AVIATION

Asia world’s biggest aircraft market

Asia will emerge as the world’s biggest aircraft market by 2029, accounting for a third of worldwide plane deliveries as the middle class drives demand, Airbus said Monday.

The European plane maker also said it was experiencing surging Chinese demand for corporate jets and that sales to Chinese buyers could approach levels in the Middle East.

Worldwide, air traffic is set to double over the next 15 years, with the Asia-Pacific region set to overtake North America and Europe as the largest air transport market, taking delivery of about 8,560 new planes worth $ 1.2 trillion by 2029, Airbus said.

That figure will represent about 33 percent of world deliveries, up from the region’s 26 percent share between 1990 and 2009, Airbus said as it released its Asia-Pacific Market Forecast. “Asia Pacific will lead this air traffic by 2029,” the firm’s Product Strategy and Market Forecast Senior Vice Presient, Chris Emerson, told a press briefing in Hong Kong. “In Asia, more and more people are able and wanting to fly every day,” he said.The aviation industry will grow 4.8 percent annually over the next two decades, the company said, while the sector booked a record $ 30 billion operating profit last year, a rise also led by Asian carriers. The Asia-Pacific area will grow faster than the worldwide average, with passenger numbers rising 5.8 percent a year, and the cargo business growing seven percent annually, also higher than the 5.9 percent worldwide average, Airbus said. Emerson said Asia had the “youngest and newest” fleets, with aircraft that burn less fuel than older models, while the region is emerging as a key growth area among low-cost carriers.

Airbus also said its corporate jet operation set a company record last year, delivering 15 jets worth $ 1.5 billion, with China the firm’s fastest-growing market.

AFP

Canada’s Bombardier secures deal

Canada’s Bombardier, the third-largest aircraft maker in the world behind Airbus and Boeing, said it has secured a financing deal worth up to $ 8 billion from a Chinese leasing firm.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed by the two firms, ICBC Leasing will provide customers of Bombardier with advance payment financing, delivery financing and leasing solutions for some commercial and business jets.

“This MOU provides mutual benefits to Bombardier and ICBC Leasing since it addresses both parties’ objectives of providing optimised aircraft solutions to operators in China and elsewhere,” Bombardier Aerospace President Guy Hachey said, in a statement dated Thursday. ICBC Leasing is a subsidiary of banking giant Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

AFP

Emirates signs up with Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce, the global power systems company, has signed a TotalCare long-term services contract valued a $ 2.2 billion with Emirates, covering Trent engines for 70 Airbus A350XWB aircraft. This contract brings the airline’s entire Rolls-Royce powered fleet of 128 aircraft under TotalCare arrangements.

“Emirates’ 70 A350 aircraft on order will play an important role in our growth when they come online in the next few years. This TotalCare contract with Rolls-Royce is an important step in ensuring A350 XWB engine’s life cycle cost is managed effectively and maintained at the highest standards. Already current users of TotalCare, we look forward to maintaining this relationship with Rolls-Royce to drive additional operational improvements,” said Emirates Airline President Tim Clark.

“We are delighted to sign this contract with Emirates, a valued customer with three Trent engine family members already in service. With this contract all of Emirates’ Rolls-Royce powered fleet are, or will be, supported by TotalCare packages that add significant value and allow customers optimize their operations,”said Rolls-Royce - Civil Aerospace President Mark King.

TotalCare long-term service agreements, in place on 90 percent of all Trent engines, are designed to minimize customer financial risk and enhance operational performance and reliability, allowing operators to concentrate on their core business.

Alitalia to cut up to 700 jobs

Italian airline Alitalia reached an agreement with unions on Friday to cut up to 700 jobs on a voluntary basis, sources at the airline said.

“We’re satisfied, we managed to get the balance right between a duty to safeguard work and the necessity to achieve greater efficiency and the cost-cutting that comes with it,” said Francesco Alfonsi from the UGL union.

Labour Minister Maurizio Sacconi said the state was ready to “hand over very generous severance packages” to those who volunteer to quit as part of the agreement, which affects pilots, ground staff, hostesses and stewards. Alitalia employs around 14,000 people. After risking bankruptcy, the airline was taken over in 2009 by a group of prominent Italian business leaders and merged with Italy’s number two carrier Air One, as Air France-KLM acquired 25 percent of the company.

Three thousand posts were cut in the process, despite a series of strikes by staff that forced cancellations. Alitalia said last week it had almost halved its net loss in 2010 to 168 million euros ($ 234 million) and reiterated its aim to return to operational equilibrium in 2011.

AFP

Air Asia Indonesia goes for IPO

An Indonesian subsidiary of budget airline AirAsia hopes to raise up to $ 200 million in a public listing, it said last week, as it tries to cash in on a revival in the country’s aviation sector.

The initial public offering of AirAsia Indonesia follows last month’s listing by flag carrier Garuda, which raised about 4.7 trillion rupiah ($ 535 million) by selling 28 percent of its equity to expand its fleet.

Indonesia’s budget airline Lion Air is also planning an IPO in the first half of 2012.

AirAsia Indonesia Chief Executive Dharmadi, who goes by one name, said: “Our passengers last year reached four million, with (a passenger) load factor of 77 percent. We expect the load factor to increase to over 80 percent this year.” AirAsia Indonesia has 20 aircraft in its fleet, of which 16 are Airbus, but aims to add a further 14 planes by 2015.

The IPOs reflect rapid change in the nation’s aviation industry, which has a history of safety problems that led the European Union to ban all Indonesian aircraft from its airspace in 2007 after a series of crashes and incidents.

AFP

US expert dismisses Earhart claim in PNG

A US aircraft history expert has dismissed as “beyond ludicrous” claims that the wreckage of aviator Amelia Earhart’s plane has been found in Papua New Guinea and is guarded by a six-metre long snake.

Papua New Guinea’s Post-Courier newspaper had reported that a plane wreck found in 70 metres of water northwest of Buka in the autonomous Bougainville region in 2005 may answer the mystery of what became of the adventurer.

But the US-based group of aviation enthusiasts The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) dismissed the claim as improbable. “They contacted me months ago and my response was initially, ‘I really don’t see how it could be Earhart’s plane’,” Executive Director Ric Gillespie told AFP via telephone from the United States.

Earhart’s plane took off from Lae, in what is now Papua New Guinea, in July 1937 during her attempt to circumnavigate the globe via the equator. She was never seen again. A massive search failed to find Earhart or navigator Fred Noonan and the pair are presumed to have died after ditching their Lockheed Electra in the ocean en route to Howland Island — a tiny isle in the middle of the Pacific.

Gillespie said Earhart’s plane was within 200 miles of Howland with four hours of fuel left at most when it disappeared.

“And there’s just no way that a 150 mile an hour airplane can fly 2,000 miles in four hours back to New Guinea — it’s not going to happen,” he said.

He said the plane could be the wreck of an American US navy Lockheed Ventura that was lost in the area during World War II. “If there is any airplane there at all I suspect that is what they found,” he said, adding that his request for pictures for verification purposes had been ignored.

He said the stories regarding the coral-covered wreck — such as that valuables including gold bullion had been found inside the plane and that a six-metre (20 foot) snake was guarding it — were difficult to believe.

“It has just reached the point where it is beyond ludicrous,” he said.

“Maybe somebody has seen an airplane which could be mistaken for a Lockheed Electra and things just went way out of control.

AFP