Go to Top

Blog Archives

Tag Archives: United Airlines

Boeing 787 is a dream come true, again.

- Boeing assembling 115th 787-8 – First 787-9 LN126 ‘slightly underweight’ – First 787-9 final assembly to start in May – 787-9 first flight in Aug/Sep & EIS in April 2014 – LN103 787-8 meeting weight targets – Earlier than LN140-150 ‘several hundred kilogrammes’ overweight forecast – Latest Rev L 787 specification shows 2018 performance standard – Boeing to resume 787 deliveries by early May – Boeing to complete battery …Read More

Is the premium economy trend finally catching on?

Is the premium economy trend finally catching on as Air Canada becomes the latest airline to announce its introduction as “a new class of travel”, starting with the Montreal-Paris non-stop route in July 2013. New, perhaps for the Canadian carrier, but not quite globally. Eva Air of Taiwan was one of the first carriers to introduce the premium economy class, when it launched its operations in 1991. There was a …Read More

Post-merger United Airlines well-positioned for a 2013 recovery

2012 was a difficult year for Chicago-based full service carrier United Airlines, who reported a 2012 full year net profit of US$589 million excluding special charges of US$1.3 billion. For the last quarter of 2012, United lost US$190 million excluding US$430 million in special charges as the airline grappled with the effects of “Superstorm Sandy” and lingering customer unease over the carrier’s operational issues throughout the course of 2012. The …Read More

Optimism returns to aviation

There is renewed optimism for the airline industry, going by the latest industry body Geneva-based International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecast that 2013 will see an improvement in global airline profitability from US$6.7 billion to US$8.4 billion. This has been revised from an earlier estimate of US$7.5 billion. IATA chief economist Brian Pearce said: “I think we are past the low point, which was earlier this year.” The positive mood …Read More

Challenging the conventional wisdom: Is there an aircraft order bubble today?

When Chicago-based United Airlines inaugurated flights with the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner on November 4th of this year, it marked just the latest sign of positive momentum in deliveries of the beleaguered widebody programme after the aircraft was inducted into the fleets of Chile’s LAN Airlines, Air India, Ethiopian Airlines, United Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines and Qatar Airways this year. At press time, 39 Boeing 787 Dreamliners have already been …Read More

Bankrupt American Airlines tells a familiar tale

It’s a familiar American airline story. Delta Air Lines went through it, so did United Airlines. Now it is Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines’ turn to carry the can. But for American this time, it never rains but pours. Parent AMR Corporation is operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. A take-over by the fifth-largest US carrier US Airways is on the cards, while American waits out for a better deal. …Read More

Boeing 787 Dreamliner programme starts to soar

Following the Boeing 787 Dreamliner roll-out in Everett, Washington for the first time on 8th July, 2007, the Chicago-based airframer suffered perennial delays on the game-changing mid-sized, long-range widebody aircraft programme, ranging from delays caused by a delamination in the 787′s side-of-body area to an in-flight fire in November 2010 over Laredo, Texas due to a foreign object debris (FOD) in the P100 electrical panel that prompted a redesign in …Read More

Merging with US Airways makes most sense for American

When Tempe, Arizona-based US Airways announced a record US$321 million 2012 second-quarter net profit excluding special charges, up 203% from the corresponding period in 2011, it stood in sharp contrast to American Airlines’ parent AMR Inc., which reported a net loss of US$241 million despite record quarterly revenue of US$6.5 billion as well as artificially low operating costs due to AMR’s current position in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which shielded …Read More

Challenging economy biggest obstacle for Bombardier CSeries

When Tony Fernandes, director of AirAsia Berhad announced that his airline was in preliminary talks with Montreal-based plane-maker Bombardier to buy 100 of Bombardier’s potential 160 seat CSeries aircraft, it ended the recently concluded Farnborough Airshow on a relative high note for Bombardier. During an air show that was tabbed as a referendum on the beleaguered CSeries programme, Bombardier managed relative success, winning 25 new commitments to the CSeries; 5 …Read More

Boeing 737 MAX ups the ante in dogfight with A320neo

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

Password Reset

Please enter your e-mail address. You will receive a new password via e-mail.