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EuroWire – January 2008
33
Taking a broader view, Deutsche Bank analyst Rod Lache said
that he was standing firm on his buy rating on GM stock, telling
clients he was surprised by the strength on the auto side of the
business. (
MarketWatch,
7
th
November)
“North America and Latin America were significantly better than
expected,” Mr Lache told
MarketWatch
reporter Shawn Langlois
in San Francisco. “Asia was on target. Europe was disappointing.”
Landing-gear accidents move
Scandinavian Airlines to ground planes
from Canadian maker Bombardier
The Stockholm-based carrier SAS AB has stopped using its
Dash 8 Series 400 planes from Bombardier Inc after three crash
landings in six weeks. The Q400’s in the fleet, all 27 of them, were
grounded as of 28
th
October, Scandinavia’s biggest airline said
in a statement. Bombardier, a Canadian conglomerate based
in Montreal, Quebec, is a large manufacturer of regional and
business aircraft and transportation equipment.
As reported by
Bloomberg News
, SAS had once before taken the
turboprops out of service over landing gear-related accidents,
but had phased them back into the fleet.
On 9
th
September, an SAS Q400 caught fire in Aalborg, Denmark,
after its landing gear failed. Five of the 69 passengers were
injured. Three days later, part of the landing gear of an SAS Q400
collapsed upon touchdown in Vilnius, Lithuania. (“SAS Will Stop
Using Q400 Planes after Crash Landing,” 28
th
October)
Bloomberg
’s Christian Wienberg and Niklas Magnusson wrote
that SAS was trying to lease planes to limit cancellations, which
totalled 53 for the single day on 28
th
October. SAS said it would
claim at least $157 million from Bombardier as compensation for
lost revenue and damage to its reputation. “Confidence in the
Q400 has diminished considerably,” Chief Executive Officer Mats
Jansson said in the SAS statement. “Our customers are becoming
increasingly doubtful about flying in this type of aircraft.”
SAS was in cancellation difficulties even before the accidents,
having had to scratch more than 2,000 flights as a result of
staff walkouts in Sweden, Denmark, and Spain – at a cost of
about $47 million in earnings in the second-quarter 2007. As
for Bombardier, Dan Solon, an independent airline analyst in
Barcelona, told
Bloomberg
by telephone, “This is a massive blow
to [the Canadian company].
“One of their important customers has displayed lack of
confidence in their product, and that’s the worst thing that can
happen to an aircraft maker.”