Jet Airways to begin Hyderabd-Dubai Service

Jet Airways is on a expansion spree to the middle east destinations of late. Following its launch of Chennai-Dubai, Mumbai-Jeddah and Mumbai-Riyadh, Jet AIrways has announced yet another international destination to add to its growing list of middle east services from India. Jet will launch Hyderabd-Dubal Services beginning August 16 2009 on its Boeing 737-800 NG planes. The timings are as follows

Flight                             DEP   ARR    Total time

——————————————————

9W 550 HYD – DXB 0840 1120 4hrs 10mins
9W 549 DXB – HYD 1200 1710 3hrs 40mins

Qantas Scraps Orders for Boeing 787 Planes

Qantas Airways of Australia said Friday that it would scrap or defer orders for 30 of Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner aircraft, dealing a heavy blow to the American manufacturer and highlighting the intense pressure for cost savings at airlines around the world as the industry struggles to adjust to a sharp drop in passengers and freight.

Qantas, still the largest customer of the long-range, wide-body Dreamliner aircraft that is considered the key to Boeing’s future, is canceling orders for 15 of the 787s, in a move that it said would save the airline $3 billion. It is delaying delivery of 15 others by four years.

Alan Joyce, chief executive of the airline, said in a statement that Qantas’ decision was not linked to news Tuesday that the Boeing 787’s first flight had been delayed to allow further minor modifications to be made to what has been touted as the world’s most sophisticated plane.

Those problems were the latest in a series of delays in the Dreamliner project and ignited concerns about the possible effect on initial delivery schedules. The first delivery, to All Nippon Airways, was scheduled for the first quarter of 2010.

Qantas said it would retain orders for 50 of the new aircraft, including 15 for its low-cost subsidiary, Jetstar. A spokesman for Qantas, Simon Rushton, declined to comment on whether the airline would pay a penalty for the cancellation.

Analysts said the Australian flag carrier’s cancellation was one of the most significant such announcements to date, even in an industry that has already undergone major cost cuts and shake-ups.

“For Qantas to pull or defer deliveries is a major, major step,” said Derek Sadubin, an analyst at the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, a consulting company in Sydney.

The Qantas decision takes the number of cancellations for the 787 from airlines around the world so far this year to 73, or about 8 percent of total orders for the aircraft, Mr. Sadubin said, adding that more cancellations — of aircraft of all types and makes — are probable.

Mr. Joyce, said, “Qantas announced its original B787 order in December 2005, and the operating environment for the world’s airlines has clearly changed dramatically since then.”

The global economic turmoil has taken a heavy toll on passenger and cargo traffic, with the latest figures from the International Air Transport Association showing passenger numbers in May were 9.3 percent below numbers from a year earlier, and freight demand was down 17.4 percent.

Falling volumes, combined with soaring oil prices last year, forced airlines around the world to reduce staff and flights, park planes and shelve investment plans, including aircraft orders.

Like many of its rivals, Qantas expects sharply reduced profits this year. In April, it announced it would shed 1,750 jobs, in addition to 1,500 job cuts announced last year, and warned it was exploring ways to reduce the number of aircraft it was to receive from Boeing.

“Qantas, like most airlines around the world, is clearly in survival mode,” Mr. Sadubin said.

“We are working Qantas to make changes appropriate to the current climate,” Jim Proulx, a Boeing spokesman in Seattle, told Bloomberg News.

Boeing Delays 787 Dreamliner Fifth Time

Boeing Co. said the 787 Dreamliner, already two years behind schedule, will miss its June 30 first- flight target and a new delivery timetable won’t be available for weeks. Boeing shares fell the most since October.

Monitors on the body above the wing showed stresses beyond what models predicted and there was little point flying in a reduced test pattern, Scott Carson, Chicago-based Boeing’s top commercial-plane executive, said on a conference call today.

The 787 was planned for delivery in next year’s first quarter and a delay will be the fifth for Boeing, which has lost more than half its market value since the first postponement in October 2007. Carson had said June 16 at the Paris Air Show the “airplane could fly today” and reiterated the plan to fly by month’s end. Boeing knew about the issue then and didn’t decide until June 19 to scrub the flight, he said today.

“We had been through preliminary analysis of data and were of the mind that we could enter flight test with minor modifications,” Carson said on the call. After the development team’s work narrowed the flight pattern, “we made the call to delay the process.”

“The delay will probably lead to at least several months of push-out on first delivery,” J.B. Groh, an analyst at DA Davidson & Co. in Lake Oswego, Oregon, said in an interview. “The best-case scenario for first delivery may be mid-2010.” He has a “neutral” rating on the stock.

The 250-seat Dreamliner is Boeing’s fastest-selling model based on its 865 orders. It’s also the first airliner to have a fuselage and wings built mainly of composite plastics, making it lighter than traditional aluminum planes. Boeing has blamed disruptions in the 787 development on parts shortages, defects, redesigns and problems with suppliers.

Boeing said today that engineers conducting its ground tests found stresses exceeded the computer models in 36 spots — 18 on each side — along the body above the wing. Each area is about 1 to 2 square inches, Scott Fancher, general manager of the 787 program, said on today’s conference call.

The affected areas are made up of titanium, aluminum and composite material, Fancher said. The fix will involve a “relatively small number of parts and a relatively simple modification” and will not add weight to the aircraft, he said.

Jatropha Helps Air New Zealand Cut Its CO2 Emissions by More Than 60%

Recently, Air New Zealand ran a test flight of a jet plane fueled with a biofuel blend made with jatropha. The results showed a fuel savings of 1.2%, amounting to more than a ton of fuel over the course of a 12-hour flight. The CO2 emissions from the airplane were reduced by an even more impressive amount — in excess of 60%. The flight is one that offers some evidence that perhaps it is feasible for airlines to adopt biofuels in order to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

Jatropha has been recognized recently as a viable alternative to many biofuels. Gas 2.0 reports on the reasons that jatropha seems to show such promise. Air New Zealand worked with Rolls-Royce, Boeing and Honeywell’s UOP to develop drop-in biofuel technology, which involves a commercial Boeing 747 carrying a Rolls Royce engine. The fuel used is a blend of standard jet fuel and kerosene derived from jatropha oil.

This test proves that Aviation can be a catlyst for cutting greenhouse gases and that the leading carriers of the world are serious about it. Kudos to Air New Zealand for doing this and maybe the airline will pioneer in getting large amount of its fleets on this soon.

Jet Airways Launches Second daily flight to Bangkok

Jet Airways has announced that beginning 16th August 2009, it will introduce a second daily direct flight between Mumbai and Bangkok. This comes on the heels of a increasing international network for Jet Airways and strong load factors on the route. The timings are as follows

9W 068 BOM – BKK 1245 1840

9W 067 BKK – BOM 2040 2230

The new flight will be operated by a Boeing 737-800.  This new flight connects well to its London flight both ways.

Air India Express launches Trichy-Abu Dhabi

Air India Express launched twice a week service ( Thursday and Saturday) connecting Trichy and AbuDhabi . This is the third overseas destination being served from Trichy.

The flight will depart Chennai at 12.50 p.m. and arrive here at 1.40 p.m. It would leave for Abu Dhabi at 2.30 p.m.

In the return direction, the flight will arrive at Tiruchi from Abu Dhabi at 11.55 p.m. and depart for Chennai at 12.50 a.m. It will reach Chennai at 1.40 a.m.

The airline offers attractive one way fare starting from Rs.6,439 from Tiruchi to Abu Dhabi.

Boeing moves second 787 to flight line

Boeing has moved its second 787 Dreamliner to the flight line in Everett as the company closes in on first flight.

“Momentum continues to build with each milestone achieved,” said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 Dreamliner program, in a statement.

The second 787 sports the livery of Dreamliner launch customer All Nippon Airways. Boeing will begin fuel tests immediately on the second Dreamliner.

Boeing still plans to fly the first Dreamliner by the end of the month and make its first 787 delivery to ANA early next year.

Boeing gains five Dreamliner orders, loses five 767s

Boeing updated its jet orders Web site Thursday, showing that it booked five new 787 Dreamliner orders while at the same time canceling orders for five 767s.

The net impact is that Boeing’s orders for the year still stand at zero, with 65 new orders and 65 canceled orders.

Boeing did not identify the customers involved. It’s possible the change is due to a switch of orders from a single customer.

American latest to try 757s on international routes

American Airlines has become the latest U.S. airline to begin flying Boeing 757 jets on international routes. AA yesterday unveiled a reconfigured version of its 757 that it says it will deploy on certain trans-Atlantic and Latin American routes. AA says it is reconfiguring 18 of its 124 757s for international service. AA’s 757’s “revamped interiors — which include new seats and updated in-flight entertainment systems — are expected to be completed by the end of the year. The 757 Business Class cabin, with a 2-2 seating configuration, features 16 lie-flat seats with drop-down armrests. The coach cabin has 166 seats in a 3-3 configuration.”

The first flight on one of those 757s took place yesterday, flying between New York JFK and Brussels.  AA will also fly the 757s between Miami and Salvador, Brazil, with continuing service to Recife.

AA “also has revamped 47 Boeing 777 airplanes to improve passenger comfort on flights performing on U.S. routes to the United Kingdom, Japan, China, India and Latin America.”Continuing upgrades of AA’s 767-200s are expected to be finished by mid-year.

Jet Airways to put freeze on new fleet addition

Jet Airways, the country’s second largest private carrier by market share, has decided to put a freeze on the addition of new fleet, apart from postponing future aircraft deliveries for two years. This is on the back of overcapacity for most airlines with a large number of aircraft lying unused. 

Jet Airways, which operates over 370 flights daily, operates a fleet of 86 aircraft that includes Boeing, Airbus and ATR. Out of these, 38 are owned by Jet with the other 48 being leased. The Jet-JetLite combine has a total fleet of 110 aircraft. 

Jet Airways chief executive officer Wolfgang Prock-Schauer confirmed the development to ET saying, “There will be no addition of fleet with the operating remaining the same in the current financial year. We will expand our fleet once operation stabilise.” 

Jet Airways had Rs 1,330 crore cash at the end of March 31, 2009 with a debt equity ratio 5:1. The debt on the books stands at $3.1 billion. The Naresh Goyal-promoted airline has reduced capacity by a fifth in the domestic market and is expected to reduce further. “We are evaluating the situation as the industry still has excess capacity of 20%,” Prock-Schauer said. 

In April, Jet’s domestic traffic was down 38% to 5.52 lakh passengers from 8.39 lakh a year earlier. It has cut back on flights through route rationalisation and has already wet-leased nine surplus aircraft. For the last quarter, it earned revenues of $34 million from leasing out its fleet. On airfares, Prock-Schauer said fares will be competitive in the coming weeks and as long as overcapacity remained, yields in the domestic segment will continue to remain under pressure. 

Jet and Kingfisher came together last October and formed an operational alliance to reduce capacity. “The alliance is still in progress and we cannot comment at this juncture,” Prock-Schauer said in a conference call with analysts. When queried on allowing foreign airlines to pick up equity in domestic companies, he said there was no need to change the rule. 

In a bid to contain losses, Jet has significantly cut down its fleet size and reduced flights on the domestic network. Loss incurred by domestic airline industry was about Rs 10,000 crore in 2008-09.

New low-cost airline JetAmerica targets smaller markets

A new low-cost airline will begin serving mid-sized U.S. cities that it thinks larger carriers have left behind.

Clearwater, Fla.-based JetAmerica said 34 nonstop passenger flights a week will start July 13 at Toledo, Ohio; South Bend, Ind.; Melbourne, Fla.; Newark, N.J.; Minneapolis and Lansing, Mich. Twenty-eight flights start or end at Newark Liberty International Airport. The carrier will add six more flights — from Toledo to Minneapolis — starting Aug. 14.

JetAmerica is targeting small and midsize cities like Lansing, which has seen the number of daily flights at its Capital Region International Airport fall from 35 to 12 the past five years. The decline is part of a national trend that has seen airfares increase at those airports as daily flights have decreased.

Robert Selig, head of the Capital Region Airport Authority, said JetAmerica will give Lansing business travelers direct access to New York City and carry leisure travelers to central Florida.

“We don’t have access to either one right now,” Selig said. “So, this is going to fill a major void in our schedule.”

Filling that void won’t be cheap.

The Lansing, South Bend, Melbourne and Toledo airports are subsidizing JetAmerica with $1.4 million in grants in its first year, along with about $867,000 in waived airport fees and $1.1 million in marketing and advertising assistance.

South Bend, Toledo and Melbourne received their grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Small Community Air Service Development Program, which has awarded $104 million to 223 recipients since 2002 in an effort to restore lost service and bring air fares down.

Newark and Minneapolis, each of which serve more than 20 million passengers a year, are not offering assistance to JetAmerica.

John Weikle, chief executive of JetAmerica, said the subsidies will help insulate the new carrier from spikes in jet fuel prices. Higher fuel prices have contributed to the failures of at least four major airlines since 9/11. Smaller carriers have also been hurt.

Surging fuel prices helped bankrupt ultra-discounter Skybus Inc. last year. Weikle founded that Columbus, Ohio-based airline known for its $10 fares. The bankruptcy cost 450 employees their jobs.

JetAmerica’s pricing scheme will share some Skybus characteristics.

Prices will start at $9 a seat and top out at $199. The $9 price will apply to the first nine to 19 seats on each plane. Passengers will pay $15 to check a bag. Food, drinks and in-flight TV will also come at a cost.

The carrier is starting out with one leased Boeing 737-800, expects to add a second in the first month, and have as many as four by July of next year. Weikle’s business plans calls for an additional 189-seat jet to be leased every four months.

Each Boeing 737-800 can fly to four cities a day, Weikle said.

Weikle estimated JetAmerica’s revenue at more than $50 million in the first year and about $150 million in the second. He compares his business model to that of Wal-Mart Inc., which started out by serving cities of less than 50,000 people because competitors were not interested in them.

JetAmerica plans to serve Melbourne, Fla., with at least six flights a week. Richard Ennis, executive director of Melbourne International Airport, said JetAmerica’s planes and nonstop routes persuaded him to support the carrier. Melbourne, a coastal community about 70 miles southeast of Orlando, recorded a 45 percent decline in passenger traffic at its airport from 2000 to 2008.

Ennis said carriers with larger jets like the Boeing 737-800 charge less per seat, which is an advantage enjoyed by Orlando International Airport and Orlando Sanford International Airport.

“It’s the only way I can beat them out,” Ennis said of the neighboring airports.

Jet Airways gets access to fly to Sharjah from India

India’s second-ranked airline by passengers carried, Jet Airways (India) Ltd, has been permitted by the aviation ministry to expand services to West Asia, connecting four Indian cities with Sharjah, raising concern among smaller rivals planning to fly to the region that their large peers are hogging limited, bilaterally negotiated rights. 

Jet entered the West Asia market in January last year on expiry of a rule that allowed only the national carrier—National Aviation Co. of India Ltd, or Nacil, that runs the Air India services—to fly to this region. With some six million Indians estimated to be working in the region, with about a quarter of them in the United Arab Emirates, Jet Airways expanded quickly into these lucrative routes as part of its first phase of international expansion that included connections to the US and Europe. 
Of the 18 cities it connects internationally now, six are in this region, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Doha, Kuwait and Muscat. It plans to add three more cities—Riyadh, Jeddah and Sharjah—to its West Asia network. 
Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, Jet Airway’s bigger rival by share of passengers carried, which flies to London, Dhaka and Colombo, does not operate flights to West Asia yet. 
A Jet Airways spokeswoman confirmed to Mint that her airline had received permission for flights to Sharjah but declined further detail. 
Outbound: Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal. Six of the airline’s current international destinations are in West Asia. Ramesh Pathania / Mint 
The permissions for Jet Airways from the outgoing government cover daily services to Sharjah from Kochi, Kozhikode (formerly Calicut), Thiruvananthapuram and Mumbai, according to a senior government official who wanted to remain anonymous. 
The airline earlier this year started flying the Chennai-Dubai and Mumbai-Kuwait routes even as it cut down on domestic routes. 
“The introduction of these new flights will serve to further strengthen our Gulf network, better enabling us to offer passengers seamless connectivity and a world-class product on the Indo-Gulf sector,” Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, chief executive officer, Jet Airways, said in an April statement while announcing the launch of Mumbai-Riyadh and Mumbai-Jeddah services. 
The ongoing expansion by large carriers to West Asia is likely to make it difficult for smaller carriers such as SpiceJet Ltd, which too is in the process of selecting routes to fly international next year when it completes flying the stipulated minimum of five years on domestic routes for eligibility to fly overseas. 
On routes in countries in West Asia or those such as China, the civil aviation ministry grants rights to carriers based on agreed bilateral rights with each of those countries, and several West Asian routes have already used up the maximum number of flights. 
SpiceJet may have to keep in mind the bilateral capacity while selecting the routes it chooses to fly, said Samyukth Sridharan, its chief commercial officer. “It is too early. We are still doing our study and will finalize (routes) by mid-July,” he said of the international operations from next year. “Obviously we will have to keep that (bilaterals) in mind.” 

An aviation expert said the ministry should check if the permission given to Jet Airways to fly on any overseas routes governed by bilateral agreements are utilized or not. “If not, other carriers should get an equitable share,” said Kapil Kaul, India CEO for the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, an aviation consultancy. 
The permission given to Jet Airways comes at a time when the airline has been told by West Asian carriers to which it had leased four long-haul Boeing Co.-made 777 planes to that the aircraft will be returned by the end of this year. A Jet Airways executive, who asked not to be identified, said it was in talks with two SouthEast Asian airlines and one West Asian carrier to lease out these aircraft for six more months after December. 
The once profitable Jet Airways has seen its losses mount over the past three years, and analysts expect it to post a loss of Rs150-250 crore for the last quarter of fiscal 2009. 
If the airline is unable to clinch the new leases, this executive said, it could result in changes in its international operations or parking the planes on ground.

787 will probably have first flight by end-June 2009

Boeing is sticking to its assertion that its long-delayed 787 will take its first flight before the end of the second quarter. That news is attracting Bronx cheers from some quarters of the blogosphere, which after two years of delays is taking anything the company has to say about the new jet’s delivery schedule with a huge grain of salt. 

But recent reports from Seattle-area journalists and aerospace industry publications certainly indicate that the Dreamliner is about to take flight. 

What catches my eye is this: the first 787 went back to the paint hangar at Boeing’s Everett factory for touch-ups earlier this month. It emerged over the weekend, and now that the plane is ready, any day now Boeing should start a series of ground tests of some basic functions. (For instance, if you flip the switch do the lights come on? If you pull back on the yoke in the cockpit, do the flaps respond? ) After that, Boeing will tow the plane over to its flight line, next door to Paine Field, where it will do more intensive tests, including firing up the engines for the first time. 

This ground-based testing is the final phase of the manufacturing process. One report says that Boeing’s planning to take two months to work through all of it. That suggests, then, that a first flight could take place sometime toward the end of May or early June, if all goes perfectly. And if there are glitches, Boeing will have all of June to get them fixed, making it seem reasonable to me that the first jet will fly before the first of July. 

In other good news for the 787 program, IcelandAir said today that it’s still committed to plans to buy four Dreamliners from Boeing, despite the airline industry slump and all of Iceland’s financial problems. Boeing has sold nearly 900 of the new planes, but has seen 32 of those orders canceled this year. 

And speaking of Boeing orders, Turkish Airlines said today in a regulatory filing that it plans to buy five 777-300 jets in 2010-11. This would be a new order that Boeing hasn’t listed on its books. 

On the other hand, FedEx is threatening to back out of a deal for 15 777s if Congress approves changes in labor law that would make it easier for FedEx employees to form local unions.

Russian Aviation authority suspends 737 flights

Russia’s aviation authority has suspended flights aboard Boeing 737s until their pilots receive additional training after a recent deadly crash, an official said Thursday.

All 88 people aboard a Boeing 737-500 died when the plane operated by the Russian Aeroflot-Nord crashed Sept. 14 while preparing to land in the city of Perm in the Ural Mountains area.

Federal Agency of Air Transport spokesman Sergei Samoshin said Thursday the agency has suspended flights by planes similar to the one that crashed until their pilots can undergo more training on simulators.

Samoshin said that Russian carriers now operate 107 Boeing 737s. He would not say how many of them would be affected or specify how long the suspension would last.

The RIA Novosti news agency said the measure referred to a subtype of Boeing 737-500 which is in service with six Russian carriers. It did not say how many planes would be affected.

The training is necessary to make sure that all pilots properly read a key indicator showing the plane’s attitude, the so-called attitude indicator or artificial horizon, Samoshin said.

The attitude indicator is designed differently on Soviet-made planes and Western airliners.

Transport officials initially blamed the crash in Perm on a faulty engine that caught fire, but the investigating committee said it had found no sign of engine fire or other malfunction.

Investigators have yet to determine what caused the crash – Russia’s worst air disaster in two years. Aviation experts and observers said the crash was likely caused by a pilot error.

Perm flight controller Irek Bikbov said in remarks broadcast by state-run Channel One television on the day of the crash that the plane’s pilot was behaving strangely, disobeying orders to descend on the final approach and instead taking the jet to a higher altitude. Bikbov said he then ordered the pilot to make a second run, but instead of making the right turn he turned left. When the controller asked the pilot if things were normal on board, the pilot answered positively.

Some experts say the pilot’s strange behavior could have been caused by his failure to properly read the attitude indicator’s reading which could have led to a dangerous maneuver and then crash. The pilot of the plane which crashed in Perm had flown Soviet-made planes before and had relatively little experience in piloting Boeings.

Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx declined comment, saying company officials so far had only seen news reports out of Moscow and needed to get more information.

Air New Zealand modifies planes to cut fuel costs

Air New Zealand is to fit winglets to its Boeing 767-300ER planes to cut fuel consumption and reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the airline said on Tuesday.

The airline said it expected the modifications would save more than NZ$7.5 million ($4.9 million) in fuel costs and cut CO2 emissions by around 16,000 tonnes a year.

 

The winglets, developed by Aviation Partners Boeing, are 3.4 metre (11 feet) high wing-tip devices, and reduce the drag near the wing tip, which means the aircraft uses less fuel, and can climb faster.

Air NZ’s five 767 planes fly to Australia and around the Pacific and will be modified from next July.

 

The airline said it would look at fitting the winglets to planes on long range services such as its Boeing 777-200ERs.

 

It said it would also fit electrically-powered dryers to all its fleet to reduce moisture trapped in aircraft insulation, which would also save fuel and cut carbon emissions.

 

The driers could be expected to typically remove from each aircraft around 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of water caused by passengers exhaling and condensation from cold temperatures outside the aircraft.

Strike at Boeing will cost $100m a day

More than 27,000 Boeing workers have started strike action in a dispute that will cost the aerospace company $100 million (£56.6 million) in lost revenue for every day that it lasts.

Emergency talks on a new wage settlement collapsed at the end of last week and the walkout became formal on Saturday.

Boeing’s production lines for 737, 747 and 777 aircraft have been halted, despite a record backlog of work worth $275 billion.

The stoppage could also further delay Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, which may expose the company to yet more demands for compensation from angry airlines. The 787 is already running more than a year behind schedule and was scheduled to make its first flight this year.

Production lines at its massive facilities in Everett and Renton, both in Washington State, will stop. The company will deliver aircraft that have come off production lines, but will not do any more assembly work. 

Boeing’s offer proposed an 11 per cent wage increase over the three-year life of the contract, a one-time lump sum and other incentives.

The union is demanding a 13 per cent wage increase, no change to healthcare contributions and the rollback of provisions allowing Boeing to outsource work.

AA finalises new Boeing 737 deal

American Airlines (AA) has announced the completion of an additional order for 26 Boeing next-generation 737 aircraft.

This forms part of the 2009 to 2010 fleet renewal plans revealed by the operator earlier in the year and AA now has 36 737-800s on order with Boeing as well as fast tracking orders made in previous years.
The 737-800 is the most popular version in Boeing’s next-generation series of aircraft, largely due to its strong fuel efficiency, reliability and performances statistics