While Boeing 787-9 launch customer Air New Zealand will receive three of the new model this year, there will be a significant gap before its next wave of -9 deliveries. The airline is set to receive its first stretched version of the 787 in July. The next is expected a few months later, and the carrier will have three by the end of 2014. Other carriers are also due to receive 787-9s during this period, with All Nippon Airways likely to be the next to take its first delivery after Air New Zealand.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers: Oslo - Stavanger, December 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Top Carriers: Oslo - Stavanger, December 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Daily Each Way Departures Share ASKs (000) Share Seats /Dept.
Turkish Airlines, which has just exercised options on another seven Airbus A321-200neos, will decide on whether to go ahead with the remaining options by 2015. Last March Turkish signed a contract for 25 A321ceos, four A320neo and 53 A321neos. The deal also included 35 A321neo options, seven of which have just been converted to firm orders for delivery in 2018. “We have firmed up for the first seven aircraft. For the remaining 28 aircraft the deadline is the end of 2014 and the end of 2015,” said a Turkish Airlines spokesman.
Morocco’s national airline Royal Air Maroc has signed a Global Maintenance Agreement (GMA) with ATR for its new fleet of ATR-600 aircraft, giving the OEM another boost in its efforts to gain share in the aftermarket. The contract covers the four ATR 72-600s already owned by the airline, which was the launch customer for the -600 series and announced an order for two ATR 42-600s and four of the larger ATR 72-600s plus options for two additional ATR 72-600s in 2009. It took delivery of the first aircraft in 2011.
Singapore low-cost carrier Tigerair will sell its struggling Philippine affiliate to competitor Cebu Pacific, and deep cooperation with Cebu Pacific will replace Tigerair’s direct presence in the Philippine market. Tigerair’s retreat follows the growth in the Philippine market of the largest of the franchising low-cost groups, AirAsia, which bought Zest Air last year and rebranded it as AirAsia Zest.
India’s bankers have accorded aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul operations infrastructure status to facilitate easier borrowing from overseas, the country’s central bank says. “On a review, it has been decided that, for the purpose of External Commercial Borrowings (ECB), Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) will also be treated as a part of airport infrastructure,” the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) says.
Delta Air Lines, advancing its strategy of channeling capital into its existing fleet as opposed to more new aircraft, will pour $770 million into refreshing cabins and adding both seats and passenger creature comforts on 225 narrowbodies during the next three years. The changes will see an array of improvements, including new slim-line seats with plug-in power, in-seat video, satellite TV, and revamped galleys and lavatories installed on 56 Boeing 757-200s, 43 737-800s, 57 Airbus A319, and 69 A320s.
The FAA, responding to a recent U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) audit report, says it is still working on developing ways to make a key safety data repository more useful for its safety inspectors. Launched in 2007, the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) compiles data from multiple sources, including volunteer safety initiatives like Aviation Safety Action Programs (ASAP), in which employees self-disclose violations.
Air Lituanica is seeking to secure lease arrangements for two Embraer E-Jets and is preparing to submit a new business plan to the Lithuanian civil aviation authority (CAA)—including details on its financial status—following a dispute and breakup with Estonian Air, which has hampered the new carrier’s expansion plans.
The NTSB says it will finish its detective work on the Boeing 787 lithium-ion batteries in March and will issue the final report and hold a public hearing this fall on the January 2013 Japan Airlines incident that spawned the investigation. A second battery failure led to the FAA’s grounding of the fleet one year ago this month. “Members of the investigative team have been conducting work in the United States, Japan, France, and Taiwan,” says the NTSB in its latest update on the investigation, released Wednesday.
Guernsey-based regional airline Aurigny will wet-lease an Embraer 195 while awaiting delivery of its own aircraft, and is favoring the Dornier 228 as a replacement for its aging Britten-Norman Trislander fleet. State-owned Aurigny, based on the Channel Islands between the UK and France, operates a single ATR 72-200, two ATR 72-500s and six Britten-Norman Trislanders. It has also ordered its first jet, an Embraer 195, triggered by Flybe’s decision to ax its competing Guernsey-London Gatwick flights.
Less than a month after announcing a headcount reduction and restructuring in its European operations, Airbus Group is also making changes in its North America arm, tapping Airbus Americas Chairman Allan McArtor as CEO of Airbus Group in North America. McArtor will have oversight of operations in the U.S., Canada and Latin and South America, and is taking over for Sean O'Keefe, once the head of EADS North America (renamed Airbus Group), who is stepping down from his post.
More MROs are entering the VIP completions market, which not only could lead to increased competition but to overcapacity, as well, fears Walter Heerdt, senior vice president of marketing and sales at Lufthansa Technik.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers: Berlin Tegel - Munich, December 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Top Carriers: Berlin Tegel - Munich, December 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Daily Each Way Departures Share ASKs (000) Share Seats/Dep
FAA is giving Airbus A320-family operators as little as 48 months to weigh elevators or check maintenance records to ensure routine work—including painting—has not added too much weight to the structures. The U.S. agency, following a European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) mandate issued in October 2012, ordered the inspections in a Jan. 6 airworthiness directive. “It has been identified that maintenance activities, such as repairs or the accumulation of paint layers, may cause the weight of an elevator to exceed the certified limits,” FAA says.
Wencor Group, boosting its aftermarket capabilities and increasing its appeal to potential buyers, has purchased cabin interiors specialist Flight Line Products, Wencor reported. Flight Line’s services include passenger and crew seat overhauls as well as developing Parts Manufacturer Approval (PMA) parts, such as arm rest covers and tray tables, for use as spares.
Air Methods has strengthened its aerial tourism business with the purchase of Blue Hawaiian Helicopters. Air Methods, which is best known as a provider of aero-medical helicopters across the U.S. completed purchase of the Hawaii-based operator on December 16, for an undisclosed price. The move boosts Air Methods’ growing aerial tour business which also includes Las Vegas-based Sundance Helicopters, taken over by Air Methods in a December 2012 deal. Blue Hawaiian generated revenues of approximately $47 million in 2012.
Air Algerie has firmed up an order with ATR for three ATR 72-600s and also signed an agreement with Boeing for eight 737-800s, as part of its fleet renewal and expansion program. The new orders follow a memorandum of understanding with Airbus for three A330-200 passenger aircraft, signed at the Dubai Air Show in November. Air Algerie expects to take delivery of 16 new aircraft—of which two are freighters—by 2017 and is also considering an order for new-generation medium-sized widebodies.
Machinists union members accepted an improved contract proposal from Boeing by the narrowest of margins late Friday, guaranteeing the company’s new long-range 777X and its all-composite wings will be built in Everett and nearby facilities around the Puget Sound area of Washington state. Of the 24,000 ballots cast, 51% were in favor of approval. The outcome ends two months of speculation over where the assembly work will take place and draws a line under Boeing’s search for alternate sites that attracted bids from 22 states as well as Japan.
Buoyed by the highest production rates ever achieved on the 737, 777 and 787 lines, Boeing delivered a record-breaking 648 commercial aircraft in 2013. The 737 made up the bulk of the year’s deliveries with 440 units produced, while the 777 program, which reached a new rate of 8.3 aircraft per month in January 2013, notched up 98 deliveries. The 787 also made a late run with 65 deliveries for the year.
