The CAAC has forecast that passenger volume for this year’s spring travel season will reach 90 million people, up from the record 83.5 million set in 2024.
As a new year begins, Flight Friday looks back to an event that happened one year ago: the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 door plug blowout on Jan. 5, 2024.
SETNA iO acquired an ex-Malaysia Airlines A380-800 from Airbus Financial Services for part out at Tarbes, France; and three 737-800s (30905/30906/40583; leased to AMERICAN) from AerCap for part out upon expiration of leases.
AIRBALTIC says it is being forced to cancel 4,670 flights during summer 2025 due to unexpected delays and prolonged maintenance for GTF engines; several A220-300 aircraft will remain grounded into 2025 due to an engine shortage.
FTAI AVIATION announced launch of Strategic Capital initiative with third-party institutional investors, initially focusing on acquiring 737NGs/A320ceos, which includes partnership taking over 46 FTAI-owned, on-lease aircraft for US$549m.
DAE CAPITAL acquired 83 aircraft in 2024 (vs 20 in 2023) and sold 68 (vs 30). It also signed 233 lease agreements, extensions and amendments (vs 150) and now has owned/managed/committed fleet of >500 aircraft. DAE ENGINEERING booked >1.5m man-hours (vs 1.4m), performed >300 aircraft checks (>300), and increased its hangar capacity by 30%.
JEJU AIR lost 737-800 (37541) when it was destroyed while landing at Muan Intenational, South Korea, killing 179 of 181 pax/crew; aircraft landed with gear up, slid through runway and collided with ILS localizer antenna array and a wall.
