In contrast to Tokyo’s Narita and Haneda airports, Kansai has been able to use its greater available capacity to draw new flights from Japanese and foreign airlines. It is positioning itself well to take advantage of an increase in overseas visitor numbers. This has been particularly evident with LCCs, as Japan’s new budget airlines establish bases and grow their networks at Kansai. In addition, several foreign LCCs have launched service to Osaka, and more plan to follow.
Many of Europe’s legacy airlines, Austrian Airlines among them, are experiencing bitter disputes with employees about cost cuts. But now that Austrian seems to have found a compromise with labor, management attention is shifting to fleet renewal and a sustainable model.
Executive Editor Jim Asker discusses the Japanese regional jet project with Asia-Pacific Bureau Chief Bradley Perrett and Jens Flottau, managing editor for commercial aviation.
With less than a year to the congressional deadline for safe integration of unmanned aircraft into national airspace, FAA efforts are gathering pace; but not fast enough to quell critics of the agency's belated progress.
Russia’s deteriorating economic situation and political tensions over the crisis in Ukraine are posing serious challenges for the country’s airlines. Growth rates for Russian carriers ballooned in the last decade, but there are signs these times are over.
The search for MH370 has resumed with refined Inmarsat data in play, although skeptics maintain that searchers still do not have all the information they need
Of the big three U.S. carriers—American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines—American’s route network in Asia-Pacific is by far the weakest, but recent moves by the Dallas-based carrier suggest the fastest-growing air travel region in the world is again in American’s sights.
Russia’s banking system is finding access to capital markets harder because of sanctions imposed as a result of the Ukraine conflict. But the government nonetheless has told two state-owned banks to support the country’s most critical civil aircraft program, the Superjet 100.
Bombardier’s CSeries test fleet is rebuilding momentum and will soon be joined by the first aircraft to be configured with a full interior, marking two welcome developments for the hard-pressed Canadian manufacturer and its engine supplier, Pratt & Whitney.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is performing system checks on the first MRJ in preparation for a first flight due in the second quarter of 2015. Nearby in the same Nagoya factory building, MHI technicians have progressed far into final assembly of the second aircraft and started working on the third.
