All Analysis – Page 19
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AnalysisNew arrivals in medium helicopter sector threaten the old order
Heading up the weight range means these medium-class helicopters are more capable but more complex – and come with a bigger price ticket. Despite this, there are big sellers in this category, alongside new entrants.
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AnalysisAirbus dominates light-twin helicopter market with German-built duo
While not selling in the same quantities as their lighter siblings, light-twin helicopters play a significant role in society, notably in law enforcment and emergency medical services missions.
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AnalysisSlow-selling super-medium-class helicopters make modest headway
A few years ago there were many forecasts that the new super-medium-class helicopters would sell by the bucket-load. This has not quite come to pass, although those operating the rotorcraft in this weight class have used their performance benefits to push into new markets.
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AnalysisHeavy-twin helicopters are dragged down by offshore slump
Heavy-twins sit at the top of each manufacturer’s range and while a downturn in oil and gas services has hurt sales in some cases, interest from the search and rescue operators has remained strong.
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AnalysisHow the pandemic has reshaped the leasing business
During those buoyant years before Covid-19, executives from aircraft leasing companies would gather at industry conferences around Asia-Pacific and marvel at the unstoppable growth trajectory of aircraft deliveries in the region. Demand for aircraft seemed insatiable, based on OEM forecasts. Airlines’ appetite was plain to see, with ambitious budget carriers ...
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AnalysisManufacturers see no single ‘silver bullet’ to reach aviation’s CO2 reduction target
Airbus chief technology officer Grazia Vittadini has said that the aviation industry’s stated aim of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050 had been a “pretty good problem to have” before the air transport sector and most other areas of public life were thrown into disarray by the coronavirus outbreak.
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AnalysisMiddle Eastern carriers face long recovery from crisis
Having built their networks around the transfer of long-haul passenger through their hubs, with limited short-haul networks to fall back upon, the Middle East’s largest carriers are perhaps uniquely vulnerable to the coronavirus crisis.
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AnalysisIs personal jet pack set for thrust into mass market?
They have long been the stuff of sci-fi, but, after the collapse of the most prominent manufacturer of a personal propulsion device, other developers are confident of a breakthrough.
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AnalysisQuestions persist after 737 Max recertification
The grounding of Boeing 737 Max aircraft highlighted doubts about the effectiveness of US Federal Aviation Administration oversight. The FAA’s end of the Max flight ban on 18 November leaves families of Max crash victims unsatisfied and Congress trying to pass aircraft certification reform.
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AnalysisHow practical is a Chinese and US aerospace breakup over Taiwan?
Despite opposition from the Chinese Communist Party, in the past year and a half the Trump administration has approved billions of dollars in potential arms sales to Taiwan. China, which claims the island democracy as its own, has vowed to retaliate.
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AnalysisHong Kong’s cautious approach to travel bubbles
Hong Kong’s government will take a safety-first approach when its travel bubble with Singapore launches on 22 November, and the launching of further bubbles with other countries or regions will come with strict anti-Covid-19 preconditions. “It takes two to tango,” the city’s secretary for commerce and economic development Edward Yau ...
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AnalysisLessors submit proposals to Thai Airways – reluctantly
Thai Airways’ lessors were given a 4 November deadline to tell the carrier what by-the-hour rates, rental haircuts, and other concessions they would be willing to offer the struggling flag carrier to help with its restructuring. Sixteen lessors have exposure to the airline and its subsidiaries, to the tune of ...
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AnalysisTokyo weighs options for overseas participation in ambitious F-X future fighter programme
As Tokyo advances its ambitious F-X future fighter programme, it must weigh a number of factors – including concerns around intellectual property (IP) and ease of upgrade – as it decides which nations to partner with for the effort, according to two leading airpower experts.
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AnalysisDomestic travel green shoots in New Zealand, Australia
Air New Zealand is relaunching its mystery holiday packages, showing how domestic travel remains a key focus in the region while Covid-19 continues to decimate international travel. Domestic travel is virtually the only way airlines in the Asia-Pacific region can get passengers to board their aircraft these days. In both ...
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AnalysisFor Malaysia Airlines, clarity and urgency in restructuring is key
The future of Malaysia Airlines was recently thrust back into the spotlight, as it undertakes an urgent restructuring exercise. Again it confronts an existential dilemma about what, exactly, it needs to do.
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AnalysisLandmark Taiwan MQ-9 sale would vex Beijing
A reported US plan to sell the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-9 unmanned air vehicle to Taiwan will complicate Beijing’s incessant prodding of the island’s defences.
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AnalysisHow engine shop Aero Norway has adapted to the crisis
Engine overhaul specialist Aero Norway has implemented company-wide salary cuts and reduced working time for shop-floor staff in an effort to weather the Covid-19 crisis without losing experienced personnel. Chief executive Glenford Marston tells Cirium that the company has not made redundancies among its approximately 200 employees or received support ...
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AnalysisChinese H-6N appears with mysterious ballistic missile
A brief video has emerged of a Xian H-6N bomber carrying what could be a ballistic missile or boost-glide vehicle along its centreline. The video appeared on the Chinese internet on 17 October. It goes some way to confirming a long-held theory that one mission for the H-6N, the most ...
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AnalysisAsian airframers tread diverging paths through the crisis
The coronavirus outbreak, which upended nearly everything in the aerospace industry, has fuelled the diverging trajectory Asian airframers Comac and Mitsubishi Aircraft are taking.
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AnalysisChallenges aplenty for established regional airliner manufacturers
Abandoned by Boeing and seeing its European market turn elsewhere, Embraer and De Havilland Canada have problems beyond those directly caused by the Covid-19 crisis, while ATR is hoping a new freighter programme will lift the gloom of a fading orderbook