ISRAEL AEROSPACE SINKS ON FALLING CIVIL MARKET
Sluggish civil sales growth, a declining value of the Israeli shekel and falling interest rates helped push 2008 net profits at Israel Aerospace Industries down by 23% to $91 million despite a 9% rise in sales, to $3.6 billion. Fourth quarter sales were down 12% to $803 million. Civil sales, which account for 39% of IAI turnover, grew just 1% last year, while defence sales were up 14%.
EMBRAER FULL-YEAR SALES UP BUT PROFITS FALL
Embraer's net income fell by more than a fifth last year to $389 million, although sales were up by 21% on increased deliveries to $6.3 billion. Across commercial, defence and executive aviation markets, Embraer sold 112 jets and delivered 204, including 59 during the fourth quarter. Its order backlog to 31 December stood at 876 firmly ordered aircraft and 810 options.
WILLIS POSTS RECORD IN 2008
California-based engine lessor Willis Lease Finance reported record results for 2008, with profits jumping by 50.6% to $26.6 million on record sales of $152.3 million. Chief executive Charles Willis says leasing demand was strong as customers looked to conserve cash by deferring shop visits on their own engines.
SAS GROUP COMPLETES SPANAIR SALE
SAS Group has completed the sale of 80.1% of its Spanair subsidiary for €1 ($1.33) to Catalonian investors. As part of the deal SAS will convert €20 million of loans to Spanair into equity in the carrier, repay external loans of €18 million and amortise a further €99 million of interest-bearing debt. A Spanair Boeing MD-82 crashed at Madrid last August, killing 154 of the 172 on board.
KID PUTS EYE ON A350 CABIN
KID-Systeme is to supply cabin surveillance equipment for the Airbus A350 XWB. An integrated system including cockpit door surveillance and cabin video monitoring will initially be available as a line-fit option on all A350s when the aircraft type enters commercial service in 2013.
DEBT BURDEN FORCES RONSON SALE
Ronson Corporation of Somerset, New Jersey is to divest its wholly owned Ronson Aviation fixed-base operation at Trenton-Mercer airport to raise working capital and funds to pay outstanding debts. Ronson will focus on its consumer products business.
CAE TAPS INTO CANADIAN STRATEGIC FUNDING
CAE will invest C$714 million ($564 million) over five years on research to expand its flight simulation technologies and develop an "augmented visionics" system to help pilots taxi, takeoff and land safely in poor visibility. Project Falcon investment includes a C$250 million repayable loan from the Canadian government's Strategic Aerospace and Defence Initiative.
'HI, I'M ON THE PLANE'
Up to 40% of passengers on some Malaysia Airlines flights are using the carrier's in-flight mobile telephone service, launched last November. The AeroMobile system includes a real-time, in-flight credit card service. According to Malaysia, data traffic on some flights exceeds 2MB, the equivalent of 40 BlackBerry users sending and receiving email. Introductory rates are comparable to international cellphone roaming rates.
Source: Flight International
