forgot to bid

JANUARY 19, 2010, 7:05 A.M. ET.Bombardier: CSeries Production Seen In Latter Half Of 2013

DUBLIN (Dow Jones)--Production of Bombardier Inc.'s (BBD.B.T) CSeries mainline jet is on track for "the latter half of 2013," the president of the Canadian company's commercial aircraft unit, Gary Scott, said Tuesday. Bombardier has a CSeries contract with Lufthansa AG (LHA.XE) for 30 firm orders and 30 options, and with Lease Corp. International Ltd. for 20 firm orders and 20 options, and expects another CSeries order in next fiscal year.

"We are still in advanced discussions with some customers," he said. "We're still optimstic for the first half of next fiscal year ... I'd be surprised if we don't announce another order in the first half of next year."

"We have a firm commitment to their (Lufthansa's) delivery date as we do with LCI," Scott said, but wouldn't give the actual delivery timeline due to commercial and competitive reasons.

LCI is a private aircraft leasing company that owns and leases planes to major airlines, such as Singapore Airlines Ltd. (C6L.SG), British Airways PLC (BAY.LN), Air France-KLM (AF.FR) and Virgin Atlantic.

"The interest in our (CSeries) airplane has remained extremely high," Scott told an aerospace conference in Dublin, adding that the CSeries is planned to be airborne for testing in 2012--or the year before actual commercial production.

"The Canadian government has said it will be there to support the CSeries," Scott said. "We believe they have adequate resources to support our needs, but they don't have unlimited resources."

"We're going through one of the worst times," he added. "It's a very bad cycle for the world economy ... We're all struggling because our customers are bleeding and in no position to buy airplanes."
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The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION

Bombardier's CSeries advantage threatened with Airbus looking at new engines
By: Ross Marowits, THE CANADIAN PRESS

14/01/2010 6:28 PM | Comments: 0
Print E–mail Share ThisReport Error MONTREAL - Bombardier's (TSX:BBD.B) CSeries fuel efficiency advantage could be threatened as Airbus says it will decide this year whether to put new engines on its A320s.

Airbus chief executive Tom Enders said the world's largest aircraft manufacturer will continue this year with its investments to upgrade its popular narrow-body jets.

"We intend to decide this year on a possible re-engining of the A320. All this to keep our bread & butter program selling and flying well into the next decade," he said at a briefing in Seville, Spain.

Boeing is also expected to adopt new engines for its single-aisle 737s.

Both manufacturing giants are considering several engines types that would deliver about 15 per cent fuel savings to defend their business from Bombardier and China's Comac C919.

Airbus is in talks with Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce and CFM International, a joint venture between GE Aviation and France's Snecma. Preferred designs could be selected as early as the end of March.

acl65pilot

It would be nice. It makes a lot of sense long term, but I am not the one making the decisions!
3-2 double bubble, just like an 88.

acl65pilot

Just a picture from my Fort out in Texas!

If you can logoff for more than six hrs I would be floored. (Me 2)

BTW, ppl asked for a new picture, so I just posed one. Why does there always have to be a hidden meaning? Is there? maybe........

acl65pilot

And Alex Trebeck, oh and do not forget Nickleback, Rush, Molson....

beer

Good Morning...Here's to some good news today!!!!

acl65pilot

Just remember there are victims in this too!

Airline succumbs to self-inflicted wounds

By Jonathan Soble in Tokyo

Published: January 19 2010 08:15 | Last updated: January 19 2010 13:05

“I’d like to take a pistol and shoot every JAL executive of the last 20 years,” says Hideo Fujiwara, an otherwise gently spoken 72-year-old.

The former pilot flew for Japan Airlines for 34 years but will see his monthly pension shrink by 40 per cent to Y140,000 ($1,546) as a result of its bankruptcy, announced on Tuesday.

“It’s not about the money, it’s about dishonest management,” Mr Fujiwara says. “JAL was unprofitable but executives thought nothing of taking Y100m retirement bonuses.”

JAL’s problems are indeed mostly self-inflicted. Like many Japanese groups, it expanded recklessly in the 1980s, buying resorts, golf courses and shopping malls that plunged in value when the country’s real estate bubble popped the following decade.

Management has often been fractious: one chief executive quit in 2005 after a series of safety lapses scared away passengers; another was forced out in a boardroom rebellion the following year.

Yet other elements of JAL’s story are familiar to airlines worldwide. A cluster of external shocks during the past decade – from September 11 through Sars, to soaring fuel prices and the global financial meltdown – have left it battered. Government handouts are the only reason it did not follow US carriers such as United and Delta into bankruptcy sooner.

“JAL has always put off making hard decisions,” says Motoshige Itoh, an economics professor at the University of Tokyo.

Banks’ JAL exposure

Japan’s leading banks – including the large government-affiliated banks – are all facing exposure to Japan Airlines.

The Development Bank of Japan is the flag-carrier’s largest creditor, with outstanding loans of Y275.8bn ($3bn); followed by Mizuho Corporate Bank, which has extended Y75.9bn in loans. That figure goes up to Y95.1bn if other forms of financing and derivatives are included.

Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi-UFJ had outstanding loans of Y73.5bn as of November, followed by Sumitomo Trust & Banking’s Y28.1bn. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking had outstanding loans of Y23.1bn.

Mizuho said on Tuesday that JAL’s bankruptcy would not result in a revision of its financial performance for the year, while other banks indicated the impact on their business performance was likely to be limited.

In total, creditors are being asked to forgive Y730bn.

Osuke Itazaki, a veteran airline analyst in Tokyo, says the restructuring plan being imposed on JAL by the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corporation, a state-backed corporate rehabilitation fund, should put JAL on a sound financial footing.

Analysts say that the government, meanwhile, is to blame for more than just excessive coddling. It has deepened JAL’s profitability problems by forcing it to operate near-empty flights to rural airports, many of them built as pork-barrel public-works schemes.

“The state’s responsibility [for JAL’s problems] is large,” says Seiji Maehara, transport minister, who has promised a freeze on new airport construction.

The restructuring plan being imposed on JAL by the ETIC should put it on a sound financial footing, says Osuke Itazaki, a veteran airline analyst in Tokyo.

JAL is to cut 15,700 jobs, or a third of its workforce, sell dozens of non-core businesses and demand that creditors write off Y730bn of its more than Y2,300bn of gross interest-bearing debt.

Retirees have already accepted an average 30 per cent reduction in pension pay-outs, and current workers’ benefits will fall by half.

“The question,” says Mr Itazaki, “is whether things like management culture, strategic direction and quality will improve. Simply fixing JAL’s finances won’t solve those problems.” Even if things go well, the airline is likely to be eclipsed by All Nippon Airways, its more agile domestic rival, in the next several years.

The government has named Kazuo Inamori, the 77-year-old founder of the Kyocera technology group, to oversee the turnround effort as JAL’s next chief executive, replacing Haruka Nishimatsu, a career JAL insider who formally resigned on Tuesday.

One of Mr Inamori’s first decisions will be whether to retain JAL’s partnership with American Airlines and the OneWorld alliance or defect to Delta and its SkyTeam group, both of which are wooing the Japanese carrier.

“This is a huge decision that could determine the future of JAL,” says one official involved in the restructuring effort.

The decision, expected in the next few weeks, will say a lot about the sort of airline JAL managers and the government expect to emerge from bankruptcy.

Delta – whose approach is favoured by the transport ministry and many JAL executives – already has big hubs in Tokyo and nearby Seoul, unlike the more Atlantic-focused American.

That could allow JAL to retrench even further, say analysts, for example by eliminating overlapping routes or selling off valuable airport berths in Japan. But it could also reduce JAL to a supporting role in a relationship dominated by the US group – a far cry from its days as Japan’s proud flagship carrier.

acl65pilot

My good news today was that I woke up and my child is still asleep. I am cutting coupons and enjoying my life as a stay at home parent!

beer

Stock on the way up this morning!!!

beer

I hear ya.. I am feeding a bottle in one hand and typing with the other!!!

acl65pilot

That is an art form! Learned it a few years ago, and it still comes in handy when the little one come in from his nap.