Short Takes
October 1st 2013
AIRLINES: Philippines AirAsia has closed its operations at Clark Airport and is concentrating on building its market from Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport with its new partner, Zest Air. The AirAsia subsidiary is seeking approval for Zest to adopt its global brand name. Read More »
ALLIANCES: Doha-based Qatar Airways will become a full member of oneworld on October 30, a year after it was invited to join the alliance. Qatar is the first Middle East airline to join a global alliance.
CARGO: The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported that global cargo showed a continuing, but modest improvement, with global freight tonne kilometres (FTKs) up 1.2% to July 30, compared with the previous month. In the Asia-Pacific demand fell 1.2% compared with July 2012 while capacity rose 2.6%. The region’s air cargo traffic has declined 2.1% in the first seven months of the year.
CODE-SHARES: Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), who began code-sharing three years ago, have expanded the partnership to nine SAS destinations in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland as well as SIA routes from Singapore to all major Australian cities, Auckland, Bali, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur.
ENGINES: CFM International has started testing of its first full LEAP -1A engine, the beginning of a ground and test flight certification process that will take in 60 engine builds in the next three years. The engine manufacturer launched its LEAP engine in 2008. It is scheduled to enter into service aboard an A320neo in 2016.
ENVIRONMENT: Solena Fuels is aiming to establish a joint venture with Qantas Airways to build a waste-to-biofuel facility in the airline’s home city, Sydney.
LEASING: AWAS has delivered its fourth new A320, fitted with fuel-saving sharklets to Japanese carrier, Starflyer. BOC Aviation, based in Singapore, has announced an interim net profit of US$163 million, a 57% increase over the same months last year. BOC paid its first ever dividend to the BOC Group in June.
MRO: Info Trust Group, a manufacturer and independent provider of technical information management solutions for the aerospace industry has upgraded its TechSight/X suite of products to accommodate demand for MRO solutions for the B787, the soon-to-be launched A350XWB and other new commercial aircraft.
ROUTES: Taiwan’s China Airlines has launched services between Taoyuan and Busan, South Korea’s second largest city, operating six times a week with B737-800 aircraft. Mainland China carrier, Juneyao Airlines, has launched twice a week direct services between Shanghai and Chuncheon, the largest city of Gangwon, the South Korean province that borders North Korea. Korean Air (KAL) will fly its seventh A380 on a 10 flights per week service between Seoul and Atlanta, U.S. KAL flies its A380s to Los Angeles, New York, Hong Kong and Frankfurt and will accept is eighth A380 this month.
SAFETY: The Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC) has signed a new five-year Memorandum of Understanding with Airbus to continue to work on safety challenges, especially those arising from the rapid expansion of the country’s aviation industry.
TRAINING: Cockpit crew training has commenced at the joint venture run CAE Simulation Training Centre Pty Ltd in Delhi, India. CAE and Interglobe have equipped the centre with two full-flight simulators and six simulator bays to train up to 5,000 aviation professionals a year. Canada’s Mechtronix has commissioned an A320 FFT X, a training device for the ST Aerospace Academy MPL (multi-crew pilot licence) training. The Montreal-based company will also supply an A320FFT X and two Ascentr XJ trainers to Flight Training Adelaide, in Australia.
