Aviation

Bloomberg Vancouver-based Harbour Air just flew an all-electric commercial aircraft—for five minutes. The neon green and indigo blue seaplane took off from the Fraser River in Richmond, British Columbia as a small crowd cheered from the dock. The propeller aircraft, a six-passenger de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver prototype, was powered by a magniX magni500 electric motor and piloted by Harbour Air ...

Bloomberg Expatriate pilots flying Boeing Co.’s most popular plane for Chinese airlines used to be able to take their pick from dozens of jobs paying $300,000 plus perks thanks to a shortage of experienced aviators there. The grounding of the 737 Max has changed that. Chinese carriers have largely stopped hiring foreign pilots for Boeing’s main narrow-bodied jet, nine months ...

Bloomberg The US is expected to buy 22 aging fighter jets from Switzerland, a country that’s struggling to modernise its own air force. US Navy representatives and the Swiss defense procurement agency, known as Armasuisse, discussed the deal in July, an agency spokesman said by email. The contract is expected to be signed once US lawmakers approve the fiscal 2020 ...

Bloomberg Finland’s national carrier Finnair Oyj is starting its next big round of investments: as much as 4 billion euros ($4.5 billion) on modernising and expanding its narrow-body fleet of aircraft to fly between European cities. The investment comes on top of 2 billion euros spent over the past five years on transforming Finnair’s long-haul fleet to boost fuel efficiency, ...

Bloomberg Airline industry profits will come in lower than forecast this year as passenger numbers and cargo volumes are held back by slowing economic growth and global trade wars, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said. With less than a month left in 2019, the trade body has lowered its annual profit estimate to $25.9 billion — $2.1 billion less ...

Bloomberg Ryanair Holdings Plc Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary “screamed” at staff responsible for reducing pilot absences due to sick leave during a union dispute, an outgoing executive told a Dublin court. The shouting at monthly meetings to discuss the issue was at times “intense,” Chief Operations Officer Peter Bellew said in a Dublin court. He’s giving evidence over a ...

Bloomberg Worsening tensions between Boeing Co. and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) threaten new delays in the return of the 737 Max. But even after regulators sign off, airlines will still have weeks of work before passengers fly on the beleaguered plane. Southwest Airlines Co. is anticipating a month or more of preparations after the Max wins approval to fly ...

Bloomberg Boeing Co. said it won’t compete for the Pentagon’s program to develop and procure the next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile, (ICBM) leaving Northrop Grumman Corp. as the sole bidder for a project valued at almost $85 billion. The announcement final Boeing’s previous indications that it wouldn’t bid on the program to replace aging Minuteman III ICBMs because it views the ...

Bloomberg The US’s top aviation regulator took Boeing Co.’s chief to the woodshed in a sign that relations between the two sides have deteriorated and further delays in the return to service of the planemaker’s best-selling jet are likely. In an unusual public admonishment, Federal Aviation Administration head Steve Dickson presented Boeing Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg and Executive Vice ...

Bloomberg EHang Holdings Ltd., one of several companies seeking to commercialise autonomous taxi aircraft, closed its first day of trading in the US with its shares down one cent from their price in its US initial public offering. The Guangzhou, China-based company raised $40 million, pricing 3.2 million American depositary shares at the bottom of its marketed range of $12.50 ...