United Airlines’s plan to significantly reduce its Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE) hub stems from a bigger-picture initiative to shave $2 billion in annual costs by 2018 as well as a more pressing need to wring more efficiency out of its regional network.
Lufthansa Monday demanded that the European Commission intervene in Etihad Airway’s plans to pick up a large minority stake in Alitalia, citing the need to prevent indirect subsidies flowing into European airlines. “We are against recurring subsidies and partial renationalization of European airlines, no matter whether it comes from European or non-EU states or state-owned entities,” a Lufthansa official said.
BRISTOW LEADERSHIP: Bristow Group CEO and President Bill Chiles plans to retire at the end of July from the helicopter operator. Chiles, who became CEO in 2004, is expected to step down at the company’s annual meeting of shareholders on July 31 and be succeeded by Jonathan Baliff, the company’s current senior vice president and CFO. Chiles also will step down from the board of directors, but will remain an employee until July 2016.
Ryanair will hold another round of talks this month with Boeing on a 737 MAX order, but the Ireland-based low-cost carrier has extended its order deadline and now does not expect to announce any new aircraft acquisitions for the next six, “maybe even 12 months,” Chief Executive Michael O’Leary says. The airline said at the Paris air show in June it expected to sign a deal by the end of 2013 or early 2014 for more than 100 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
Sabreliner Corporation’s business leaned heavily on military contracts that disappeared during sequestration, forcing the company into default on its bank loan and leading to the bank’s sale of the company to an investment firm.
Toronto’s city council is expected to postpone until March an executive committee meeting to review Porter Airlines’ request to operate Bombardier CSeries airliners from the city’s downtown island airport, which could lead to a full city council vote on April 1. But city staff are pushing to delay to March 2015 a decision on the proposal to extend the runway and lift the ban on operating jets at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (BBTCA). Porter placed a conditional order for 15 Bombardier CS100s in September, and plans to begin operations early in 2016.
At a turning point in the development of Airbus, its leaders determined that the organization had become more than a loose consortium known as “groupement d'interet economique” (GIE), and Airbus was transformed into a proper company (“societe anonyme,” or S.A.) in the immediate aftermath of the formal A380 launch decision in 2001.
Bell Helicopter won initial Canadian and Brazilian approvals for a new variant of its 429 helicopter with retractable wheeled landing gear. Bell 429WLG certification comes three months after Bell announced the latest variant to the business aviation market at the National Business Aviation Association annual convention in Las Vegas.
The Triumph Group has sold its Wichita business aircraft aerostructures business, Triumph Aerospace Systems-Wichita, back to its original owner, Jim Lee. Lee, who founded the business in 1989, continued to steer the company as president after he sold it to the Triumph Group in 2000. Lee is rebranding the company to its original name, Lee Aerospace. “The opportunity to reacquire the company presented itself late last year. We are excited to once again be a locally-owned and operated company,” Lee says.
The city of Santa Monica, Calif., is urging a U.S. District Court to reject FAA’s motion to dismiss the city’s lawsuit over control of Santa Monica Airport (SMO), saying the agency should not be allowed to hold the airport hostage over an unfounded assertion that the city acted too late.
The Comac ARJ21 regional jet project has been delayed again, with the aircraft now due to go into service in April or May 2015, eight years later than scheduled early in the program and 13 years after development began. The first operator, Comac subsidiary Chengdu Airlines, will receive its first aircraft late this year or early next year, says the carrier's deputy general manager, Luo Ning. Further preparations will be made before operations begin in April or May, Luo tells local media.
Patrick Ky was appointed executive director of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in September 2013. He is the second person to head this organization, which was formed in 2003 to develop a single civil aviation regulatory system for the European Union's member states.
Singapore is synonymous with MRO in the Asia-Pacific region, but the fast-paced growth of Asia-Pacific airlines is drawing local and global companies to establish aftermarket support entities in Indonesia and Malaysia as well.
Jet card sales continue to strengthen, reaching their highest point since the economic downturn began, both Sentient Jet and its new affiliate company Flexjet report. Key metrics in 2013 rose to levels “not seen since 2008,” Sentient says. The company, which has more than 4,000 clients, sold more than 32,000 jet card hours in 2013, which amounts to the equivalent of more than 1,300 25-Hour Jet Cards. This pushed the company’s revenue to more than $150 million on the year. Sentient sold more than 1,200 25-Hour Jet Cards in 2012.
TAP Portugal is to add two Airbus A330s and four A320 family aircraft in 2014, and is evaluating further fleet growth for 2015 and beyond. “We are just re-evaluating our current [2012-2016] business plan and hope to have that completed within two to three weeks. Basically, our goal for 2016 will remain the same; we are just adjusting how we will get there,” TAP Portugal CEO Fernando Pinto told Aviation Week during a one-to-one phone interview.
French air accident authority BEA has launched an investigation after a Saab 2000 operated by Swiss regional Darwin Airline lost its nose wheel on landing at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. Darwin Airline, which recently rebranded as Etihad Regional, confirmed that the aircraft’s nose wheel “detached from the main nose wheel strut upon landing on runway 27” at around 0740 on Jan. 28.
Lufthansa Cargo is close to converting options for five more Boeing 777Fs after the airline has seen a significant improvement in demand in some of its key markets. “We plan to replace our MD-11s with Boeing 777s and not only with five or 10,” Executive Vice President Sales Andreas Otto said at a Lufthansa Cargo event near Frankfurt.
Sabreliner Corporation’s business leaned heavily on military contracts that disappeared during sequestration, forcing the company into default on its bank loan and leading to the bank’s sale of the company to an investment firm. Sabreliner announced last week that its primary debt holder sold the company after it lost half of its business during last year’s sequestration budget cutting and was unable to make its debt payment.
