ONE MORE THING:DAVY AND some institutional investors paid a flying visit to a number of Irish airlines on Wednesday with some interesting results.
Ryanair said it might look at mothballing up to 20 aircraft this winter, compared with seven last winter at Stansted. Michael O'Leary has made no secret of the fact that he might mothball more aircraft this winter but putting as many as 20 into hibernation will surprise many in the industry.
The expectation is that at least a couple of planes in Dublin will be left in the hangar.
In spite of this, however, Ryanair told the Davy gathering that it expected to carry more than half the growth in passenger numbers across Europe in 2008. Ryanair anticipates carrying about 60 million passengers this year, up about nine million on 2007.
"Competitors continue to exit Ryanair's markets and this has galvanised the airline's management to further push its unique competitive advantage - its underlying cost base," said Davy aviation analyst Stephen Furlong.
On Aer Lingus, Furlong noted that forward bookings for the peak summer months continue to track last year.
Aer Lingus management said the German and French markets are looking good but London and eastern Europe are "more uncertain".
In his note to clients, Furlong questioned if Aer Lingus was getting the best out of its Heathrow slots, which he has valued at up to €500 million. "We wonder whether the potential return of the Heathrow slots is being fully realised." Aer Lingus also hinted to Davy at a new deal with Airbus on short-haul aircraft in time.
Davy and its investors also met the top brass at JetBird, the fledgling executive jet operator backed by Dómhnal Slattery's Claret Capital. JetBird's takeoff is pencilled in for April 2009 and it plans to have 100 of Embraer's Phenom aircraft flying by 2013. According to Davy, JetBird expects to be operationally profitable within a year - which would be a Phenom-enal performance.
