Under new CEO Alain Bellemare, Bombardier has revamped its commercial-aircraft management again, as the CSeries airliner continues its struggle to sustain and expand an order backlog. Mike Arcamone has been replaced as president of Bombardier Commercial Aircraft by Fred Cromer, formerly president of powerful lessor International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC).
Although Cathay Pacific’s new Hong Kong cargo terminal still operates well-below its potential capacity, it expects to see significant gains in volume this year.
Delta thanked the DOT for allowing it to retain the slots, but blasted the department for attaching conditions to its approval. DOT is requiring Delta to operate the Seattle-Haneda flights 365 days per year unless the carrier has permission through a DOT waiver to suspend service.
DOT in its order said the application was “not yet substantially complete,” lacking supporting documents the DOT needs to determine whether the application “meets established standards and policies.”
The routes—San Francisco to Honolulu and Maui—had been expected, with Virgin America CEO David Cush suggesting to analysts that the carrier would try Hawaii with some of its 10 new “Sharklet”-fitted Airbus A320s, the first of which arrive this summer, with deliveries through 2016 (Aviation Daily, April 8).
Much of the new traffic came from increased capacity. As measured by available seat-miles (ASMs), Air Canada’s capacity rose 9.3% overall in the first quarter and 17.3% on transborder routes.
Major airways across China will be altered in the coming 3-5 years, said Che Jinjun, director of the air traffic management bureau of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), apparently referring to more general changes but without giving details.
The American Airlines-US Airways integration is one step closer to completion, now that the FAA has issued a single operating certificate to American Airlines for the merged carrier. Beginning April 8, air traffic controllers will refer to all US Airways and American flights with the call sign “American,” the carriers said.
BEIJING—The anti-corruption crackdown that has suppressed sales of business aircraft in China could end in 2017, according to one expert, though others see reasons for it to wind down sooner, or maybe later. The duration of the government’s campaign to catch bribe-taking officials and their business cronies is probably the biggest question for manufacturers looking to China as a potentially enormous market. When showing off a jet is no longer asking to be investigated, the theory goes, buyers will come back.
Soaring global airline profitability driven by sustained low oil prices is setting the aftermarket up for significant growth in 2015 and 2016, RBC Capital Markets analysts say.
In an effort to avoid “costly [public relations] and litigation,” United Airlines will open a Digital Operations Center at its Chicago headquarters to more effectively monitor social media, message boards and other online channels, the carrier told employees in a recent note.
The FAA has contracted the same three companies currently running its contingent of 252 civilian-staffed control towers—Midwest ATC Services, Robinson Aviation and Serco Management Services—to continue operating the facilities for five years.
Heathrow—which is publicly campaigning to be the site of a new runway against rival Gatwick Airport—says it could cut domestic-passenger charges by a third to encourage airlines to increase the number of domestic services to destinations in the British Isles.
“I’m not going to say anyone has done anything wrong, but the important thing to keep in mind is that accident investigations should be conducted on a non-punitive basis,” Tyler said on April 8.
Airbus’s largest order for the month came from Air Lease Corporation. The Los Angeles-based lessor firmed up an order for 30 Airbus A321neo LR aircraft, valued at approximately $3.73 billion at current list prices, and 25 Airbus A330-900neo widebodies, valued at approximately $7.12 billion at current list prices.
Installations are slated to start in August, with the Danish cargo carrier’s entire fleet expected to be done in about a year. The upgrade work will be done in Ireland.
To date, the FAA has refused an outright ban on the technique, despite nearly a decade of pressure by the NTSB. UPS separately says it plans to prohibit the practice in its pilot manuals.
Flights to Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Nice, and Toulouse are most affected, according to Air France, which revealed drastic short-haul schedule reductions in response to DGAC’s request.
