All Analysis – Page 32
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Analysis
Is Korean acquisition of Asiana bellwether for wider consolidation in Asia?
As the dust settles on the proposed Korean Air acquisition of its embattled rival Asiana Airlines, questions begin to emerge about what the future merged carrier will look like and whether this is the start of many other pandemic-driven mergers and acquisitions to come?
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Analysis
Costly refits further dim A380’s appeal for Asia-Pacific operators
The small number of Airbus A380s in the Asia-Pacific that have undergone cabin upgrades is a challenge for the type’s post-pandemic future in the region.
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Analysis
How 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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Analysis
Hong 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 ...
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Analysis
United Airlines returns to New York’s JFK airport
United Airlines will return to New York’s John F Kennedy International airport in early 2021 with flights to the US West Coast, aiming to benefit from new trends in travel following the coronavirus crisis.
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Analysis
Calm before the storm for airline failures
The relatively small number of airline failures so far is not indicative of the health of the sector.
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Analysis
Once 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 ...