Air NZ reported a 1.9% rise in full-year operating profit of NZ$1.29b, despite contending with a net NZ$135m increase in fuel costs. Operating revenue for the year to 30 June increased 7.4% to NZ$5.5b, as both cargo and passenger revenues showed strong growth. RASK excluding the impact of foreign exchange was up 1.8% as RPKs increased 5.3% on capacity growth of 5%. The carrier noted that demand on is domestic and transtasman route exceeded expectations, while Pacific Islands, Asia, Americas and Europe routes were in-line with expectaitons laid down in February. Operating expenditure increased by 9.2% to NZ$4.19b, pushing CASK up 4%, largely due to higher fuel prices. Earnings before tax increased 2.5% to NZ$540m, while net profit after tax increased 2% to NZ$390m. While welcoming the results, CE Christopher Luxon admitted that it has been a challenging period for the airline, which has had to deal with disruptions caused by issues with the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines that power its fleet of Boeing 787-9s. "While we are very proud of the financial achievements of the 2018 financial year, I want to acknowledge the patience and loyalty of our customers who have been impacted by operational disruptions while travelling with us this year,” he says. “These disruptions have resulted in a level of service for some that did not meet the high standards we set for ourselves.” As a result, the carrier is leasing in two 777-200s and one 777-300ER to cover the downtime on its 787 fleet due to additional inspections required on the Trent 1000s.<br/>
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What are Europe’s biggest airlines? Several data sets could be used to rank them: revenue, fleet size, passengers flown and carrying capacity. USA Today opted for the latter, going with a ranking based on “available seat miles" (ASMs), a standard industry measure that calculates an airline’s carrying capacity by multiplying its number of available seats by the number of miles they fly. With the help of trade publication Airline Weekly and its analysis of Diio Mi data, we came up with rankings for Europe’s 30-biggest airlines as measured by ASMs for the 12-month period running from July 2017 through June 2018. At the top was Lufthansa, followed by British Airways and Ryanair. Story has slides and more details.<br/>