Aerolineas Argentinas will lease four Airbus A330-200s from International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC), with the aircraft to be operated on new and existing routes in the Americas. The airline will use the aircraft to increase frequencies on routes to destinations like Cancun, Caracas and Bogota, said Sergio Garcia Gomez, vice president for fleet planning and financial restructuring. New markets will also be explored for the A330s, Gomez told Aviation Week at the Paris air show.
Safran is preparing to begin key wind-tunnel tests of a fuel-saving geared open-rotor engine being developed under Europe’s Clean Sky government-industry research program. Under Clean Sky’s Sustained and Green Engines (SAGE) program, the tests of a 1/5th-scale powered model at French aerospace research organization Onera in Modane will measure performance and acoustics.
Boeing is accelerating introduction of all three versions of the 737 MAX by six months. The first 737-8 is now due for first delivery toward the beginning of the third quarter of 2017, rather than in the fourth quarter. The 737-9 will follow 18 months later and that will be followed by the -7 another 18 months later. “Things are going so well,” Boeing Vice President and General Manager-Airplane Development Scott Fancher said yesterday at the Paris air show. “We anticipated the opportunity to accelerate MAX from day 1.”
CSeries customers assembled by Bombardier to talk up the aircraft say they are comfortable with the program’s progress so far, as the company aims for a first flight by the end of this month. “On performance and timing, we are very confident we will get what we contracted for when it is wanted,” said Nico Buchholz, Lufthansa’s executive vice president for group fleet management, at the Paris air show. Lufthansa has 30 110-seat CS100s on firm order for its subsidiary Swiss International Air Lines.
One of Saudi Arabia’s largest industrial conglomerates is planning to launch an airline to compete with the country’s flag carrier Saudi Arabian Airlines and budget airline National Air Services (NAS). The Al-Qahtani Group has contracted former Gulf Air CEO Samer Majali as senior adviser to help set up the new carrier, Aviation Week has learned. The new airline, to be called SaudiGulf, aims to start operating in the second or third quarter of 2014 on domestic and regional international routes.
Boeing is “rapidly moving towards the launch” of the 777X, Vice President and General Manager, Airplane Development Scott Fancher said on the sidelines of the Paris air show. The two versions of the aircraft are far advanced in the development process and Boeing is promising its customers an improvement in fuel efficiency of at least 20% compared to current models.
Boeing yesterday launched the Boeing 787-10 at the Paris air show. The manufacturer is going ahead with the development of the aircraft on the back of firm commitments for 102 from five different customers. The first 787-10 is to be delivered in 2018. Among the customers launching the program are Air Lease Corp. (ALC) and Singapore Airlines (SIA), with commitments for 30 aircraft each, United Airlines, with 20 commitments, British Airways (BA), with 12, and GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), with 10.
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that the Obama administration and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) contend could have a chilling effect on airlines’ reporting of suspicious activity that may threaten the safety of a flight.
Air New Zealand has taken delivery of its first Airbus A320 fitted with wing-tip devices known as Sharklets, as it moves forward with its plan to renew its domestic narrowbody fleet. The carrier has nine more Sharklet-equipped A320s on order, which are scheduled to be delivered through September 2015. They will replace Air New Zealand’s Boeing 737-300 fleet, which is currently used on domestic routes.
All Nippon Airways (ANA) says its low-cost carrier, Peach, is faring better than its other low-cost operation, AirAsia Japan, because Peach understands the Japanese market better than Malaysia’s AirAsia. “We can only assume it’s because Peach did a lot of studies into the Japanese market through market surveys. Peach offers a good service, and management at Peach understands the Japanese market,” ANA President and CEO Osamu Shinobe told Aviation Week on the sidelines of an event in Taipei to mark EVA Air’s entry into Star Alliance.
South African Airways (SAA) will soon order widebody aircraft to expand its long-haul international network. “We have a fleet-planning program going on right now. We’ve not placed orders yet . . . but I don’t think it will drag out for a long period of time,” SAA’s Executive Vice President-North America and Alliances Marc Cavaliere tells Aviation Week on the sidelines of a Star Alliance event in Taipei to mark EVA Air’s formal entry into the alliance. SAA’s long-haul fleet comprises 18 Airbus A340s, mostly the -300 and -600 models.
EasyJet has entered a preliminary agreement with Airbus to acquire up to 200 A320NEOs and 35 A320CEOs. The deal is still subject to shareholder approval and is likely to hit some opposition from founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who has opposed further expansion of the airline. The agreement is a major blow for Bombardier, which had been pitching a 160-seat version of its CS300 against Boeing and Airbus narrowbodies.
With 5,000 hr. and 13,000 cycles on PW1000G test engines, 10% them in flight, Pratt & Whitney (P&W) is dismissing claims by rival CFM that its engine can beat the geared turbofan (GTF) on fuel burn and maintenance costs. Pointing out that CFM’s Leap-1A engine for the Airbus A320NEO will not run until the fall, P&W President David Hess says “our NEO engine is flying and, in the most recent configuration, the fuel-burn numbers are half a percent better than predictions.”
ITT Exelis has been awarded a contract to provide a crucial link in the Aireon space-based automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) network that is being developed to allow surveillance coverage of remote airspace.
Etihad Airways is considering an equity stake in Serbian carrier JatAirways that would add to the Abu Dhabi-based carrier’s already extensive portfolio of investments in Aer Lingus, Air Berlin, Air Seychelles, Virgin Australia and, potentially, Jet Airways. The deal, which is subject to due diligence, was unveiled at a ceremony marking a code-share between the two airlines and the June 15 launch of Etihad’s service to Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport.
SkyWest Inc.’s order for 100 next-generation Embraer 175-E2s, which comes on top of its May deal for 100 current-generation E-175s, does not impact the airline’s existing order for 100 Mitsubishi MRJ90s, finalized in December. “We want to keep two manufacturers in the market,” says Chairman and CEO Jerry Atkins, speaking at the formal launch of the new E-Jet family at the Paris air show. “Competition helps keep prices down and gives our airline partners a choice.”
Qatar Airways is interested in becoming a launch customer for the Boeing 777-9X. Qatar’s CEO Akbar al Baker on the sidelines of the Paris air show said that he would sign a deal “if we can iron out all the requirements” and define performance specifications. Al Baker did not say how many aircraft he would like to order. The airline is only interested in the -9X and not the -8X, “because the [Airbus] A350-1000 will do most of the missions the -8X does,” he says.
AirAsia India has appointed S Ramadorai, a former chief executive officer of Tata Consultancy Services, as its chairman. The appointment came one day after Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata was named chief adviser and a month after Mittu Chandilya, a Singapore-based management consultant, as the appointed CEO
The Airbus A380 program got a major boost after Doric Lease Corp. signed a memorandum of understanding for 20 aircraft on the first day of the Paris air ahow. Airbus has had no orders for the aircraft in 2013. Once firmed up, this order will be the largest for the A380 since Emirates Airline ordered 32 units in 2010. Doric plans to take delivery between 2016 and 2021 and will choose engines before the end of the year.
Once three CSeries test aircraft are flying and consistently meeting their performance specifications, Bombardier expects to be able to overcome the “787 tax”—that is, customer skepticism engendered by Boeing’s development delays that the Canadian manufacturer blames for airlines’ reluctance to place orders for the new narrowbody.
