Wirraway
21st Jan 2004, 09:17
Wed "The Australian"
Qantas gets its coin into London slot
By Clive Mathieson and Steve Creedy
January 21, 2004
QANTAS last night sealed the acquisition of two prized landing slots into London's Heathrow Airport in a deal worth about £20 million ($47 million) that will give the airline the opportunity to increase flights to the UK.
The deal, which came as Sydney Airport parent Southern Cross Airports Holdings reported a strong 11.7 per cent rise in first-half earnings, will give Qantas an additional two landing and take-off slots every day.
The airline, which has already restored its London service to the pre-SARS level of 21 flights a week, could theoretically offer an additional 14 services a week with the new slots.
A Qantas spokesman said the airline was "very pleased" to have managed to secure extra slots at the world's busiest airport, which were rarely made available and highly prized by airlines around the world.
He said the slots, bought from European airline FlyBe, were also for landings and take-offs at "premium" times. "These will certainly give us the opportunity to increase services into Heathrow," he said.
Qantas declined to comment on the exact value of the deal but said it was at "market rates", which industry insiders put at about pound stg. 20 million.
Earlier, rebounding passenger traffic and cost cutting set Sydney Airport on track for a solid full-year result.
Southern Cross released figures showing December traffic was 9.2 per cent higher than last year – the strongest monthly increase for 13 months – as international passenger numbers rose 7.8 per cent and domestic grew 10 per cent.
Sydney airport chief executive Max Moore-Wilton expects traffic growth to continue in the second half as airlines introduce a series of what he described as "very positive" initiatives.
These included the start of Hawaiian Airlines flights, an expected increase in Emirates services, the arrival of Qantas low-cost offshoot Jetstar and Virgin international services.
"We don't do any forecasts but I've got to say that in terms of the half-year outcome and where we're sitting at the moment, the prognosis is very optimistic," Mr Moore-Wilton said. "The market is picking up, we don't expect any hiccups in the market at the present time, growth is there, we've got a good control on our costs (and) we're moving ahead with our developments.
"So I'm very optimistic that we'll do very well in the second half, providing we don't have these external shocks."
The airport's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased to $206.2 million from $184.6 million.
Excluding specific non-recurring expenses for redundancies, restructuring and an airline refund, first-half EBITDA rose 15.4 per cent $214.3 million. Revenue rose 9.2 per cent to $271.6 million, while expenses fell 9.7 per cent to $57.3 million.
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Qantas gets its coin into London slot
By Clive Mathieson and Steve Creedy
January 21, 2004
QANTAS last night sealed the acquisition of two prized landing slots into London's Heathrow Airport in a deal worth about £20 million ($47 million) that will give the airline the opportunity to increase flights to the UK.
The deal, which came as Sydney Airport parent Southern Cross Airports Holdings reported a strong 11.7 per cent rise in first-half earnings, will give Qantas an additional two landing and take-off slots every day.
The airline, which has already restored its London service to the pre-SARS level of 21 flights a week, could theoretically offer an additional 14 services a week with the new slots.
A Qantas spokesman said the airline was "very pleased" to have managed to secure extra slots at the world's busiest airport, which were rarely made available and highly prized by airlines around the world.
He said the slots, bought from European airline FlyBe, were also for landings and take-offs at "premium" times. "These will certainly give us the opportunity to increase services into Heathrow," he said.
Qantas declined to comment on the exact value of the deal but said it was at "market rates", which industry insiders put at about pound stg. 20 million.
Earlier, rebounding passenger traffic and cost cutting set Sydney Airport on track for a solid full-year result.
Southern Cross released figures showing December traffic was 9.2 per cent higher than last year – the strongest monthly increase for 13 months – as international passenger numbers rose 7.8 per cent and domestic grew 10 per cent.
Sydney airport chief executive Max Moore-Wilton expects traffic growth to continue in the second half as airlines introduce a series of what he described as "very positive" initiatives.
These included the start of Hawaiian Airlines flights, an expected increase in Emirates services, the arrival of Qantas low-cost offshoot Jetstar and Virgin international services.
"We don't do any forecasts but I've got to say that in terms of the half-year outcome and where we're sitting at the moment, the prognosis is very optimistic," Mr Moore-Wilton said. "The market is picking up, we don't expect any hiccups in the market at the present time, growth is there, we've got a good control on our costs (and) we're moving ahead with our developments.
"So I'm very optimistic that we'll do very well in the second half, providing we don't have these external shocks."
The airport's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased to $206.2 million from $184.6 million.
Excluding specific non-recurring expenses for redundancies, restructuring and an airline refund, first-half EBITDA rose 15.4 per cent $214.3 million. Revenue rose 9.2 per cent to $271.6 million, while expenses fell 9.7 per cent to $57.3 million.
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