Afghanistan’s isolation on the global stage hasn’t stopped Kam Air chief executive Jahed Azimi raising standards and planning for the future – with a little help from the UAE.
This week’s top air transport stories include an NTSB report suggesting that the missing bolts had been removed on the Boeing factory floor and did not break off during the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 Jan. 5 flight, causing the exit door plug to rip off, and the European Court of Justice annulled the state aid approval awarded to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to help it through the pandemic.
Boeing’s leadership team must continue to ask the hard questions and look further to honestly assess company culture that could contribute to future problems.
PLAY, Iceland doubled its revenue to $282m in 2023 from $140m in 2022; it ended year with 10 aircraft, but says it now has no plans to take more aircraft in 2024 in order to increase liquidity; it also canceled LOIs for two aircraft for 2025.
SPIRIT AIRLINES had $184m net loss on $1.3b revenues in 4Q23 vs $271m loss on $1.4b in 4Q22; and $447m net loss on $5.4b revenues for 2023 vs $554m loss on $5.1b in 2022. It ended year with 205 aircraft and says it still plans merger with JETBLUE to close in 1H24, pending govt clearance (arguments on appeal to injunction to be heard in June 2024).
AVOLON had $339m net income on $2.5b lease revenues in 2023 vs $9m on $2.3b in 2022, and ended year with $7.2b in total liquidity. It has owned/managed/committed fleet of 1,035 aircraft on lease with 146 airline customers (65 countries).
