Air Transport

Tunisia’s new all-cargo airline, Air Cargo Express, is now operating a second freighter and plans to have another three by the end of 2017. Tom Pleasant reports.

China’s mandatory technology-transfer policy is having a deleterious effect on its aerospace development strategy.

Emirates Airline has temporarily grounded some aircraft to optimize operations as demand slows and fewer pilots are available.

Bahrain national carrier Gulf Air has launched Boeing 787-9 services on the airline’s Manama-Jeddah route. The airline intends to operate the 787-9 on several regional routes over the coming weeks before it starts Bahrain–London Heathrow services on June 15.

Boeing announced May 1 that it has struck a $4.25 billion deal to acquire Miami-headquartered aircraft parts distribution, composites and aftermarket supplier KLX Inc.’s Aerospace Solutions Group, marking a further move into the value chain.

The U.S. Transportation Department will use its exemption authority to issue certificates to operators of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) seeking to transport goods for compensation, a procedural step toward allowing delivery drones.

Australian regulators intend to reject an application by Qantas to renew and extend its codeshare partnership with New Guinea’s largest carrier Air Niugini.

Hainan Airlines will step up development of intercontinental business at Shenzhen, making the rich southern Chinese city its second long-haul base, after Beijing, sources close to the company said.

Rising fuel prices and a strengthening local dollar will disrupt the Canadian airline industry’s recent growth trend, but the prevailing momentum will keep the sector performing above domestic industrial peers through 2022, the Conference Board of Canada (CBC) projected.

FAA, following CFM International’s latest recommendations, has mandated inspections for the CFM56-7B fan blade population not covered by the agency’s April 20 emergency airworthiness directive (AD).

Jordan’s national carrier, Royal Jordanian, broke even in 2017, a significant improvement on the previous year’s performance.

Australian LCC Tigerair faces the prospect of schedule disruption as its pilots plan limited industrial action over a long-running contract dispute.

Commercial aircraft manufacturing is helping to drive a surge in global aerospace and defense (A&D) industry revenue, which is expected to grow 4.1% year-over-year (YOY) in 2018, almost doubling last year’s 2.1% rate, according to a new report by consulting company Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

A South African female tourist was killed and 12 other people were injured when a hot air balloon crashed near Luxor, Egypt, earlier today.

Research and development efforts envision highly integrated, easier to use flight controls.

Panasonic Corp. of Japan and its U.S. subsidiary Panasonic Avionics Corp. (PAC) will pay $280 million to resolve Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and accounting fraud violations, the U.S. Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced separately on April 30.

A privacy watchdog organization has filed suit against FAA’s Drone Advisory Committee (DAC), charging that the industry-government group has failed to release records and make subcommittee and task group meetings open to the public in violation of federal open-meeting requirements.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is configuring the cabins of its Airbus A380s—which will be used to fly between Japan and Hawaii—with four classes and some all-new features that include a changing room, bar counters in all cabins and couch options in economy.

The government of Croatia announced that it aims to find a new “strategic partner” for Croatia Airlines.

Kuwaiti hybrid carrier Jazeera Airways has attributed an improvement in traditionally weak first-quarter figures to a combination of investments in improving passenger experience, a growing route network and higher asset utilization.

Major aerospace supplier Arconic, a lightweight metals manufacturer, descended into turnaround-plan territory after an April 30 financial update spurred a nearly 17% drop in its stock price and talk of “mixed” performance.

Air Canada delivered record revenue and lower-than-anticipated cost increases in the first quarter, and is tapping additional cost-savings initiatives to help offset rising fuel prices as it aims to hit its goal of C$250 million ($195 million) in annual expense reductions by 2020.

The emergence of data-driven forecasting is creating opportunities to improve supply-chain efficiency and increase aircraft availability. Operators are implementing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) tools that integrate with their existing datasets and software systems.

French airports operator Vinci Airports has acquired a portfolio of 12 airport contracts in Costa Rica, Sweden, the U.S. and the UK from U.S.-based company Airports Worldwide, including 100% of Belfast International and 100% of Orlando-Sanford International.

Russia’s S7 Group has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Co. (SCAC) for 50 Sukhoi Superjet 75 (SSJ75) aircraft, plus 25 options.