Hard on the heels of its talks with “unspecified investors,” reports suggest SpiceJet may be talking with Qatar Airways about the Middle East carrier taking a position in the cash-poor LCC.
FRANKFURT — Qatar Airways completed the transition from Doha’s existing international airport to Hammad on May 27, just days before the International Air Transport Association (IATA) holds its annual general meeting in Qatar. The event and the delivery of Qatar Airways’ first Airbus A380 were seen as the two target dates not to be missed. Qatar’s first A380 will arrive from Hamburg on June 3.
Pratt & Whitney (P&W) is solidifying its service foundation by streamlining its aftermarket organization of 13 repair facilities and 6,000 professionals into one de facto business that melds 24 profit-and-loss centers into a single, unified bottom line. Matthew Bromberg, P&W’s aftermarket president, says aligning the aftermarket in this manner is “good for operators because it clears any internal transferring that has occurred and focuses everyone on delivering high-speed, high-quality and high-value services.”
Honeywell is moving ahead with development of its Electric Green Taxiing System (EGTS) for narrowbody aircraft and is talking to COMAC about potentially making the system an option on the C919. The company is in talks with “north of 30” airlines that are interested in the system, a Honeywell executive said.
BRUSSELS — Aegean Airlines expects that the full synergy and scale economies benefits of the Olympic Air integration will mature with the next 12 months, but the tie-up has already delivered encouraging results in the first quarter with the combined entity reporting increased passenger numbers and a smaller net loss. Aegean completed its long-proposed acquisition of smaller rival Olympic Air in October 2013 after winning approval from the European Commission.
BRUSSELS – Finnair is moving ahead with plans to increase the use of outsourced cabin service, on three additional long-haul routes at first, and will reduce its own cabin staff by one-third after negotiations failed to find a compromise on management’s €18 million ($24.5 million) savings target. In the next stage, Finnair will further outsource cabin crew services on more than 10 routes, both short-haul and long-haul.
While new airplane sales drive most of Boeing’s commercial sector growth, the company is putting renewed emphasis on grabbing a larger share of the lucrative but fragmented aftermarket business, and two recent purchases indicate its strategy is a mix of acquisitions and organic expansion.
The Transportation Department’s delay in granting Norwegian Air International (NAI) permission to fly to the U.S. is unprecedented and suggests that the department is bowing to arguments that have nothing to do with the carrier’s fitness to operate, former DOT Secretary Mary Peters told Aviation Week.
Aviation Week named Copa Airlines as the industry’s strongest carrier in this year’s Top-Performing Airlines (TPA) study, with Allegiant Air and Japan Airlines also featuring prominently in the rankings. Copa achieved the highest score overall and was ranked first among mid-sized carriers, edging out Allegiant, which was second overall and best in the small airline category. Japan Airlines (JAL) won the large airline category.
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) June 10-11 —MRO Eastern Europe, Baltics and Russia, Sheraton Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland July 16-20—Farnborough Commercial Manufacturing Briefings and Farnborough Air Show, U.K. Oct. 7-9—MRO Europe, Madrid Spain
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] . (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) June 4-5 —RTCA 2014 Global Aviation Symposium, Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC http://symposium.rtca.org/ June 8-10—2014 Airport Board & Commissioners Conference, Whitefish, Mont. http://aci-na.org/event/3220
Russia and China have formally begun a cooperative program to develop a widebody airliner that is expected to go into service in 2023-25. The program appears not to have entered full-scale development, however, since the Russian partner, United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), says the two sides will now “define the design of the aircraft’s major subsystems, the sales strategy and the most effective forms of participation from both sides.”
Airbus completed test flights of two A350 XWB aircraft on the same day, flying them side by side at one point, as the French manufacturer heads towards the entry-into-service date for launch customer Qatar Airways at the end of this year.
The NTSB wants the FAA to begin convening a panel of “independent technical experts” to advise the agency how to certify the safety of certain new technologies for new or existing aircraft.
BRUSSELS — Ryanair is short of capacity for the summer 2015 and may take additional aircraft from Boeing if they were to become available, the airline’s Deputy CEO and CFO Howard Millar says.
HOP!, the combination of Air France’s three French regional airlines Brit Air, Regional and Airlinair formed last year, will need to reach profitability before making a decision on its future fleet needs, an executive at the airline said.
Alaska Airlines, seeking to broaden its Pacific Northwest footprint, has asked the Transportation Department (DOT) for permission to operate seasonal flights between Portland, Ore., and San Jose del Cabo and Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. If permission is granted, Alaska would be the first U.S. carrier to operate between Portland and the two Mexican cities. By the terms of the U.S.-Mexico bilateral agreement, each government must approve a maximum of three carriers to operate those routes.
People Express has withdrawn its application for an interstate air transportation certificate, potentially signaling an end to its two-year-long attempt to start an airline. The Transportation Department (DOT) notified People Express on May 20 that it would dismiss its application unless the company provided more information on its fitness to operate.
The Thailand army’s May 22 takeover has triggered tighter security and identity checks at airports, and carriers are bracing for longer-term challenges--such a prolonged dips in traffic--if routine travel and tourism slump. The chairman of Airports of Thailand (AOT), Sita Divari, said that “despite the coup d’etat, the operations of all AOT airports are continuing as usual.” Sita said that so far no orders on access to airports have been given, and that AOT “is not aware of such an order, if there is any.”
