Qantas engineers’ union claims that one of the carrier’s two heavy maintenance bases is being stretched to meet its scheduled workload, and that some of its work should be allocated to the other base that Qantas is threatening to close. The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) yesterday released a plan showing what aircraft could be sent to the Avalon Airport base, near Melbourne. The future of this facility is under review, as the Boeing 747 work it primarily handles is shrinking as the airline’s 747 fleet is phased out.
The restructuring of Aeroflot’s numerous operations continues with the launch of Aurora Airlines, a carrier formed from the consolidation of SAT Airlines and Vladivostok Avia. Aurora’s fleet initially will consist of “the existing medium-haul Boeing 737s” and three Airbus A319s, which will be assigned to the carrier by the end of the year, says Aeroflot.
Virgin Australia has reached a new deal with strategic partner SilkAir to extend its reach into Indonesia, a key market for the carrier. Under the deal, Virgin Australia is adding five additional Indonesian destinations to its code-share deal with SilkAir, doubling the number of points in that country it can sell tickets to from its Australian and New Zealand network. SilkAir is a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, which is a major shareholder in Virgin Australia.
Talks between Indigo Partners and Republic Airways over the sale of Frontier Airlines will continue for two more days, as the investment group pushes to “resolve all the conditions to close the transaction,” says Republic. This extension comes four days after Indigo announced that while it had reached a tentative agreement with Frontier’s pilots’ union, it still needed a deal with Barclaycard about an extension of the airline’s credit card program and associated line of credit, as well as a labor accord with the flight attendants union.
The Australian Transport Safety Board (ATSB) says “increased reporting levels by operators” and “improved capture” of a broader range of stall system issues were behind an upward trend in stall warning incidents in high-capacity aircraft in Australia or on Australian-registered aircraft operating overseas between 2008 and 2012.
Jet fuel imports into the EU will remain exempt of customs duties, according to a European Commission proposal published Nov. 4. The proposal still has to be adopted by the EU member states, but this is widely seen as a formality. If approved, EU airlines will continue to benefit from the 0% customs tariff on jet fuel, which has been applied for many years.
Canadian carrier WestJet went three-for-three on its major third-quarter initiatives, launching its airline-within-an-airline and new premium economy product—and getting solid returns from both—while fast-tracking a cost-savings effort that will see it save C$100 million ($96 million) annually by 2015, company executives report. Encore, WestJet’s three-pronged regional service, is off to a strong start, with five Bombardier Q400s operating 40 daily departures to 12 destinations, says WestJet CEO Gregg Saretsky.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers - Lima, Oct. 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Outbound ASMs Top Carriers - Lima, Oct. 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Outbound ASMs Departures Airport Share ASMs (mil) Airport Share Seats/Dept.
Lion Group President Director Rusdi Kirana says there will be no early decision on a Bombardier CSeries firm order, despite the potential for the Canadian-made twinjet to open up untapped “long-thin” routes in the Indonesian carrier’s rapidly expanding Asia-Pacific network. Commenting in Seattle, where Lion was marking the handover of its 100th Next Generation 737, Kirana said the airline group is interested in “up to 50 minimum” of the larger CS300 version.
The FAA yesterday issued a final rule that will give airlines and training providers five years to upgrade flight simulators and begin more comprehensive training of pilots for stall and upset incidents, as well as for crosswind and gust events.
Bombardier veteran Steve Ridolfi, who has headed the company’s regional and business aircraft groups, will soon be the Canadian aircraft and train manufacturer’s senior vice president, strategy and mergers and acquisitions. Eric Martel will succeed Ridolfi as president of Bombardier Business Aircraft. The appointments are effective Jan. 1. Martel is currently president of Bombardier Aerospace’s customer services and specialized and amphibious aircraft.
Reports of landing gear vibration events on Boeing 737 Classic aircraft have risen sharply in the past several years, prompting the manufacturer to highlight its recommendations for preventing such incidents. While still infrequent, landing gear shimmy—caused when a single-axle main landing gear strut’s inner cylinder and wheels oscillate relative to the fixed, outer cylinder as the aircraft rolls out—can be dangerous. The worst incidents result in the collapse of the landing gear.
Air France is making further adjustments to its medium-haul network and fleet to accommodate operating losses that are expected to be higher than initially planned, despite its three-year restructuring plan, Transform 2015. Operating losses for Air France-KLM Group’s medium-haul passenger operations are expected to be reduced by “only €200 million [$270 million]” this year versus 2012 and will still amount to approximately €650 million, executives said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call.
Ryanair expects fares and yields will continue to fall in the reminder of its fiscal year due to a combination of increased competition and softer economic conditions across Europe, and has revised its full-year net profit guidance down to between €500 million ($675 million) and €520 million. Europe’s largest low-cost carrier expects fares to drop 9% in the third quarter and by 10% in the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2014. Average fares, including checked baggage fees, fell 2% year-on-year to €52 in the first half of the fiscal year.
U.S. airline traffic growth was stagnant in 2012, but carriers continued to shift traffic through large hub airports at the expense of medium hubs, pushing average enplanement costs up as big airports build to meet demand, a Moody’s analysis shows.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday said the Justice Department will only reach an out-of-court settlement with American Airlines and US Airways if the operators “fundamentally resolve the concerns” listed in the regulator’s lawsuit against their proposed merger. Those concerns involve more than 1,000 domestic routes currently operated by the two airlines that the Justice Department deems anti-competitive should the two companies consolidate.
