A British Airways Airbus A350 collided with an Emirates 777 at Dubai International Airport, early today morning. The two aircraft involved in the incident were: A British Airways A350-1000 G-XWBA, which was the first A350 to join British Airways in July 2019. Emirates Boeing 777-300ER A6-EBR, a 14-year-old aircraft delivered to Emirates in August 2006. The British Airways aircraft was …

Polish Aviation Group (PGL), the parent company of LOT Polish Airlines has cancelled its takeover of German leisure carrier Condor. The Takeover Condor was owned by now-defunct Thomas Cook Group which went into liquidation in September 2019. The airline was given a bridge loan by the German government to keep operating since it had a working business model and to …

The majority of the global aircraft fleet is grounded at the moment and airlines do not expect demand to return to the pre coronavirus levels any time soon. As such, some airlines have begun longer-term planning of their fleets – in many cases accelerating the retirements of their older aircraft. American is retiring it’s Embraer 190s, 76 Boeing 737-800s, its …

As the airline industry grapples with the largest demand shock in history, India’s skies are closed to all passenger traffic. 650 aircraft are grounded, cash-flows have dried up and pay-cuts and layoffs are the new normal. It does not help that the corona crisis came at a time where the country was also dealing with a banking crisis. Add to …

The closure of many countries air space and the general lack of demand has led to the cancellation of a number of flights from all corners of the world. Because of this many countries are operating charter or special flights to bring their stranded citizens back home. Air India and the India air force operated multiple flights to China, Iran, …

With the rapid spread of the coronavirus pandemic, airlines have experienced the largest demand shock in history. Overnight demand has evaporated and each passing day brings with it news of airlines grounding entire fleets. International markets are shut and for India’s airlines, contrary to the narrative that domestic demand will help mitigate the impact, the situation is actually worse. This …

Boeing has announced that it will suspend all aircraft production at their factories in the Puget Sound area in Washington, USA. The shutdown is due to the prevailing state of emergency declared in Washington and due to the continuing spread of the Covid-19 virus. Boeing is reducing operations today and will shut down on 25 March 2020. The shutdown will …

The Indian government has ordered a shut down of all passenger flights into and within India. On the heels of suspending international flights, all domestic scheduled commercial flights are to cease operations effective 23:59 hours IST (UTC+5.5) March 24, 2020. Flights have to land at their destination before this deadline. There is no re-start date announced at this time, but …

As of this writing, forty airlines across the globe have announced a complete grounding of their fleet. Others ranging from Emirates and Lufthansa to AirAsia, Qantas and AirFrance-KLM are cutting capacity to as high as 90%. Massive layoffs, bankruptcies and airline shutdowns are likely. All this havoc driven by a particle that is one-billionth of a meter (a nanometer) in …

As the Coronavirus impact spreads and airlines prepare to brace for impact, the airline industry is facing its gravest challenge yet. Casualties have started. FlyBe – the largest regional airline in the UK has already ceased operations after an unsuccessful buyout and attempted turnaround. Other airline failures are all but certain. Forecasts from various industry quarters including IATA estimate a …

As the coronavirus continues to spread it is wreaking havoc on the airline industry. With 95,484 confirmed cases and 3,286 deaths, a vaccine and cure are yet to be found. Each day new cases are reported and air travel continues to be impacted. Forecasts from various industry quarters including IATA estimate a drastic decline in demand. Losses emanating from this …

British flag carrier British Airways is adding an additional three weekly flights to Bangalore. The airline currently operates a daily flight using the newest aircraft in their fleet the Airbus A350-1000 which features the airline’s brand new business class suites. The new flights will begin in April 2020 and be operated using the airline’s three-class Boeing 777-200s. Time-table for British …

Britain’s other major carrier, Virgin Atlantic, rather unexpectedly, announced a seasonal, thrice-weekly service between Manchester and New Delhi starting Winter 2020. The new service will begin from the 26th of October 2020 operating on Monday, Thursday and Saturday on an ex-Air Berlin A330-200 aircraft. Virgin Atlantic added four of these aircraft to its fleet starting March 2018 to deal with …

American Airlines had a code-share agreement with Qatar Airways which it terminated in 2017 claiming unfair government subsidies to the Gulf carrier Both airlines are members of the oneworld alliance Both airlines remain tight-lipped on what developments caused the rapprochement oneworld alliance members American Airlines and Qatar Airways appear to have buried the hatchet and put aside their disputes to …

As the government of India attempts to privatise Air India, media reports suggest the second time around is seeing renewed interest. Reports also indicate the government is keen the Air India brand is retained post any sale. One can see why. The airline is still India’s national carrier and the brand has a high recall value and familiarity quotient. Despite …

The announcement by the owners of Air Italy that it will suspend operations on 25th February brought to an end the short-lived resurrection of the airline that was founded in 1963 and flew by the names of Meridiana, Meridiana Fly and Air Italy under various ownership structures over the years. Qatar Airways, which picked up a 49% stake in the …

February 14th saw SpiceJet report its third-quarter results. The airline reported a profit of INR 78.2 crores but we believe the results warrant closer examination. This because of the Boeing 737MAX grounding and the fact that compensation that has been recorded but not yet received by SpiceJet significantly contributed to this result. Additionally, in looking at the operational numbers, it …

American Airlines announced new nonstop service from Seattle to Bengaluru as part of a broader move to turn Seattle into an international gateway. American will also deepen its relationship with US regional carrier Alaska Airlines (the largest airline in Seattle by passengers carried) with a widespread codeshare agreement and the addition of Alaska to the OneWorld global airline alliance. The …