Avianca-TACA has signed a firm order with Airbus for 51 aircraft, 33 A320neo and 18 A320 aircraft.  The A320neo model incorporates “Sharklet” wing tip devices and new engines which together should deliver 15% in fuel savings.  This reduction is equivalent to 1.4m liters of fuel less per year (about what 1,000 mid-sized cars consume), and [...]

American Airlines outlined plans to cut 13,000 jobs as it seeks to raise an additional $3bn in revenue per year by 2017.  The plan, which targets $2bn in cost savings and $1bn in additional revenue per year, is designed to allow the airline to reduce its debt and become financially viable in the years after [...]

BAA lost its latest appeal against a Competition Commission decision forcing it to sell Stansted Airport.  The ruling is the latest in a long-running dispute over airport capacity in the south of England. BAA was already forced to sell Gatwick Airport. The Competition Commission first ruled over three years ago that BAA must sell the [...]

Readers of this blog have seen us write about this sad airline and even sadder country.  Its history since independence is littered with nasty stories piled on top of stories of incredible incompetence.  We came across a note from a journalist Jan Raath, once based in that country.  We reproduce the story here because it [...]

The Seychelles agreed to sell 40% of Air Seychelles to Etihad Airways as part of a strategic partnership alliance initiative.  This follows a similar deal between Etihad and airBerlin. Under the terms of the deal Etihad will invest $20m in Air Seychelles, and then this will be matched by the government of Seychelles.  The deal [...]

German and Austrian regulatory authorities approved the deal announced last month in which Etihad Airways increased its shareholding in airberlin to 29.21%.  The approved strategic partnership between the airlines offers passengers a combined global network of 239 destinations, connected via hubs in Abu Dhabi, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Vienna and Palma de Majorca. Both airlines have announced [...]

easyJet reported +16.7% revenues for the first quarter to £763m, which it credited to its low fares. Load factors were also good – through the three months ending December traffic increased by 8.1% to 12.9m and the load factor rose by 0.9pp to 87.6%.  Unit revenues rose +9.2% to £51.83 per seat. easyJet also said [...]

This morning Norwegian Air Shuttle did two deals nobody was expecting.  They bought both MAX and NEO – a la American Airlines.  The combined deal is worth over $21bn at retail prices but you can be sure they did not pay that. The deal is for 100 MAX-8, plus 22 7237-800s and 100 A320neos.   Norwegian [...]

Reuters reports that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said on Tuesday it was seeking penalties and legal costs against AirAsia.  The ACCC believes the airline's advertising of its fares for some routes out of Australia was misleading. AirAsia's apparently website failed to show fares that included all taxes, duties, fees and other mandatory charges [...]

Flybe’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Jim French made the following comments on last week's news the UK government is going to evaluate the idea originally proposed by London Lord Mayor Boris Johnson: “Flybe supports any infrastructure investment that improves connectivity for the British travelling public and will respond to the proposed formal consultation in [...]