Aviation

  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 ...

  AP An engine fan blade that showed signs of metal fatigue broke off, causing the emergency landing of a Southwest Airlines jet last month, investigators say. The plane landed safely in Florida after shrapnel from the broken engine hit the fuselage, leaving a 5-inch by 16-inch hole in the outer layer of aluminum above the left wing and causing ...

  Bloomberg Travel nearly anywhere in the world, and you’ll find cheap airlines offering no-frills service, from European giant Ryanair Holdings Plc to Peach Aviation Ltd. in Japan, Flynas in Saudi Arabia, and Spirit Airlines Inc. in the U.S. But head north of the border, and the aviation landscape is untouched by ultralow-cost airlines. Canada ranks among the world’s most ...

Bloomberg Qantas Airways Ltd. is considering selling its first Australian-dollar bond since the improved fortunes engineered by Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce prompted rating firms to return the company’s credit score to investment-grade status. Australia’s biggest carrier, which has been buoyed by cost cuts and a global slump in fuel prices, will talk with fixed-income investors from next Wednesday and ...

  Bloomberg Malaysia plans to spend about $1 billion over the next five years to refurbish and expand its airports as the Southeast Asian country paces infrastructure growth with a surge in passenger traffic, its main airport operator said. “My main terminal may require some upgrade,” said Badlisham Ghazali, managing director of state-controlled Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd., referring to Kuala ...

  Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s Eurowings arm will start flights from Munich next year to combat rivals such as Easyjet Plc, in a strategy switch that will see the discount unit make its first major incursion at one of its parent’s German hubs. “Low-cost carriers are quite active already,” Karl Ulrich Garnadt, the Lufthansa board member responsible for Eurowings, said ...