Click here to view the pdf Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way, Dubai - Houston Bush Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way, Dubai - Houston Bush Emirates Islena Others 2007Q1 - - -
Click here to view the pdf Aircraft Operating Costs and Statistics, 12 Months Ended June 2012, Regional Jets Pages 1 and 2 ERJ 135 Manufacturer: Embraer
Airbus aims for full power-on of the A350 MSN-001 “by around the end of the year” after the manufacturer completed structural assembly of the airframe. MSN-001 will perform the A350’s first flight; it is the second airframe to be completed following the static test piece last month. Airbus intends to fly MSN-001 in mid-2013. It is one of five aircraft scheduled to participate in the A350’s flight test campaign.
UTair is assessing if and when it would join Star Alliance, according to UTair Aviation Deputy Director General Lev Koshlyakov. Star Alliance is the only alliance without a member airline in the Russian Federation—Aeroflot is a SkyTeam member and S7 is part of Oneworld—and speculation about UTair’s becoming a future Star Alliance member has surfaced since Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines moved some of their Moscow flights from Moscow Domodedovo International Airport to Vnukovo International Airport earlier this year.
Taiwan’s EVA Airways, working to join Star Alliance by June, also aims at early membership for Uni Airways to strengthen its short-haul subsidiary against competition from budget carriers. The hope is to bring Uni into the alliance well within three years of EVA’s joining, says EVA EVP Austin Cheng. Merging Uni’s frequent flyer program with those of the other Star members would be an especially desirable move for warding off competition from low-cost airlines, he adds.
Hawaiian Airlines in July 2013 will launch a three-times-weekly flight from Honolulu to Taipei, Taiwan, to take advantage of the tourism potential enabled by Taiwan’s admittance to the U.S. Visa Waiver Program. The carrier will operate the new service with 294-seat Airbus A330-200s. The route is the latest destination in Hawaiian’s expansion into Asia that includes Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and Sapporo in Japan; Seoul, South Korea; Manila; Sydney and Brisbane in Australia; and will begin service to Auckland, New Zealand.
In a long-expected move, Gulf Air CEO Samer Majali has resigned his position but will stay until the end of the year while the Bahraini carrier finds a successor. The airline did not elaborate on Majali’s reasons for leaving, but industry sources tell Aviation Week he has disagreed with the carrier’s new board of directors over future strategy plans.
Qatar Airways says it has converted the vast majority of an earlier order for Airbus A350-800s into commitments for the A350-1000, confirming expectations from last month’s decision to drop -800 orders in favor of a larger variant. With the change, Qatar Airways will now take 43 A350-900s, instead of 40, and 37 -1000s, instead of 20.
Following the entry of China’s Hainan Airlines Group (HNA Group) as its new shareholder, French carrier Aigle Azur is preparing to add its first Airbus A330-200 in summer 2013 to support the start of long-haul operations, initially from Paris to Beijing, as it makes the transition from medium-haul point-to-point operator to full-fledged network carrier.
A private equity firm’s agreement to acquire a 50% stake in commercial jet manager BBAM for $165 million could accelerate growth at Fly Leasing, which stands to gain $75 million from the deal and a recently closed $250 million acquisition financing facility. Dublin-based Fly has 110 aircraft in its portfolio and currently owns a 15% interest in San Francisco-based BBAM. BBAM sponsored Fly’s initial public offering in 2007, manages and services Fly’s fleet and has three senior executives on its board.
The FAA is proposing that Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations should govern flight attendant workplace safety, the agencies said last week. The policy change stems from a provision in the FAA Reauthorization Act, signed into law earlier this year, that requires the FAA and OSHA to create workplace standards for flight attendants. In the past, FAA regulations pre-empted OSHA workplace rules. With the proposed changes the OSHA rules will govern all work conducted on the ground. FAA regulations still apply in flight.
Click here to view the pdf Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way: Dubai - Los Angeles Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way: Dubai - Los Angeles Emirates Islena Others
To avoid a repeat of the painful experiences of the recent 787 and 747-8 development programs, Boeing is creating a new organization called Airplane Development that will be dedicated to bringing aircraft through development and certification.
Russia’s Volga-Dnepr Group is building a new hangar at Sharjah International Airport in the United Arab Emirates to expand its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) service capabilities for freighter and passenger aircraft. The new hangar, expected to be fully operational by January, will be run by Volga-Dnepr Technics division through its local subsidiary, Volga-Dnepr Gulf Co.
Star Alliance CEO Mark Schwab sees no value adding a Middle East airline to its roster and rejects the possibility that Virgin Atlantic is a potential candidate. “We at Star Alliance have good, strong services into the [Persian] Gulf already,” partly thanks to the proximity of Turkish Airlines and Egyptair, Schwab said during a ceremony marking Shenzhen Airlines’ membership with the global alliance. “When we look at the airlines that are based there, we don’t see what they would add to the alliance.”
Delta Air Lines’ overhaul of its regional feed network will mean reduced services for Pinnacle Airlines, which is wholly dependent on the mainline carrier for income, although it is still unclear how deeply the regional’s 140-strong fleet of Bombardier CRJ200s will be affected. Pinnacle has only just received details of Delta’s fleet plan, according to a staff letter issued late Nov. 29 by CEO John Spanjers, and while he says revisions “have not yet been finalized,” he warns, “We expect that the CRJ200 fleet will begin to shrink sometime next year.”
A group of former employees of liquidated Uruguayan carrier Pluna has pledged to relaunch the airline in April, although how the new operation will be funded and under what name remain unclear. A group of about 400 of Pluna’s 700-strong payroll is in the process of raising capital, a source close to the former airline tells Aviation Week. Uruguay President Jose Mujica has given his tacit support to the relaunch, although it remains unclear if the government will provide funding.
In the past several decades, airlines disrupted by deregulation, low yields, excess capacity and soaring fuel prices, from time to time have filed for protection from their creditors, thanks to the celebrated U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection or similar provisions in other countries. Then usually they implemented a cost-savings plan, reinforced by job cuts and elimination of unprofitable routes, in preparation for a new start. This was the airline industry’s routine, in a slowly evolving context.
