All Opinion articles – Page 22
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Opinion
OPINION: Boeing must heed 787 lessons for NMA success
Boeing's annual report for 2004 – the year the 787 programme was launched – reads like a time capsule of a very different company. That year the manufacturer reported a "strong" net cash flow, totalling $3.5 billion. Operating margins had "improved" significantly compared with 2003, rising to 3.8% of operating ...
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Opinion
OPINION: Funding costs suggest Avolon would benefit if HNA exited
Avolon seems mostly to have insulated itself against shareholder HNA Group, which is dealing with liquidity issues after a global spending spree over the past couple of years. But the lessor's cost of capital is rising rather than falling.
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Opinion
OPINION: Gloves are off in mid-market battle
The fight is getting ugly between the airframe heavyweights, as they battle it out with increasing intensity in what is dubbed the "middle of the market".
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Opinion
OPINION: It may be ageing, but U-2S could be more relevant than ever
On its first overflight mission of the Soviet Union 62 years ago, the Lockheed U-2 was tracked for the entire mission.
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Opinion
OPINION: 737 will be a hard act to follow
When the first A320 was handed over three decades ago this month, few – Airbus included – would have put odds on deliveries reaching 1,000 aircraft, let alone the 8,000-mark recently passed.
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OpinionOPINION: Why Rolls-Royce must hope class is permanent
Rolls-Royce, so long a byword for engineering excellence, is currently struggling to maintain its image as a finely-calibrated machine.
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OpinionOPINION: Airbus to play long game with A330-800
On the face of it, the Hawaiian Airlines widebody campaign was Airbus's to lose. It was the incumbent supplier with a powerful presence in the Pacific airline's fleet across both single- and twin-aisle sectors.
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Opinion
OPINION: F-35 cost issue is solvable, but needs fixing fast
Some time in the next several weeks or months, the Lockheed Martin F-35 programme will pass a historic milestone. The system development and demonstration phase that began 17 years ago appears poised – barring any unforeseen showstoppers – to conclude by the end of summer. The aircraft, engine, simulators and ...
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Opinion
OPINION: 6X promises much, but Dassault needs customer patience
Dassault hopes it has finally put the nightmare of its much-delayed and now axed 5X programme behind it. By launching a replacement version of the ultra-wide business jet, chief executive Éric Trappier says it will offer something even better.
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Opinion
OPINION: FLY purchase of Asia Aviation will lead to sales
The sale of Asia Aviation Capital seemed like a challenge from the outset, but BBAM's purchase of AirAsia Group's leasing company's assets is nothing short of brilliant.
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OpinionOPINION: C-130J's success gives hope to A400M
Twenty years ago, Lockheed Martin made its first delivery of a C-130J to launch operator the UK Royal Air Force, following a troubled development and testing programme which was very much at odds with its chosen moniker: “Super Hercules”.
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OpinionOPINION: Qatar Airways must choose wisdom over hubris
If anyone thought Qatar Airways chief Akbar Al Baker, eight months into a Gulf blockade on the carrier, might choose to adopt a more diplomatic tone while addressing the international press, they must have been barking.
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OpinionOPINION: Are air taxis on a ride to nowhere?
Don’t waste your money on a new car. Studies on the economics of taxi services built around autonomous electric-powered vertical take-off and landing aircraft – so-called eVTOLs – make compelling reading. Basically, cost per passenger mile looks like undercutting helicopter rides by an order of magnitude – and even makes ...
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OpinionOPINION: Why Saratov An-148 loss is cautionary tale
Russia's rich literary history includes the short verse Gvozd i Podkova, in which a city falls to invaders because the blacksmith did not have a nail with which to shoe the defending commander's horse.
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Opinion
OPINION: Schuldscheins prove aviation's private potential
Aircraft financing has started to attract new investors in recent years, as part of the broader hunt for yield in which institutional investors have engaged since the global financial crisis.
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OpinionOPINION: Can contract revision rescue A400M?
One year ago, Airbus chief executive Tom Enders put the future of the company’s flagship military project on the line, by demanding crisis talks with its European customers for the long-troubled A400M.
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OpinionOPINION: Who will lose out in NMA engine battle?
How long can a duopoly of large commercial aircraft manufacturers sustain a triopoly of engine suppliers? We may find out the answer later this year.
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Opinion
OPINION: New boss, new Leonardo?
Corporate chiefs are fearful of missing out on the Next Big Thing, of leaving it to bold, visionary rivals to anticipate a future that they themselves were too short-sighted, or too timid, to grasp.
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Opinion
OPINION: Is the CSeries ruling a seismic shift?
Over the past four months, the competitive landscape in the small-narrowbody jet market has been turned upside down. Bombardier has agreed to give Airbus control of the CSeries programme and open a new final assembly line in Alabama. Boeing is in discussions to construct some kind of combination with Embraer. ...
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Opinion
OPINION: Sales activity suggests lessors are calling the peak
Dublin got its annual influx of aircraft financiers late last month when the community gathered for conference season in the Irish capital.