Qatar Airways has bought a 5% stake in China Southern Airlines in a move that further broadens the portfolio of minority investments in airlines abroad.
Anthony Broderick, former top safety official at FAA and aviation safety consultant, died Dec. 30 in Bealeton, Virginia, following a long illness. He was 75.
From shifting global airline alliances to a still-evolving LCC sector and the impact of Brexit, here are nine things to keep an eye on in the airline world through 2019.
The world’s airlines are expected to post a collective net profit of $32.3 billion in 2018 and to follow that with a $35.5 billion net profit in 2019, which will be the industry’s 10th consecutive year of profitability. But maintaining that positive trend will be no breeze.
Lawyers for the family of the co-pilot killed in the crash of the Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX 8 have filed a lawsuit against Boeing alleging the aircraft was “unreasonably dangerous” and that the manufacturer failed to provide proper instruction on how to handle the new narrowbody’s anti-stall system.
Lufthansa has called on Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport and German border police to urgently address system problems that led to some 3,000 passengers missing their flights in the days leading to Christmas.
Roughly 18,000 FAA employees have been furloughed as part of the partial US federal government shutdown that began Dec. 22, affecting non-essential personnel in posts ranging from airman certificate issuance to aviation rulemaking.
Long-haul LCC Norwegian has rebutted suggestions from a Scandinavian bank analyst that the carrier faces financial problems at the turn of the year because of the size of its debts.
Weakness in FedEx Corp.’s airline segment in the last quarter caused management to reduce its long-term target for the unit and lower the company’s earnings guidance for FY2019, despite strong growth in the FedEx Ground and Freight businesses.
US and European regulators have approved the CFM International-powered Airbus A319neo, clearing the aircraft type’s way for an initial delivery early next year in a corporate configuration.
Technical and administrative issues caused a Scoot Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight to be delayed 56 hrs.—the second extended delay for the Singapore LCC’s 787s in less than a month.
