NewsWhats happening
SYDNEY—Australia’s biggest airline, Qantas Airways Ltd., said it would order dozens of planes from European maker Airbus SE, including new aircraft to fly nonstop between Australia’s cities and destinations in the U.S. and the U.K. that currently require a layover.
Qantas said the new ultralong-haul, nonstop flights, dubbed Project Sunrise, would start from late 2025 and would at first connect Sydney with London and New York. The airline said the flights will try to build on the success of existing direct long-haul services, demand for which has increased following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Qantas currently flies nonstop from Australia’s east coast to cities such as Los Angeles and Dallas, but New York is too far, and its service to London flies through Darwin, a city on Australia’s northern coast. Qantas conducted research flights a few years ago to test how passengers fare on ultralong-haul routes, with one flight between New York and Sydney taking more than 19 hours.
Excerpt from WSJ
Read the full article
The Federal Aviation Administration said it is working with airlines to ease mounting air-traffic problems in Florida, where bad weather and staffing shortages have snarled flights as demand for air travel in the state surges.
The FAA said it would increase air-traffic-control staffing and tweak flight practices to address the strains, after meeting with about a dozen airlines, small-plane operators and aviation groups.
More-frequent thunderstorms in Florida, which has a large population and popular vacation spots, have disrupted flights in recent months, and some airlines have said they are sharing airspace with more space launches from Kennedy Space Center, located along the Atlantic in central Florida.
Excerpt from WSJ Podcast Series
Read the full article
Avoiding the huge Russian airspace is likely to increase costs for passengers and cargo, further snarling global supply chains. Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Katz tells WSJ What’s News host Sandra Kilhof why flying around Russia may be problematic.
Excerpt from WSJ Podcast Series
Podcast Link
Plane maker has suspended buying the metal from Russia but must still deal with ties with company linked to sanctioned oligarch and Putin ally
Boeing Co has suspended parts of its business in Russia, but it still has to deal with its relationship to a key titanium supplier led by a sanctioned oligarch who once worked in the KGB with President Vladimir Putin.
The plane maker years ago made a big bet on the country’s titanium, crucial for manufacturing its commercial jets and military aircraft, and Boeing has warned that geopolitical changes could create supply problems in the future.
Boeing said it has halted purchasing Russian titanium since the country’s invasion of Ukraine. It also has closed its engineering offices in Moscow and Kyiv and stopped sending spare plane parts to Russian airlines. But as other Western companies retreat from Russia, Boeing declined to say what it will do about its joint venture with the titanium supplier led by Mr. Putin’s former intelligence colleague, Sergey Chemezov.
Excerpt from WSJ
Read the full article
Sanctions will devastate Russian aviation by denying it access to Boeing and Airbus parts. They will also give fresh impetus to efforts with China to develop alternatives to Western technology.
Boeing and Airbus dominate global aviation, but China’s Comac wants to challenge the duopoly with new planes. WSJ’s Jon Sindreu explains how supply chains, technology and geopolitics could help the Western aircraft makers to protect key markets.
Russia’s increasing isolation from the West will leave it looking towards China for alternative economic partnerships. Aviation is a prime example: Badly hit by sanctions, the Russian industry has little choice but to double down on collaboration with its big peer to the East.
Commercial aviation faces ruin in Russia because the U.S. and its allies have blocked the sale of aircraft, parts and technical support to the country. Since the 1990s, Soviet Union-era aircraft have been replaced by Boeing and Airbus models, with domestically built planes currently making up only 17% of the fleet, Cirium data shows. Without new parts, airlines like Aeroflot and S7 Airlines will eventually need to ground their jets.
Excerpt from WSJ
Read the full article
In a heavy snow, crews can spray up to 1,000 gallons of deicing fluid on an aircraft
Deicing an aircraft is a coordinated effort, involving multiple steps and a race against the clock. A United Airlines deicing expert explains the process and why it’s critical to keeping planes moving.
Excerpt from WSJ
Read the full article
World’s biggest plane maker tempers guidance on plans to dramatically increase production of A320s
Airbus SE tempered expectations for sharply boosting production of its bestselling jet, blaming supply-line challenges that threaten its ambition to rapidly widen a market-share advantage it opened with Boeing Co. BA -2.44% during the pandemic.
The plane maker reported record profit Thursday and said it would reinstate its dividend, benefiting from still-robust demand for its commercial airliners. But it dialed back the likelihood of dramatically boosting future production rates for its A320, the single-aisle rival to Boeing’s 737 MAX.
The 737 MAX suffered a long grounding after two deadly crashes, forcing a short-term halt to production. Then, amid the pandemic, Airbus pressed airline customers to honor contracts, further boosting its share of the single-aisle market.
The European plane maker has been bullish on the aviation sector’s eventual recovery, after pandemic travel restrictions hobbled many airlines. It told suppliers last year to be ready for a quick production ramp-up, promising to push out 65 A320s a month by the summer of 2023. It also said it had asked suppliers to explore whether it could raise that to 75 a month by 2025.
Excerpt from WSJ
Read the full article
If the world finally moves on from Covid-19 this year, the plane maker’s cautious financial guidance could prove easy to beat
A move by Airbus to fly under the radar could be a wise one.
Shares in the European plane maker initially rose Thursday, after it released encouraging financial results for the final quarter. Operating earnings were 11% above the median analyst estimate. Free cash flow, which is even more important for aerospace firms, was almost twice as high as expected for the quarter, and amounted to €3.5 billion, equivalent to $4 billion, for 2021 overall. That echoes a better-than-expected cash performance at Boeing, its American rival.
Yet Airbus stock edged down as European trading got under way. The broader travel sector came under pressure amid fresh jitters about a potential war in Ukraine, but it may also have to do with the company’s somewhat underwhelming guidance. Targets for 2022 include flat free cash flow and the delivery of 720 commercial aircraft.
While these aren’t bad numbers, some investors were expecting more. Airbus managed to surpass its 2021 goal of 600 planes by 11 units, and was delivering 860 planes before the pandemic. Executives sounded cautious when addressing analysts Thursday.
Excerpt from WSJ
Read the full article