Fly Leasing plans to use a new $250 million financing facility and more than $100 million in unrestricted cash to leverage more financing to support the Dublin-based lessor’s plans to expand its 110-aircraft fleet by 10% a year. The company does not put its money into placing advance orders for new aircraft. Instead, it looks for good values in new, nearly new and mid-life aircraft, using the secondary market and sale-leaseback deals, with a nearly exclusive focus on modern narrowbodies.
A tentative agreement aimed at combining United Airlines’ two pilot groups includes an overhaul of the carrier’s scope clause, and will see any new small narrowbody purchases assigned to mainline operations. The tentative agreement has just been approved by the master executive council of the Air Line Pilot Association chapters representing the United and Continental Airlines pilots. If ratified by members, the deal will combine the two work groups and integrate seniority lists about two years after the two airlines merged.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is warning governments to be more mindful of the consequence of their actions when granting developers concessions to build and operate major airports. Many major cities in Asia have congested airports, and some fiscally constrained governments are planning to have private-sector developers build and pay for new major airports in return for long-term leases to operate the facility.
As part of efforts to develop low-emission, higher-efficiency combustors for its future engine family, General Electric (GE) is forming a joint venture with fuel nozzle and systems specialist Parker Aerospace.
Qatar Airways yesterday flew its first Boeing 787 to Doha, following the previous day’s ceremonial handover of the aircraft in Seattle. Two other 787s have been delivered, but these are at Boeing’s Victorville, Calif., facility for work on their inflight entertainment systems. The timing of these initial deliveries was in question until recently. In early October, CEO Akhbar Al Baker threatened that Qatar would further delay formal acceptance of his airline’s first 787 unless its GEnx-1B engines received new lubricant coatings on the fan mid-shaft.
The first three-month operating period for the newly combined Latam Airlines Group has highlighted the differences in operations between its two units, Chile’s LAN Airlines and Brazil’s TAM.
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Russia’s United Aircraft (UAC) has held exploratory talks with Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (Comac) about possible involvement in Comac’s family of widebody aircraft.
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The FAA wants to tighten its requirements for aircraft maintenance outsourcing, proposing changes in the rules to “ensure consistency between contract and in-house carrier maintenance and assist the FAA in its oversight responsibilities.” The agency wants to apply its tightened rules not only to scheduled service carriers under Part 121 regulations, but also to most commuter and on-demand carriers operating under Part 135.
Gulf Air is making massive cuts to its current Airbus and Boeing orders as it retreats from an ambitious expansion plan. The new agreement between the airline and Airbus “ultimately permits” it to drop an order for 20 Airbus A330-300 and to convert the order into a new commitment for eight A320s and up to 16 A320NEOs. The A320s are to be delivered before the end of this year and the NEOs will arrive in the “latter part of the decade,” Gulf Air says without elaborating on details.
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Emirates Airline plans to take delivery of 15 more aircraft by the end of March as it continues to grow capacity strongly. The airline has taken 13 aircraft in the first six months of its fiscal year, 10 Boeing 777-300ERs, two A380s and one freighter.
The Allied Pilots Association’s (APA) board is expected to meet Friday to consider a tentative agreement for a new contract with American Airlines’ management, Aviation Week has learned. The two sides on Nov. 9 concluded weeks of contract talks, with the APA saying management accepted its counter-proposal. Full details of the agreement-in-principle are expected to be released when APA’s board meets later this week, but Aviation Week has learned that the two sides had reached an accord to increase scope to include larger, 88-seat regional jets.
SAS Group shareholders in five days will decide if they will proceed with a new restructuring program to save the airline, and the company's board of directors on Nov. 18 will discuss key initiatives included in its 4Excellence Next Generation (4XNG) rescue plan. Without the plan, SAS will not gain access to new financing agreed on by a consortium of banks and its core shareholders. As part of 4XNG, SAS plans to sell its ground-handling unit, airport real estate, spare engines and Norwegian regional airline Wideroe.
Garuda Indonesia’s is requiring manufacturers ATR and Bombardier to provide pilots for a pending turboprop . The carrier by year-end will decide between ATR 72s or Bombardier Q400s for its fleet expansion, Garuda president director, Emirsyah Satar, told Aviation Week on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Airlines Association annual general meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The EU has postponed by one year its plans to include international airlines in its emissions trading system (ETS). The decision followed meetings of the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO’s) council in Montreal on market-based measures for emissions mitigation. The council on Nov. 9 said it would convene a high-level group to create a framework for a global market-based system. An agreement on which countries will send representatives to the high-level group could come as early as this week.
Taiwanese operator China Airlines (CAL) is hoping to secure a contract to manage and operate Taipei Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3. Terminal 3 is due to open in 2018, and there is a second-phase development that involves building a satellite terminal, CAL President Huang-Hsiang Sun told Aviation Week last week on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Airlines Association annual general meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He also says the airport authority plans to build a third runway that would open in 2025.
Taiwanese carrier China Airlines (CAL) is confident that the next round of China-Taiwan talks will further liberalize air services between the countries, so it can expand services to mainland China and accommodate transit traffic.
