Air France will negotiate with Boeing and leasing company AerCap to cancel the delivery of five 787 passenger jets, Chief Executive Frederic Gagey said on Monday as he unveiled new cost-cutting measures for the troubled airline. The five Boeing planes had been due for delivery in 2016 and 2017, Gagey said during a news conference, adding that additional orders for the 787 were also under r...
Airbus faces a double test of confidence in the A380 superjumbo in the coming months as Singapore Airlines ponders whether to renew its first lease while the planemaker seeks to bolster new sales, a leading industry banker said. The Southeast Asian airline was the first to fly the world's largest airliner in 2007 and a 10-year lease for its first aircraft expires in 2017. Airlines...
Airbus said it won orders for a further 121 aircraft last month, including the sale of 110 A321neo jets to low-cost carrier Wizz Air, taking the number of gross orders for the first nine months of the year to 875 planes. The European planemaker said on Monday that it delivered 446 aircraft to customers between January and September, including 19 Airbus A380 superjumbos. Net orders after canc...
Paris - Tense Monday for Air France agents: they are called to strike against the restructuring plan threatening in the short term 3,000 jobs, which should be announced in the morning at a central works council. Three unions (CGT, FO and Unsa) at national level, and CFDT, in the South, called for the mobilization, but the strike rate is unknown, some agents opting to strike a few hour...
Anaïs Marzo da Costa, Airbus’ newly appointed Head of Aircraft Interiors Marketing is, unusually for someone in her team, not from an engineering background. “Normally at Airbus, when you’re in marketing you’re an aeronautical engineer, and I am not,” Marzo da Costa laughed as she sat down with Runway Girl Network, fresh from presenting a Comfort and Ambienc...
Air France plans to cut 2,900 jobs after the failure of talks with pilots to boost productivity, a union source told Reuters on Friday. The figure was announced by the head of Air France at a board meeting this morning, the source said. Some 300 job cuts would involve pilots, 700 stewards and hostesses and 1,900 ground staff. The head of parent Air France-KLM had told Europe 1 radio earli...
Airbus CEO Fabrice Bregier remains confident that the European aircraft manufacturer will achieve its goal to deliver around 15 Airbus A350 XWB aircraft this year. "If we reach this target, I think we have secured a strong foundation for the future ramp-up of A350 production. It is always extremely difficult to produce an aircraft that is just certified," Bregier said. To...
Air France said on Thursday it plans to reduce its activities in 2016-2017 in order to safeguard its future, after talks with pilots over a restructuring plan failed on Wednesday. Air France, part of Franco-Dutch airline Air France-KLM , said in a statement that because of the impossibility of reaching an agreement on boosting productivity at the airline, the parent company board had mandated A...
Airbus has introduced the second CFM International Leap-powered A320neo into the type’s flight-test campaign. The aircraft performed its maiden flight on 29 September, operating from Hamburg to Toulouse, the airframer confirms. Its initial sortie came just over four months after the first Leap-1A aircraft joined the campaign. The second aircraft (D-AVVB) brings to four the...
China’s flag carrier Air China has taken delivery of its 50th A330 in Toulouse, France. The aircraft, an A330-300 is the first 242 tonnes maximum take-off-weight (MTOW) version to be operated by a Chinese airline. The increased MTOW allows airlines to operate longer range at improved operating costs. Displaying a special livery to celebrate the “50th A330 for Air China&rdq...
At this year's Helitech International exhibition, Airbus Helicopters will expand on how its focus on customer satisfaction, quality, safety and competitiveness is driving its company transformation, further supporting its vision of creating the benchmark in the helicopter industry. 'The entire industry is looking for efficient ways of moving forward in the current fast-changing market e...
Air France and its trade unions will reach a deadline Sept. 30 on whether cuts to its long-haul services can be averted. The loss-making airline said Sept. 8 that it could drop 10% of its long-haul services and proceed with redundancies if it does not reach an agreement with all its unions over implementing itsPerform 2020 turnaround plan. The airline’s Central Works Council...
