Short Takes
August 10th 2015
CARGO: Global cargo traffic continued to slow in June, growing 1.2% year-on-year, according to the latest IATA traffic monitor. IATA director general and CEO, Tony Tyler, said the freighter market was stagnating and the remainder of 2015 had “mixed signals.” For the first half of 2015, the global cargo market grew 3.5% year-on-year, with the Asia-Pacific down 0.3%. Read More »
LESSORS: Commenting on the recent lifting of sanctions against Iran, Irish lessor, Avolon, said the scale of opportunity in the country was “huge”. This followed news in Iranian media that Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization is planning to buy 80 to 90 Airbus and Boeing aircraft annually to upgrade its carriers’ ageing fleets. China Aircraft Leasing Group (CALC) has delivered the third of five new A320s to Air India under 12-year operating leases.
MANUFACTURERS: Liebherr LAMC Aviation (Changsha) Co., the joint venture between the China's AVIC Landing Gear Advanced Manufacturing Corp and Germany’s Liebherr-Aerospace Lindenberg GmbH, has delivered its first C919 landing gear to COMAC. Rolls-Royce has reported underlying profit before tax of 439 million pounds ($684.3 million) for first-half 2015, down 32% year-on-year, on underlying revenues of 6.3 billion pounds, a decline of 3%.
MRO: Netherlands-based Direct Maintenance has signed a deal with China Southern Airlines for line maintenance of the carrier’s A330s at Nairobi, and it also signed an agreement with flydubai for line maintenance of its B737-800s at Zanzibar. All Nippon Airways (ANA) has selected TRAX Maintenance and Engineering to manage its new MRO venture, MRO Japan.
ROUTES: Air China will increase frequency between Beijing and Bangkok to four-daily, will replace the B737-800 with the A330-300 on the daily Beijing-Manila rotation and cancel its four-weekly Chengdu-Mumbai A319 service, all from October 25. British Airways will deploy its new B787-9, configured 8/42/39/127, on the Delhi-Heathrow service from October 25. Jetstar will add a daily Avalon (Victoria) -Gold Coast A320 rotation from October 25. Lufthansa will reinstate its four-weekly Pune-Frankfurt Privatair B737-800 service beginning October 25. Malaysia Airlines will terminate its daily Hong Kong-Kota Kinabalu B737-800 route from September 1 and will reduce frequency between Narita and Kota Kinabalu from three to twice-weekly. Myanmar National Airlines will launch a six-times a week Yangon-Singapore B737-800 flights from August 17, its first international service. Oman Air has increased frequency on the Muscat-Manila A330 route from thrice-weekly to daily. Sichuan Airlines has launched a thrice-weekly Haikou-Bangkok A321 service commencing and a three times a week Chengdu-Chiang Mai A321 operation. Tigerair Taiwan will commence a daily Kaohsiung-Narita A320 service. Vietnam Airlines has delayed the introduction of the B787-9 on the Hanoi-Heathrow route by a month to September 1, followed by Ho Chi Minh-Heathrow from September 2.
TRAFFIC: Global passenger traffic grew 5.7% year-on-year in June, according to the latest IATA traffic monitor. Demand for domestic travel grew 6.5%, outpacing the 5.3% surge in demand for international travel. The Asia-Pacific saw the largest demand increase, growing 6.8%; however, this was down from the 9.3% rise reported for May.
