Virgin Australia has decided to delay its Boeing 737 MAX orders for two years, the first major move by the carrier’s new CEO as he seeks to improve the carrier’s near-term financial health.
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg, ramping up the company’s defense of the 737 MAX, insists the grounded aircraft was designed and certified to the company’s standards.
Boeing chairman, president and CEO Dennis Muilenburg appears likely to keep all those titles after company shareholders opted April 29 not to make the chairmanship an independent position.
Singapore LCC Scoot will suspend services to Lucknow (India), Kalibo (Philippines), Quanzhou (China) and Male (Maldives) because of “weak demand” and shortage of aircraft resources.
The Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-powered Airbus A319neo made its first flight April 25, starting a flight test campaign that is to be completed before the end of the year.
Hong Kong Airlines is offering pilots the option of transferring to alternative airlines as the company faces a surplus of pilots as a result of the delayed delivery of the Airbus A330 and A350.
Boeing says returning the 737 MAX safely to service is its first priority and with extra resources being channeled into this effort hinted for the first time this may impact the outline schedule for launching its next proposed airliner project, the new midsize airplane (NMA).
Airlines continue to improve their handling of checked bags, getting more bags to the right destination on time even as the number of airline passengers grows each year.
Malaysia Airlines issued RFPs in April to Airbus and Embraer for the acquisition of 30 to 40 regional aircraft as its looks to solidify routes within Southeast Asia, according to a source familiar with the carrier.
EASA has certified a new altitude monitoring function on Airbus A320-series airliners, according to NAVBLUE, Airbus’ flight operations and air traffic management subsidiary.
The first air carrier certificate for a commercial drone delivery service in the US has been awarded by the FAA to Wing, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet.
Integration of the former Bombardier CSeries program into Airbus is progressing well, the head of Airbus in Canada said. “We will deliver more aircraft in the second half of the year than we did in the first half as we continue to ramp up,” said Philippe Balducci, CEO of the Airbus-led partnership that now builds the narrowbody airliner as the A220.
Representatives from nine civil aviation authorities—including the four major state-of-design agencies and China—have accepted invitations from the FAA to conduct a partial review of the Boeing 737 MAX certification, FAA announced April 19.
Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. is close to finalizing a refined design for the MRJ70, the shorter version of its MRJ regional jet, and by the end of June, two additional MRJ90 prototypes will be ready for MRJ flight testing, Mitsubishi Aircraft president Hisakazu Mizutani said.
The Russian chairperson of the Chinese-Russian commercial aircraft consortium (CRAIC) board expects the consortium to receive initial orders for its CR929 widebody airliner no earlier than 2023—a differing assessment compared to the late-2019 timing recently suggested by the Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (COMAC), the Chinese partner in the program.
Air Mauritius received the first of two Airbus A330-900s it has on order at Airbus’s Toulouse final assembly plant April 18; the aircraft are provided under contract with US-based Air Lease Corp. (ALC).
Boeing has taken several major steps toward completing upgraded 737 MAX maneuvering characteristics augmentation system (MCAS) flight control law software in recent days, giving the company confidence that it is “making steady progress” in its bid to get the grounded MAX fleet operating again, its top executive said.
