AVIATION

Aerosvit flies to Colombo

The Ukraine's largest air carrier, Aerosvit Airlines, launched its flights to Sri Lankan, from Kyiv last Saturday and the passengers and the crew was given a red carpet welcome at the Colombo Airport upon their arrival.

Aerosvit will conduct three flights to Sri Lanka per week with the wide body Boeing 767 aircraft and frequencies to the Sri Lanka will be increased in the near future.

Hayleys Leisure and Aviation Sector Head Johann Wijesinghe said 'Aerosvit has appointed the Hayleys Group as its general sales agent in Sri Lanka and we look forward to have a long lasting rapport between the two companies.'

In line with the launching of the Aerosvit service to Sri Lanka, it is expected to attract new tourist traffic from countries of North America, Europe and the Middle East to Sri Lanka since Aerosvit flight network Colombo will be connected to the world's largest cities.

(IH)

Thai Airways looking at low cost

Thai Airways said it is planning an ultra low cost carrier, in addition to Thai Smile, the budget unit which will begin flying from July 2012.

Thai Airways President Piyasvasti Amranand said the ultra low cost airline is needed because extreme, low-budget flying is the fastest growing segment of the aviation market.

He gave no timetable for the launch, but said, "we still need that to capture the very low end of the market."

For now, Thai Airways is concentrating on its Thai Smile unit, which will compete with regional budget carriers such as Malaysia's Air Asia and Qantas Airways unit, Jetstar.

Mr Amranand said Thai Smile had ordered 11 Airbus SAS A320 planes, the first of which will arrive in June next year.

He added that the new airline will likely need additional aircraft as it expands.

Thai Airways is launching Thai Smile to reclaim market share, after an extended period in which the airline lost ground on its own turf.

"It will stop the erosion of the market share because the regional market share of Thai Airways has gone down substantially over last several years down from 43 per cent down to 32 per cent at the moment - that is why I said we probably need more planes and once we start Thai Smile it will probably be clearer how many more plans we would need," said Mr Amranand.

Thai Smile is more likely to be regional than domestic, after the state-owned parent, Thai Airways, acquired an additional 10 per cent stake in the domestic carrier Nok Air, lifting its holding to about 40 per cent. Thai Smile is considering routes such as Bangkok to Macau, and Bangkok to Shenzhen.

Qatar Airways Cargo ties up with Aitken Spence

Aitken Spence Cargo, the freight forwarding arm of Aitken Spence PLC was awarded the General Sales Agency for Qatar Airways Cargo , one of the rising stars in the Airline Industry.

The partnership was announced at a social event for key customers and stakeholders in the air cargo industry.

Qatar Airways Cargo, transports cargo to over 100 destinations worldwide on over 100 aircraft, including the Airbus A300-600 and Boeing 777 freighters as well as passenger aircraft.

Special facilities and well-trained personnel ensure expert handling over a wide variety of product categories. These include express products, livestock, dangerous goods, valuables, vulnerable goods, automotives, perishables, overseas cargo and general cargo that require air freight carriage.

Aitken Spence has over 30 years experience in handling both passenger and cargo GSAs in Sri Lanka. Being the pioneer company to venture into freight forwarding, Aitken Spence Cargo provides a total solution in freight and logistics under one roof.

Airbus eyes customer financing

Global aviation giant Airbus said it would consider providing financing for customers as the eurozone debt crisis drags on, but affirmed upbeat long-term forecasts due to booming Asian demand.

The comments came as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned of a eurozone recession, with banks headed by French-Belgian lender Dexia now facing collapse over bad exposure to sovereign debts.

Programmes Vice President Tom Williams said Airbus had not seen any immediate impact from intensifying debt crisis in the eurozone, but it was in talks with European credit agencies about shoring up its customers.

"The European banks have been in the past few years active in terms of aircraft finance ... and clearly there will be some question marks if you look at the euro crisis today and the liquidity position of some of the big banks," he told a markets briefing in Sydney.

"We will if necessary enter into some financing although we're not a bank," he added.

"Of course that's just an insurance (policy) and it has a cost, but it does allow the airlines to go into the market with a strong guarantee and to raise money."

During the 2008 global financial crisis Williams said Airbus had the benefit of "strong support from the European export credit agencies" (ECAs) and it would seek similar help for customers if needed during the current turmoil.

"I think we will look again to the ECAs, and we've been fairly active in talking to them all in the past few weeks," he said.

Airbus affirmed last month's long-range forecast of 27,850 new passenger and freight aircraft deliveries worth $3.5 trillion over the next 20 years due to huge demand from Asia, particularly China and India.

"Really what's driven us through the last recession and the difficult period in 2008-09 was the large numbers of aircraft that we were shipping to India, to China and to South America," Williams said.

About a third of Airbus deliveries during the previous crisis had "some kind of ECA guarantee" and though that had eased to about 21-22 percent Williams said "it may have to go back up again."

"We'll look at our own position and if necessary do some selective financing," he added.

The company will also maintain constant production through the turmoil, preferring to build up a backlog of aircraft rather than letting skills and capability lapse.

A division of European aerospace giant EADS, France-based Airbus expects solid growth in coming decades as the middle classes explode in China and India and demand soars for bigger, cleaner aircraft to curb fuel pollution.

Airbus expects Asia-Pacific to dominate air traffic by 2030, growing 5.7 percent over the next 20 years to take a 33 percent share of the global market, from 28 percent currently, which is roughly equal to Europe and North America.

AFP