Finnair is introducing an “economy comfort” product as part of the ongoing cabin upgrades of its Airbus widebody fleet and this fall will begin unbundling services on short-haul routes, with the introduction of paid-for meals in economy. Finnair also revealed its initial Airbus A350 routes and said it will deploy the aircraft, for which it is European-launch customer, on services to Bangkok, Beijing and Shanghai from the second half of 2015. The Oneworld carrier will subsequently roll out the aircraft on its Hong Kong and Singapore services in 2016.
Virgin America reported a $37.1 million profit in the second quarter, a four-fold increase from the same period in 2013, an achievement the airline says is related to a 7.8% jump in revenue per available seat mile (RASM) compared to last year. The profit, after a $22.4 million loss last quarter, comes as Virgin America readies its initial public offering. The seven-year-old carrier, based near San Francisco International Airport, has made money in four of the past five quarters and had its first annual profit last year.
Flight attendants at Virgin America voted to join the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) and will begin negotiating their first contract with the carrier this fall, officials said Wednesday. According to the National Mediation Board, 430 Virgin America flight attendants endorsed the union and 307 voted against it, while about 100 eligible workers did not vote. In 2011, the flight attendants handily rejected the TWU.
Boeing is escalating the war of words between it and Delta Air Lines over the role of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. (Ex-Im), dispatching a letter to the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee that refutes, point-by-point, a letter the Atlanta-based carrier sent last week.
LAN Airlines is reaching the initial in-service reliability target of the Boeing 787 two years after it took delivery of its first aircraft. While the airline has seen significant improvements over time, LAN’s Vice President-Line Maintenance Network Sebastian Domenech says that “we are still far from our long term objectives and expectations. We still have a hard road to improvement on which we expect to continue to receive full support from Boeing.”
ATLANTA—Wildlife mitigation experts are working with FAA to develop a new basic standard for calculating bird-strike risk at airports that would replace the decades-old measurement of strikes per 10,000 movements.
BEIJING—Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) will increase production of Boeing 787 outer-wing boxes from 2016 to support Boeing’s plan to build the aircraft at a rate of 14 a month by the end of the decade. MHI is one of three major Japanese suppliers of 787 structure. It will expand product facilities at its Shimonoseki Shipyard & Machinery Works and Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works, with an investment program to begin in October.
SYDNEY—Nauru Airlines is adding more narrowbody aircraft to its fleet as the carrier enjoys a remarkable revival with Nauru’s status as an offshore processing point for refugees trying to enter Australia.
NEW DELHI—Tata-SIA Airlines Limited (TSAL), the aviation joint venture of Tata Group and Singapore Airline, has branded its new airline as Vistara, which is expected to start operations by October. The airline will take delivery of its first aircraft, an Airbus A320-200, in September.
Monarch Group has launched a strategic review of its capital structure and business, less than one month after committing to an order for 30 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft and options on a further 15 aircraft. The privately held U.K.-based group said the review covers all areas of the business, from operations to ownership and financing, “with the objective of determining the optimum structure to realize the significant opportunity to build on the respected Monarch brand and distinctive offer to its customers in the budget airline market.”
Nav Canada has secured a significant new customer for its tower air-traffic control system, with Italian air navigation service provider (ANSP) ENAV purchasing it for use at six major airports. Nav Canada is one of a handful of ANSPs that are successfully marketing air-traffic control (ATC) products based on technology they have developed for their own use. The Canadian company has previously sold its tower systems to ANSPs in the U.K., Australia, Dubai, Denmark and Hong Kong.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has launched a project to evaluate whether the check-in process is redundant, although it acknowledges the change won’t be easy to implement. “We are working on a process called ‘no more check-in.’ It’s gone; it’s history,” IATA head of passenger experience Paul Behan said. IATA is aiming to revamp the process so passengers can book and confirm flights, select seats and receive boarding passes in one transaction at the start of the process, similar to a cinema booking.
Frankfurt airport has received regulatory approval to build a third passenger terminal, but the project is unlikely to be finished before 2021. Construction could begin as early as next year, but depends on the agreement of the regional coalition government, which has opposing views on the airport’s development.
Even as JetBlue Airways expands into the Caribbean and Latin America and develops focus cities along the U.S. East Coast, it continues thinking of itself as a point-to-point low-cost carrier (LCC), CEO Dave Barger said.
Malaysia Airlines (MAS)’s Chief Commercial Officer Hugh Dunleavy underlined the need for the industry to improve information sharing about where it is safe to fly and where it isn’t.
Malaysian long-haul low-cost carrier AirAsia X is looking at flying between 80 and 110 Airbus A330s in its fleet in coming years. CEO Azran Osman Rani said its latest order placed with Airbus—for 50 A330neos—could either be used as a replacement for its existing fleet of Airbus A330s, or alternatively, for fleet expansion by 2024.
WASHINGTON—Dublin Aerospace added Airbus A330 base maintenance to its portfolio in response to leasing companies and airline customers who also operate A320s and want a single place to service both aircraft. Some of its customers who operate A330s include Aer Lingus, AerCap, BBAM, Gecas, Hi Fly, I-Fly and Flynas. The MRO, launched in 2009 after taking over most of SR Technics’ operation that closed at Dublin International Airport, also provides base maintenance, auxiliary power unit and landing-gear services for Boeing 737 and A320 aircraft.
While massive backlogs at some aspiring carriers help fuel talk of a potential order bubble, the number of established airlines yet to line up replacements for older aircraft have lessors bullish on long-term prospects—and their order books show it.
The U.S. Transportation Department’s delay in approving Norwegian Air International’s (NAI) application for a foreign air carrier permit is surely not hindering the low-cost carrier’s growth, with passenger numbers up 17% in July.
SYDNEY -— Fiji Airways plans to add turboprop, narrowbody and widebody aircraft to its fleet over the next few years, allowing it to expand its international services, the carrier’s CEO says.
BEIJING—Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways has bought equity in U.S. biofuel developer Fulcrum BioEnergy and contracted for 10 years of fuel supplies from the company equivalent to 2% of the carrier’s current consumption. Cathay aims to achieve carbon-neutral growth from 2020.
Southwest Airlines reported in July that unit revenue grew by a percentage point more than it had previously guided, beating expectations on both growing load factors and traffic. The carrier said its passenger revenue per available seat-mile (PRASM) grew by 4% in July, up from the 3% growth-guidance which the carrier reported last month. Traffic rose 6.6% on capacity that was up 2.6%, while July load factor was almost 87%, compared with 83.5% in July of last year. Average stage length also rose 0.8%.
