Aviation

  Zhuhai / AFP Aerospace giants Boeing and Airbus took potshots at one another at the Zhuhai air show, as the US and European rivals seek to capture more of China’s booming aircraft market. China is one of the Western manufacturers’ key battlegrounds, with its travellers taking to the skies in ever-growing numbers. The country’s airlines will need nearly 6,000 ...

  Bloomberg China Eastern Airlines Corp. will be the first customer to take delivery of the home made C919 single-aisle passenger jet as a state-owned planemaker markets the aircraft whose maiden test flight has been delayed at least twice since 2014. Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China Ltd. said it signed an agreement with the Shanghai-based carrier to start negotiations to ...

  Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s Eurowings dodged more strikes this week after a cabin-crew union decided to give negotiations another chance to resolve a contract dispute. The union UFO, which rejected arbitration after the two sides failed to reach an agreement over the weekend, offered a new round of talks to “make further labor action obsolete,” according to a letter ...

  Tokyo / AFP Japan Airlines on Monday slashed its full-year earnings outlook, and warned its fiscal first-half net profit nosedived owing to a slump in its international business. While falling oil prices have helped carriers’ profits — fuel is often an airline’s single-biggest expense — the loss of a fuel surcharge imposed to deal with previously sky-high crude prices ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business British Airways (BA) launched a direct flight between Muscat and London, further adding convenience to customers travelling between the two regions. The UK carrier, which first began flying to Oman in 1972, inaugurated the new service with a water cannon salute as it landed at Muscat International Airport on Monday. Customers, who previously flew between the ...

  Bloomberg Business-jet deliveries are dropping and won’t rebound before 2018, according to a benchmark forecast of corporate aircraft demand over the next decade. Honeywell International Inc. lowered its annual long-term forecast for private jets by 7 percent, or 600 aircraft, as emerging markets suffer from low commodity prices and the U.S. economy limps along at a slow pace. As ...

  Sydney / AFP Australian carrier Qantas flagged on Monday a hit to first half earnings with falling international airfares offsetting a decline in fuel prices. The airline, which has turned itself around in recent years on the back of aggressive cost-cutting, said it expects underlying profit before tax to be between Aus$800-850 million (US$607-645 million) for the six months ...

  Bloomberg China has a dream of challenging the duopoly of Airbus Group SE and Boeing Co. in the global market for air planes. That ambition is slowly taking shape in a hangar in Shanghai. The state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China Ltd., locally known as COMAC, is building the 168-seat, single-aisle aircraft C919, betting the model would help the ...

  New York / AFP Low-cost air carriers are spreading their wings across the Atlantic, much to the chagrin of the major airlines now forced to serve new destinations and cut fares. Transatlantic flights operated by Norwegian Air, Iceland’s Wow air, Canada’s WestJet and Morocco’s Royal Air Maroc have multiplied in recent years as jet fuel has grown cheaper. Frequently ...

  Bloomberg The UK’s government’s decision to expand London’s Heathrow airport is about ‘50 years too late,’ according to the chief executive officer of Dubai Airports, which is building one of the world’s largest aviation hubs. “Unfortunately the bureaucracy in the UK seems to be the world’s most refined and the world’s most comprehensive when it comes to strangling infrastructure ...