Infratil has sold Manston Airport in Kent, just one week after the Scottish government announced it would assume control of Glasgow Prestwick Airport from the New Zealand investment group. The English airport has been sold for a nominal sum of £1 ($1.61) to Scottish entrepreneur Ann Gloag. In a statement, Infratil says that Gloag will also pay an “adjustment for working capital variances and cash injected by Infratil between Oct. 14, 2013 and transaction completion,” an amount understood to total around £350,000.
Congestion, not narrowbody-beating operating economics, is likely to support sales of the Airbus A330-300 with its new option of low-weight certification. Although Airbus is now offering the aircraft with paperwork for a gross weight as low as 199 metric tons (439,000 lb.) for a range of 4,900 km (2,650 nm), the A330-300 will still have the unchanged wing, engines and structure of an airliner capable of operating at 242 tons and flying 10,800 km.
The Irish government next year will scrap its air travel tax in a effort to boost tourism and rebuild the country’s flagging economy. Detailing the change in the country’s budget document, Minister of Finance Michael Noonan says he hoped the decision would urge airlines to “develop new routes and build traffic volumes.” Eliminating the tax will cost the Irish economy around €36 million ($49 million) in 2014, but the government is hopeful that a growth in air travel will lead to more employment opportunities.
China Eastern Airlines, in an effort to develop intercontinental services to secondary mainland cities, on Dec. 24 will launch services between Wenzhou Longwan International Airport in eastern China and Rome Fiumicino Airport in Italy. The airline initially will operate a twice-weekly Airbus A330 services on the city pair, says the head of China Eastern’s Rome office, Chen Xiao. According to Wenzhou Airport Group, Rome was chosen because Italy is home to a large number of Europe’s Chinese immigrant community.
The narrowing wage gap between the world’s economically mature markets and its emerging ones could wipe out the cost advantage of sending labor-intensive widebody heavy checks to regions such as Asia by the early 2020s, industry analysts contend. “If we look back even 10 years, the gap between developed and developing regions of the world created a very large arbitrage play for companies that could take airplanes into that lower-cost region,” says TeamSAI CEO Chris Doan. “We saw a lot of airplanes move from North America and Europe into Asia.”
Honeywell is finishing a study for the FAA that may impact how airlines secure their tablet electronic flight bags (EFB) in the cockpit. As part of an “EFB Securing” project launched last year, the FAA asked for an analysis of commonly used “temporary securing methods” that airlines and general aviation pilots are using for personal electronics devices (PEDS) like tablets in cockpits.
American Airlines plans to launch non-stop services in mid-2014 from its Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport base to Hong Kong International Airport and Shanghai Pudong International Airport. Hong Kong will be the first destination in Asia to be served by American’s new fleet of Boeing 777-300ERs, which American also intends to introduce to its Miami International Airport hub next year on flights to London Heathrow Airport and Sao Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport. Shanghai will be served by Boeing 777-200s.
In a possible sign of further liberalization of its commercial aviation sector, the Chinese government has permitted two privately-owned airlines to join the busy Taiwan market. The country’s leading budget carrier, Spring Airlines, says that from Oct. 27 it will operate three weekly flights between Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Kaohsiung International Airport in Taiwan’s second-largest city. Juneyao Airlines will follow on Nov. 1, with a three weekly service on the same city pair.
Cathay Pacific Airways has completed the final phase of its transition to a new cargo facility at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), as part of a major investment the carrier is making in its freight operations. The move to the new HK$5.9 billion ($760 million) cargo facility has been phased since the facility opened in February. It is expected to increase HKIA’s overall cargo capacity 50%.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers - Kuala Lumpur, Oct. 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Outbound ASMs Top Carriers - Kuala Lumpur, Oct. 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Outbound ASMs Departures Airport Share ASMs (mil) Airport Share Seats/Dept.
Avionics and head-up guidance system provider Rockwell Collins is developing a passive, uncooled multi-spectral vision aid that will see “first light” by early November, marking a key benchmark in the company’s bid to become an end-to-end enhanced flight vision system (EFVS) provider. Though primarily used by high-end business aviation and cargo airline FedEx, enhanced flight vision systems are poised to enter the mainstream airline market as a result of a new FAA rulemaking.
Hawaiian Airlines says the disputes over the U.S. federal budget are increasingly hindering its business plans, as the FAA still cannot predict when it will be able to perform the certification work needed for the new turboprop subsidiary that Hawaiian is trying to launch.
The EU’s proposal to expand its emissions trading scheme (ETS) to include international aviation has sparked protests that it threatens the hard-won consensus on a global system reached last month at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Assembly. The European Commission yesterday proposed that, from January 2014 until a global market-based measure (MBM) takes effect in 2020, ETS be adjusted to apply to all flights within the EU and the portion of international flights to or from the EU that occurs within its airspace.
Azerbaijan Airlines wanted to rebrand its fleet of 18 aircraft and selected A J Walter Aviation, best known for component support, to managing the effort. AJW Group tapped Eirtech Aviation to paint the fleet. Nine months earlier, in November 2012, A J Walter bought two new A340-500s from Airbus that it repainted and reconfigured for use by Azerbaijan Airlines. Deepak Sharma, technical director at A J Walter, told Aviation Week that the company will continue to look beyond its traditional core capabilities.
Even as Embraer’s commercial aircraft deliveries decline, new orders continue to help rebuild the manufacturer’s backlog to the highest levels since 2009. Embraer’s backlog had reached $19 billion in 2009, but that dipped to $12.4 billion last year on slow commercial sales and business jet cancellations. But the market has improved for Embraer’s commercial aviation models this year, with an order from SkyWest Inc. for up to 200 of the company’s newly launched E175-E2 airliner.
Aviation Week 2013 Commercial Fleet & MRO Forecast! The MRO Fleet, Forecasts and Data you need to accurately plan and strategize for the future. See for yourself with a free demonstration: AviationWeek.com/FleetMRO Aviation Week Intelligence Network Click here to view the pdf
AirAsia’s growth in the Philippines will include a major expansion of operations at Mactan-Cebu International, the country’s second busiest airport. The AirAsia group is realigning the two Philippine joint venture carriers in which it holds major stakes. The group’s first foothold in the country was AirAsia Philippines (AAP), a relatively small carrier operating a few Airbus A320s. Through AAP, AirAsia in May bought into the much larger Zest Air, which it is in the process of rebranding as AirAsia Zest.
