U.S.-based Spirit Airlines has finalised a purchase agreement with Airbus for 100 A320neo Family aircraft. In October, the two parties had signed and announced a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the purchase of up to 100 of the aircraft – a mix of A319neo, A320neo, and A321neo – to meet the airline’s future fleet requirements.
Spirit is based in South Florida and is the fastest-growing airline in the United States, with flights throughout the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean. The airline will announce an engine selection at a later date.
Featuring the widest single-aisle cabin in the sky, the best-selling A320neo Family, comprising the A319neo, A320neo, and A321neo, will deliver a fuel-burn reduction of approximately 20% as well as 50% less noise compared to previous-generation aircraft, thanks to incorporating the very latest technologies including new-generation engines and Sharklets.
Firm orders worldwide for the A320neo Family now have surpassed 7,300 from more than 110 global customers.
Renewed agreement continues long-term partnership with one of the ten busiest airports in the United States
Latest contract highlights Bombardier’s comprehensive mobility solutions for transit systems worldwide
Mobility solution provider Bombardier Transportation announced today that it renewed a contract with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to provide operations and maintenance services for the Authority’s automated transit system (AirTrain JFK) at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. The contract is valued at approximately $309 million US (277 million euro) and covers a period of five years.
“We greatly appreciate the confidence the Port Authority has placed in us and look forward to continuing our 16-year partnership in providing safe, reliable, customer-friendly, 24/7, 365-day service to AirTrain JFK’s growing ridership,” said Elliot G. (Lee) Sander, President, Americas Region, Bombardier Transportation. “We’re proud to offer a convenient and efficient mobility solution for JFK’s passengers and employees, not only within the airport, but between the airport and the city’s transit systems,” he continued.
Bombardier’s scope of work under the contract includes: 24-hour train operations and passenger assistance; maintenance of the vehicle fleet; maintenance of the tracks and power supply and signalling systems; and maintenance of all facilities on the system such as stations and platforms.
Bombardier was a member of the consortium responsible for designing and supplying the AirTrain JFK system, including the fleet of 32 metro vehicles, today branded as BOMBARDIER MOVIA, and has been operating and maintaining the system since its opening in December 2003. The system currently serves a total ridership of over 20 million passengers annually.
Bombardier has been designing, building, operating and maintaining automated transit systems for airports and cities around the world for nearly 50 years. In the United States, the ten busiest airports have chosen Bombardier for their transportation systems.
MOVIA metro vehicles on AirTrain at JFK International Airport
Latécoère to acquire EWIS activities and related assets as well as a skilled workforce specializing in harnessing and electrical sub-assemblies in Querétaro
Agreement promotes long-term relationship with Latécoère and supports the optimization of Bombardier Aviation
Bombardier continues to produce major structures at its high-tech main campus in Querétaro, including the aft fuselage for the Global family of jets
Latécoère and Bombardier announced that the companies have entered into a definitive agreement, whereby Latécoère will acquire Bombardier’s electrical wiring interconnection system (EWIS) assets in Querétaro, Mexico. The two companies also concluded a long-term supply agreement that will see Latécoère supply Bombardier with electrical wiring interconnection systems.
The transaction is subject to customary conditions and approvals and is expected to close in the first half of 2020.
Approximately 700 skilled employees are dedicated to the manufacture of EWIS at Bombardier’s facility in Querétaro. Under the long-term supply agreement, Latécoère will continue to supply the EWIS for all Bombardier Aviation platforms, including Global, Challenger and Learjet aircraft from the current location to support Bombardier’s requirements. The annual turnover of the business is anticipated to be around USD 80 million.
“This acquisition reflects our willingness to emerge as a leading player in the global consolidation movement in the aeronautics sector,” said Yannick Assouad, CEO of Latécoère. “We keep deploying our manufacturing footprint on an international scale with a strong desire to strengthen our presence in the areas closest to our customers,” she added.
“This agreement exemplifies Bombardier’s focus on streamlining its activities to foster a strong and efficient aviation franchise,” said Paul Sislian, Chief Operating Officer, Bombardier Aviation. “With Latécoère’s reputation for excellence, this new partnership will result in a winning combination for both our companies.”
Under the terms of the transaction, Latécoère will pay Bombardier a cash consideration of USD 50 million. The transaction further supports Bombardier Aviation’s transformation and sharpens the company’s focus on its core manufacturing capabilities. The skilled employees who manufacture the main harnesses and electrical subassemblies in Querétaro will bring years of experience and value to Latécoère. The sale will not impact the remainder of Bombardier’s operations at its Querétaro site, which will continue to produce major structures for Bombardier aircraft, such as the aft fuselage for the Globalfamily of business aircraft – including the company’s flagship Global 7500 jet – the most complex aircraft component manufactured in Mexico.
FILE PHOTO: Boeing 737 Max aircraft at Boeing’s 737 Max production facility in Renton
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish Airlines and Boeing have come to an agreement concerning compensation for certain losses caused by grounded and undelivered Boeing 737 Max aircraft, the Turkish airline said on Tuesday.
The statement to the Istanbul stock exchange did not specify the value of the deal. The airline has 24 Boeing 737 MAX planes in its fleet. The 737 MAX has been grounded since March after two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people within five months.
(Reporting by Ceyda Caglayan; Editing by Daren Butler)
A logo of low cost carrier Spirit Airlines is pictured on an Airbus plane in Colomiers near Toulouse
(Reuters) – U.S. budget carrier Spirit Airlines Inc <SAVE> said on Monday it will buy 100 Airbus <EADSY> A320neo-family jets to be delivered through 2027, with options to purchase up to 50 additional aircraft.
The deal includes a mix of Airbus A319, A320, and A321 models, the company said.
The purchase agreement finalizes an October provisional deal for the aircraft, when Spirit picked European planes despite Washington imposing tariffs on them.
Depending on the number of each variant of the A320 single-aisle family chosen, the deal could be worth $11 billion to $12 billion at the most recent 2018 Airbus list prices, but industry sources say such deals typically involve discounts of at least 50%.
Washington has imposed 10% tariffs on some of the planes Airbus offers to U.S. carriers, as part of a long-running transatlantic trade dispute over aircraft subsidies.
Spirit currently operates an all-Airbus fleet of 140 jets.
Aircraft are typically ordered several years in advance, meaning any planes ordered now would only be covered by tariffs in the event of an extended transatlantic tariff war. Airbus jets assembled at a plant in Alabama are not currently included.
(Reporting by Rachit Vats in Bengaluru and Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Lisa Shumaker)
American Airlines has launched a reciprocal codeshare agreement with Morocco’s largest airline, Royal Air Maroc, to add new options for travel to Morocco starting Dec. 26.
American’s customers will be able to purchase select Royal Air Maroc flights to Casablanca, Morocco (CMN), which will provide seamless connecting service to Marrakech, Morocco (RAK). These flights are available for sale now for travel beginning December 26. The codeshare will expand to additional cities across the African continent in early 2020.
“Royal Air Maroc is a premier African carrier and their hub in Casablanca is perfectly situated to offer our customers convenient connections between North America and over 40 destinations throughout Africa,” said Vasu Raja, American’s Senior Vice President of Network Strategy. “With Royal Air Maroc’s upcoming entry into the oneworld® alliance and our recently announced service between Philadelphia and Casablanca, we are committed to creating more opportunities for our customers to visit unique destinations in Africa.”
Beginning in early 2020, the codeshare agreement will provide American’s customers access to popular destinations in Africa, including:
Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire (ABJ)
Accra, Ghana (ACC)
Lagos, Nigeria (LOS)
Luanda, Angola (LAD)
Monrovia, Liberia (ROB)
The codeshare will also allow Royal Air Maroc customers to connect to new destinations throughout American’s domestic network beginning Dec. 26.
American will begin seasonal service to CMN June 4 as the only U.S. carrier with nonstop service to Morocco, which will be operated three times per week. Flights are available for purchase now.
Investment firm Bain Capital Credit will invest an initial $360 million in a joint venture with Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings (NASDAQ: AAWW), a major provider of outsourced all-cargo aircraft operations and other aviation services, to lease freighter aircraft, the companies said Wednesday.
Under the agreement, Atlas’ leasing subsidiary Titan Aviation Holdings Inc. will contribute $40 million of equity towards the portfolio, which ultimately could have a value of $1 billion with additional commitments to acquire aircraft over the next several years. The number and type of planes to be acquired are still to be determined. Titan will identify and source aircraft, as well as provide lease-management services to the venture.
The new company will be called Titan Aircraft Investment, Dan Loh, Atlas’ vice president of investor relations, told FreightWaves. “The parties are working expeditiously to complete and implement all elements of the joint venture,” he said.
Since its inception in 2009, Titan has grown to become the third-largest freighter lessor globally by fleet value with over 30 aircraft and a book value of over $1.5 billion.
Titan provides aircraft to airlines, which put them under their own operating certificate and then fly, maintain and insure them. Contracts are usually long term.
SKY, a Chilean-based ultra-low-cost carrier, has signed a Purchase Agreement with Airbus for 10 A321XLRs. The airline will expand its international route network with the new aircraft.
The A321XLR is the next evolutionary step in the A320neo/A321neo Family, meeting market requirements for increased range and payload in a single-aisle aircraft. The A321XLR will deliver an unprecedented narrow-body airliner range of up to 4,700nm, with 30% lower fuel consumption per seat compared with previous-generation competitor jets, allowing airlines to expand networks by making new longer routes economically viable.
“This new aircraft fleet will allow us to expand our offer of international and wide-ranging routes, always under our successful low cost model and its extremely convenient ticket prices. Now passengers can enjoy new and very attractive destinations on the most modern airplanes in the market,” said Holger Paulmann, CEO of SKY.
Arturo Barreira, President of Airbus Latin America, said: “We are delighted that SKY has selected the A321XLR to further expand its fleet of all Airbus aircraft. The A321XLR will allow SKY to offer its customers new destinations, such as direct flights from Santiago in Chile to Miami in the U.S.”
According to the latest Airbus Global Market Forecast (GMF), Latin America will need 2,700 new aircraft in the next 20 years, more than double today’s fleet. Passenger traffic in Latin America has doubled since 2002 and is expected to continue growing over the next two decades. Specifically in Chile, traffic is expected to increase from 0.89 trips per capita to 2.26 trips in 2038.
In parallel to the growing fleet, according to Airbus’ latest GMF, there will be a need for 47,550 new pilots and 64,160 technicians to be trained over the next 20 years in Latin America. To cover this necessity SKY also selected Airbus as its flight training provider, making the airline the launch customer for the new Airbus Chile Training Centre. The centre will offer flight crew training for Chilean pilots and will include a full-flight A320 simulator.
SKY has been an Airbus customer since 2010 and became an all-Airbus operator in 2013. The airline’s fleet of 23 A320 Family aircraft serves national and international routes connecting Chile to Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Uruguay.
Airbus has sold 1,200 aircraft, has a backlog of more than 600 and more than 700 in operation throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, representing a 60% market share of the in-service fleet. Since 1994, Airbus has secured nearly 70% of net orders in the region.
FILE PHOTO: The GM logo is seen at the General Motors Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant in Lansing.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – General Motors Co <GM> confirmed on Monday it agreed to loan $40 million to an electric vehicle start-up to facilitate the acquisition of its shuttered Lordstown Assembly plant in Ohio.
Lordstown Motors Corp, which is 10% owned by Workhorse Group Inc <WKHS>, bought the plant and equipment for $20 million in November as part of its ambitious plan to begin building electric pickup trucks by the end of 2020.
The loan agreement, which was reported earlier Monday by the Business Journal in Youngstown, was filed in Trumbull County last week.
Lordstown Motors has been working on the engineering of the new truck, “Endurance”, and hired Rich Schmidt, a former director of manufacturing at Tesla Inc, as chief production officer.
“We structured the sales agreement to help support Lordstown Motors’ launch plans for the Endurance pickup,” GM spokesman Jim Cain said, who added it “allows them to take possession of the plant and to cover some operating expenses while they undertake their capital raise.”
GM is not investing in the venture, but Cain said GM financing could rise to $50 million.
The fate of the sprawling northeastern Ohio plant became a political lightning rod after GM announced its planned closure in November 2018, drawing condemnation from U.S. President Donald Trump and many U.S. lawmakers.
Lordstown CEO Steve Burns told Reuters last month he hopes to have pre-production prototypes coming off the assembly line by April and to start production by November 2020 with an initial workforce of 400 hourly workers.
Burns said last month the company hopes to raise more than $300 million, the Business Journal reported. Burns told Reuters it retained Ohio investment bank Brown Gibbons Lang & Co in its capital fundraising effort.
GM and South Korea’s LG Chem <051910.KS> said Thursday they will invest $2.3 billion to build an electric vehicle battery cell joint venture plant in Ohio which will be one of the world’s largest battery facilities.
The plant, to be built near the Lordstown complex, will employ more than 1,100 people, the companies said.
As part of the Lordstown sale, GM has the option to lease land near the assembly plant that it could use for the battery plant.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
Jetstar group chief executive Gareth Evans says he is encouraged by the strong start to the low-cost carrier’s (LCC) new nonstop Gold Coast-Seoul Incheon service.
The inaugural flight departed Gold Coast Airport at a little past 1200 local time on Sunday, with Boeing 787-8 VH-VKF receiving an Airservices Aviation Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) monitor cross prior to taking off as the JQ49 bound for Seoul Incheon.
Some nine hours and a half hours later, the 787-8 touched down at Seoul Incheon just before 2030 local time.
And after about two and a half hours on the ground, the Dreamliner took off as the reciprocal JQ50 bound for the Gold Coast.
Evans expressed confidence that the route would do well, given the stimulatory impact of low fares and South Koreans’ being among the most frequent travellers per capita of any country in the world.
Similarly, Australians were increasingly becoming aware of South Korea as a place to visit for food, history and popular culture influences such as K-Pop.
“There will be a lot of demand from Korea. But we are betting on huge increases in demand from Australians as well,” Evans told reporters at Gold Coast Airport on Sunday prior to the inaugural flight.
“The start to the route has been fantastic so we are off to a very good footing.”
Jetstar’s Gold Coast-Seoul Incheon flights have been scheduled on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
The 787-8s serving the route have 335 seats comprising 21 business class recliners in a 2-3-2 configuration with 38-inch pitch and 314 economy class seats at nine abreast with 30-inch pitch.
Currently, Asiana Airlines and Korean Air are the only two airlines with year-round nonstop flights between Australia and South Korea.
Asiana flies to Sydney, while Korean Air has nonstop flights to Brisbane and Sydney.
Qantas – Jetstar’s parent company – last served South Korea with its own aircraft in the mid-2000s when it flew Boeing 767-300ERs on seasonal services between Brisbane and Seoul. It also had year-round flights to Seoul in the late 1990s.
Ansett Australia also flew to Seoul in the late 1990s.
Evans said the stimulatory impact of low fares offered by Jetstar compared with those of full-service carriers Asiana and Korean Air would help grow the market.
Currently, the Australia-South Korea market was split 70 per cent South Korean travellers and 30 per cent Australian.
Looking ahead, Evans said he expected the directional flow to become more evenly balanced over time in a similar way the Australia-Japan market has evolved.
“We will grow both ends of the market but particularly we will grow the Australian end of the market,” Evans said.
“Japan sort of started about 70-30 now it is 50-50. We would imagine over time – a number of year – this market would move to a more 50-50 split.”
Further, a partnership with South Korea’s largest LCC Jeju Air, which has added its 7C airline code on the Jetstar flight as part of a hard block codeshare agreement, would also help raise awareness of the route in the South Korean market.
“The reason we are partnering with Jeju is because right now Jetstar brand has very little penetration in the Korean market so you need a strong partner to provide you with that brand strength and distribution in the market,” Evans said.
“That’s what Jeju brings.”
When Jetstar launched the route in May, it offered introductory fares of $179 one way. Since then, Evans said ticket prices for travel between the Gold Coast and Seoul Incheon have been in the $300 to $400 range.
“It’s those low fares that stimulate demand and open up markets,”Evans said.
“It has happened with us on a number of markets around Asia – Japan, Vietnam, Thailand. It will happen with Korea as well.”
Asked why Gold Coast was chosen as the city to launch flights to Seoul Incheon, Evans said that was where the demand was, noting inbound travellers from Asia loved to visit the Queensland city.
Further, Gold Coast was also able to act as a hub and gateway for the airline, offering convenient connections to other parts of Australia in both directions.
“The geography of the Gold Coast and the operation that we have got here into the Gold Coast means that we are building the Gold Coast as a hub for our Australian traffic,” Evans said.
“We are also seeing great demand from customers in Melbourne and Sydney connecting through the Gold Coast.”
Queensland Airports Ltd chief executive Chris Mills said the Jetstar flight opened up another new and exciting destination for locals on the Gold Coast, as well as new nonstop option for South Koreans travelling to Australia.
“South Koreans will have a direct link to our stunning beaches and hinterland, delivering significant benefits to our economy,” Mills said in a statement.
Queensland Tourism Minister Kate Jones noted the number of South Korean visitors to Queensland had grown by about 20 per cent to 76,000 visitors a year in the 12 months to June 2019, compared with 63,000 visitors in the prior corresponding period.
The new route was supported by the Queensland government’s attracting aviation investment fund, Queensland Airports and Destination Gold Coast.
Jones said the negotiations were completed over an 18-month period.
“Because it is taxpayers’ dollars to secure these new flights we always make sure that we believe that they meet our expectations for taxpayers,” Jones said.
“From our perspective we back flights that we know will attract and bring new tourists to Queensland.”
