You can now register online for Aviation Week events. Go to www.aviationweek.com/conferences or contact: Lydia Janow, 212-904-3225 or 800-240-7645 ext. 5 (U.S. and Canada only) Sept. 23-24—Brazing Symposium, Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa, Phoenix, Arizona Oct. 7-9—MRO Europe, Madrid Spain Nov. 4-6—MRO Asia, Singapore EXPO Convention and Exhibition Centre, Singapore
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] . (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Sept. 10-11—TRAM Aerospoace Conference, Chicago, Illinois, www.tram-conference.com Sept. 10-12—International Air Transport Association’s 10th Maintenance Cost Conference, Divani Palace Acropolis, Athens, Parthenonos 19, Athina 117 42, Greece, www.iata.org/events/Pages/mcc-2014.aspx
BEIJING – Beijing’s backing of low-cost carriers (LCCs) and the opening of the Chinese market to new entrants prompted Boeing to markedly upgrade its forecast for the country’s demand for narrowbody airliners, a senior company executive says. The Chinese-airliner fleet—from regional jets to super jumbos—will grow to 6,930 in 2023 from 2,310 aircraft in 2013, Boeing says in its latest forecast.
Air Baltic and British Airways have agreed to code share on the Riga-London/Gatwick route. British Airways, which itself does not serve Riga, will put its code on the nine weekly Air Baltic flights to London. For BA, Gatwick is the much-smaller London base when compared to the Heathrow hub, but Air Baltic has no slots at the city’s main international hub. The agreement further solidifies Air Baltic’s status as a non-alliance airline.
American Airlines Group, seeking more efficiency in the two regional partners and dealing a blow to Envoy Air in the process, plans to transfer 47 Bombardier CRJ700s from Envoy to PSA Airlines starting next year. Both regional airlines told employees that the reason behind the move, to be completed in 2016, is to streamline each carrier into a single fleet type. PSA is an all-CRJ fleet, including -200s, -700s, and -900s. The switch sets Envoy up to operate 176 ERJ 140s and ERJ 145s.
Westjet is using its daily, seasonal flights from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Dublin, Ireland as a testing ground for European expansion, airline Chief Financial Officer Vito Culmone told analysts this week at the Cowen and Co. Global Transportation & Aerospace/Defense Conference in Boston. The service, which uses a Boeing 737-700, comes ahead of WestJet’s plans to acquire four used Boeing 767-300ERs and deploy them to Hawaii in late 2015 (Aviation DAILY, July 30).
Low-cost carriers (LCCs) Nok Air and Scoot have taken a major step in their increasingly close relationship with the launch of interline flights and the co-location of their Bangkok operations. The interline arrangement gives Singapore-based long-haul LCC Scoot important feed to its Bangkok flights. It also allows Nok to expand its network offering beyond the short-haul domestic flights it offers with its own aircraft.
Delta Air Lines’s plans to “stand down” four Boeing 747-400s will see three leave the fleet by the end of the month as the carrier rejiggers its transpacific strategy, Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson told analysts. “The 747 is a tough airplane, with its four engines and its large gauge,” Jacobson said at the recent Cowen & Co. conference.
Bombardier is to restart CSeries flight testing and remains confident the initial 110-seat CS100 will enter service in the second half of 2015, despite a halt of more than three months after an engine failure during ground testing. The company says flight testing will resume this month with the second aircraft, FTV2. The aircraft was rolled out at Mirabel on Sep. 5. Bombardier confirms engine runs have begun. Close observers say the aircraft could fly as early as Sep.
Current market values of six-month-old Boeing 777-300ERs and Airbus A321s are about 50% of their new-list prices, while a year-old Airbus A319 should command about 43% of the manufacturer’s published-list price, analyses from three appraisers shows.
