Aviation Daily Roundup: April 6, 2022

Serious Incident On Air France Boeing 777 Prompts Inquiry

An Air France-operated Boeing 777-300ER was involved in a serious incident April 5 when the crew experienced problems with the flight controls on final approach to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). French air accident bureau BEA has opened a safety investigation into “instability of flight controls on final, go-around, hard controls, flight path oscillations.” Credit: Rob Finlayson

AirAsia X Adds More Routes, Eyes Fleet Increase

Malaysian LCC AirAsia X has revealed the next stage of its network restoration, which will also help the airline return more of its fleet to service. The carrier announced that it will resume flights from its Kuala Lumpur hub to Seoul and New Delhi beginning April 20. Credit: Tengku Bahar / AFP / Getty Images

Spirit Merger Would Quickly Bolster JetBlue’s Airbus Orderbook

JetBlue Airways believes its proposed acquisition of, and merger with, Spirit Airlines will allow the combined entity to create a compelling order book during the next few years in an increasingly tight narrowbody market. The New York-based airline has made a surprise counter bid for Spirit after Frontier Airlines outlined its plans to acquire Spirit in early February to create one of the largest ULCCs in the world. JetBlue is offering to buy Spirit for $3.6 billion. Credit: JetBlue

Boeing Boosts Operations Into Cloud With Amazon, Google, Microsoft

In a major step forward in its digitalization, including overhauling how it designs and builds new aircraft, Boeing announced a series of deals with the highest-profile cloud-computing providers. In separate announcements, Boeing unveiled expansions of existing relationships with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud and Microsoft for their cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning (ML) offerings. Credit: Boeing

Boeing Should Not Get Extension On Flight Crew Alerting Law, DeFazio Says

Boeing should not get relief if it cannot certify its 737-7 or 737-10 before the congressionally mandated Dec. 27 deadline that prohibits the FAA from approving new designs that—like the 737 MAX family—do not comply with several regulations, a top U.S. lawmaker said. Credit: Boeing

Kenya Airways, South African Airways Seek West African Partner

Kenya Airways and South African Airways (SAA) have begun rolling out customer benefits from their strategic cooperation and are looking to add a West African airline partner. The two African airlines announced their planned partnership in September 2021 and finalized the agreement two months later. Credit: South African Airways

Manchester Airport Manager Steps Down As Disruptions Mount

The managing director of Manchester Airport (MAN) has stepped down amid severe operational disruption at the UK airport, including lengthy queues caused by staff shortages and stronger passenger demand. Karen Smart is leaving Manchester Airports Group (MAG) after eight years with the company, including two years as the managing director of Manchester Airport. Credit: Manchester Airport

Virgin Atlantic Anticipates Return To Profit In 2023

Long-haul carrier Virgin Atlantic is expecting to significantly narrow its losses in 2022 and return to profitability in 2023, after posting a £594 million ($778.7 million) pre-tax loss for 2021. “2022 will be a year of transition as we move from survival into recovery,” Virgin Atlantic CFO Oli Byers said April 5. “We anticipate a return to profitability in 2023, driven by a recovery in air travel demand and more than £300 million annual cost savings, already delivered.” Credit: Virgin Atlantic

Daily Memo: JetBlue Offers Spirit More Money, More Problems?

JetBlue Airways surprised the industry with a $3.6 billion all-cash offer for Spirit Airlines, which it called “superior” to Frontier Airlines’ $2.9 billion cash and stock bid for the South Florida-based ULCC. The deal obviously offers more immediate value to Spirit’s shareholders than the Frontier offer, but it also comes with added regulatory risk and complications related to merging two disparate business models and corporate cultures, industry watchers and analysts say. Credit: Joe Pries

Universal Hydrogen Plans To Fly Fuel-Cell-Powered Dash 8

Universal Hydrogen plans to flight test its 1-megawatt, hydrogen fuel-cell propulsion system on a De Havilland Canada Dash 8-300 regional aircraft starting around September. Experimental flight testing will be conducted at Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, Washington. The campaign is separate from the company’s planned supplemental type certification flight tests of its hydrogen fuel-cell system aboard the regional aircraft. Credit: Universal Hydrogen

Iceland Startups Niceair, PLAY Target Profitability In 2023

In conversation with Aviation Daily, Iceland’s newest start-up airlines Niceair and PLAY detail their latest activities and plans to reach profitability in 2023. Icelandic startup Niceair expects to receive a wet-leased Airbus A319 from Portuguese ACMI specialist Hi Fly in May to launch its first flights. The startup eyes a possible expansion to the three aircraft by 2024. Credit: Isavia

IATA Sees Summer Demand Growth Despite Fare Increases

Airlines are expecting travel demand to keep growing despite the effects of higher jet fuel costs feeding through into ticket price increases, IATA said. “We’re seeing a very positive situation developing in Europe–customers do not appear to be put off by higher prices as a result of energy prices,” IATA’s director general Willie Walsh said during an April 6 briefing. Credit: Dublin Airport

Serious incident on Air France Boeing 777 prompts inquiry, AirAsia X adds more routes, Eyes Fleet increase and more. Take a look at the daily roundup of air transport news.

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