The growing concern among airlines about vertical consolidation in the MRO industry is likely to spur a reaction from carriers, and may even prompt smaller airlines to cooperate more to establish MRO networks, a veteran industry executive predicts.
Southwest Airlines is content with plans to re-balance its fleet by adding more higher-capacity Boeing 737s, but could envision accelerating deliveries of the new MAX-family aircraft to reap benefits of the newer technology more quickly, CEO Gary Kelly said.
ATR is expecting to find operators for its aircraft in China, despite the country’s long history as a difficult market for foreign suppliers of turboprop airliners.
Acting FAA administrator Dan Elwell said the agency faces an “unprecedented challenge” implementing the multi-year FAA reauthorization act passed by the US Congress in October, adding that the comprehensive bill “contained everything that everyone and anyone ever wanted to do with the FAA and the aviation system.”
Japan Airlines (JAL) has officially established its new medium- to long-haul LCC and has also revealed the first international routes it will launch in 2020.
American Airlines pulled 14 recently modified Boeing 737-800s from service because of “quality” issues with the new interior work and is inspecting them, the airline said March 7.
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr believes that lobby group Airlines for Europe (A4E) would have more impact with European regulators if unions were involved with the body.
JetBlue Airways continues to make market-driven changes to its network and capacity plans but is not wavering from its long-term strategy of fortifying its main bases, executives said.
Central and Eastern European LCC Wizz Air has taken delivery of the first of 184 Airbus A321neos it has on order at Airbus’s Hamburg final assembly plant.
ICAO said it has made “another set of important decisions” toward implementation of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) at its latest Council meeting.
Lufthansa’s lower cost affiliate Eurowings has initiated talks with its various unions about merging its various air operator’s certificates (AOCs) to gain efficiencies after a period of strong growth.
Addressing the tax incentive structure is a major challenge for India if it is too meet its goal of stimulating the MRO sector, according to an industry observer.
American Airlines continues to tout post-merger cost advantages, but its leadership is adamant that making up ground on its primary competitors in 2019 must happen on the revenue side.
German leisure airline TUIfly is considering converting part of its big order for Boeing 737 MAX 8s into the larger -10 to have more capacity on dense routes.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary sees at least one more airline—ideally an Airbus operator—joining his new holding company within five years, with further large aircraft orders also likely before then.
Aviation accidents in Canada declined 16% last year, according to preliminary statistics released March 6 by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB).
EasyJet will convert 3,000 flight attendant licenses and aircraft spare parts into its Austrian air operator’s certificate (AOC) as the UK-based LCC prepares for a no-deal Brexit, easyJet CEO Johan Lundgren told ATW on the sidelines of the Airlines 4 Europe (A4E) summit in Brussels.
