Air Earnings ImprovingAirline analysts predicted that third-quarter numbers will show the industry's first operating profit in nearly three years. UBS analyst Sam Buttrick forecast an industry operating profit of $600 million and a net loss of $200 million. His full-year projection is a net loss of $5.8 billion, and his 2004 outlook is for "near break-even results." Deutsche Bank Securities analyst Susan Donofrio predicted the U.S. majors in aggregate will post a net loss of $326 million and a full-year loss of $5.5 billion. "We expect to see significant improvement in results versus a year ago," she said, noting "a slow, steady recovery in the third quarter with respect to pricing." Codeshare partners Continental, Delta and Northwest airlines already reported earnings. Delta's net loss was $164 million, much narrower than last year. Continental and Northwest each reported positive earnings.
BA Grabs Two Pairs Of Heathrow Slots From UnitedBritish Airways obtained two pairs of daily slots at London Heathrow Airport from United Airlines to further stengthen its position at the heavily restricted European gateway. United's slots became available when the carrier decided to eliminate service between Newark and London. United plans to continue New York JFK-London service. Continental Airlines expressed "outrage" over the transaction, stating, "British Airways' purchases are a scheme to prevent any slots from being available to new U.S. airline competitors should London Heathrow open to competition." BA also will obtain eight of the 14 daily Heathrow slot pairs owned by Swiss International Airlines as part of an alliance agreement between the two
(BTN, Oct. 6). BA now controls more than 40 percent of Heathrow's slots.
Rosenbluth Partners, Navigant In TalksThe former partners of Rosenbluth International in 44 countries last week at the Association of Corporate Travel Executives conference in Dublin said they are in discussions with Englewood, Colo.-based Navigant International to replace Rosenbluth with Navigant as their U.S. partner. Officials from Navigant and the alliance that formerly worked with Rosenbluth said they plan to establish a joint identity and to iron out contractual details by year-end. Navigant's relationship with Lufthansa City Centers, meanwhile, is ending. Among the unnamed network's 44 nations, only Brazil overlaps with an operation owned by Navigant, which also owns locations in Belgium, Canada, France and the United Kingdom. "When Amex announced it was buying Rosenbluth, we believed we had the unique situation of sticking together," said Frédéric Frère, CEO of TravelStore in Portugal and Spain, a former Rosenbluth partner. "Having served a lot of international accounts together under one unique umbrella, we have an opportunity to tell the market we can maintain the good service we have been giving them, and the first objective is to identify a strong North American partner." Frère called "wishful thinking" the claim that more than 90 percent of the partnership business being handled by Rosenbluth affiliates would transition to Amex
(see story, page 3). According to Navigant Integrated Services president Mike Premo, there are "more than 10 and less than 100" multinational accounts being handled in the affiliates program.
Orbitz Taps Prism To Enhance Biz ReportingOrbitz For Business last week announced a partnership that makes Prism Inc.'s enhanced reporting and data tracking immediately available to corporate clients at no extra cost. "We've always provided a reporting function out of our data warehouse on a monthly basis that travel managers could import into travel management analytic tools," said Dave Cerino, general manager of Orbitz For Business. "With Prism, we took the next step. Now, we provide not only data but a number of canned reports on a daily basis," containing origin and destination data and daily supplier activity, broken out by employee, cost center and division number. The partners within the next month plan to add customizable reports.
Galileo Adds Full Content From UnitedGalileo International last week said its Preferred Fares Select program added United Airlines for "complete access to all published fares," including all fares United gives any other global distribution system or Web site, united.com and the carrier's reservation offices. United joins Continental, Northwest and US Airways in the program, which offers the airlines unchanged GDS rates for three years on all U.S.-originating bookings. Participating airlines now represent nearly half of U.S. bookings for Galileo, it said.