Australia’s Alliance Aviation Services has bought five Fokker 100 jets to boost its stockpile of spare parts and take advantage of opportunities in Australia and the South Pacific.
The Australian company has signed a binding purchase agreement with Switzerland’s Helvetic Airways for the five twin jets as well as all of the Swiss carrier’s spare engines, parts and tooling.
The airline said the purchase built on the strategic rationale of its purchase in late 2015 of 21Fokker aircraft from Austrian airlines.
This included the ability to expand its fleet as well as expand its economic life and secure major components at a lower cost.
It also diversified the company’s revenue streams and enhanced its positions the biggest supplier of engines and spare parts outside of Fokker.
Alliance managing director Scott McMillan said the Helvetic aircraft were in excellent condition and had come straight from operating services in Europe.
“Since the 2015 fleet purchase, we have increased our operational fleet by 11 aircraft to meet the needs of a resurgent resources sector, satisfy the demand for wet-lease services and service the growing opportunities in the tourism sector,’’ McMillan said.
“We have also successfully onsold several of the Austrian fleet as well as establishing ongoing engine leases and we continue to seel increasing amounts of spares parts to all major Fokker operators in the southern hemisphere.”
Production of the F100 ended in 1997 after the production of 283 of the 100-seat aircraft.
The aircraft is popular with companies servicing resources markets because of its low capital cost and operating flexibility.
Alliance currently operates 23 F100s, 11 smaller Fokker 70s and five Fokker 50 turboprops.
The Brisbane-based company has been traveling well and recently announced that it expected to announce the best pre-tax result in its 17-year history.
It said it expected its 2019 pre-tax profit for the year ending June 30 to be $32.5 million, 25 percent higher than its fiscal 2018 result and ahead of analysts’ expectations.
The company’s success has attracted the attention of bigger rival Qantas, which earlier this year announced it had paid $A60 million to take a 19.9 percent stake in Alliance.
European manufacturer Airbus says small cracks found in the outer rear wing spar of early A380 superjumbos do not affect the ongoing safe operation of the fleet.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency is proposing an airworthiness directive requiring inspections of the outer rear wing spar after reports of cracks on in-service A380s.
It said the condition, if not detected and correct, could reduce the structural integrity of the wing.
The interim action is limited to the 25 oldest A380s taken by airlines such as Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Emirates and Lufthansa.
Airlines are required to make the inspection using phased-array ultrasonic testing within 15 years of the wing box assembly date and in some circumstances repeat it every three years.
Qantas, which has six of the 25 affected aircraft, said it had been working with Airbus on the issue for some time and two inspections had already been completed. It had also informed the Civil Aviation Safety Authority of the issue.
The Qantas inspections mean it is ahead of the EASA requirements which would see the first inspection on Qantas aircraft due in June 2020 with last due about May 2021.
“Inspections are not required on these aircraft for another year or two and are being done well in advance of the required timeframes,” Qantas head of engineering Chris Snook said.
“We have completed inspections on two aircraft and there were no concerns with the structural integrity of the wing.”
Airbus confirmed the small cracks had been found and said it had identified the issue and designed an inspection and repair scheme.
It said it was in contact with EASA and working with customers.
“The inspections and repairs can be accomplished over scheduled heavy maintenance checks,’’ it said.
“Under the inspection and repair regime, as outlined in the AD proposal, the ongoing safe operation (airworthiness) of the A380 fleet is not affected.”
This is not the first wing crack issue on A380s.
Airbus also had to address problems that emerged in 2012 with cracking in L-shaped brackets known as rib feet that connect the wing skin to rib structures.
The problem was initially discovered in a Qantas A380 that suffered an uncontained engine failure in 2010.
Air France is strongly opposed to the new eco tax.
The International Air Transport Association has attacked as “misguided” a move by the French government to slug airline passengers with an “eco-tax”
The new tax will cost passengers up to €18 ($US20.20) and will be levied on passengers flying from the popular tourist destination.
The tax on tickets will apply to flights within France and the European Union as well as flights leaving Europe.
It will vary from €1.50 ($US1.70) for economy tickets within France or the EU to €18 ($20.18) for business class tickets on flights out of Europe.
The government expects to raise €180 million from 2020 and French Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne said the money would be invested in less polluting transport such as rail.
Airlines are opposed to the tax and say that if it is levied, the money should be invested in technology such as biofuels that would benefit aviation.
“This tax is misguided,’’ IATA said in a statement.
“Since 1990, airlines have reduced carbon emissions per passenger 50 percent and from 2020 will be paying to offset all the growth in emissions
“A tax will not help the industry to invest in cleaner fuels and technology.
“It will also damage EUR 100 billion that aviation generates for the French economy, and 500,000 new jobs are at risk from the lack of competitiveness of French aviation.”
IATA said four out of five French residents did not trust its government to spend environmental taxes on environmental action.
“On their behalf, we will hold the French government to account to spend this tax on accelerating aviation sustainability, especially prioritizing more efficient air traffic control and promoting sustainable fuels,’’ it said.
Air France said it strongly opposed the new tax, which would significantly hurt its competitiveness and represented an additional cost of over 60 million euros ($US67m) annually.
“This measure would be extremely penalizing for Air France, of which 50 percent of its flights are operated out of France, and notably for its domestic network, where losses amounted to above 180 million euros in 2018,’’ it said.
“In addition, last month, the government had ruled out taxation at (a) national level due to the unfair competition that this would cause.”
“The government’s decision is all the more incomprehensible as this new air transport tax would reportedly finance competitive modes of transport including road transportation and not the energy transition in the air transport sector.
“Such a transition could have been facilitated by supporting the implementation of sustainable biofuel industries or disruptive innovations.”
Environmental groups criticized the tax as not going far enough.
They were backed by legendary British conservationist Sir David Attenborough who told a UK parliamentary committee that air travel should be made more expensive to help tackle climate change.
“I think that one way to reduce these things is to count the costs of what it is that air travel costs in real terms – in what it costs the environment,” he said.
“And if you cost that, then you will see the tickets are extraordinarily cheap.”
He agreed that more expensive tickets could affect the access to air travel of those less able to pay.
Southwest Airlines 737 MAX aircraft at Victorville, California. Image: KCAL9.
What would have been a gala year for Boeing commercial aircraft deliveries has turned sour as undelivered Boeing 737 MAX jets sit idle at sites around the US, including the plane-maker’s car parking lot.
The US manufacturer reported Tuesday that deliveries fell by a more than a third in the first half of 2019 to 239 planes as the MAX crisis continued to bite.
That compares to 379 aircraft delivered in the corresponding period last year and 389 delivered by rival Airbus in the first half of 2019.
The figures show Boeing delivered just 24 737s in the second quarter to bring the first-half total to 113.
Also delivered during the first six months of 2019 were four 747s, 22 767s, 22 777s and 78 787s.
The MAX has been grounded since March after two fatal crashes in less than five months killed 346 people.
There is still no public timeframe for returning the planes to the air and even when that green light is given some analysts are predicting it will take more than a year to clear the backlog.
Boeing is still building 737s but slowed production to 42 a month in the wake of the grounding and there is speculation another cut could be in the pipeline.
There were no new orders for the MAX in June, marking the third consecutive month where that was the case.
A more upbeat and expansive Airbus revealed it had delivered in the first half of 2019 315 single-aisle planes, a category which now includes the A220, as well as 17 A330s, 53 A350s and four A380 superjumbos.
Fifty-four A320 family aircraft were delivered in June in both the neo and ceo versions along with six A220s.
“Wide-body deliveries during the month were led by the A350 XWB, with a total of 10 aircraft provided in both the A350-900 and A350-1000 versions,” Airbus said
“Notable handovers involved the initial A350 XWBs for China Southern Airlines and Japan Airlines – both receiving A350-900s.
“Completing the wide-body activity in June were deliveries of five A330neo aircraft and one A380.”
Airbus launched the A321XLR at the Paris Air Show in June with bookings standing at 44 aircraft by June 30 and entry into service targeted for 2023.
Described by the company as the “next evolutionary step” for the A320 series, the aircraft is expected to provide 30 percent lower fuel burn per seat than previous-generation competitor aircraft and a range of up to 4,700 nautical miles.
There were also 86 bookings for other jetliners from the A320neo family and 15 A220 orders.
Taking the latest orders and deliveries into account, Airbus’ backlog of jetliners remaining to be delivered stood at 7,276 aircraft as of June 30.
This included 5,871 single-aisle A320 family jetliners and 473 A220s.
China’s — and Asia’s — largest airline has a particularly unusual and not particularly helpful brand, and I’m not just talking about the suggestive shape of the cotton-tree flower on its tail.
Much of what the airline does in terms of its passenger experience is decent, especially in terms of the bones of its product, but it keeps stumbling on the final 20 percent, counteracting the other 80 percent.
And this is particularly obviously shown on its latest business class cabin, which has been filtering out onto social media (the airline’s and others’) recently.
The basic seat is a good one: Recaro’s CL6710 is a solid modern seat of the ‘compact staggered’ variety, the sort that has arrived on the scene in the last few years to provide direct aisle access with maximum space efficiency.
They do, of course, suffer from the problems with all staggered seats: the ones situated across a side table from the aisle are much more private and much less prone to being disturbed by passing crew or passengers.
But the slight angle away from the aisle with which Recaro has created the CL6710 — no, you’re not wrong, their seat naming is terrible — is what really makes the seat.
Interestingly, China Southern chose not to make its center pairs in the “honeymoon” style, where the center pairs immediately adjacent allow you to fall asleep next to your romantic partner (or put up a privacy divider between you and Pat from Accounting).
El Al, by contrast, did choose “honeymoon” pairs, and as a rule, airlines do that when they think their passenger mix has a substantial upmarket leisure element.
China Southern, by contrast, looks to think differently about its market.
I very much like the semi-open cupboard storage space, which is new. This is a smart move to allow both temporary storage (for a phone, say, or a pair of spectacles) but also to enable passengers to have a more secure space to stow their things.
As an added benefit, it’s also easier to spot at a glance whether you’ve left anything behind.
Safran’s RAVE inflight entertainment is a solid pick as well: it’s the smoothest I’ve seen in recent years, but the proof will be in the content pudding.
The awful blue makes the cabin look a lot older than it is. Photo: China Southern on Weibo
Now onto the finish, which is… honestly, a bit disappointing and very ‘old Chinese airline’, after recent excellent choices from Air China and China Eastern.
This very blah generic blue is truly awful: it’s Delta from ten years ago and just gives a deeply dated feel to the cabin, especially when it wraps around the side of the footwell/side table combination.
It’s leather, too, which is good for wear-and-tear but gets awfully sticky during a long flight, so thoughtful airlines are moving away from it as a primary seating surface material.
I’m not hugely cross about the beige trim around the seat, which reminds me rather of Qantas’ current Business Suite, but I have huge reservations about the ugly faux-wood effect that looks like it fell out of an American 1970s sitcom’s television room.
Not only is the panel effect hideous on its own, but the horizontal lines on the door of the little cupboard do strange and rather unpleasant things to the pattern.
CMF — color, materials, and finish — opinions, of course, remain subjective to an extent.
But these just aren’t great, and highlight a wider issue with the big three Chinese airlines (China Southern, China Eastern and Air China): their branding is neither particularly consistent nor particularly good.
With the exception of the most recent cabins from the other two, their cabins aren’t particularly attractive either.
That would be fine if we were ten years ago and the business class game was to pack ‘em flat and sell ‘em cheap.
But it’s not: not only is the domestic market gaining an increasingly internationalized sense of aesthetics and experience, but the international market also has ever-rising expectations.
If there was an award for the best steak in the sky, the crew on Korean Air Flight KE 121 from Seoul to Sydney would be top contenders.
They nailed “medium rare” and the roasted beef tenderloin with green peppercorn sauce was a superlative piece of meat that could happily have graced any number of restaurants.
There have been a couple of other airlines that have hit this carnivorous sweet spot but it doesn’t happen often
Yet steak is not the most fun you can have with food on Korea’s national carrier.
That honor lies with its trademark Bibimbap, something I’d tried on a previous flight.
This tasty traditional Korean dish of mixed rice with meat and vegetables comes in kit form with its own set of instructions and is something not to be missed.
Bibimbap is a Korean Air signature dish that’s fun and tasty. Photo: Steve Creedy
It’s all part of the experience in Korean’s Prestige Class on the Airbus A330 flying between Sydney and Seoul.
The outbound flight from Sydney is an early departure that begins in winter watching the sunrise from the airport’s SkyTeam lounge, a facility that ticks the business class lounge boxes without being particularly memorable.
A breakfast/brunch is served after take-off followed by a main meal quite a long time later, although you could request it be served earlier.
Korean’s business class seat is wide enough for bigger folk and the open footrest meant there were no worries about cramped feet.
Settling into the seat, the first order of business was to play a game of “find the headphone socket”.
I’ve seen headphone sockets in some obtuse places but the Korean placement is particularly challenging on the inside of the side pocket. It’s not only hard to see but tricky to connect.
Once connected, though, the effective noise-canceling headphones were clear-sounding and particularly comfortable.
The generous 17-inch video monitor is controlled by a wired 3.7-inch touchscreen handset that’s easy to use and understand. The resolution was good and easy on the eyes.
Korean’s entertainment options are not as wide as those on Qantas, Emirates or Singapore Airlines but there’s enough to keep a sleepless body occupied on a 10-hour trip.
The entertainment system was easy to use and the big screen a plus. Photo: Steve Creedy
That was assisted somewhat by the fact that I flew into Seoul at the end of May and left at the start of June so the program had changed.
The seat feels comfortable and unconstrained. It is in 2-2-2 configuration but the outboard seats are staggered to give everyone aisle access.
I had an aisle seat on the Sydney-Seoul trip and while there was less privacy than the window seat I’d occupied on a previous trip, it was enough so that you didn’t feel others were intruding.
I had an aisle seat which didn’t have the same degree of privacy as the window seats. Photo: Steve Creedy.
The seat was 21 inches wide and folded down into a 75-inch flat bed with an acceptable comfort level, although I’ve experienced a couple of seats that were better for people who sleep on their side.
I didn’t find a lot of storage but later discovered there was a spot for my laptop. In any event, it was easy enough to hop up and take things in and out of the overhead bin and there was space for shoes under the ottoman.
The seat controls were intuitive and easy to use and there was a handy individual light as well as the usual power supply and USB port for charging devices.
A privacy screen was also available to separate you from your neighbor.
One gripe was the small pillow unsuitable for people with big shoulders — or anyone with shoulders really — although a colleague got a bigger version on another flight.
A welcome surprise came from the Tardis toilets — much bigger on the inside than they looked on the outside and some of the most spacious I’ve encountered in business class.
They were equipped with razors and mouthwash to supplement a good amenities kit which included a shoehorn and one of those incredibly useful folding hairbrushes.
The second welcome surprise was that Korean has dropped first class on a bunch of routes, including the Aussie service, and opened that cabin to business class customers. This happened from June 1 on 27 routes operated by Boeing 787-9s, 777-300ERs and Airbus A330s.
Get there early enough, or presumably have a high enough frequent flyer status, and you can secure a first-class seat with business class service.
This is essentially what happened to me on the return leg.
The main differences between first and business seat appear to be a giant TV screen compared to a very big one, some extra space, more places to put stuff and a much bigger pillow.
This was an overnight flight offering dinner and breakfast and the one with the fantastic steak.
Korean does what is potentially a six-course dinner service that in this case included a snack of smoked salmon tartar and lavosh with the pre-dinner drink, followed by lemon herb marinated prawn with mushroom, the prize-winning steak main course, a cheese tray and, if you allow the cabin crew to tempt you, dessert.
You can kick off with cold glass a Perrier Jouet Grand Brut or, as I did, pick from an impressive scotch line-up of Chivas Regal 18-year-old, Johnnie Walker Gold or Glenfiddich Select Cask single malt.
Wine choices were more limited with one white wine (a 2015 Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay), one rose (Chateau d’Esclans Whispering Angel) and two choices of red (A 2007 No. 6 shiraz cabernet and a Frie Brothers 2015 reserve merlot). The wine glasses were a bit old school but that didn’t affect the enjoyment of a very pleasant product.
In between meals, there was a snack list that included pizza and tantalizing freshly-baked cookies.
The service was good and consistent over the three flights I’ve taken with Korean. The crew members were personable, proactive and responsive.
The crew on the way to Seoul seemed a bit surprised when I asked for my lunch ahead of the main meal service but quickly swung into action to deliver it as requested.
The crew on the night flight coming back were adept at periodically asking insomniacs if there was anything they needed.
In terms of potential improvements, a bigger pillow in business class and additional programming on the in-flight entertainment system would be plusses.
However, Korean is a good option for anyone flying to North Asia.
Steve Creedy flew to Seoul courtesy of Korean Air and IATA.
Virgin Galactic is about to blast off on the bourse to become the first publicly-traded space tourism company.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the company founded by Sir Richard Branson has done a deal with a special-purpose investment company founded by a former Facebook executive.
The Journal quotes sources as saying Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings (SPAC) is planning to invest $US800 million in Virgin Galactic for a 49 percent stake.
This is expected to give galactic enough capital to fund the business until it can begin operating profitably.
Branson is in a race with fellow billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk to get a private foothold in space, although both the Amazon boss and the Tesla founder have broader ambitions than space tourism.
Galactic has already convinced about 60 people to spend about $US80 million to secure seats on its vehicles and has reportedly raised about $US1 billion since it was founded in 2004.
SPAC was founded by Chamath Palihapitiya and is described as a “blank check company, which engages in merging, share exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, and similar business combination with one or more businesses”.
The Journal said talks between Palihapitiya and Branson began after he walked away from negotiations with Saudi Arabia in the wake of the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Branson earlier this year announced that the Galactic’s development and testing program had advanced sufficiently to move staff and space vehicles from the test site in Mojave, California, to the commercial headquarters, dubbed Spaceport America, in New Mexico.
Work completed on the sci-fi-style complex includes the hangar offices, fuel farm, warehouse and antenna for telemetry and communications,
The company said it would reposition its carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, and spaceship VSS Unity once cabin interiors and other work had been completed by manufacturer The Spaceship Company.
It said the final tests flights would be completed from New Mexico ahead of the launch of full commercial service for passengers and research payload.
Production of the spaceships will remain in California.
Virgin also has a satellite launch company, Virgin Orbit, that focuses on boosting small satellites into orbit using the air-launched Launcher One.
American Airlines customers will have easier access to four new Southeast Asian destinations and increased frequencies to three more thanks to a codeshare agreement with Cathay Dragon.
American will place its code on select Cathay Dragon flights from Hong Kong International Airport to the seven cities from July 11.
The four new destinations are Dhaka, Bangladesh (DAC); Chiang Mai, Thailand (CNX); Da Nang, Vietnam (DAD) and Phuket, Thailand (HKT).
The existing markets served by American’s other Asian partners and that will see increased frequencies are Penang, Malaysia (PEN); Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (KUL); and Hanoi, Vietnam (HAN).
Cathay Dragon is a wholly owned subsidiary of American OneWorld partner Cathay Pacific and serves 53 destinations across the Asia-Pacific region, including 23 destinations in mainland China.
“The codeshare relationship with Cathay Dragon will further strengthen American’s existing partnership with the Cathay Pacific group in the years to come,” American said in its announcement.
American has served Hong Kong since 2013 and currently operates daily, year-round service from Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles.
The deal comes as Cathay and another oneworld partner, Qantas, are lobbying Australia’s International Air Services Commission to overturn a decision to extend their codeshare arrangement
The IASC found that the public benefits of the proposal were “substantially outweighed” by the public detriment.
The Hong Kong carrier and Qantas wanted to update an August 2018 agreement that allowed Qantas to add its code on 15 one-way routes beyond Hong Kong operated by Cathay or Cathay Dragon and Cathay to add its code on 25 one-way routes on Qantas’s domestic network.
The variation added another 19 one-way routes beyond Hong Kong on the Cathay/Cathay Dragon side and 32 one-way Australian domestic routes operated by Qantas.
The bid had been opposed by Virgin Australia, which flies to Hong Kong from Melbourne and Sydney and raised concerns at Australia’s competition watchdog.
British Airways faces a whopping £183.39 million ($US230 million) fine over a data breach in 2018 that saw the personal data of 500,000 customers compromised.
The record fine proposed by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, an independent authority set up to uphold information rights, is for breaches of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation.
The airline says it will pursue all avenues of appeal.
It involves an incident reported in September 2018, in which user traffic was diverted to a fraudulent website where customer details, including credit card information, were harvested by hackers.
The airline revealed in October that data accessed varied for each passenger but could include name, nationality, date of birth, phone number, email; address, passport number; identity card number, frequent flyer number, customer service remarks and historical travel information.
It said later that year that cybersecurity experts engaged to search the dark web and other sites had found no evidence the stolen details of 9.4 million customers had appeared in those criminal forums.
Earlier this year, mobile security company Wandera said some airlines were using unencrypted e-ticketing links that could expose customers’ personal information to hackers.
Airlines identified by the researchers as sending unencrypted links included Australian low-cost carrier Jetstar, Southwest Airlines, Air France, KLM, Spanish budget carrier Vueling and British charter carrier Thomas Cook.
Boeing has lost a 737 MAX customer to Airbus after Saudi Arabian budget carrier Flyadeal reversed a commitment for up to 50 of the troubled jets.
The Saudi airline announced Sunday it had placed a firm order for 30 A320neo aircraft with options for another 20 from the A320neo family as it pursues an all-Airbus fleet.
Boeing later said that it understood Flyadeal would not finalize its commitment to the 737 MAX “at this time given the airline’s schedule requirements”.
Flyadeal said the allocation of the new aircraft came after an agreement for a total of 100 aircraft which Saudi Arabian Airlines Corporation (SAUDIA) signed during the Paris Air Show in June this year.
It said the move was part of the dual brand strategy of the Saudi Arabian Airlines Corporation where flyadeal serves the price conscious customer that is seeking Everyday Low Fares.
The decision is a setback for Boeing as it grapples with lawsuits, multiple investigations and to meet regulatory hurdles to getting the MAX back into service after two fatal crashes.
The US manufacturer received a huge boost in Paris when International Airlines Group signaled its intention to buy 200 MAX jets, although this has still to be converted into firm orders.
But airlines such as Virgin Australia have also used the opportunity to restructure their orders.
The aircraft has been grounded since March and it is still uncertain when it will return to the skies.
An unexpected glitch with a microprocessor has further delayed US Federal Aviation Administration approval of a software update designed to address potential problems with the flight control system.
There were also reports over the weekend that Europe’s aviation regulator has asked for a number of issues to be addressed, including a concern about the jet’s autopilot that had not previously surfaced.
Bloomberg said the issue involved the autopilot failing to disengage in certain circumstances.
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