All Analysis – Page 26
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AnalysisOnce prolific operators, Japanese majors bid sayonara to venerable 777 ‘Classics’
Once profilic operators of the Boeing 777, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways have recently announced that they will cut their 777 fleets by significant numbers. While not entirely a surprise given the state of the aviation industry, this marks the passing of an era for Japanese carriers, which have been intimately entwined with programme from its infancy decades ago.
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Analysis
Lessors 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 ...
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Analysis
Tokyo 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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Analysis
Southwest flirts with Airbus in fleet renewal
Southwest Airlines, an all-Boeing carrier since its inception almost 50 years ago, is again flirting with the idea buying aircraft from a competing airframer.
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Analysis
Domestic 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 ...
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Analysis
For 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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Analysis
Lion Air tries new approach with lessors
Lion Air has approached its lessors with an alternative proposal for their leased aircraft on the back of their feedback on its requests for by-the-hour arrangements, according to sources and an email seen by Cirium. The Indonesian carrier is proposing a four-part plan, involving the partial payment of rentals ...
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Analysis
Lessors baulk at Malaysia Airlines’ restructuring plan
Sixteen third-party lessors have exposure to Malaysia Airlines, which earlier this month announced an “urgent restructuring exercise” that would include a “drastic” relook at its network and fleet plans. Leasing executives from some of those lessors, who spoke to Cirium on condition of anonymity, are not happy about the ...
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Analysis
Landmark 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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Analysis
Icelandair plans for 30% capacity cut in summer 2021 schedule
Icelandair is expecting to operate a summer 2021 schedule with capacity down by 25-30% compared with last year. It is planning to serve 32 destinations – among them the Canary Islands resort of Tenerife, which is a new route for the carrier. Twenty-two of the destinations will be ...
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Analysis
China Express details delivery schedule of initial 50 domestic jets
China Express Airlines has detailed its agreement to take 100 domestically-built jets, with at least 50 set to be Comac ARJ21s. It had previously disclosed, in June, provisional plans to acquire a mix of ARJ21s and Comac C919s. China Express says that “all or part” of the balance ...
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Analysis
Interest in revived Flybe shows continued faith in regional opportunity
On this face of it, plans to revive a loss-making UK regional operation at a time when all airlines, regardless of model, are struggling to survive would seem unlikely.
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Analysis
How 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 ...
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Analysis
Berlin’s new airport completes operational tests
Berlin airports operator FBB has announced the completion of operating tests at the city’s much delayed new airport, meaning it has achieved all the steps necessary to open later this month. Since April, the operator has been running twice-weekly operational tests at the airport to the southeast of the ...
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Analysis
Chinese 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 ...
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Analysis
Amedeo sees mixed fortunes from Thai and Emirates
Lessor Amedeo has reported mixed fortunes regarding two of its major lessees, Thai Airways International and Emirates, with one airline paying steady rentals and even operating some of its aircraft, while the other remains grounded and makes little to no rental payments. The insight derives from public disclosures from ...
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Analysis
Russia strives to create local supply chains for its modern airliners
Sanctions mean manufacturer Irkut is looking to domestic industry to provide an alternative source of components for the MC-21 and Superjet 100
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Analysis
Asian 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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Analysis
Challenges 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
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Analysis
A320 family continues to deliver for Airbus as widebodies stall
The airframer is struggling to find customers for its A330 and A350 families, but narrowbody production will continue at 40 units per month. However, plans to add production capacity by turning the former A380 facility in Toulouse into a dedicated assembly line for the A321neo are on hold
