daily non-stop all-business class flights from Singapore to Los Angeles and New York have been cancelled in recent months due to poor loads. Traffic has been consolidated to other days to manage yield.

Other airlines that get substantial revenue from premium seats - and will be suffering too - include Cathay Pacific, British Airways and Qantas.



Iata said in its latest report that the premium market weakened from the start of 2008, and this intensified in the final quarter. 'For the period January to November 2008, premium passenger numbers were down 4.7 per cent,' it says.

Economy class travel is also on the wane, thanks to a fall in consumer confidence and feelings of financial insecurity.

According to Iata, the number of economy class passengers fell 6 per cent year-on-year in November 2008, after a 1.8 per cent decline in October.

With no economic recovery in sight, the worse may be yet to come for the aviation industry.

'The low point for air travel has not yet been reached given the continuing deterioration in the economic environment,' said Iata, whose member airlines account for over 90 per cent of global scheduled flights.

Iata expected the industry to post a loss of US$2.5 billion this year, after spilling US$5 billion of red ink in 2008.

Jim Rogers should be able to get his premium seat now.

Fuel Hedges gone wrong...

From what I have read so far, SIA is also on the hooks for almost $900MM of hedge positions gone wrong at $120/BBL

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/f ... aspx?guid={A6D46177-22C8-4C2E-A8B2-43180BDAC6BF}&dist=TNMostRead

sibei cockup....

we retail investors, lose money on our trades, somewhat understandable.... maybe, not savvy enough, not educated enough, not skillful enough... but these pros in big corporations, enact hedges for a living man... can also go so wrong...sibei aw tah man...