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LATEST NEWS
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Thursday, November 5th, 2020
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With The U.K. entering a second period of lockdown on Thursday, November 5, to counteract the COVID-19 pandemic, the more wealthy have greatly increased their demands on private charter firms for flights to the location of second homes, with the Canary Islands coming top of the list.
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Air Partners, which caters for the royal family, and wealthy footballers, and is one of the leading charter companies in the country, has confirmed it is witnessing a significant rise in bookings. “Many of these flight inquiries are for individuals wishing to go to their second homes in Europe, with the Canary Islands, which are still warm at this time of year, being the most sought-after destination,” Air Partners commented. “We do expect to continue to see some demand for private jet flights during the rest of the month for business travel, particularly as many commercial flights become grounded and unavailable.”
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The uptick in demand is as a result of the ban on flights abroad except for essential work up until December 2. While commercial airlines have had to drastically cut back on operational flights, private charter companies have been less badly hit as the super-rich have hardly cut back on their travel habits, while those with moderate wealth have been turning to private jet hire as a means to travel more safely during the pandemic. The result has been an approximate 10% drop in private hire flight numbers between September 1 and October 15, compared to a 50% drop over the same period for commercial operators, when both are compared to the same period last year.
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Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) has reported its financial results for the nine months ended September 30, 2020. The company reported total revenue of US$984.1 million, compared to US$1,085.1 million for the same period in 2019. Net income totaled US$167.3 million, compared to US$260.5 million the previous year.
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During the third quarter of 2020, DAE signed agreements to acquire 31 aircraft with a total value of approximately US$1.1 billion, of which approximately US$0.2 billion was booked in the third quarter of 2020 and the remainder will be booked in the fourth quarter of 2020 and in 2021.
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DAE ended the period with available liquidity of US$2.1 billion after repaying a US$430 million bond in August. Furthermore, the company ended the quarter with strong capital levels – its Net Debt-to-Equity ratio was below 2.5x.
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Research undertaken by ForwardKeys, the travel analytics company, reveals that the announcement, on October 15, that Hong Kong and Singapore have reached an in-principle agreement to establish a bilateral Air Travel Bubble (ATB), which would allow leisure travel between them to restart in November, triggered an immediate release of pent-up demand. In the week that followed, flight searches for travel from Singapore to Hong Kong, which had been flat since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, soared to 50% of 2019 levels, while bookings jumped to 30%.
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The main focus of travelers’ interest is the Christmas holiday period, with the peak dates for flight searches to Hong Kong covering the weeks of December 10, 17, and 24. When it comes to tickets, travel has been booked throughout December, with the 18 – 25, being the peak travel dates. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of people, over 80%, will be travelling for leisure or to visit friends and relatives.
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Deeper analysis by ForwardKeys suggests that tourism-dependent retailers based in Hong Kong are likely to be significantly happier than their counterparts in Singapore; because the immediate uplift in flight bookings from Singapore to Hong Kong is more than three-times higher than in the opposite direction.
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On March 23, Singapore and Hong Kong announced that their borders would be closed to all foreign travellers. Since then, it has been almost impossible to fly between the two places (or anywhere else) and hardly anybody has been searching or booking travel.
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Jameson Wong, APAC Director, ForwardKeys commented: “This bilateral Air Travel Bubble is a milestone arrangement as it will be the first moment international leisure travel is permitted again in our region. The immediate rush of bookings is significant because it proves that people want to travel and they will travel, as soon as the right safety protocols are put in place and government-imposed travel restrictions are lifted. Our findings will provide a much-needed breath of fresh air and hope to the multitude of businesses and individuals that rely on travelers for income. We can expect material gains in travel demand, certainly more than what we are tracking right now, when the policy is implemented and when the precise details of the Singapore-HK travel bubble are announced. I am confident that other countries in the region will see this as a case study to guide their own travel facilitation initiatives in the near future.”
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Rex Airlines has taken a huge step towards launching its domestic operations, with the delivery of its first Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft.
The plane touched down in Sydney, Australia on November 5.
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It’s the first of six 737s leased by Rex and will be used for training activities before the proving flight for the Civil Aviation and Safety Authority (CASA) on December 5, 2020.
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Rex will begin flying Melbourne-Sydney return services on March 1, next year and to Brisbane from Easter. Rex’s Deputy Chairman, the Hon John Sharp AM, said: "If our services prove successful, we will inject up to 10 aircraft into the domestic market by the end of 2021. From there, we intend to develop a full domestic airline network, linking all the capital cities over time.”
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The livery for Rex’s domestic airline fleet will be released by the end of the month.
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Magnetic MRO, a Total Technical Care and Asset Management organization, has signed CAMO service agreement with regional aircraft leasing company TrueNoord. The agreement includes the re-delivery of two Mitsubishi Heavy Industries CRJ900 NextGen (previously Bombardier CRJ900 NextGen series) type aircraft from a previous operator and all engineering services related to maintaining the aircraft in an airworthy and controlled environment.
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The general terms of agreement for CAMO services were signed at the end of September. Currently, both of the aircraft have been delivered to Tallinn and implementation into long term storage is in the final stage. Before the ferry flight, the Magnetic MRO Engineering department team visited the previous operator’s facilities in Copenhagen Kastrup airport where they performed a detailed re-delivery inspection for exterior and interior including additional ground checks.
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AAR subsidiary Airinmar, the global independent provider of component repair cycle management and aircraft warranty solutions, has signed a new three-year support services agreement with Volaris, Mexico's leading domestic airline.
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The agreement covers the provision of new aircraft warranty services to augment and support Volaris’ internal management team and maximize the recovery of warranty entitlements. The services will cover airframe, engines and components and entail warranty detection, claim management and benefit recovery.
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