Aviation Daily, January 11, 2018

BEIJING—China will soon order 184 Airbus A320 family aircraft, French President Emmanuel Macron said, as the manufacturer moves to increase output at its Chinese assembly line. Macron and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, encouraged Airbus and Chinese partners to explore further cooperation in relation to the A330, A350 and A380, according to a joint statement issued during the French president’s visit to China.

Boeing claimed an industry record for its 2017 deliveries and has now out-delivered its main competitor Airbus for six years running, according to Randy Tinseth, Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ vice president of marketing.

BEIJING—Chinese airlines are likely to gradually introduce fare increases on 306 major domestic routes, following a relaxation in price controls by the civil aviation authorities. The carriers cannot instantly raise fares on all those routes, however, and when they do they will be limited to 10% increases in each half-year service-schedule period. Moreover, all of the affected markets are subject to strong competition, with no fewer than five airlines flying each route. So in many cases there may be little room to charge more.

American Airlines has provided upbeat guidance for the upcoming release of its fourth quarter 2017 results, projecting higher unit revenue growth than previously projected. Dallas/Fort Worth-based American said its fourth quarter revenues per available seat-mile (RASM) will be up 5–6% year-over-year, up from previous guidance of 2.5–4.5% RASM growth. American’s fourth-quarter RASM performance may indicate the difficult revenue environment U.S. airlines have faced in recent years is easing.

Garuda Indonesia has achieved its aim of deferring the arrival of its remaining 737 MAX orders, with the next deliveries now scheduled for 2020. The carrier has already received its first 737-8 delivery, but under its revised plan the rest will arrive between 2020 and 2024, an airline spokesman told Aviation Daily. The aircraft are expected to arrive at the rate of up to 10 per year. Garuda placed orders for 50 737-8s in 2014.

Global aftermarket provider AAR said Chairman and CEO David Storch will retire as chief executive May 31. President/COO John Holmes will succeed him.

Boeing HorizonX, which the airframer set up to pursue potentially disruptive ideas inside as well as outside the company, has flown a prototype electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) unmanned cargo aircraft. The eight-rotor cargo air vehicle (CAV), which can carry a payload of up to 500 lb., was designed and built in less than three months by a cross-company team. The prototype has completed initial flight tests at Boeing Research & Technology’s (BR&T) Collaborative Autonomous Systems Laboratory in St Louis.

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