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Airlines struggling to sell idle jets
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-19 07:56 American Airlines, United Airlines and Continental Airlines Inc, stung by fuel costs and a drop in traffic, face a new challenge: what to do with planes valued at $2 billion now idled or set to be grounded through 2009.
With virtually no US buyers for the 276 mostly older, less-efficient jets, the carriers are shopping the aircraft in emerging markets such as Russia while prices tumble and frozen debt markets damp sales, analysts and marketers say. "People are sitting on the fence for three to six months waiting to see what happens with the price of fuel and the credit fallout," said Francis Otto, a manager at industry data firm OAGback Aviation Solutions in New Haven, Connecticut. "You're going to have, at least in the short term, a hesitation on the part of any potential lessees or purchasers." The lack of buyers leaves three of the biggest US airlines saddled with storage expenses and, at American and Continental, lease payments on jets they're no longer flying. Some models may fetch as little as half what they did in 2007, said Douglas Runte, a Piper Jaffray & Co analyst in New York. That adds to the strain on carriers with collective losses of $2.32 billion over the past four quarters, excluding special items. Writedowns for the values of some of the jets this year totaled almost $1.2 billion for Continental, American parent AMR Corp and Chicago-based UAL Corp, owner of United. "I fully expected that most of those aircraft would not be flying again," said Ray Neidl, an analyst at Calyon Securities in New York. "Financing right now is very tight." Continental said last month that credit snags for 3 unnamed buyers delayed the sale of 20 Boeing Co 737-500 jets. The fourth-largest US airline said it's holding cash deposits and would be entitled to damages should the deals collapse. "We have been actively selling our 737-500s to airlines predominantly based in Russia," said Julie King, a spokeswoman for Houston-based Continental, which is shedding 67 of its 737s by the end of 2009. Other models being pulled from US fleets include Airbus SAS A300s; four-engine Boeing 747s, which predate the new generation of twin-engine jumbo jets; and Boeing MD-80s that American is replacing with new 737s burning 25 percent less fuel. "There really is no demand for them here," Anders Hebrand, president of SkyWorks Leasing LLC in Greenwich, Connecticut, said in an interview. Age and operating costs helped shape airlines' decisions on which aircraft to unload as jet fuel surged 53 percent this year through July. While fuel is down by more than half since then, traffic is now sliding, off as much as 7.6 percent at United. Any unsold aircraft will be parked. Those still under purchase agreements or on leases that can't be terminated early will continue to drain cash. Agencies |
