Daily2018-02-20

Friday, October 12th, 2018

beachaviationsponsor2018-04-03

LATEST NEWS

Singapore Airlines’ New York route now longest commercial non-stop flight

After a period of five years, Singapore Airlines has resumed direct non-stop flight to the U.S. with a 19-hour flight from Singapore to New York. The Southeast Asian carrier intends to also restart non-stop flights to Los Angeles and add San Francisco to its non-stop services next month. Back in 2013 the airline stopped its direct flights to Newark as high fuel prices at the time made the route, using four-engine Airbus A340-500 jets, unprofitable. Instead, the carrier flew to New York’s JFK Airport via Frankfurt, and Los Angeles via Tokyo and Seoul.

With the placement of an order for seven Airbus twin-engine A350-900ULRs (Ultra Long Range) in 2015 and the commencement of their delivery this month making Singapore Airlines the launch customer for this member of the A350 family, the first flight to New York will take place Thursday, October 12. The A350-900ULRs are fitted with just 161 business class and premium economy seats only, with no economy class seats.

Based on travel industry data, non-stop ultra-long-haul flights can usually command an airfare premium of around 20 percent compared to those involving one or more stop. However, according to Brendan Sobie, Chief Analyst, CAPA Centre for Aviation, Singapore Airlines has been offering low initial fares on its U.S. non-stop routes for as little as S$1,438 ($1,040) return for a premium economy seat on its Singapore-Newark route.

“While it’s early days, there will be questions whether the latest attempt at U.S. nonstops will be profitable for Singapore Airlines given the very intense competition in the Singapore-U.S. market, rising fuel prices and the large number of premium seats Singapore Airlines has to fill on the seven newly delivered A350-900ULRs,” Sobie is quoted as saying.

SR Technics

Aer Lingus CEO to step down in January 2019

Aer Lingus chief executive Stephen Kavanagh will step down on January 1, 2019 but will remain on the airline’s board as a non-executive director.

He will be succeeded as chief executive and executive director by Sean Doyle who is currently British Airways director of network, fleet and alliances.

Sean Doyle, originally from Cork, will take up his new role on January 1, 2019. He joined British Airways in 1998 and has undertaken financial, strategy, commercial and alliance roles for British Airways culminating in his appointment to the airline’s executive management committee in 2016.

Airbus exhibits ACJ319 at NBAA show

Airbus Corporate Jets (ACJ) is displaying an ACJ319 at the NBAA show, highlighting the full-size living space on offer.

Operated by K5 Aviation and available for VVIP charter, this particular ACJ319 is making its airshow debut.

Continuous improvements mean that the ACJ320 family now comprises the ACJ319neo, flying eight passengers 6,750 nm/12,500 km or more than 15 hours, and the ACJ320neo, flying 25 passengers 6,000 nm/11,100 km or more than 13 hours.

Deliveries of the ACJ320neo begin in the coming months and those of the ACJ319neo next year. Customers include Acropolis Aviation, Comlux and K5 Aviation.

Both aircraft feature new-generation engines and Sharklets to save fuel, to enable even more intercontinental range and to ensure that they keep their value well.

AFIKLM787

ADSoftware partners with ATR

ADSoftware has announced an official partnership with aircraft manufacturer ATR, the leader for regional aircraft up to 80 seats. The collaboration is set to commence in October 2018.

A leader in the manufacturing sector, the joint partnership between Airbus and Leonardo has over 200 operators in more than 100 countries, with over 1,500 aircraft sold to date. With a turnover of almost US$1.7 billion, ATR aircraft are responsible for over 5,000 flights per day around the world.

In addition to MRO and CAMO management, ADSoftware will work alongside ATR to develop new processes and methods to integrate and manage key technical data, including migration to new aircraft and phase-in/phase-out processes. With these new features aircraft data integration will be quick and easy, allowing the operator to save time and money in the process.

AAR to provide after-hours logistics and technical AOG support for Eaton Aerospace

AAR, a global provider of aviation services to commercial airlines, will deliver after-hours logistics and technical AOG support for Eaton Aerospace effective October 1, 2018. Under this agreement, AAR will serve as the single point of contact for all of Eaton’s commercial customers after office hours.

“We are excited to showcase our expanded AOG desk with one of our largest business partners,” said Darren Spiegel, Vice President and General Manager, OEM Solutions, AAR.

This arrangement will provide a seamless interface for Eaton’s global customer base. If the requirement calls for products in AAR-Eaton’s existing portfolio, AAR will provide support from its global warehouse network. For other Eaton products, AAR will work with Eaton to ensure the operator is fully supported.

TP Aerospace

Atran Airlines to lease GECAS 737-800 freighters

Atran Airlines, scheduled express cargo carrier within Volga-Dnepr Group and GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) have inked a lease agreement for two 737-800 freighters.

The passenger-converted aircraft are scheduled to be phased in during the remainder of 2018 and in the first half of 2019. They will provide additional capacity to Atran’s existing fleet of three Boeing 737-400 freighters and will increase Altran’s fleet to five.

Boeing 737-800 freighters are perfectly suited to short and mid-range routes which form the basis of Atran’s scheduled network. From its base at Moscow's Vnukovo International Airport, the carrier provides dedicated cargo services for mail and express shipments on routes linking Europe, Russia and CIS in the most effective manner. The company also specializes in leveraging growing volumes of e-commerce shipments, accommodating cross-border online purchases

BOC Aviation signs US$750 million syndicated loan

BOC Aviation has signed a US$750 million unsecured syndicated loan facility with a tenor of five years.

Following a strong response from lenders after its launch into general syndication, the Facility was increased to a final size of US$750 million from an initial launch amount of US$500 million. The Facility is BOC Aviation’s largest single tranche unsecured term loan financing transaction. The borrower under the Facility is BOC Aviation (Ireland) Limited and the Facility is guaranteed by BOC Aviation.

Agricultural Bank of China Limited, Singapore Branch, BNP Paribas, Citigroup Global Markets Singapore Pte. Ltd. DBS Bank Ltd., Development Bank of Japan Inc., The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, MUFG Bank, Ltd, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited, United Overseas Bank Limited and Westpac Banking Corporation are the Original Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners (the “OMLABs”) for the Facility. Participating in the Facility are 19 financial institutions, including the OMLABs.

Bombardier MRO

Interflight Technical Services chooses OASES

Commsoft's MRO IT system, OASES, has been chosen by private charter and aircraft management company, Interflight Technical Services, based at Biggin Hill in Kent.

Replacing the company’s existing MRO IT software, OASES will be used for the CAMO control of two Hawker 800 business jets and will be deployed to support engineering operations in its hangar.

Implementation of the OASES system is already underway.

Renowned for the combination of its technical sophistication and intuitive user interface, OASES features a modular structure to provide for both flexibility and scalability. Interflight will be using the Core, Airworthiness, Planning, Material Management, Production, Warranty and Commercial modules which will be accessed through Commsoft’s Private Cloud service.

Munich Airport passenger traffic soars to over 35 million passengers

Munich Airport has continued its impressive performance through the end of the third quarter 2018.

Passenger traffic in the first three quarters of the year was up 3.0%, or nearly 1 million passengers, to a new record of over 35 million passengers. This dynamic trend produced a number of all-time highs for the airport in the third quarter alone: With over 13 million passengers, the airport set a new quarterly record.

September 2018, with around 4.5 million passengers, entered the record books as Munich's busiest-ever month. And on Friday, September 28, the Bavarian hub handled more than 170,000 passengers on a single day for the first time in its history. There was also a 1% year-on-year increase in the number of take-offs and landings to more than 310,000 flights. During the same period, the volume of air cargo handled in Munich was about 3% lower, at approximately 262,000 tons.

International traffic remains the main driver of the steady growth in the numbers of passengers travelling to and from Munich. Within Europe alone, more than 22 million passengers used Munich Airport's extensive route network. This represents an increase of 4.4%. Once again, the most popular country for travellers was Spain (3 million passengers), followed by Italy (2.6 million).

The long-haul segment posted an even higher growth rate than European traffic. Routes connecting Munich with intercontinental destinations carried more than 5.8 million passengers in the first nine months of 2018 – a 5.2% increase over the same period in 2017. Traffic to and from the USA accounted for the largest share in that segment, with an overall gain of 7.5% to approximately 2 million passengers.

Kellstrom

Neste and Air BP enter into innovative industry collaboration

Neste, a renewable products producer and Air BP, the international aviation fuel products and services supplier, have entered into an agreement to explore opportunities to increase the supply and availability of sustainable aviation fuel for airline customers.

Through this innovative collaboration, Neste’s knowledge and manufacturing solutions for producing and blending renewable jet fuel will be brought together with Air BP’s customer relationships, expertise in developing efficient and effective supply chains, as well as their certification and product quality assurance capabilities. One goal of the cooperation will be complementary efforts to bring a co-branded sustainable aviation fuel to market at airports across Air BP’s global network.

Sustainable aviation fuel is made by blending conventional, fossil-based kerosene with renewable hydrocarbons produced from, for example, recycled cooking oil. It is then certified as “Jet-A1” fuel and can be used in aircraft without requiring any technical modifications. Flying on sustainable aviation fuel reduces crude oil consumption and produces lower lifecycle carbon emissions compared to conventional jet fuel.

The aviation industry has set ambitious targets to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from air transportation, including carbon-neutral growth from 2020 and beyond, and a 50% reduction of net aviation carbon emissions by 2050. Currently, sustainable aviation fuel offers the only viable alternative to fossil liquid fuels for powering commercial aircraft. Collaborations between forward-thinking companies like Neste and Air BP will be needed to enable the aviation industry to continue to connect the world, but do so with reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Both companies have already demonstrated their leadership in this area. Neste’s MY Renewable Jet Fuel™ has proven its technical capability in thousands of commercial flights. It can be easily adopted by airlines without the need for additional investments in new jet engines or segregated fuel distribution systems. It is produced from renewable and sustainable raw materials, thus significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the life-cycle.

Air BP has supplied BP Biojet in the Nordics since 2014 at around 10 airports, including Oslo where they were the first to supply sustainable aviation fuel through the existing airport fuelling infrastructure, in an earlier collaboration with Neste and other key Norwegian and industry stakeholders.

Elix Aviation Capital confirms lease transaction for six ATR 72-600 with Lion Air Group

Elix Aviation Capital (Elix) has concluded a transaction with Lion Air Group for six ATR 72-600 aircraft, including five recently delivered ATR 72-600 aircraft and a sixth ATR72-600 aircraft scheduled for delivery in November 2018.

These ATR 72-600 are the first aircraft in Elix’s portfolio of ATR and Bombardier DHC8 turboprops to be operated in the growing Indonesian market.

Through this transaction, Elix continues to develop and further invest into the capabilities and services it brings to operators worldwide.

Royal Aero
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