News from FlightGlobal – Page 2141
-
News
Clean and lean
Environmental issues and the demands of safety and reliability drive airliner design as much as technology Ever since the first powered machines flew at the start of the 20th century, aviation has been driven by the quest to improve aircraft efficiency. With extraordinary persistence, often surmounting seemingly impossible technical barriers, ...
-
News
In Brief
LOT qualifies for Swiss deal SAirGroup's $33.7 million purchase of a 10% stake in in the Polish flag carrier LOT was officially signed in November. The purchase will be combined with a share issue, increasing SAir's stake to 37.6%. Financial assets from the share issue, equalling close to $150 ...
-
News
JetBlue prepares for February launch
JetBlue Airways has taken delivery of its first Airbus A320 and expects another one soon as it gears up for an early February take-off. The 10 aircraft to be delivered this year will sport three different livery patterns using various shades of blue - the favourite colour of chief executive ...
-
News
Meridiana seeks strategic partner after labour deal
Italy's second-largest carrier, Meridiana, has appointed the UK's Lloyds Bank to advise it on seeking a European strategic airline partner. The airline's president Franco Trivi expects a deal to be agreed within six to eight months. Long-established Meridiana had run the risk of losing market share to new rivals, ...
-
News
Peru's skies make room for another domestic starter
Yet another small airline has launched domestic flights in Peru. Aviandina, which won its operating certificate in mid-November, started flying a 10-city network from Lima the next day, using two leased Boeing 727-100s and one Boeing 737. This latest start-up brings to eight the number of local airlines scrambling ...
-
News
Routes
Down Mexico way Continental Express, the regional subsidiary of Continental Airlines, plans to start a service from its hub at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport to San Luis Potosi, Mexico, next March, subject to government approval. By adding San Luis Potosi, Continental and Continental Express will serve 18 destinations ...
-
News
Virgin moves on Australia
DAVID KNIBB SEATTLE Richard Branson's decision to launch a low-cost domestic Australian airline is the biggest threat yet to the Qantas-Ansett duopoly During a whirlwind tour of Australia, Richard Branson announced that Virgin Australia would start mid-year with five Boeing 737s that could quickly grow. Focusing initially on the busy ...
-
News
China tax threatens leasing company growth
A new Chinese tax on aircraft operating leases is emerging as a potential threat to leasing companies hoping to profit from expectations that China's airline industry will grow at a faster-than-average rate over the next 20 years. The new withholding tax was quietly introduced by the Chinese Government, effective ...
-
News
China, Japan go regional
NICHOLAS IONIDES ATI/SINGAPORE After their success in the USA and Europe, regional jet aircraft makers have at long last cracked two important, but untapped, markets in Asia - China and Japan. Hainan Airlines has become China's first carrier to operate scheduled regional jet services after receiving the first of at ...
-
News
Investors emerge for Ansett New Zealand
News Corporation's efforts to sell Ansett New Zealand may have better luck with a new group of New Zealand investors than it has had over the past 12 years with Qantas Airways. News Corp and Qantas were unable to agree on a price, and there is no assurance the ...
-
News
In Brief
Asiana offer Asiana Airlines expects to raise 375 billion won ($325 million) through an initial public offering of 50 million shares. Shares were made available early in December ahead of a listing on South Korea's secondary Kosdaq share market at the end of the month. Public and institutional investors ...
-
News
Chicago revisited
KAREN WALKER CHICAGO Transport ministers from around the world joined airline and industry chiefs in Chicago in December to discuss how to shed the bilateralism legacy of the historic 1944 Chicago Convention and also move beyond the current open skies regime to multilateralism. US Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater lost few ...
-
News
Star wins battle over Canadian future
DAVID KNIBB SEATTLE Star Alliance has won the battle with oneworld for control of Canadian Airlines. Under a deal hammered out between American Airlines parent AMR and Air Canada, American will retain certain codeshare rights, but Canadian will effectively withdraw from oneworld. This ends a five-month see-saw battle in ...
-
News
Catering - serving in the fast lane
Fast food may not be on the in-flight menu, but as consolidation takes hold of the airline catering business, speed appears to be of the essence. Last year saw a flurry of activity in the in-flight catering industry, including a host of joint ventures and two major acquisition deals. ...
-
News
Mexico's smaller players struggle to compete
DAVID KNIBB SEATTLE Mexico's third and fourth largest airlines have both experienced problems that harm their ability to compete against the duopoly of Aeromexico and Mexicana. Taesa, Mexico's number three carrier, remains grounded for safety reasons following a fatal crash on 9 November. Mexico's communications and transport ministry says inspectors ...
-
News
The new leaders in handling
Ground handling is developing a higher profile in the industry, attracting a new style of leadership. Analysis is by Michael Bell, who leads the global aviation practice at executive search consultants Spencer Stuart.Recent years have seen the emergence of ground handling as an industry in its own right, and there ...
-
News
In Brief
US-Italy open skies The US Department of Transportation (D0T) has approved Alitalia's tripartite alliance with KLM and Northwest, paving the way to the signing of a fully fledged open skies bilateral between Italy and the USA. The two countries partially liberalised air traffic last year. Alitalia-Northwest will codeshare on ...
-
News
Business as usual as Macau is returned to China
DAVID KNIBB SEATTLE Two and a half years after the UK handed back Hong Kong to China, it was Portugual's turn on 20 December to return a South-East Asian colony, when China resumed rule of Macau. Like Hong Kong, Macau will remain a special administrative region of China for ...
-
News
Japan to redistribute slots
NICHOLAS IONIDES ATI/TOKYO Japan's "big three" carriers could be in for a further wave of competition, as the Japanese Ministry of Transport (MoT) studies a controversial plan that would see slots stripped from them at congested airports and handed over to new operators. A senior member of the MoT's strategic ...
-
News
New Beginning
GÜNTER ENDRES ATHENS With the belated opening up of the Greek market, a clutch of independent operators is starting to mount a serious challenge to flag carrier Olympic Airways Until 1998, Greece had been virtually untouched by the European liberalisation process. Apart from a partial deregulation in 1991, which permitted ...