Northwest Airlines to Risk Manage Fuel Cost With SuperDerivatives

LONDON & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SuperDerivatives®, the benchmark for derivatives pricing and the leading provider for multi-asset front-office systems, risk management, revaluation and online options trading solutions, today announced that Northwest Airlines is deploying its commodity and energy derivatives platform, SD-CM, to hedge jet fuel costs.

“Rising fuel costs continue to be one of the biggest challenges to Northwest Airlines and the airlines industry as a whole. We searched for a derivatives platform that would enable us to evaluate various hedging strategies and option valuation for FASB 133 accounting”

Northwest Airlines is one of the world's largest airlines with approximately 1,400 daily departures and a fleet of more than 500 aircraft, and is also one of the top cargo airlines.

“Rising fuel costs continue to be one of the biggest challenges to Northwest Airlines and the airlines industry as a whole. We searched for a derivatives platform that would enable us to evaluate various hedging strategies and option valuation for FASB 133 accounting,” said David Zanussi, Managing Director of Fuel Management, Northwest Airlines. “SuperDerivatives’ SD-CM pricing and risk management platform supports our decision making process and allows us to smartly plan and time our energy market purchases and financial activities. Additionally, the breadth of coverage of SD-CM provides us with innovative hedging approaches utilizing a solid selection of proxies to jet fuel exposure, including heating fuel, and crude oil and the ability to use crack options and other specialized instruments to our advantage.”

Complete with its market data feed, web-based SD-CM combines real time benchmark pricing with risk management, analytics, hedging, investment and marketing tools for options on energy products, base and precious metals, and agriculture commodities. Besides jet fuel, other supported energy products include crude oil, natural gas, Nymex/ICE oil products, residual fuel oil and, most recently, benzene. SD-CM is widely used by all market participants, including corporate treasurers, energy companies, fund investors and banks’ trading and sales desks.

“Our clients show us empirically time and time again the dramatic savings that results from controlling energy costs versus being at the mercy of the energy markets. SuperDerivatives levels the playing field, empowering even energy market novices to invest or hedge with skill and results similar to those of highly experienced traders,” said Leor Jivotovsky, Commodity and Energy Options Product Manager, SuperDerivatives.