FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2002
2002 - 0254.PDF
PEOPLE • EADS Military Aircraft has appointed Pablo de Bergia as vice-president in charge of its new integrated marketing and sales team. Rolf Wirtz has been named as vice-president engi neering. • Joel Schindall will take over as chief technical officer at satellite and communi cations specialist Loral. Schindall was previously chief engineer and senior vice-presi dent of engineering and development at Globalstar. • Gen Charles Horner, for merly commander allied air forces during the Gulf War, has joined start-up jet taxi company Nimbus Group as vice-chair man. Nimbus plans to create a fleet of 1,000 Eclipse 500 air craft, operating taxi services across the US. • Vought Aircraft Industries has promoted Tom Risley, previously chief operat ing officer, to president and chief executive, replacing Gordon Williams. Williams becomes Vought chairman, replacing Allan Holt of the investment firm Carlyle Group, which owns Vought. Risley became chief operating officer when Carlyle Group took over. • Phil Kent has been appointed vice-presi dent engineering of Hydro-Aire, a division of aircraft systems and components group Crane Aerospace. Hydro-Aire spe cialises in anti-skid and brake control systems. Kent was for merly a manager at Northrop Grumman Navigation Systems in California. • Turbomeca has appointed Charles Claveau to head its new Helicopter Engines Programmes division. The divi sion comprises Turbomeca's six helicopter engine lines. Christian Hamel has been nominated director aero engines commercial strategy. • Michael Piscatella will succeed Graydon "Bud" Wetzler, who is retiring, as Goodrich's group president aerostructures and aviation technical services. Piscatella is currently group president elec tronic systems, and Jack Carmola, group president engine and safety systems, will take on Piscatella's responsibili ties in addition to his own. • Manfred Brennwald is to become head of flight opera tions at Crossair. BUSINESS RESULTS GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC Commercial a'rcraft sales fall hits Boeing revenues But manufacturer hopes to maintain profit margins and cash flow at current levels Boeing's revenues will decrease this year and again in 2003 due to fewer deliveries of commercial air craft, but the company hopes to maintain profit margins and cash flow at current levels as it weathers the airline industry recession. In its results on 23 January, the company reported a strong finan cial performance for 2001, with all of its core businesses delivering higher revenues and margins. Net earnings excluding charges were up 20% from 2000 to $3 billion on revenues up 13% to $58.2 billion. The charges totalled $692 million after tax, the majority related to 11 September. Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) was able to deliver 527 air craft in 2001, up from 489 in 2000, but the forecast for 2002 is 380 air craft, dropping to between 275 and 300 in 2003. Boeing chief financial officer Mike Sears says the pro jected 2002 deliveries are "virtually sold out" while 2003 is "more than 75% sold out at the lower end of our forecast". Customer financing was key to shoring up aircraft deliveries in 2001, with $4 billion of new vol ume at Boeing Capital (BCC) tak ing the financing arm's year-end portfolio to $9.1 billion, an increase of $2 billion. Boeing products and services make up 70% of the expanded portfolio. Sears expects an additional $3-4 billion of "prudent" customer financing volume this year. With continued growth expected at the company's Military Aircraft and Missile Systems (A&M) and Space and Communications (S&C) sectors, as well as Boeing Capital, the company is hoping to offset some of the downturn in commercial aircraft deliveries. Sears expects revenues of around $54 bil lion this year, down from the previ ously projected $55 billion, drop ping to around $52 billion in 2003. Operating margins are forecast to stay at around 8.25% and free cash flow at around $2.5-3 billion. Chief executive Phil Condit says it is too early to say whether the commercial aircraft market will improve by 2004. "Our guess is that 2003 will be a down year, but we have no great insight into when it will start back up," he says. "The passenger traffic has to come back, the airlines have to earn money and we don't know how many air craft in storage will come out." For 2001, BCA's operating earn ings were $2.6 billion on revenues of $35 billion. This compares with $1.3 billion on $12.5 billion rev enue for A&M and $619 million on $10.4 billion revenues for S&C. BCC's revenues were up by 19% to $863 million and pre-tax earnings were $272 million after interest costs of $324 million. Boeing's ability to shore up commercial aircraft deliveries in 2001 helped its suppliers. GE Aircraft Engines saw sales and profit increase 6% to $11.4 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively. United Technologies saw Pratt & Whitney's operating profit increase 14% to $1.3 billion on sales up 4% to $7.7 billion. Condit: no insight on recovery timing AIR FREIGHT Crossair pulls plug on Swisscargo Swisscargo, the air freight arm of bankrupt Swissair, is to shut down operations at the end of March, after failing to set up a successor cargo service. It hopes that Crossair, Swissair's former regional subsidiary and now its successor on medium- and long-haul services, will re-employ most of its work force in its own planned cargo arm. Swisscargo chances of survival have looked slim since December, when Crossair announced that Swisscargo should not count on receiving its custom, as it was still looking at various options to offer a freight service out of Switzerland. The statement came as a serious setback - Swiss businessman Branco Weiss, who headed a group of investors set to turn Swisscargo into an independent cargo carrier, had previously said that Crossair's custom was a precondition for suc cess. In the event Crossair has opted to set up its own operation. Swisscargo was granted court protection from creditors on 8 December 2001, which would have run to June this year. However, the company announced that in order to preserve its assets, it would wind up operations by 31 March. The company employs 440 people, 153 in Switzerland and 287 elsewhere. Crossair will take over Swissair's passenger operations on 31 March, and has promised to maintain Swisscargo's services and offer Swisscargo's staff contracts with its cargo arm, which is still unnamed. 24 29 JANUARY - 4 FEBRUARY 2002 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
