Virgin snaps up 40 aircraft making Airbus figures climb higher

0 Comments | Evening Post; Bristol (UK), Jul 28, 2010

PLANE manufacturer Airbus capped off a highly successful week at the Farnborough Airshow with a multi-billion order for 40 aircraft.

The firm, which employs 4,000 at its factory in Filton, has revealed that Virgin America is to buy 40 A320s in a deal worth an estimated $3.5 billion. The airline has said it will buy 40 of the aircraft up-front with options for 20 more aircraft.

The news come in a week when the company announced deals worth more than $10 billion at the industry’s annual gathering.

The new aircraft will be delivered from 2013 through 2016 – with 10 firm orders per year on average, and options for the 20 extra aircraft in 2017-2018.

David Cush, Virgin America president and chief executive, and John Leahy, Airbus chief operating officer, made the announcement of their memorandum of understanding at the airshow.

“This deal reflects confidence in our financial performance, business model and unique service. Despite the tough economic climate since our 2007 launch, Virgin America has experienced record growth, strong financial progress and a sweep of the major reader- based travel awards.

“At a time when most carriers are contracting and shedding jobs, we’re pleased to be growing and bringing our low-fare, innovative service into new markets,” said David Cush.

“The low operating costs, cabin comfort and carbon-efficient design of our all new Airbus fleet will continue to fuel our growth and success in the North American market.”

“A repeat order from Virgin America – a US airline growing quickly both in terms of its route network and its reputation for excellent service – is a great affirmation of the benefits of operating the A320 Family,” said John Leahy.

“We are very pleased they have chosen to expand their reach with even more of our aircraft. Their investment in a state-of-the-art, fuel-efficient Airbus fleet will continue to give them a competitive advantage as they grow.”

Market Wire, July, 2010

Intacct and 2C Processor USA (2CP) today announced a new partnership to deliver integrated credit card processing solutions for Intacct clients. 2CP provides a fully PCI compliant payment gateway along with merchant processing solutions that are now seamlessly integrated with the Intacct cloud financial management system. 2CP has also joined the Intacct-Ready Partner Program, which is designed to create an ecosystem of pre-integrated best of breed cloud-based applications for Intacct clients.

The integration between 2C Processor USA and Intacct enables joint customers to simplify billing and accounting functions related to credit card processing. With TPro from 2CP, all invoicing, credit card processing and recurring billing activities handled through 2CP automatically flow into the Intacct financial management system — streamlining financial processes and improving accuracy by reducing manual data re-entry. The integrated solution also supports companies with multiple business entities by allowing for more than one merchant account to be associated within 2CP’s TPro payment gateway.

The integrated solution also virtually eliminates the compliance headaches associated with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) — a set of requirements designed to ensure that all companies that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. TPro uses tokenization, enabling joint clients to store a random number associated with their customer’s sensitive credit card data, instead of the actual credit card number.

“We see the Intacct-Ready Partner Program as a great way to work closely with Intacct to provide an integrated solution that delivers tremendous value to joint clients,” said William Barber, chief operating officer at 2C Processor USA. “The integration between Intacct and 2CP enables joint clients to more easily coordinate their recurring billing, e-commerce payments, and much more. This is all about helping companies reduce payment processing costs while increasing their finance department’s efficiency. We know first-hand, as we are also an Intacct client and have seen the benefits of integrating our solutions.”

Intacct and 2C Processor already have several joint clients. For example, Fellowship Technologies, a leading provider of web-based church management software, is a long-time Intacct client that is in the process of implementing the integrated solution from 2CP.

“We are excited that Intacct and 2C Processor USA are working together,” said Allen Horak, CFO and vice president of finance at Fellowship Technologies. “We love using Intacct as our core financial management system, and we are looking forward to integrating it with TPro to eliminate the hassles of managing our credit card payment processing. That can be a very tedious, manual process and this integration will help us streamline those processes while also saving us money.”

2CP’s Real-Time Processing and Recurring-Billing Processing solutions are ideal for use in multiple entity/franchisor businesses and in any recurring revenue business model. For franchise businesses, 2CP’s Real-Time Processing solution handles payment processing with the same multiple business entity management approach that Intacct supports. The Real-Time Processing solution allows the franchisor to have a “look-down” into each franchisee’s payments processing and manage back-office accounts receivable for them. In addition, it eliminates the need for costly and time consuming accounting methods by automatically billing credit cards and posting payments to open invoices in Intacct. It also automatically deposits funds into each franchisee’s bank account, eliminating the need for the franchisor to handle the franchisee’s cash.

For businesses using a recurring revenue model, 2CP’s Recurring-Billing Processing solution automatically looks for invoices created in Intacct using Intacct’s recurring schedule template