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Wednesday, September 4th, 2019
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Aigle Azur (Blue Eagle), France’s second-largest airline, is set to file for bankruptcy protection next Monday after struggling, and failing, to run profitably for many years. The move follows on from last week’s ‘coup’ which removed Frantz Yvelin form the carrier’s helm as chief executive.
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Shareholders have accused him of making “strategic mistakes over the past two years” that have ultimately led to the carrier’s demise. Despite transporting 1.9 million passengers and generating revenue of €300 million (US$329 million) last year, last month Aigle Azur looked to offload its Portugal routes to Vueling, a low-cost rival airline. "Aigle Azur is in cession of payments after several years of drifting because of numerous improper strategic decisions, and must ask for commercial court protection," employees said in a statement after a meeting with management.
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As a still operational airline there should be a certain level of interest, with a deadline for bids likely to be set for September 15. Whether bids will be for all or parts of Aigle Azur remains to be seen but currently some 1,150 jobs are at stake, including 350 based in Algeria. The carrier has a strong foothold in the North Africa market. Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, which also owns Hainan Airlines, is the largest stakeholder with 49%. David Neeleman, an American airline entrepreneur whose companies include JetBlue and TAP Air Portugal, owns 32%t, and Gerard Houa, a French businessman, holds a 19% stake.
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Japan Airlines has selected GE Aviation for Digital Records Management across its fleet of more than 200 airplanes. The implementation is currently underway and adds to the 700 million aircraft maintenance records being maintained on GE's digital records management system, AirVault. The agreement includes maintenance and engineering integration of the system at the JAL facilities around the world.
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The AirVault Digital Records Management system provides a comprehensive solution that digitizes, indexes and archives all airline record types. AirVault provides a centralized location for record
search, administration, support and processing. The AirVault web search tool makes it simple to search and retrieve by utilizing word search or indexed data filters. Document indexing can also be exported for use in dashboards, reports or analytics.
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Hi Fly has received a brand new Airbus A330neo, becoming the first wet lease specialist to operate this state-of-the-art, ultra-efficient aircraft to the benefit of its customers.
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Passengers will enjoy higher comfort levels in the Airspace signature brand new cabin designed and released recently by Airbus, while the airline itself will benefit financially from a significant lower consumption and carbon emissions. The aircraft seats 371 passengers in a two class configuration (18 high comfort business class seats with flat beds and 353 standard economy seats). All seats have installed a last generation inflight entertainment ZODIAC RAVE IFE System Generation 3.
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This new A330neo is powered by the highly efficient new generation Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines, the seventh iteration of the Trent family of large turbo-fan jet engines designed exclusively for the Airbus A330neo. A new optimized wing with Sharklets, specially designed for the Airbus family, further improves significantly its performance.
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The move to a more environmental friendly aircraft with reduced fuel-burn is in line with Hi Fly’s long commitment to sustainability practices. This investment reflects the company’s intent to fly modern, efficient and environmentally-friendly aircraft. The airline is on track to meet its commitment to fly plastic-free by the end of this year after it made industry history in a series of successful trial passenger flights last December, without a single-use plastic item on board. Hi Fly is also commited to become Carbon Neutral by the end of 2021.
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Baltic Ground Services CZ, a daughter company of Baltic Ground Services (BGS), the international provider of ground handling, aircraft fueling and passenger services, belonging Avia Solutions Group, has signed an operational financing contract worth €1.2 million, with Raiffeisen Bank group.
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Baltic Ground Services CZ currently operates in Ostrava airport where it provides plane fueling service. Until now, the company has been financed by the shareholder.
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“This is a major recognition for the company that started operating in the Czech Republic just two years ago. Baltic Ground Services CZ has achieved its financial targets relatively quickly. The bank positively evaluated the results, as well as business sustainability, good prospects, signed contracts and development projects for the upcoming five years,” said Kristijonas Bakutis, the director
of the business development of BGS and the CEO of Baltic Ground Services CZ.
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According to Mr. Bakutis, the agreement will help to reduce the operational financing and
leasing costs, to increase competitiveness that will lead to better opportunities for further development in the Czech Republic.
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Joramco, the Amman based MRO and the engineering arm of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE), has announced that it has obtained EASA Part-145 approval for Boeing 777. This is the fourth EASA approval obtained by Joramco since its acquisition by DAE, following earlier EASA approvals for Boeing 737 MAX, Airbus A320neo and Boeing 787. Joramco currently holds 12 aircraft type approvals from EASA: 5 Airbus, 5 Boeing and 2 Embraer.
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Firoz Tarapore, Chief Executive Officer of DAE said: “The addition of this approval further supports our ambition to continue to build a successful and meaningful services provider in the region. The Boeing 777 is a highly popular long-haul aircraft, both regionally as well as globally, and we are very pleased to be able to extend our skillset and service offerings to operators of this type from now on.”
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AJW Technique, the maintenance hub for AJW Group’s global component repair and overhaul activities, has appointed Sajedah Rustom as Chief Executive Officer.
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At AJW Technique, Rustom will be responsible for leading strategy and business development, products and services innovation, whilst ensuring flawless execution and customer satisfaction.
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Rustom brings with her more than fifteen years of strategic and operational leadership
experience in both commercial and business aviation to her new role.
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She was previously responsible for aftermarket products and services development as well as the transformation of the business aircraft aftermarket at Bombardier Aerospace, with significant results.
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Effective immediately, the Portuguese airline TAP is offering a daily flight from the Bavarian capital to the northern Portuguese metropolis of Porto. Porto, which boasts a wealth of
cultural highlights and a scenic coastline, is Portugal's second-ranked
business city.
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GKN Aerospace has announced details of a worldwide reorganisation in order to create a simpler, more competitive, customer-focused business.
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The business has grown rapidly by acquisition over recent years, increasing in scale from £600m
turnover in 2006 to more than £3.5bn at the end of 2018. Today, it is structured with four independent divisions, each focused around products and internal capabilities. In the new structure, GKN Aerospace will fully integrate as one business, with customer-facing teams and a single, connected network of global sites, all supported by shared services.
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The new structure will enable the business to better serve its customers, improve operational performance, collaborate internally and maximise its potential for future growth.
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Hans Büthker, Chief Executive Officer GKN Aerospace, said: “We are creating a single, fully integrated business aligned to our customers’ needs, which will ensure we are better positioned within the competitive global aerospace market.
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The reorganisation will take place within the next two years and, following the move to simplify the business, GKN Aerospace’s global headcount is expected to reduce by around 1,000 roles. These will be non-production roles, as it reduces layers of management and support functions, and increases its focus on operations. GKN Aerospace will aim to manage as much of this reduction as possible through natural means, such as the usual turnover of people, vacancy management and redeployment of employees.
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GKN Aerospace has 50 manufacturing sites across 15 countries and today employs around 18,000
people.
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South Africa’s Pegasus Universal Aerospace, pioneer of the Vertical Business Jet (VBJ®) Pegasus One, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with UK-based, technical aviation consultancy, Callen-Lenz Group. The agreement brings the two companies together to exclusively collaborate on the design and development of the flight control systems for the Pegasus One aircraft.
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The flight control systems are integral to supporting the aircraft operations in all phases of flight, including transition from vertical take-off and hover, to forward horizontal flight. The merging of these functions, into one unique system, will be a key technology, enabling Pegasus One to deliver its powerful performance capabilities. Pegasus selected Callen-Lenz as its development partner owing to the team’s reputation for creating innovative solutions, required core competencies and experience, in realising complex technologies in the aerospace sector.
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The Pegasus team has already made great strides over the past year in developing multiple scale models, completing comprehensive studies into the drivetrain and thrust fan systems to support a true hybrid-electric propulsion power source. Pegasus is in ongoing discussions with two leading powerplant OEM’s to ensure the best performance capability is achieved.
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The signing of the MOU with Callen-Lenz Group ushers in the next significant phase in the programme. Under the terms of the MOU the Callen-Lenz team will work closely with the Pegasus executive team, engineers and newly appointed chief pilot Captain Andrew Dietrich, whose appointment was also confirmed in August. Captain Dietrich joins the expanding Pegasus team with some 16,000 hours flying time spanning a 26-year career operating ultra-long-range commercial airliners and corporate jets. Familiar with numerous flight-decks, working with a variety of avionics systems and aircraft simulators, Captain Dietrich brings valuable knowledge to Pegasus. Reporting directly to the executive team, his hands-on experience will deliver vital input to the aircraft operational capability, performance and safety requirements.
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As an integral part of the Pegasus technical team he will work alongside Callen-Lenz and Pegasus Chief Engineer Matthew Buttle and be responsible for overseeing compliance, safety procedures and the co-ordination of test pilots during the official test flight phase.
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Commsoft has released that Kuwaiti airline Jazeera Airways has selected OASES as its MRO software system.
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Kuwait City-based Jazeera Airways is the first non-government owned airline in the Middle East, continuing to be one of the few Middle East-based private airlines to this day. IATA-member, Jazeera Airways currently flies to 29 destinations operating a reliable fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft from its own terminal at Kuwait International Airport. In June 2018 it was the first airline in the Middle East to introduce the A320neo into its fleet.
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Starting in November 2019, Jazeera Airways will progressively implement OASES with its Core, Airworthiness, Planning and Materials modules across its nine A320-214 and one A320Neo
aircraft, with more A320Neo aircraft joining the fleet in 2019 and 2020.
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OASES modules are designed to provide a flexible and cost-effective framework that allows users to ‘design’ the perfect system and configuration for their operation.
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