Commercial Aviation News

Boeing snaps up orders for 737 aircraft

Boeing said it recieved 14 firm orders for its Boeing737 jets. The break down is 12 from Sberbank Leasing, a unit of Sberbank of Russia and two others from an unidentified buyer.

Virgin Atlantic is cutting back and increasing and changing up operations to the Caribbean for the 2013/14 winter season. Anyone who may be planning on coming to the region via this carrier take a look at some of the preliminary changes.

Lufthansa said it will cancel almost 1700 flights on Monday 22, April, mostly on domestic and short-haul European routes, as a result of planned strike action by thousands of workers calling for higher pay.

International Airlines Group or IAG recently signed a MOU (Memorandam of Understanding) to order some 18 Airbus A350-1000 XWBs powered by the Rolls Royce Trents

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Boeing first-quarter earnings for the year jump by nearly 20-percent despite all the revenue lost through the grounding of their revolutionary 787 Dreamliner. First-quarter net income rose to USD$1.1 billion, from USD$923 million a year earlier. Revenue slipped 2.5 percent to USD$18.9 billion, hit by a halt in 787 deliveries.

China signed a deal with Airbus on Thursday to purchase 60 planes, 18 A330 jets and 42 medium-haul A320-family aircraft.

Not a good look for this pilot here...

http://www.emirates247.com/news/region/saudi-jet-aborts-take-off-after-accident-on-runway-2013-04-29-1.504391

A glimpse of Thomson's first 787 coming out of the dark with 787s being returned to service. I like the swirling liverly.

Photo by Royal S King...

American company Boeing has basically started offering the 777X to airlines and leasing companies, the last step before a formal launch event. The new talks with customers cover "additional technical, pricing and schedule details" about the possibly stretched, re-engined and rewinged update of the 777 series, Boeing says. "We are aggressively moving forward per our plan and customers are happy with our progress," according to Boeing.

Thomson has released the dates for the start of commercial service of their first Boeing 787 aircraft. UK holiday carrier Thomson Airways is to carry out its first Boeing 787 services in the second week of July, 2013. Thomson says the first flights will take place on 8 July on routes to Cancun and Florida.

Boeing says they will compensate Air India inlight of the 787 grounding

Boeing has agreed to compensate state-run Air India for the grounding of 787 Dreamliner passenger jets, the Indian aviation minister said on Friday. Air India has six 787s and has ordered 21 more. The planes have been grounded worldwide since January following incidents of overheating in the batteries providing auxiliary power. Boeing has since worked to develop new battery housings to prevent reoccurences of the incidents that grounded the planes in the first instance. Ethiopian Airlines became the first carrier to resume flying the revamped-batteried 787s last week.

The Airbus-Boeing war has been on-going but it definitely has taken to a new height now. Seems like Airbus has forced Boeing to introduce their 777X project to fruition. Of course hardly any details are known at this stage but with IAG's mega 6 billion dollar order for Airbus A350-1000s for British Airways, Boeing can't ignore any longer. The 777X will be an improved version of the current 777s that exist that have been in service since the 1990s. The Triple Seven is perhaps Boeing's recent best-seller in wide-body category. For sure the new bird will feature new GE engines and may even have foldable wingtips but this isn't 100% clear. With the A350-1000 set to come into service in 2017, Boeing are already behind the 8-ball. This revamped 777X maybe in by 2020.

Gulf Airlines stress that Boeing must avoid 787 mistakes with the 777X

Gulf airline giants Emirates and Qatar Airways are warning that Boeing has to avoid the painful mistakes of the 787 that cost customers millions of dollars due to battery problems. Qatar Airways themselves are expected to recieve compensation in some form from Boeing as a result. These fast-growing Gulf carriers are expected to be among the first and possibly biggest customers for Boeing's latest offering, which was presented to customers last week.

"For sure they have changed, I hope they have," Emirates' President Tim Clark said, when asked whether the 787 crisis has changed Boeing's approach and thinking. "Boeing came out of the ashes of the Sonic Cruiser years ago and came up with the Dreamliner, which was a leap of faith by any stretch. They were just beginning to stabilise when things went wrong again," said Clark. Although Emirates is not a 787 customer, they are the largest Boeing 777 operator with up to 175 jets, some of which will need replacing in the near future and they are very interested in this revamped new generation 777 (X).

WestJet orders ten Boeing 737-800 aircraft and defers five 737-700s

Canadian based air carrier WestJet has put in an order to Boeing for ten of their Boeing 737-800 aircraft while they will defer five 700 models that were due between 2014-2015 to 2015-2016. With a separate third-party agreement, WestJet is expected to sell ten of its oldest 737-700s to a third party in 2014 and 2015. Removing these older aircraft will lower the age of WestJet's fleet by a year, it says.

Qatar Airways' hand forced by One World

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11915951/1/us-airways-move-to-oneworld-brings-qatar-airlines-to-philly.html?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO

Bombardier CSeries on track for first flight in June

(Reuters)

Air China looking to add to fleet, places orders for Airbus type

Asia's largest carrier in terms of market value has announced plans to add 100 Airbus SAS aircraft to their fleet to help respond to increasing travel demand from Chinese passengers. The order is of predominantly narrow-body A320 family aircraft.

The second BA Boeing 787-8 is painted and out in the open. Her reg number is G-ZBJB, the first is G-ZBJA. The first one is in the background.

The new Airbus A350XWB rolled out of the Airbus Paintshed in it's Airbus colours. It looks good I must say!

The first Boeing 787-8 for Thomson is set to arrive in the UK at the end of May, approximately one month before the first commercial flight is to take place. They will become the first UK carrier to fly the 787.