Cathay Pacific is planning to increase its transpacific service to the U.S., and also wants to grow in the Australian market if air service rights can be expanded, the carrier’s Chief Operating Officer Ivan Chu says.
Click here to view the pdf Fuel Watch: Global Jet Fuel Prices (midpoint) As of August 7, 2013, compared with previous week and previous year cts/gal prev. week prev.
Dallas-based used engine parts specialist Turbine Engine Resources (TER) is adding the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 to its portfolio thanks to the largest purchase in its history—a former Fiji Airways Boeing 747-400. Parts from the plane’s PW4056 engines are expected to hit the market in about 60 days, TER Vice President-Sales Ron Habermas tells Aviation Week. One of the four engines “is likely” to be sold intact as a spare, he adds.
NASA is looking ahead to accepting ownership of the Lockheed Martin X-56A flutter-control testbed, for work on flexible wing designs, once the experimental unmanned aircraft completes flight tests for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The agency plans to use the aircraft to demonstrate structural, sensing and flight-control technology to enable longer, lighter, lower-drag wings for commercial aircraft that could enter service in the 2030-35 timeframe.
While Fiji Airways is still focused on completing a refresh of its widebody fleet, the carrier is already considering its options for future turboprop and narrowbody replacements. The airline is due to receive its third Airbus A330-200 in November, and soon after that will phase out its last Boeing 747-400, the carrier’s Acting CEO Aubrey Swift said on the sidelines of the Center for Aviation’s Australia Pacific Aviation Conference in Sydney. The A330s are owned, while the 747s were leased.
Indian private carrier Jet Airways is understood to have placed an order for 50 737 MAX aircraft from Boeing to expand its fleet as competition in the country’s airline market continues to heat up.
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A second program delay has dashed the small remaining hope of the Comac C919 entering service on schedule in 2016. The first flight of the 158-seat aircraft, delayed earlier this year by about nine months from the original target of June 2014, will not take place until the end of 2015, says the director of an expert committee that is advising the cabinet on the program. That leaves only one year for flight-testing to meet the already doubtful end-2016 target for first delivery.
Low-cost carrier (LCC) Jetstar is moving closer to winning approval for a Hong Kong-based affiliate, and is continuing to expand its Japanese joint venture, Jetstar CEO Jayne Hrdlicka says. Establishing the Jetstar Hong Kong operation is “progressing well,” Hrdlicka said during the Australia Pacific Aviation Conference in Sydney. An application for an operators’ license has been submitted to regulators, and it is expected to be officially announced during August. This will start the public comment process.
Etihad is within 6-8 weeks of finalizing a major aircraft order that it has been discussing with Airbus and Boeing, airline CEO James Hogan tells Aviation Week. Speaking on the sidelines of the Center for Aviation’s Australia Pacific Aviation Summit in Sydney, Hogan would not say which of the manufacturers the agreement will be with, or whether it will be a split order.
Kenyan authorities yesterday afternoon were slowly preparing the resumption of scheduled passenger and cargo flights at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, after a devastating fire Wednesday destroyed large parts of the international terminal.
While Malaysia-based AirAsia X is in the process of setting up new hubs for long-haul operations in Thailand and Indonesia, it may be some time before it establishes further overseas hubs, says the carrier’s CEO Azran Osman-Rani.
Click here to view the pdf Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way: Guam - Tokyo Narita Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way: Guam - Tokyo Narita Singapore Airlines United Others
A Boeing 737-800 operated by Lion Air struck cattle in a night landing at Gorontalo, Indonesia, on Aug. 6. Two of the 110 passengers aboard suffered minor injuries in the evacuation. Three cows were on the runway when the aircraft, registered PK-LKH, landed at 9:13 p.m., a Lion Air source says, unable to explain why the cows were there. When the landing gear hit one of the animals, the brakes were damaged. “One of the cows also became tangled in one of the rear [main] landing [gear], affecting the steering,” the airline says.
Demand for most current-technology aircraft and engine types remains solid, but a sluggish global economy and stagnant traffic growth mean lease rates aren’t expected to climb anytime soon, leasing executives report. “Rental levels are steady for current-generation passenger aircraft,” Aircastle CEO Ron Wainshal said on an Aug. 6 analyst call. “Lease market conditions are good. But absent a pickup in global GDP growth, we don’t see rents going much higher over the next year or so.”
Airbus and Boeing are again engaged in a serious dispute over comparative performance figures for the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 747-8. Following a decision by the U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to dismiss an Airbus claim over what the manufacturer considers to be misleading advertising content, John Leahy, Airbus Chief Operating Officer Customers, says Boeing’s assumptions behind its performance claims are “as outdated and obsolete as the 747.”
