At the turn of the year, PAL president, Jaime Bautista, found himself aboard one of PAL’s A340s, en route to Rome, a destination the airline does not serve. With its call sign, Shepherd One, the aircraft had taken off from Villamor Air Base in Manila with a special passenger onboard, global Catholicism’s leader, Pope Francis. Read More »

In January, when AirAsia group chief, Tony Fernandes, called for a Southeast Asian regional aviation regulator to streamline the region’s fragmented safety framework, it was not the first time such a plan had been mooted. Read More »

A recurring theme of any gathering of Asia-Pacific airline leaders is the inability of the region’s airports, with a few exceptions, to keep pace with passenger growth. Read More »

China and India hog the headlines when it comes to passenger growth, but the region’s third largest market, Indonesia, is discovering that passenger thirst for travel is being stymied by outdated infrastructure and equipment and teeming airports. Read More »

It’s not official yet, but ICAO’s Second High Level Safety Conference (HLSC2015) last month backed new rules that will make it obligatory for all airliners to be tracked in real time from November 2016. Airlines will be required to track their aircraft using a system that routinely identifies their positions at 15 minute intervals. Read More »

Thai Airways International’s (THAI) new president, Charampom Jotikasthira, has not received much leeway from the country’s ruling military junta. Its State Enterprise Policy Committee, the so-called “Super Board”, met in late January and laid down the law. Read More »

Air traffic providers are straining to cope with accelerating capacity and route development across the region. That’s not news. Many Asia-Pacific countries are operating in an environment equipped with mismatched technology of varying sophistication across flight information zones. That’s not news either. Read More »

What a difference six months made for the Qantas Group. After announcing a full year loss of US$2.2 billion for the fiscal year to June 30, 2014, CEO Alan Joyce has reported an after tax profit of $160.1 million for the six months to December 31, its best interim result for four years. Analysts have predicted a $1 billion income for the group for the full year, a forecast that drew no comment from Qantas management. Read More »

All Nippon Airways (ANA) has announced that senior vice president, Shinya Katanozaka, will succeed Shinichiro Ito as president and CEO of ANA Holdings on April 1. Ito, who has led the airline group through a transformative period of growth, will take over from Yoji Ohashi as chairman of ANA Holdings. Read More »

In November, Asia-Pacific airlines carried 21.1 million international passengers, which reflected a 5.4% increase over the same month last year. Growth was underpinned by robust trade activity, which helped support business related travel. International passenger demand, in revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), grew 3.7%, a reflection of strong regional markets. Read More »