Air Ryan

order 200 planes for USD$7 billion with delivery starting in 2013, CEO Michael O'Leary said on Tuesday.

Ryanair is not in advanced talks with either of the two on the order and is happy to wait until the plane makers' "order book collapses" to negotiate a better deal, he said.

The planes have a list price of about USD$70 million each but Ryanair expects to negotiate at least a 50 percent discount to pay about USD$35 million - USD$40 million each for a total order of roughly USD$7 billion, he said.

"The sticker price is USD$70 million, but we would never dream of paying anything like that," he told reporters after a news conference on the airline's plans in Italy.

Despite Ryanair's historic relationship with Boeing, O'Leary said he would order planes from Airbus if they offered a cheaper price. In that case, Ryanair would simply designate some of its airport bases as those for Airbus planes, he said.

The planes would be delivered between 2013 and 2016, he said. Ryanair has a fleet of 171 Boeing 737-800s, and has firm orders to bring that up to 310 planes by 2012, he said.

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Air Canada

Air Canada, the country's biggest airline, could be forced to file for bankruptcy protection if it does not secure additional financing and succeed in renegotiating covenants in credit card agreements, UBS analyst Fadi Chamoun said.

"Notwithstanding lower fuel costs, we believe that cash from operations will be insufficient to meet rising pension funding obligations and over CAD$1 billion (USD$800 million) of debt repayment over the next two years," Chamoun said in a note dated February 13.

Covenants in credit card agreements could tighten further in the second quarter and result in the airline being required to maintain higher cash deposits, said Chamoun, who cut his target price for its shares to CAD$1 from CAD$1.50.

"In the absence of additional financing (sale of assets) and renegotiation of covenants in credit card agreements, Air Canada could be forced to file for bankruptcy in our opinion," he wrote.

Air Canada spokeswoman Angela Mah declined to comment on the UBS report.

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Asia Holiday Travel Inc offering Tours to China

Asia Holiday Travel Inc offering Tours to China is an associated member of China International Travel Service, Hebei, the People's Republic of China founded in 1973. We are based in San Francisco, the departure point for our tours. Throughout our history, we have been focusing on those destinations we know best and successfully offering varieties of package tours to China, Hong Kong and other Asian countries for more than 20 years. We have sister-offices located in many parts of China. This unique resource and many years of experience are the guarantee of your Trouble-Free travel arrangements and high quality tours that no other agency has been able to match.

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BAA Agrees UK Tax Exemptions - Report

Spanish construction and services group Ferrovial has agreed a tax break on capital gains by its British airports unit BAA that could be worth hundreds of millions of pounds, Expansion reported, citing unnamed sources.

After a year of negotiations with Britain's Inland Revenue, Ferrovial has secured exemptions on capital gains from asset sales in 2008 as well as additional planned disposals, such as London's Gatwick Airport, the newspaper said.

The Spanish company is considering indicative offers for Gatwick after it was told by Britain's antitrust regulator to sell the airport as well as London's Stansted because of competition concerns.

Ferrovial will be allowed to keep Heathrow, one of the world's busiest airports, with 65 million passengers a year.

Last month, Heathrow was controversially awarded government approval for a third runway for an estimated GBP9 billion pound (USD$12.74 billion) investment.

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First China-Built Airbus Due In July

China's Sichuan Airlines will become the world's first carrier to receive an Airbus built outside Europe when it takes delivery in July of an A320 assembled in China, an Airbus staff memo said.

Details of the historic delivery, almost four decades after the plane maker was born as a four-nation European consortium, were disclosed to employees in the internal note this week.

It comes as Airbus prepares to sign separate deals with China over investment in its next model, the A350, which will include new carbon materials and will be assembled in France.

Airbus began assembling some of its A320 model of jets in Tianjin near Beijing in September from fuselage parts shipped from Europe.

According to the memo, the Tianjin factory is now full, with four airframes assembled and a fifth in position.

Airbus and rival Boeing have been turning to Asian markets, led by China, for growth as demand weakens at home.

However, China too is now succumbing to the global economic crisis. In December, Beijing encouraged airlines to cancel or postpone 2009 deliveries due to falling air traffic.

Tianjin A320s are assembled from fuselage parts shipped from factories in France, Germany, Spain and Britain. Airbus aims to reach local Chinese output of four A320s a month by end-2011.

Under pressure over jobs, Airbus says Tianjin will serve the Chinese market and that most construction will remain in Europe.

It says the move will lock in a good slice of the 3,000 new planes Airbus predicts China will need over the next 20 years.

But it faces criticism from European unions who say the move adds to outsourcing fears amid the recession and could result in the loss of European technology to a potential jet maker rival.

Airbus has suspended plans to lift total A320-family output to 40 planes a month from 36 due to the global economic crisis.

For now its Chinese production plans remain intact. So if the overall output freeze lingers, assembly of up to 4 planes a month could be transferred to China from Europe. However, with the industry in turmoil due to a drop in air travel, Airbus has said it cannot make firm predictions even for 2009.

Most analysts expect production to be hit everywhere as the recession bites before rebounding on signs of recovery.

Sichuan Airlines, a mid-sized carrier partly owned by China Southern Airlines, operates more than 130 routes, almost entirely within China, with a fleet of 40 jets.

Details of the first Airbus to be made in China emerged as EADS invited China to produce high-tech materials for its next generation of Airbus, the future mid-sized lightweight A350.

A deal to build a plant in Harbin was due to be signed on a visit to Spain by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Friday.

Another deal is expected as he visits Britain on Monday, when Xi'an Aircraft International will sign a parts manufacturing agreement with Airbus, a person familiar with the transaction said.

Spain has a 5 percent stake in EADS, which is controlled by French and German interests with two factories also in Britain.

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Air China

Air China Limited is abbreviated as "Air China" and its predecessor, the old Air China, was founded in 1988. On September 30th, 2004, Air China Limited was founded in Beijing, with 19,972 employees, total registered assets of 6.5 billion RMB and the paid-up capital of 9.433 billion RMB. On December 15th, 2004, Air China had successfully made its listed stocks appear in Hong Kong (stock code 0753) and London (trading code AIRC).

The enterprise logo of Air China is an artistic Phoenix, the Chinese version of Air China written by Mr. Deng Xiaoping and the English translation "AIR CHINA". The enterprise mission is "meet the requirements of customers, create mutual values".

Air China is the only airline company which flies with the national flag. The headquarter of Air China is located in Beijing, and it also has several branch companies such as Southwest, Zhejiang, Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Tianjin, Guizhou, Tibet and a Shanghai and Huanan base. Air China owns 220 Boeing and Airbus planes and flies to 27 countries and districts, among which there are 36 international cities and 70 domestic cities. There are 4,160 scheduled flights per week.

Air China has a strong domestic and international route and sales network. In recent years it has strengthened several regional hubs such as the Southwest with the centre of Chengdu, Eastern China with the centre of Shanghai, Southern China with the centre of Guangzhou. In order to strengthen the market sales and make the sales channel more flexible, at present Air China has made electronic tickets and online sales businesses available in many domestic cities, which can offer customers convenient and fast ticket purchasing service.

Air China owns an extensive client group with a high quality. Over 71% of the guests who take Air China flights are business and commercial passengers. The Frequent Passengers Club of Air China has active and faithful members who have reached 3.01 million people as of the end of 2005. In August 2004, Air China became the sole and formal airline partner of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Facts & Figures

• Number of aircraft: 220
• Aircraft types: B747, B777, B767, B737, A340, A330, A320, A319
• Hubs: Beijing, Chengdu,Shanghai
• Number of employees: 19,972
• Passengers per year: 34.84 million
• Sales revenue(CNY): US$ 7.3 billion
• Frequent flyer programme: PhoenixMiles (Platinum, Gold, Silver, Basic)
• Number of destinations: 121 (43 international & 71 domestic)
• Network strengths: China
• Date of entry: December 2007

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