There's going to be a little less competition among airlines following a big takeover announced Monday. Alaska Air Group has agreed to buy Virgin America for $2.6 billion, the airlines said. Alaska Air(ALK) said it will pay $57 per share, sending Virgin America (VA) stock soaring 40%. Including debt and aircraft leases, the transaction is worth about $4 billion. The combined airline will...
A United Airlines flight attendant pulled the emergency slide and exited a parked plane at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on Monday morning. After the Boeing 737 made a complete stop at the gate, the flight attendant opened the plane's front door, deployed the emergency slide, slid out and welked away. "When we landed ... we were told to stay in our...
A Chinese proverb reads thus: All things are difficult before they are easy. This aptly sums up conditions for private jet makers in the previously booming China market. Prior to the last instalment of the Asian Business Aviation Conference (ABACE) show in Shanghai in April 2015, manufacturers commented on a sharply slowing market for private aircraft, mainly owing to a crackdown on corruptio...
Chef Yves Camdeborde is taking over as signature chef for Air France’s Business class menu on board its long-haul flights on departure from Paris and to a number of destinations on its medium-haul network*. This exceptional partnership forms part of the move upmarket of Air France’s products and services. Yves Camdeborde’s cuisine focuses on simplicity and well-balanced flavo...
Boeing has invested US $225,000 in a three-year 'Start-Up Bridge Program' to aid budding UAE entrepreneurs. The aerospace giant has joined forces with INJAZ UAE, a non-profit member of the Junior Achievement Worldwide education initiative and TEJAR Dubai, a division of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI), to deliver the program, which follows similar successful campaigns in...
A tiny plane made by a California-based startup is set to begin making deliveries of blood throughout Rwanda, where roads ‘are washed out 95 percent of the time in the rainy season.’ Inside this tiny plane in wet, windy California sits a bunch of blood. It looks like one of those RC doohickeys, and it can only handle 3 1/2 pounds of the stuff, but it’s an RC doohickey that&...
Boeing Co said on Monday it had picked a new aircraft seat supplier for its most popular jet, the 737, a move that industry experts said adds competition to leading seat makers Zodiac Aerospace and B/E Aerospace. In response to questions from Reuters, Boeing said it will buy seats directly from the new supplier, LIFT by EnCore of Huntington Beach, California - a break from the past pr...
Airbus, the world's second largest manufacturer of aircraft, has written to UK staff, warning of the dangers of voting to leave the European Union. The company said Brexit could be damaging to the company's continuing operation in the UK. According to the BBC, the French firm has sent a letter to all 15,000 British staff, saying that the European Union is crucial for allowing th...
I would be lying if I didn’t admit sadness that our wonderful airline is merging with another. Because I’m not American, the US Department of Transportation stipulated I take some of my shares in Virgin America as non-voting shares, reducing my influence over any takeover. So there was sadly nothing I could do to stop it. Richard Branson has shared a post with his thoughts on...
Bombardier Commercial Aircraft today welcomed Kinshasa-based Congo Airways, the flag carrier of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the family of Q400 aircraft customers and operators. The airline, which started operations in October 2015, joined the Q400 aircraft family when it launched service with a previously owned 76-seat aircraft that was acquired from a third party. “Since...
Brazil’s Sorocaba Airport will be a “bedroom community for business jets” during the Olympics Games this summer in Rio, according to Embraer, which established an FBO and MRO facility at the São Paulo-area airfield two years ago. Dassault Falcon and Gulfstream also selected the airport, which is 22 nm from São Paulo and 240 nm from Rio, as the lo...
The Bulgarian government gave the long-delayed go-ahead to a new fighter procurement on 30 March, which will eventually see 16 aircraft acquired to replace the air force’s ageing Russian fleet. An acquisition plan for an affordable Western multi-role design to replace Sofia’s fleet of Russian Mikoyan MiG-29 ‘Fulcrums’ and Sukhoi Su-25 ‘Frogfoots’ has been app...
Boeing is to unveil its latest economy class seat for its top-selling narrowbody at the Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX) which opens tomorrow in Hamburg – which it developed with the product’s inventors after meeting them when they unveiled a prototype at last year's show. The LIFT by EnCore seat for the 737 NG and Max will be available as a factory fit and retrofit, and...
Fitch Ratings agency today initiated coverage of Embraer, assigning its BBB- Foreign and Local Currency long-term issuer default ratings (IDR), which corresponds to investment grade. The same ‘BBB-’ grade was attributed to unsecured ratings to debts issued. Fitch has also assigned a ‘AAA(bra)’ National Scale rating to Embraer. According to the agency, the rating outlook...
Flying Colours Corp., the North American MRO, completion and refurbishment specialist, has announced the first of eight CRJ 200 conversions, will be re-delivered to Joint Venture partner Sparkle Roll Jet (SRJ) before the end of April. The multi-class format required a new STC for China which the Civil Aviation Administration of China, CAAC, certified at Flying Colours Corp.’s Peterboroug...
The boost in corporate jet bookings to European destinations has been reflected in the latest internal figures from charter company Victor, released to Corporate Jet investor. The company recorded an increase in booking requests in the first two months of 2016 for select European destinations. It has seen requests in the first two months for flights in June and July for Ibiza up by 441%; Cann...
Global currency provider Centtrip is to take on the corporate jet market turning its services to the sector to help save a “fortune by offering live rates with no spreads through one central global currency account to manage numerous aircraft” according to co-founder and managing director Tony North. Internal research from the company has suggested that there are now 594 business ai...
Russian Helicopters, part of State Corporation Rostec, has fulfilled its first contract for after-sale maintenance of multirole Mi-17-1V helicopters operated by the Mexican Navy. “This is our first contract with the Naval Secretariat of Mexico. It was fulfilled in full and on time,” said Igor Chechikov, Russian Helicopter's deputy CEO. “Mexico is one of our key partn...
The Turkish government’s procurement agency has released a request for information (RFI) for options on purchasing a coast guard aircraft. The Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (SSM) said that planned missions of the aircraft will be controlling naval sovereign zones in the Mediterranean. Tasks will include performing reconnaissance flights to help control illegal immigration on the...
As business aviation activity in North America continues to rebound from the depths of the downturn, that has meant good news and growing prosperity for many of the companies that service those aircraft. According to industry data provider Argus, in its 2015 Business Aviation Review, the industry posted a year-over-year rise in flight activity in 24 of the 25 months since December 2013. Last year...
DC Aviation Al-Futtaim (DCAF) has received CAR145 approval from UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority for providing maintenance services for the Bombardier Global Express and Challenger 604/605 type aircraft. “This is a major milestone for DCAF as it means we are now in a position to provide comprehensive maintenance services to our fleet of managed aircraft,” said Michael Lind...
