Air Transport World

Briefs from the March 24, 2014 issue of ATW's Skypaths

1. January-June 2013. 2. January-May 2013. * Includes Regional operations. Source: ATW Research, direct airline reports.

Debris spotted in the south Indian Ocean appears to be wreckage from missing Malaysia Airlines MH370. Malaysia’s prime minister and the airline’s Group CEO have both issued statements saying new data and analysis shows the aircraft, a Boeing 777-200, went down in a remote area of the ocean west of Perth.

Mobile satellite communications specialist Inmarsat leveraged a “groundbreaking but traditional mathematics-based process” to analyze data from other flights that use its satellite network and establish a pattern that helped investigators nail down Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 final flight path as traveling south over the Indian Ocean, an Inmarsat executive explained.

Singapore-based Tiger Airways Holdings, parent company of the Tigerair group of low-cost carriers, has placed an order for 37 Airbus A320neos—but canceled nine Airbus A320ceos currently on order.

Air France-KLM has selected GE Aviation GEnx-1B engines to power 25 Boeing 787s on order plus 12 leased Dreamliners.

Ethiopian Airlines is exceeding its goals under its long-term Vision 2025 strategy, according to comments made by CEO Tewolde Gebremariam.

German public services trade union Verdi has called for a warning strike over wages on Thursday regarding Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport, which could further affect flights through Germany this week.

Shandong Airlines reported a 2013 net profit of CNY389.08 million ($63.2 million), down 34% compared to a net income of CNY589.81 million in 2012.

Etihad Airways and Latvian flag-carrier airBaltic have expanded their codeshare agreement.

Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Co. (SCAC) delivered the first of two leased Superjet SSJ100s March 21 to new Russian customer Centre-South Airlines.

People

Footnotes: * International only. 1. January - June. 2. January - May. 3. Includes Regional operations. 4. Combined American Eagle, Executive Airlines and American Connection. 5. Combined traffic for SkyWest Airlines and ExpressJet Airlines. 6. YTD 02013 from 4/26/13

Source: Airports Council International

Southwest Airlines has announced a doubling of flights from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), including seven nonstop routes. The

Source: Airports Council International

Debris spotted in the south Indian Ocean appears to be wreckage from missing Malaysia Airlines MH370. The Boeing 777-200, with 239 people on board, went missing March 8 during a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Following reports that new satellite images have identified floating debris that could be remnants of the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 flight MH370, search efforts have been further ramped up in the south Indian Ocean.

* Ranked by reports per 1,000 passengers. Source: US DOT Aviation Consumer Protection

Ireland-based low-cost carrier (LCC) Ryanair is to substantially increase its services from London Stansted Airport for the winter 2014 season.

UK low-cost carrier (LCC) easyJet has carried 239,000 passengers on UK-Russia destinations during its first year of flights between the two countries.

Low-cost carrier AirAsia X has inaugurated its Kuala Lumpur-Nagoya service using an Airbus A330-300 into Chubu Centrair International Airport.

Low-cost carrier (LCC) Wizz Air is to open a new base in the Latvian capital Riga June 19, the carrier announced Friday.

The future air cargo market could be significantly different from its traditional model, according to industry experts on a panel at the ISTAT Americas 2014 Conference in San Diego earlier this week.

Emirates Airline’s strategic cooperation agreement with Qantas is doing well despite fares in Australia being under pressure, Emirate CCO has told ATW.