Sichuan Airlines will set up a branch company at Harbin in far northeastern China with the aim of building a hub connecting the Russian Far East with northeast Asia.
Delta’s $450 million investment in China Eastern Airlines could strengthen SkyTeam’s presence in China and position the alliance to better capture growing business-travel spending in that county.
JetBlue Airways reported slightly higher unit revenues in the second quarter on a year-over-year basis, a development the carrier credited in part to increased profits on flights to Latin America and the Caribbean.
Dubai International Airport plans to begin using a camera-based foreign object debris (FOD) detection system early in 2016 to help the operators more quickly identify and remove debris from runway areas, eliminating a persistent safety problem.
China Eastern has committed to adding capacity in Australia with a new route and seasonal increases on two existing ones if the country’s regulators change their minds and allow the carrier to partner more closely with Qantas.
BRUSSELS—Only days after the head of Air France-KLM confirmed that expanding Transavia into a truly pan-European LCC was back on the agenda, following French pilots indicating they no longer opposed the plan, Air France’s largest pilot union is again voicing its objections.
Airbus has resumed flight testing with its Pratt & Whitney (PW) PW1100G-powered A320neo, with one of the two prototypes equipped with PW engines taking flight July 27 following a three-month grounding.
Malaysia’s airport operator says it is unfeasible for AirAsia to relocate to its former terminal at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), a move the carrier suggested in response to ground stability problems at a new facility.
For a complete list of Aviation Week’s upcoming events, and to register, visit www.awin.aviationweek.com/events Oct. 13-15—MRO Europe, ExCel London Exhibition and Convention Center, London, U.K. Nov. 4-6—MRO Asia, SingEx Exhibition and Convention Center, Singapore. Feb. 3-4, 2016—MRO Middle East, Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai, UAE.
“We’ll take whatever fare we get during the winter as long as we fill these additional flights,” CEO Michael O’Leary told analysts during Ryanair’s first-quarter earnings call on July 27.
The new fare classes apply to economy travel, and with them, Lufthansa Group legacy airlines will for the first time charge a checked bag fees for its Economy Light class.
Specifically, JetBlue has batted aside the two carriers’ claims that they would not control more than half of the slots at Mexico City’s slot-constrained airport (Aviation Daily, June 21).
“Airline profit expectations for the year ahead have dipped from previous highs but remain positive,” IATA says it its latest Airline Business Confidence Index, the group’s quarterly survey of airline chief financial officers.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] . (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Aug. 25—9th Asia-Pacific Congress of Aerospace Medicine, Beijing, China, www.apfama.org/2014 Aug. 25—10th Chinese Conference of Aerospace Mediciner, www.apfama.org/2014
Qantas is finally seeing some financial reward from its stake in Fiji Airways, after the Fijian carrier paid out its first dividend in seven years. The total dividend was about FJD$5 million (U.S.$2.3 million), of which Qantas received 46%. The Fijian government received the largest share, due to its 51% holding in the national airline. Air New Zealand and Pacific Island governments also own minority stakes. Fiji Airways achieved a dramatic financial turnaround last year.
Plans to expand Transavia into a truly pan-European LCC, with operating bases outside of France and the Netherlands, is back on the agenda of Air France-KLM after French pilots indicated they no longer object to the project, the Franco-Dutch group’s CEO said. Air France-KLM is aiming to open a first base outside its home countries by the start of the 2016 IATA summer schedule, Air France-KLM CEO Alexandre de Juniac said during the presentation of the group’s first-half results.
