Cathay Pacific Group has signed a five-year agreement with GE Aviation for the use of the engine maker's event measurement system (EMS) flight analytics program and FlightPulse pilot app. Cathay Pacific general manager of operations, Captain Mark Hoey, said the airline group concluded EMS was the best fit for its requirements following a substantial trial period. "It is vital to have a flight analytics system that can easily adapt to our policies and procedures instead of the other way around. The good connectivity of the GE EMS system reduces the system migration effort, enables interaction with our corporate BI tool and maintains continuity to our users," Captain Hoey said in a statement. Read More »
Asia Pacific airlines suffered a 72.2% drop in demand, measured by revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), in July, compared with a year earlier, figures from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) showed. This was an improvement from the 76.4% drop in RPKs in the Asia Pacific in June. Globally, demand fell 86.5% in July. The monthly report from the airline lobby group released overnight said passenger demand remained at "critically low levels" in July, with a month-on-month improvement primarily driven by domestic markets.
Still with IATA, director general and CEO, Alexandre de Juniac, said it was "immensely frustrating" international borders remained largely closed. "Government management of travel restrictions is so unpredictable and uncoordinated that people are still not flying," de Juniac said in a statement. The IATA boss said governments needed to come together with "coordinated global leadership to manage the risks of opening borders", adding that "with testing, technology, science and determination, borders can be re-opened and the world can start moving again".
The CEO of Singapore Airlines' (SIA) low-cost carrier subsidiary Scoot, Campbell Wilson, told Informa Markets' CAPA – Centre for Aviation virtual conference today he believed there would be opportunities for new airlines to emerge in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. "COVID-19 will cause almost all airlines to shrink a bit, while others will shrink a lot and some will disappear," Wilson said. "While there is not much of an appetite for carrier startups at the present moment, there will be cheap aircraft and fuel and available staff, which will result in the continuing cycle of relaunches and other start-ups."
Still at the CAPA virtual conference, Japan Airlines (JAL) director and vice chairman, Tadashi Fujita, said the Japanese government had reached an agreement with Singapore and Malaysia regarding repatriation flights and business travel services, while discussions were underway with 10 countries in Asia, including China, Macao and South Korea, for similar arrangements. Fujita said there were also government-to-government talks with Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Vietnam to relax travel restrictions and allow flights to return.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said yesterday it would remove the 75% load factor restriction for international flights that recorded no positive coronavirus test results among incoming passengers for three consecutive weeks. However, the CAAC statement said the 75% load factor cap would remain for flights from "high-risk" international destinations.
Low-cost carrier group AirAsia has introduced a new fee for passengers who choose to checkin for their domestic or international flight at an airport counter in Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Taiwan, the United States and Vietnam. AirAsia group chief operations officer, Javed Malik, said the new fee was to “encourage guests to use these digital technologies, which we have invested enormously in, to promote and enhance operational efficiency and guest convenience". Malik said in a statement yesterday the self-check in facilities had become "very crucial in minimising physical contact between our guests and staff" during the COVID-19 pandemic.
