Bloomberg As Embraer SA prepares to complete the first assembly of its revised regional jet, the plane will enter the market with a disadvantage: It’s too heavy to be flown under the terms of US pilot contracts. But the Brazilian manufacturer still expects to find eager buyers for its new E175-E2 elsewhere in the Americas, Southeast Asia and Europe. “My ...
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Japan Airlines may bid for Malaysia Air stake
Bloomberg Japan Airlines Co could be a contender to buy a stake in Malaysia Airlines Bhd, the Edge weekly newspaper reported. There have been high-level talks for Japan Airlines to pursue an interest in the Malaysian national carrier amid close ties between the two governments, the Edge said, citing two unidentified people familiar with the matter. Japan Airlines President Yuji ...
Read More »Hong Kong air traffic tumbles as protests take toll on visitors
Bloomberg Hong Kong’s air traffic declined last month as protests took a toll on the city. Hong Kong International Airport handled 6 million passengers in August, down 12.4 percent from a year earlier, according to figures published by the Airport Authority. It said the decline was mainly due to lower visitor numbers. There was also a “significant†fall in passenger ...
Read More »UK’s CAA plans ‘if Thomas Cook collapses’
Bloomberg The UK aviation regulator is preparing for a possible collapse of tour operator Thomas Cook Plc ahead of a showdown with bondholders, the Times of London reported, without saying where it got the information. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is making contingency plans for the possibility of having to repatriate “hundreds of thousands†of passengers stranded abroad, the newspaper ...
Read More »Female pilots from Philippines to help Asia’s travel boom
Bloomberg The Philippines’ largest flight school is trying to bring more women into the cockpit to help meet a shortage of pilots in Asia. At Alpha Aviation Group’s campus in Pampanga province north of the capital, one in five of its 550 students each year are women, whereas only about 3 percent of the world’s pilots are female, founder Bhanu ...
Read More »India plans to conduct own assessment on Boeing’s 737 Max jets
Bloomberg India plans to conduct its own checks and demand simulator training for all pilots before Boeing Co’s 737 Max jets can fly in the country again, even if the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) were to clear the grounded jets, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said. India plans to start its own assessment only after the ...
Read More »Cathay passenger traffic drops most in decade amid protests
Bloomberg Embattled Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd reported its biggest drop in passenger traffic in more than a decade after facing heavy backlash from China in the wake of its employees joining protests in Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s flag carrier and its Cathay Dragon unit carried 2.9 million passengers in August, down 11 percent from a year earlier, the company said ...
Read More »British Airways scraps flights over pilot strike impact
Bloomberg British Airways cancelled dozens of flights on Wednesday as it wrestled with the fallout from a two-day pilot strike. While more than 90 percent of services will operate as normal, the morning timetable is subject to changes as the UK arm of IAG SA works to get hundreds of planes and pilots back into position, the carrier said in ...
Read More »Boeing’s 737 Max may not fly until early 2020, says Barclays
Bloomberg Boeing Co’s troubled 737 Max jets are unlikely to return to service until early 2020 as regulatory authorities in the US and Europe remain divided and the planemaker has yet to submit its finalised software fix planned for this month, according to Barclays. In a note lowering forecasts for the company, analyst David Strauss estimated the company’s free cash ...
Read More »Spirit’s 2020 rebound plan includes charging for larger seats
Bloomberg Since taking the reins at Spirit Airlines Inc this year, Ted Christie has overseen a 38 percent share decline and a deteriorating financial outlook. But just wait for next year as the discounter steps up efforts to squeeze more revenue out of travellers. “Nobody’s satisfied with the performance to date and I am certainly among that group,†Spirit’s chief ...
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