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Aviation History
1982
1982 - 2013.PDF
was $17-4 million for the three months, compared with $48 million for the 1981 period. American is hoping that it will do well in the third quarter, traditionally a strong period for the airline. But it is much gloomier about its prospects for the fourth quarter and early 1983. American believes that the near future is "clouded" by continued fare discounting, and thinks there is little likelihood of a sustained economic recovery soon. American incurred a $41 million net loss for the first half of 1982, compared with a $31-7 million net profit for the same period in 1981. It made an operating loss of more than $35 million for the six months this year, whereas in the first half of 1981 it recorded a $56 mil lion operating profit. Delta recovers Delta Air Lines, after re porting its first major quar terly loss in over 25 years in the first three months of 1982, recovered to announce a $35 million operating pro fit and a $23 million net pro fit in the second quarter, though both were about 50 per cent down on the equivalent results for 1981. For the first six months of 1982 overall, Delta made a $4 • 6 million net profit and .incurred an operating loss of $10-8 million. In the first half of 1981 it made $83-8 million on operations and $75-5 million net. Delta's traffic fell by 2 per cent for the six months, but recovered well in early sum mer and is now on a par with last year's. Revenues have stayed almost the same <too. Delta does point out, however, that it has not cancelled or delayed any orders, furloughed any staff, or asked for any wage cuts or reductions in benefits. Capacity down Delta says that it has been little affected by the effects of the Patco dispute and controller replacement. Initially it used bigger air craft to operate available slots. It still does this, but says that it is operating at 90 per cent of pre-Patco capacity. Slightly reduced capacity is a healthy thing in recession, says Delta. The airline has avoided any large-scale cutbacks be cause it wants to be ready for immediate expansion when the US economy comes springing back from reces sion, as Delta believes it must. The airline's first Boeing 767 enters service shortly before Christmas, in time for the holiday period. Eastern Air Lines has benefited almost instantly from its new South American route network. These routes, which according to chairman Frank Borman began operat ing in the Mack in June, have helped the airline to an improved second quarter showing. The airline has re ported a net loss of $3 mil lion for the period, com pared with a $4-6 million net loss for the same three months in 1981. The airline made a $16-6 million operat ing profit during the second quarter of this year, and only a $2 • 2 million operating profit for the equivalent 1981 period. This result is probably more significant than it looks, because Eastern lost a lot of money in the first quarter of this year, much more than in the first three months of 1981. Eastern's $54-4 million net loss for the first half of 1982 looks serious, but the airline can take some com fort from the fact that it performed better in the second quarter of this year than it did in 1981, when the first-half loss was virtually nothing by airline standards. Borman blames fare wars for Eastern's poor overall first-half showing, saying that they failed to generate enough additional traffic to offset the discounts. Northwest strike Northwest Orient, usually quietly profitable, reported a $1-4 million second- quarter net loss and a $5-2 million operating loss be cause of a machinists' strike in May. This strike forced the airline to operate only a fraction of its regular sched ules for about a month. Northwest Orient lost heavily during the first quarter—traditionally a poor period—and tJhis led to a $41 • 3 million operating loss for the first half of 1982 com pared with a $15-7 million loss for the same period in 1981. But its net loss for the first six months this year was somewhat less dramatic at $19-4 million than the operating loss. The 1981 first- half net loss figure was $4 million. Pan Am has just put this new Boeing 727-200 into service, but is selling its 727-100s and TriStars Mk0wt-%M%> \t;'r>•;>.i;.:i!imhit>'.'Uill!ih ;. •'..'/' FLIGHT International, 21 August 1982 AIR TRANSPORT Trans World Airlines made a pre-tax profit of $25-6 mil lion for this year's second quarter, down $13 million on the figure for 1981. Its first- half pre-tax loss came to $84-7 million, a large-scale drop on the 1981 six-months figure of $33 million. First- half revenues fell by nearly 10 per cent on 1981, while expenses were down only 5 per cent. TWA is among the carriers which have done worst this year. Pan Am improves Pan Am improved spec tacularly in the first half of the year. Although its over all first half net loss came to $183-5 million, which is a huge loss whichever way you look at it, it represented a $50 million improvement on the figure for the first six months of 1981 after ex cluding extraordinary income from the sale of hotels. Even more significantly, its $56-2 million second quarter net loss represents a $55 • 8 mil lion improvement on the equivalent figure last year, and it recorded its first monthly net profit for 22 months in June. According to the airline, it is expecting profits in July and August as well. Yield better Yield improvement and con tinuing cost-cutting brought Pan Am's second-quarter break-even load factor down from 72 per cent in 1981 to 62-6, and it has now come below 60 per cent. Pan Am has announced that it is in tending to sell off its 12 TriStar 500s and all of its Boeing 727-100s in a major "fleet enhancement pro gramme". Pan Am says the cost-cutting this action will generate will further reduce break-even load factors by more than 5 percentage points. United, of course, is struggling. The combination of poor traffic caused by re cession and major operating problems at its Chicago O'Hare Field hub following the Patco walkout are prim arily to blame. United's slot problems at O'Hare con tinue, and now it must battle perhaps hardest of all the 11 majors to return to profitability. 399
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