The Tata conglomerate has signed a deal with Singapore Airlines plans to launch a full service airline in India, seven months after forming a partnership with Malaysia’s AirAsia to start a low-cost carrier. Under a memorandum of understanding signed Sept. 19, Tata will own 51% of the new airline, while the Singaporean operator will hold the remaining 49%, a Tata spokesman says.
Triumph Group, behind schedule on its Boeing 747-8 program deliverables despite a slowdown in the aircraft’s production rate, will take nearly $70 million in cost-overrun charges this fiscal year. But a turnaround plan put in place is starting to bear fruit, the company says. “We’re not currently on schedule,” Triumph President and CEO Jeffry Frisby said during a Sept. 18 financial results conference call. “We’re still catching up.”
Rolls-Royce (R-R) and United Technologies Corp. (UTC) have scrapped their plan to form a joint venture to produce a mid-size commercial jet engine. The plan was developed in October 2011, in the wake of R-R’s decision to sell its share in International Aero Engines (IAE) to UTC’s Pratt & Whitney (P&W) unit. At the time, P&W wanted to increase its stake in IAE to help increase sales of its PW1100G geared turbofan on the Airbus A320NEO.
A decision on the future shareholding structure of Alitalia is approaching, as minority owner Air France-KLM intensifies efforts to cut losses at its own short-haul division. Air France-KLM is understood to be planning a decision as soon as next week on whether or not to increase its shareholding in Alitalia. The group has held a 25% stake in the troubled Italian carrier since 2009. But given Air France-KLM’s ongoing losses, it seems unlikely that the group would invest more in an affiliate carrier.
The Australian Transport Safety Board (ATSB) says new hardware, recurrent inspections and changes to engine monitoring “adequately address” its concerns about failures of high-pressure turbine nozzles in the Engine Alliance GP7200 turbofan engine for the Airbus A380. Investigators determined that higher-than-expected metal surface temperatures had caused the failure of high-pressure turbine (HPT) second-stage nozzle guide vanes in a GP7270 turbofan on an Emirates Airline A380 in November 2012. The resulting damage caused the engine to shut down in flight.
Lufthansa has placed a large order for Boeing’s 777-9X and Airbus’s A350-900 in an effort to replace some of the older aircraft in its long-haul fleet. The airline’s supervisory board approved the deal during a Sept. 18 meeting, committing to 34 777-9Xs and 25 A350-900s. The first A350s are due for delivery in 2016, while the 777Xs are expected to start joining the Lufthansa fleet in 2020. Lufthansa says it has the flexibility through options and purchase rights to increase the 777X order to 64 units and the A350 commitment to 55 aircraft.
Malaysia-based AirAsia X is making significant progress towards launching an affiliate carrier in Thailand, and has formally established the joint venture that will control the new airline. AirAsia X is the long-haul unit of the AirAsia group, which already has a short-haul joint venture in Thailand. The new long-haul carrier, Thai AirAsia X, is expected to start operations from Bangkok in the first quarter of 2014, an AirAsia X spokeswoman tells Aviation Week. This will be the first AirAsia X affiliate outside Malaysia.
Click here to view the pdf Fuel Watch: Global Jet Fuel Prices (midpoint) As of September 19, 2013, compared with previous week and previous year cts/gal prev. week prev.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), which for years has seemed wary of budget airline growth, has told the country’s small carriers to explore low-cost operations. Perhaps encouraged by the prospect of supportive policies, the small private carrier Juneyao Airlines has applied to set up a budget offshoot in Guangzhou—the home base of China Southern Airlines, the country’s largest operator—says an industry source.
It appears that the Qantas Airways eavy maintenance facility at Avalon Airport—near Melbourne—could be the next casualty of the airline’s efforts to streamline its maintenance operations in Australia.
The CEO of Lufthansa’s Germanwings affiliate says he is keen to return the airline to an all-Airbus fleet. Speaking at this week’s World Low-Cost Airline Congress in London, Thomas Winkelmann said the company has now inherited the Bombardier CRJ900 regional jet fleet from Lufthansa as it takes on more of its parent company’s non-hub point-to-point operation, but he is keen to return to an all-Airbus operation in future.
The Flight Safety Foundation is mulling strategies that could help pilots make the decision to perform a go-around rather than continue an unstabilized approach. “We feel that the lack of a go-around decision is the leading risk factor in landing accidents,” says Kevin Hiatt, Flight Safety Foundation president and CEO. He notes that 63 airline accidents occurred in the approach and landing phase of flight from 2001 to 2011, representing 68% of all accidents.
Click here to view the pdf Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way, Dubai - San Francisco Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way, Dubai - San Francisco Emirates Others 2008Q1 - - 2008Q2
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The French aviation investigation agency, BEA, is recommending operational or design changes to autopilot systems after an upset incident of an Air France Airbus A340-300 on approach to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) early on the morning of March 12, 2012.
FedEx Corp. yesterday reported a net profit of $489 million for its fiscal first quarter ended Aug. 31, up 7% over net earnings of $459 million in the prior-year period, even as the FedEx Express airline unit suffered a year-over-year revenue decline.
Although AirAsia Philippines seems to have decided to relocate its hub from Clark International Airport to Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), uncertainty remains as to how and when this will occur. AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes first mentioned the move to Manila via his Twitter account. However, an airline spokeswoman tells Aviation Week that “no operational decisions” regarding the move have been made yet, and the carrier is “still trying to firm up its plans.” Clark is about 50 mi. from Manila.
The Russian government has extended the appointment of Aeroflot CEO Vitaly Saveliev for another five years, according to a spokesperson for Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Saveliev was appointed CEO for five years on April 10, 2009, succeeding Valery Okulov, who led the carrier since the end of the 1990s. Under Saveliev’s leadership, Aeroflot launched Sukhoi Superjet 100 operations and ordered 16 Boeing 777s. In addition, Aeroflot received an asset transfer of five regional carriers from Rostec Corp., expanding the Aeroflot Group.
