Monthly Archives: March 2019

Wow Air ceases operation after failing to find a rescuer

Skúli Mogensen, CEO & and founder of WOW air

Icelandic low-cost carrier Wow Air Hf has ceased operations after failing to find an investor to rescue the struggling carrier. Wow Air has been struggling financially since last year. In November 2018, it was announced that the airline would be taken over by rival Icelandair Group. However, Icelandair pulled out of the talks at the end of that month. As …

Read More »

After stalling for two months, Goyal step down from Jet Airways board

Jet Airways' Boeing 737-800 VT-JBD

Over 2.5 months ago, on CNBC, I said Mr. Naresh Goyal must decide, whether Jet Airways lives without him or dies with him. After stalling all this time, and taking the airline to the brink of closure, he appears to have realised he has finally run out of options. In a filing with the stock exchange, the company announced Mr. …

Read More »

Analysis: The questions being asked regarding Jet Airways

Jet Airways Boeing 737-800 VT-JGA.

Fleet – with a majority of the fleet grounded, what is the way forward? The fleet of 119 aircraft is now down to 40. The flying fleet includes eight A330s, nine Boeing777s and twenty three 737s. Luckily the majority of the wide-body fleet (the A330s + B777s) is owned by Jet Airways. Thus it can be utilized at a higher …

Read More »

Jet cancels all Bangalore – Singapore and Delhi – Dubai flights

Jet Airways' Boeing 737-800 VT-JBD

A couple of days back, I had written about the status of Jet’s regional international services. Since the routes are all operated by the airline’s 737 fleet, many of the flights had been cancelled. The airline was also previously cutting the number of daily flights on major routes but trying to maintain at least a single flight. Bangalore – Singapore …

Read More »

Jet Airways begins cancelling wide-body flights, Hong Kong, Manchester cancelled

Jet Airways Airbus A330-300 VT-JWQ. Image copyright Vedant Agarwal.

Jet Airways has been cancelling flight after flight on an almost daily basis. A couple of days back I had written about the international flights that the airline had cancelled. While those destinations were all serviced by the 737 fleet of which around 50 aircraft are now grounded. The destinations serviced by Jet’s wide-body fleet were continuing unaffected. Now it …

Read More »

Boeing CEO’s message to airlines, passengers and aviation community

Boeing 737 MAX 8 performs high altitude testing at La Paz, Bolivia

The Boeing Company which recently celebrated its centenary is facing one of the greatest threats to its reputation in the wake of two fatal crashes of the workhorse 737 MAX, the world’s best selling passenger jetliner. In the jetliner era, the United States Federal Aviation Administration has grounded the entire fleet of an aircraft three times. In 1979, McDonnell Douglas …

Read More »

Boeing CEO says 737 MAX software fix and training revision in ‘finalisation’

The new 737 MAX 8 rolls out of the paint hangar in Renton.

Boeing Chairman, President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg, on Sunday, confirmed that the company was finalising its “development of a previously-announced software update and pilot training revision that will address the MCAS flight control law’s behavior in response to erroneous sensor inputs”. MCAS The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) was developed by Boeing to make the newest version of its best …

Read More »

British Airways launches Club Suites, new business class with enclosed suites

British Airways has launched its new long-awaited business class seat. The ‘Club Suite’ will offer enclosed suites with a door, industry standard flat-bed seats, direct aisle access with a 1-2-1 seat configuration. The seat will also feature 18.5-inch inflight entertainment screens, high definition gate-to-gate programming, and PC / USB power. The Club Suite will first feature on the airline’s first …

Read More »

Jet Airways cancels many international flights, All Abu Dhabi flights cancelled

VT-JAX Jet Airways Boeing 737 MAX 8. Image copyrighted. Do not reproduce.

Struggling carrier Jet Airways has been cancelling flights for many weeks now. However, the carrier has now started making drastic cuts to their international network as well. For now, the cuts seem to be limited to the routes being operated by the airline’s 737 fleet – a large part of which including all their new 737 MAX’s have been grounded …

Read More »

Etihad Airways 2018 results analysis

Etihad Airways Airbus A320 A6-EIC at Kempegowda Airport, Bangalore

Etihad Airways recently reported its annual results for 2018. The results highlight the continuing challenges for the airline as it addresses elements of its fleet, network and profitability. These are important for its transformation program.  While there was a 4% increase in passenger yields, the impact on overall revenue was not significant. On the cost side, the airline was able …

Read More »

Lufthansa Group orders 787s and A350s. Will start retiring A380s.

The Lufthansa group has placed an order for 20 Boeing 787-9 and 20 additional Airbus A350-900’s. The order which is worth $12 billion at list prices (as confirmed in the group’s statement, airlines always negotiate a heavy discount from the list price). Deliveries of the new aircraft will be between 2022 and 2027. The new aircraft will primarily replace four-engine …

Read More »

Boeing orders and deliveries – February 2019

The first flight of the Boeing 737 MAX 9.

American airframer Boeing closed its second month of the year with five additional orders. The orders were for one 737 MAX BBJ from a private customer and four 767-300 freighters for an undisclosed customer. Deliveries Boeing delivered a total of 49 aircraft in February 2019, with the companies troubled 737 MAX making up half the month’s deliveries. Family-wise Deliveries 737 …

Read More »

Singapore tenth to ground the Boeing 737-8 MAX. India flights unaffected.

SilkAir Boeing 737 MAX 8 9V-MBB.

The island nation of Singapore has become the tenth in the list to ground the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, following the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 on March 10, 2019. Countries or airlines across the globe are grounding the aircraft as a precautionary measure till a determination can be made. The MAX is the new re-engined version of …

Read More »

New Charter on rights of air passengers in case of flight cancellations or delays

Delayed flights information board.

The Ministers for Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu and Jayant Sinha, recently released the “Passenger Charter” which codifies the rights of air passengers when they travel with scheduled commercial airlines in India. The official document can be downloaded and read from here We recommend you read the Charter carefully. It imposes certain demands and places certain responsibilities on airlines. However, it …

Read More »

Airbus orders and deliveries – February 2019

European airframer Airbus closed out the second month of 2019 with four orders and 103 cancellations. The orders were for four Airbus A220’s from Pacific Ocean carrier Air Vanuatu. Cancellations in February included 42 A350s of Etihad Airways and 25 A320s of now-bankrupt carrier Germania. The month also featured 23 cancellations for the A380 after Airbus announced the closure of …

Read More »

SpiceJet continues to leverage the UDAN policy and develop its network

SpiceJet Bombardier Q400 Dash 8 VT-SUB lands at Kempegowda airport Bangalore. Photo by Vedant Agarwal. All rights reserved.

SpiceJet announced the launch of 8 new direct flights to Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. This city will be connected under the UDAN III scheme. It is the airline’s 11th destination under the regional connectivity scheme (RCS). In doing so, SpiceJet continues building its network strategy of connecting smaller towns and cities while leveraging the government’s flagship policy. The UDAN scheme …

Read More »
+OK