Aviation

  Bloomberg South African Airways said tougher competition, rising finance costs and a weakening of the rand led to the state-owned carrier’s biggest loss in more than a decade. The loss of 4.7 billion rand ($331 million) in the year through March 2015 was also exacerbated by the outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa, which hurt traffic between ...

  Bloomberg Pratt & Whitney cut the 2016 target for deliveries of its new jet engine as the company grapples with production issues that have marred the turbine’s rollout. The engine maker will hand over about 150 units this year, down from the 200 it previously expected, according to Greg Hayes, chief executive officer of Pratt parent United Technologies Corp. ...

  Bloomberg Even by the cut-throat standards of the aviation industry, Air France-KLM Group has been a dire case: labor fights that have turned violent, cost-cutting efforts blocked by politicians, low-cost carriers aggressively taking over its home market. Yet more investors are starting to buy in. The arrival in July of new Chief Executive Officer Jean-Marc Janaillac, who promises a ...

  Bloomberg The smallest aircraft made by Boeing Co. and Airbus Group SE are about to find a new role operating trans-Atlantic routes that were previously the preserve of some of the world’s biggest planes. The re-engined 737 Max and A320neo jets offer a 15 percent fuel saving meant to cut costs on the shortest inter-city services. At the same ...

  Bloomberg Argentina’s airline passengers must wait for a more competitive market while the government focuses on improving the country’s infrastructure to be able to handle more flights, even as Avianca Holdings SA and others show interest in entering the market. Argentina is spending $1.35 billion over four years to upgrade its air transport infrastructure, partly to refurbish 17 airports, ...

  Bloomberg For all the world’s economic malaise, there’s a bright spot above the clouds: Airline passenger traffic grew 6.4 percent last year, the most in five years. Total passengers rose across all major regions to 7.2 billion, almost the population of the planet, according to Airports Council International, the industry’s Montreal-based trade association. And as with the global economy, ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG may face more disruption to flights that have been beset by strikes over the past 2 1/2 years as a union representing cabin crew at the carrier’s low-cost arm weighs industrial action. The Ver.di labor group said it could call a walkout at the Eurowings unit after four rounds of talks failed to produce a pay ...

  Bloomberg A company partnered with Virgin Atlantic Ltd. has created a green jet fuel made from waste industrial gases from steel mills. LanzaTech Inc., based in Skokie, Illinois, produced 1,500 gallons of the fuel known as Lanzanol. It’s made from ethanol created through a fermentation process. It’s estimated to be 65 percent cleaner than conventional jet fuel, according to ...

  Bloomberg Some of the world’s biggest airlines, looking for a bigger foothold in Latin America, may have found a path through Colombia. Avianca Holdings SA, based in Bogota, has been hunting for an international partner to help shore up its balance sheet and support growth. The publicly traded carrier is controlled by brothers German and Jose Efromovich, who also ...

  Bloomberg Singapore Airlines Ltd. said it won’t extend the lease on its first A380 superjumbo jet, a move that is set to test second-hand demand for the world’s biggest commercial aircraft. The carrier, the first operator of the Airbus Group SE plane, will see the contract expire in October 2017 and doesn’t plan to exercise an option to extend ...