At last year’s Paris Air Show, there were blue skies and the airline industry managed to stay relatively healthy despite soaring oil prices and an anaemic global economic recovery, with a year-end industry-wide profit of US$7.9 billion, according to Geneva-based industry body International Air Transport Association (IATA). Fast forward 12 months and the global economy was in a very different shape. Having gone through the fear of contagion in the …Read More
Boeing 737 MAX dual-feather winglet teleconference highlights
Beverly Wyse, Boeing 737 programme vice president (VP) & general manager (GM) - This kind of improvement is consistent with our demonstrated performance on delivering increasing value to our customers on-time throughout the life of the programme. - Since entry into service on the 737, we continue to improve the Next-Generation aircraft for our customers, including anything like carbon brakes and the passenger-preferred Boeing Sky Interior. - We also continue …Read More
Boeing posts strong 2012 first-quarter results
Chicago-based Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company, posted an exceptionally strong first-quarter results which beat Wall Street analysts’ forecast and saw its net income for the quarter soaring by a staggering 58% from US$586 million a year ago to US$923 million this year. The better-than-expected results came as the company recorded a US$0.11 per share positive impact from the release of a litigation reserve, a remarkable quarterly performance from its …Read More
Interview: PEOPLExpress VP of Operations Brent James
Last week, Aspire Aviation spoke with Brent James, vice president (VP) of operations of new US startup PEOPLExpress. Aspire Aviation has transcribed the interview, as well as following it up with a brief analysis of the carrier’s prospects. Aspire Aviation: What prompted the choice of Newport News as your hub? Is 25 flights an optimal level for this operation moving forward? Brent James: The Newport News hub, we looked at …Read More
Southwest Airlines faces challenges in AirTran integration
When Southwest Airlines reported its traffic results for December earlier this month, the results once again reflected a recurrent paradox in the US airline industry. Southwest Airlines, which was once the industry’s low-fare leader, recorded unit revenue gains of 7%-8%, its 15th straight month with a unit revenue increase of more than 5%. The carrier achieved these revenue gains despite a 1.8% higher capacity and a 0.3% drop in traffic as …Read More