Aviation

Bloomberg Recorded conversations by pilots on a cargo jet carrying packages for Amazon.com Inc. that crashed last month near Houston reveal they began losing control of the aircraft about 18 seconds before it slammed into a shallow bay, investigators said. The communications captured on the cockpit sound recorder were “consistent with a loss of control of the aircraft,” according to ...

Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co. plans to challenge Hawaiian Airlines for control of Hawaii’s island-hopping market shortly after beginning flights to the state from the mainland. The short, high-demand, inter-island flights are squarely within Southwest’s wheelhouse, Southwest revenue chief Andrew Watterson said in an interview. “We see that big market with higher price points and it’s short haul, which is what ...

Bloomberg Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. is in talks to buy shares in Hong Kong’s only budget airline from Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co., as Asia’s biggest international carrier seeks to gain a foothold in the region’s booming low-cost travel market. Cathay is in “active discussions” about an acquisition involving Hong Kong Express Airways Ltd., the marquee carrier said in a ...

Bloomberg JetBlue Airways Corp. pumped up speculation that it will announce plans to order long-range aircraft and start trans-Atlantic flights, inviting employees to a special event next month. The carrier said it would hold a “chat about JetBlue’s vision and strategy” on April 10, followed by a party in New York. The announcement spurred a flurry of speculation on social ...

Bloomberg Japanese heavy-machinery maker IHI Corp said employees didn’t properly check so-me aircraft engines, the latest quality-control issue to dent the reputation of the country’s manufacturing sector. Shares of IHI, which makes engine components found on Airbus SE and Boeing Co. jets, dropped as much as 5.2 percent after the company confirmed Japan’s Transport Ministry had inspected its aircraft-engine business ...

Bloomberg The Pentagon will request 78 F-35 jets built by Lockheed Martin Corp, six fewer than previously planned, in the budget expected to be sent to Congress next week, according to defense officials. The cutback from the 84 fighters projected a year ago for fiscal 2020 is a setback for Lockheed, the No. 1 defense contractor, even as interest in ...

Bloomberg South African Airways has laid fraud charges against a former pilot after finding out that he operated international flights with the wrong type of license. SAA is seeking to reclaim “millions of rand” paid to the aviator on the assumption that he held an Airline Transport Pilot License, it said in a statement. Following an incident involving a flight ...

DUBAI / Emirates Business Airline passengers are using automated technology for passport checks at double the rate recorded in 2017 and are more satisfied when doing so too. This is according to the SITA 2019 Passenger IT Insights, co-sponsored by Air Transport World, which shows that in 2018, 44% of passengers sailed through automated passport control, a jump from 21% ...

Bloomberg Boeing Co. ended a two-year sales drought for its 777X aircraft, as the owner of British Airways struck a deal for as many as 42 of the planes to replace an aging fleet of 747 jumbo jets. IAG SA will order 18 of the 777-9, the largest version of the wide-body jet, the planemaker said in a statement. British ...

Bloomberg The French and Dutch governments moved to calm a political maelstrom triggered by their power struggle over Air France- KLM, with finance ministers papering over differences and pledging to work together to review the carrier’s shareholding and operations. “Our goal is to make Air France-KLM the best-performing airline in the world,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said at ...