To the world, he is a natural born diplomat who has made the transition from CEO of Cathay Pacific Airways to the director general and CEO of the International Air Transport Association, with consummate ease. Read More »

When the International Air Transport Association (IATA) issued its latest global profit forecast at the annual general meeting in Doha in June, Asia-Pacific carriers were predicted to report a collective 2014 profit of US$3.2 billion, compared with a $2 billion profit a year earlier. Read More »

In the final week of August, the 19,500 staff of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) heard the news of their new future. The soon-to-be fully privatized carrier will become a shadow of its former operating self, they were told, after the country’s Prime Minister, Najib Razak, had approved the survival strategy for the carrier a few days earlier. Read More »

If Qantas Airways chief executive, Alan Joyce, had any misgivings about announcing the company’s massive after tax loss for the latest financial year, he did not show it. Read More »

When Airbus confirmed it was launching its upgraded A330Neo, quickly followed by high-flying Malaysian long-haul low cost carrier AirAsia X’s order of 50 of the type, for $13.8 billion at list prices, the order spotlight at the biennial Farnborough Air show clearly had moved from the Gulf to the Asia-Pacific. Read More »

Increasing numbers of Asia-Pacific airlines are signing up for the latest in Wi-Fi systems, giving passengers unprecedented inflight communications and entertainment access via their tablets and smartphones. Read More »

When a 51 word fax, written in English, arrived at Skymark Airlines’ Tokyo office on Sunday July 27, the airline’s president, Shinichi Nishikubo, knew his dream of flying the A380 on international routes was evaporating. He also knew the message threatened the survival of his airline. Read More »

It has been a busy few months for Etihad Airways chief executive, James Hogan. Commuting between Abu Dhabi, Italy and India, he pinned down a 49% holding in Italy’s struggling Alitalia in early August before he flew on to Mumbai to underscore his commitment to turning around India’s Jet Airways, another of his poorly performing investments. Read More »

Vietnam Airlines president and chief executive, Pham Ngoc Minh, last month confirmed the airline would launch an initial public offering (IPO) in November, with the intention of raising US$70.8 million through the sale of a 5% equity in the government owned airline. Read More »

When Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 and its 298 passengers and crew were shot out of the sky over the Ukraine, allegedly by pro-Russian rebels, the world reacted with horror and condemnation. Read More »

Airline profitability can be elusive even in the best of economic times and the Asia-Pacific is no exception. Read More »

Air New Zealand (AirNZ) reported the best annual profit result in its history, at NZ$262 million (US$218 million), a 45% increase over the previous year. AirNZ CEO, Christopher Luxon, said the profit would help fund the NZ$2.2 billion the carrier is spending on a fleet upgrade and NZ$40 million on lounge facilities in Australia and New Zealand. Read More »

Virgin Australia CEO, John Borghetti, surprised the market when he revealed at the company’s results announcement that the airline intended to sell 35% of its Velocity frequent flyer program to private equity group, Affinity Equity Partners. Read More »

All Nippon Airways (ANA) has announced a net income of US$3.5 billion yen (US$34.4 million) for its first quarter, to June 30, compared with a loss of 6.6 billion yen for the same months in 2013. Read More »

Singapore Airlines and its joint venture partner, the Tata Group, unveiled the name and livery of their Indian new airline – Vistara - in Mumbai last month, with the airline’s chairman declaring it “was a momentous day” for Indian aviation. Vistara, said the company, is derived from the Sanskrit word vistaar, which translates to limitless space. Read More »

Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines has become the first of the “Big Three” carriers to enter the budget sector with the conversion of its Beijing-based airline, China United Airlines, into a low-cost carrier. Read More »

A new Japanese government panel will review the turnaround support package provided to Japan Airlines (JAL), by the former Democratic Party of Japan government, in 2013, with some members of the ruling Liberal Democratic government arguing the rescue package distorted airline competition. Read More »

Scoot boss, Campbell Wilson, believes Terminal 4 (T4) at Singapore Changi Airport will be a retrograde step and “frankly a folly” when it is completed in 2017. Speaking at a Sydney airline conference last month, Wilson said T4, which will increase Changi’s capacity to 82 million passengers a year, will be two kilometres from the existing terminal and will require a bus transfer for connecting passengers. Read More »

Since Mainland China’s five largest banks received permission to enter the global aircraft leasing market in 2007, they have built significant market share among their country’s airlines and the with aircraft manufacturers. The most recent development was the China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings deal to lease Air India five A320s, the Mainland company’s first foreign client. Read More »

The search is on for a successor to Garuda Indonesia’s CEO, Emirsyah Satar, who has lead the transformation of the flag carrier in the last decade, but is required under Indonesian law to step down. Read More »

In an article, “Nascent Recovery”, published in the July/August 2014 edition of Orient Aviation, it was reported that an Indian budget carrier, SpiceJet, was looking for a financial lifeline “after it recently terminated a contract with Bain & Co.” Read More »

Hong Kong headquartered Cathay Pacific Airways has announced an interim profit of HK$347 million (US$45 million) to June 30, compared with a HK$24 million profit a year ago. Read More »

Garuda Indonesia, after reporting an interim loss of US$ 212 million to June 30, said it will eliminate unprofitable routes and seek more efficiencies in its operations as it seeks savings of US$55 million to balance its books. Garuda shut down Jakarta-Taipei in July and deferred plans to launch flights from Jakarta to Manila and Mumbai. It is also considering delaying delivery of some of the 27 aircraft it has on order from Airbus and Boeing. Read More »

China’s flag carrier, Air China, said foreign exchange losses produced a 58% decline in interim profit, to US$76.94 million, despite an increase in revenue of 7%. Read More »

Global carrier, Singapore Airlines (SIA), said net profit for the parent company declined by 71.4% to S$35 million (US$28 million) for the three months to June 30, compared with the same months last year. Read More »

Thai Airways International (THAI) has reported a second quarter loss of 7.7 billion baht (US$241 million), compared with losses of 8.4 billion baht a year ago. Read More »

Energetic budget carrier, Cebu Pacific, has reported a second quarter income of three billion pesos (US$69 million) compared with 257 million pesos a year ago. Read More »

AIRLINES: Full service carrier, Batik Air, which is a subsidiary of Indonesia’s Lion Air, has taken delivery of the first of six leased B737-800s that it will use to extend its operations to regional services by year end. Aviation Corp. of China (AVIC) has launched Cambodia Bayon Airlines and announced it plans to build its fleet with an order for 20 of AVIC’s MA60s and 10 A320s by 2019. Read More »

Asia-Pacific airlines saw a firm 6.8% increase passengers carried, to 20.3 million international passengers in May, almost unchanged from the 6.7% year-on-year growth recorded in April. Business and leisure travel markets continued to benefit from an overall improvement in the global economy, as reflected in the 6.5% increase in international passenger traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPK). Read More »

Tony Fernandes said his AirAsia Group second quarter profit jumped to 367.2 million ringgit (US$116.01 million), from 58 million ringgit in the same months last year, with a foreign currency gain of 203 million ringgit on its borrowings compared with a loss of 122 million ringgit a year ago. Read More »