December 1st 2024

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JANUARY

A runway collision between a Japan Airlines A350-900 and a Japan Coast Guard De Havilland Canada Dash 8 Q300 at Tokyo Haneda Airport on the second day of 2024 jolted everyone out of their New Year revelry. Read More »

Both aircraft were destroyed when the A350-900, operating flight JL516 from Sapporo New Chitose collided with the Q300 after it landed at Haneda’s Runway 34R and burst into flames.

Five of the crew aboard the Japan Coast Guard aircraft died in the incident, with only the captain surviving.

There were no fatalities on the JAL aircraft and its crew was widely praised for ensuring all 379 people on board the A350-900 were safely evacuated.

An investigation revealed the JAL A350-900 had been cleared to land at Haneda, but the Japan Coast Guard aircraft did not have permission to be on the runway.

Three days later aviation safety was again dominating the world’s headlines when a door plug on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 blew out shortly after the narrow-body had taken off from Oregon’s Portland to Ontario in California.

The pilots returned the aircraft safely to Portland with all 177 passengers and crew onboard surviving the incident.

The shocking incident resulted in the grounding of scores of 737 MAX 9s and piled heightened regulatory scrutiny on Boeing’s management and its manufacturing and safety practices.

The U.S.’s regulator refused Boeing permission to increase 737 MAX production rates and held a one-day “quality stand down” in response to the incident.

A final report of the incident is yet to be published, but preliminary findings show four bolts necessary to secure the door plug were missing at the time of the incident.

In other news, AirAsia X and Capital A, the parent company of the AirAsia group of airlines, announced a restructuring of their operations. Approved by shareholders later in the year, the restructuring involved Capital A selling its AirAsia-branded airlines to AirAsia X to create a larger, more integrated airline group with short-haul and medium-haul operations brought under the one corporate roof.

Notable aircraft orders this month included India-headquartered, Akasa Air’s firm order for 150 737 MAXs from Boeing in an undisclosed mix of 737 MAX 8s and 737 MAX 10s.

In Taiwan, EVA Airways announced an order for 18 A350-1000s and 15 A321neos.

There were a couple of significant executive appointments in the region this month.

In Singapore, Jetstar Asia named John Simeone, previously Qantas senior vice president for Asia as CEO. He succeeded Barathan Pasupathi who stepped down after 12 years in charge of the Qantas Group LCC.

Further north, Japan Airlines (JAL) appointed Mitsuko Tottori as representative director and CEO, the first female CEO in the history of the flag carrier. Tottori joined JAL as a cabin crew member in 1985 and was senior vice president customer experience and chief customer officer before taking on the top job. Tottori succeeded Yuji Akasaka, now the airline company’s chair.