The logo of IndiGo Airlines is pictured on passenger aircraft on the tarmac in Colomiers near Toulouse
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s air safety watchdog said IndiGo must do more to fix its aircraft fitted with Pratt & Whitney engines, linked to in-flight shutdowns, as it fears the budget airline may not meet its Jan. 31 deadline to replace them.
Deliveries of new planes taken by IndiGo must be used to replace the aircraft that are fitted with the problem Pratt engines, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said on Monday. Those planes should then be grounded until their engines are replaced with new ones, after which they can fly again.
Indigo is the biggest customer of Airbus A320neo jets.
The regulator’s move effectively prevents India’s top airline from expanding its network until it has replaced all the Pratt & Whitney engines.
United Technologies’ Pratt & Whitney engines have consistently caused issues since they entered into service in 2016, forcing IndiGo to ground its planes several times.
In a recent review meeting with the airline, the DGCA felt that the steps taken by IndiGo so far to replace all the engines “do not instil enough confidence with regard to the timely completion of the said task”.
“If left unaddressed, we may find ourselves in a situation, in which, we remain saddled with large number of aircraft with unmodified engines … and we are left with the only option i.e. to ground them,” the regulator said in the statement.
On Nov. 1 the regulator had ordered the airline to replace all P&W engines on its fleet of almost 100 twin-engined Airbus A320neo family aircraft with new power units by Jan. 31, 2020.
If the replacement is not complete, all planes that still have unmodified engines will be grounded and could cause “large scale disruptions” in operations. The latest directive is aimed at preventing such a situation, the DGCA said.
IndiGo, owned by InterGlobe Aviation, said the current schedule remains intact, and it is working with P&W and Airbus to meet the DGCA guidelines.
(Reporting by Aditi Shah, editing by Louise Heavens)
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) – At least 27 people were killed, including some on the ground, when a small plane crashed into a densely populated neighborhood in the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday, a rescue official said.
The propeller plane, which was operated by local company Busy Bee, crashed shortly after take-off en route to the city of Beni, about 250 km (155 miles) to the north, officials said.
The company said the 19-seater Dornier 228-200 had 16 passengers and two crew members on board.
There was no word yet on what might have caused the accident.
Joseph Makundi, the coordinator of rescue services in Goma, told Reuters that 27 bodies had been recovered from the rubble, including those of several people hit by falling debris.
“I was at a restaurant with my family when I saw the plane spinning three times in the air and emitting a lot of smoke,” said Djemo Medar, an eyewitness in Goma’s Mapendo neighborhood. “After that we saw the plane crash into this house,” he said pointing to a nearby building.
“We know the pilot. His name is Didier. He was shouting, ‘Help me, Help me.’ But we had no way to get to him because the fire was so powerful,” Medar said.
At the crash site, residents threw water from buckets and cooking pots onto the smoldering wreckage. The rear section of the plane rested sideways, propped up by a wall, videos posted on social media showed.
Police arrested one man for stealing cash from the rubble and fired warning shots to disperse people who had started looting, he said.
Air accidents are relatively frequent in Congo because of lax safety standards and poor maintenance. All Congolese commercial carriers, including Busy Bee, are banned from operating in the European Union.
A cargo plane departing from the same airport and carrying staff members of President Felix Tshisekedi crashed an hour after take-off last month, killing all eight people on board..
Writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Aaron Ross/Mark Potter/ Frances Kerry/Jane Merriman
DUBAI, Nov 22 (Reuters) – The board of Rolls-Royce must urgently address its engine performance problems, the head of Dubai’s Emirates said, as the world’s largest buyer of wide-body jets weighs up who will power its order of Boeing 787 jets.
Emirates agreed to buy its first 787 Dreamliners in a last-minute, $9 billion deal at the Dubai Airshow on Wednesday, without specifying what engine would power it, while reducing its order for the U.S. planemaker’s delayed 777X model.
The 787’s, which can take either Rolls or rival GE Aviation’s GEnx engines, will be delivered to Emirates in 2023, a year later than a tentative purchase plan outlined two years ago.
That gives Rolls-Royce more time to sort out the durability issues in its Trent 1000 engines before Emirates believes a realistic competition can be held.
“Rolls have had a number of wake up calls and they really need to sort themselves out. I think the alarm clock has gone off a number of times,” Emirates President Tim Clark said at the Dubai Airshow.
“If I were on the board, I would be looking to recognise the issues… and deal with them immediately, meaningfully, forcefully and drive change,” he told reporters.
A spokeswoman for Rolls-Royce said it was proud that Emirates had chosen to order 50 Airbus A350s, powered by Rolls’ Trent XWB, in a deal announced this week.
“We are confident in the reliability and performance of our engines, and in our commitment to meeting the high standards expected by our customers,” the spokeswoman said.
“(Emirates) is one of the largest operators of our Trent engines in the world, and we are committed to maintaining our strong relationship with them.”
The Rolls-powered version of the 787 has been hit by repeated technical problems, leading to share price pressure and drawing criticism from airlines.
The engine maker’s chief executive Warren East said on Nov. 7 that the company would spend more on parts and replacement engines to reduce the time aircraft are grounded while turbine blades are replaced.
Clark said that the situation at Rolls was “salvageable” if board acted quickly and accepted the issues they were having.
“With the reputation that (Rolls) has for quality engineering and its excellence in the past, they must restore that as the gold standard,” he said.
He said his comments should not be read as a criticism of any individuals including East.
Clark has been a vocal critic of engine makers, saying in September he wouldn’t take new planes unless their engines were ready and said he was “a little bit irritated” by delays at Rolls and GE.
GE powers the 777X, which Emirates cut its order of on Wednesday after Boeing pushed back its entry into service, partly due to issues with its engines.
Clark said engine makers should only offer technology that was mature enough to work reliably in the demanding conditions of the Gulf, adding: “Don’t use (airlines) as guinea pigs”.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher, writing by Alistair Smout, Editing by Louise Heavens)
Boeing 787 Dreamliner performs air display during the second day of Dubai Air Show in Dubai
DUBAI (Reuters) – After insisting for 15 years that the superjumbo is the future, Emirates airline has been forced by the demise of the A380 to embrace smaller wide-body jets, resulting in a flurry of maneuvers between planemakers at this week’s Dubai Airshow.
The 555-seat A380 is near the end of production, setting off a series of interlocking deals as top buyer Emirates reviews its fleet against the backdrop of fragmenting travel demand. Delays in the 406-seat Boeing 777X also weighed in the shake-up.
“We have to face the reality of the cancellation of the (A380) program and the effect it has on our network, which is why we conducted a root and branch (review),” Emirates President Tim Clark told reporters at the airshow.
The double-decker A380 superjumbo and the big twin-engined Boeing 777, plus mid-sized 787s and A350s, were all spread out in front of VIP chalets – the queens, bishops and knights in a game of industry chess being played out across the globe.
Big jets tend to be profitable especially when full.
Periodically, the industry designs smaller planes that match both the range and efficiency of larger ones, allowing smaller pieces on the industry chess board to topple larger ones.
While reducing its remaining orders for A380s, Emirates placed an expanded order at the show for 50 Airbus A350s but shelved earlier plans to order the 330-seat A330neo, an upgrade of an earlier model.
It substituted part of an order for delayed 777X jets for 30 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners – 10 fewer than originally planned in a tentative 2017 order – as part of a $25 billion order shake-up.
For passengers, the roughly 300-seat, lightweight mid-sized jets offer more choice and frequencies.
Many airlines say they can fly almost as profitably as the larger models but with less risk to the bottom line.
The downside? Planes fill more quickly and passengers can flee to other carriers. Airport congestion is also a concern.
Emirates insists the superhub model it pioneered – which takes advantage of Dubai’s location to capture global traffic using large aircraft – remains intact despite the new twist.
But the smaller planes allow some of its rivals to fly profitably with fewer commercial risks and this week’s deals imply Emirates no longer feels immune from such pressure.
“Given the changed environment, Emirates has been forced to adapt the tactics of some of the carriers they have been competing with,” said analyst Richard Aboulafia of Teal Group.
STALEMATE
The shift sparked frantic talks by planemakers to ensure their models were included in the new mix of Emirates’ mid-sized jets. Each suffered losses but the result was broadly a stalemate, analysts said.
Airbus suffered a setback with the loss of the A330neo at Emirates and may have to cut output, they said.
But it ensured its own A350 picked up the slack and won a ticket to any future contests to replace A380s still in service.
Boeing <BA.N> cemented a key win for the 787 after two years of uncertainty over the earlier provisional deal. But recent 777X delays opened the door to Emirates readjusting the blend in favor of the Airbus A350, at the expense of the 787.
Emirates’ decision to expand its A350 order coincided with cancellations for the same jet at Abu Dhabi’s struggling Etihad, prompting speculation of a politically balanced adjustment.
Airline officials strongly denied any link and Clark said planners had identified more room for future growth in revenues with the A350 than the A330neo, which would nonetheless remain “in the mix” for the future alongside more 777X purchases.
Analysts said the net result of reducing A380 and 777X orders and switching to smaller models was about 18,000 fewer seats on order than previously planned before the show,
which some analysts described as a response to overcapacity.
“Manufacturers have sold too many airplanes,” Adam Pilarski, senior vice-president at consultancy AVITAS, said.
While the spotlight fell on the Emirates wide-body order rejig, the Dubai show highlighted Boeing’s efforts to shore up confidence in its grounded 737 MAX with fresh sales and changes sweeping the narrow-body markets. Beefed-up single-aisle jets increasingly cover distances reserved for wide-bodies.
Sharjah’s Air Arabia <AIRA.DU> ordered 120 Airbus including 20 of the long-range 200-240-seat A321XLR. Sources say it may leapfrog northern Africa to fly non-stop as far as Casablanca, a mission currently served from neighboring Dubai by an Emirates A380.
“The single aisles are the pawns of the industry but very effective ones,” Rob Morris, head consultant at UK-based Ascend by Cirium, said.
(By Tim Hepher and Alexander Cornwell; Additional reporting by Ankit Ajmera; Editing by Susan Fenton)
Emiratis walk past an airbus A350 displayed at the Dubai Airshow on November 8, 2015. Dubai Airshow took off today to a slow start amid little expectations of major orders to match the multi-billion-dollar sales generated at the last edition of the biennial fair. AFP PHOTO/MARWAN NAAMANI (Photo by MARWAN NAAMANI / AFP)
FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: British Airways logos are seen on tail fins at Heathrow Airport in west London
(Reuters) – British Airways and its pilots’ union BALPA have reached a preliminary agreement to end the pay dispute that resulted in the first walkout by pilots in the airline’s history, the union said on Friday.
The agreement came after the two sides held talks under the auspices of the ACAS arbitration service.
BALPA said in a statement: “We can confirm that BALPA, BA and ACAS have put together a new pay and conditions proposal and, subject to final checks, BALPA expects it will shortly be consulting its 4,000 BA members on them.”
A BA spokeswoman said “We welcome this positive step.”
As part of the agreement, BA agreed to insert an inflation protection clause to its previous pay offer of an 11.5% rise over three years, the Financial Times reported.
The airline also offered improvements to working conditions, rostering and flight bonuses, the paper added.
British Airways pilots went on strike for 48 hours in September, grounding 1,700 flights.
BA, part of International Consolidated Airlines Group <ICAG.L>, said in September that the strikes had cost it 137 million euros ($151 million).
(Reporting by Alistair Smout in London and Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Louise Heavens)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao on Thursday granted final approval for an expanded trans-Atlantic joint venture for Delta Air Lines Inc <DAL>, Air France KLM SA <AFLYY> and Virgin Atlantic.
Reuters first reported Chao’s planned tentative approval of the agreement in August. The expanded joint venture replaces two previously approved arrangements in the U.S.-United Kingdom and U.S.-Continental Europe markets and will allow for additional benefits such as more options on European flights, Chao said in a statement.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
A Delta Air Lines flight is pushed put of its gate at the airport in Salt Lake City
Most expensive version offers a range of more than 500 miles
Production expected to begin in late 2021 (Recasts and writes through)
Nov 21 (Reuters) – Tesla Inc on Thursday unveiled its first electric pickup truck that looked like a futuristic angular armored vehicle in gunmetal gray, as the California company took aim at the heart of Detroit automakers’ profits.
At a launch event in Los Angeles, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said the Cybertruck will have a starting price of $39,900 and production is expected to begin in late 2021.
Other versions will be priced at $49,900 and $69,900 with the most expensive offering a range of more than 500 miles.
“We need sustainable energy now. If we don’t have a pickup truck, we can’t solve it. The top 3 selling vehicles in America are pickup trucks. To solve sustainable energy, we have to have a pickup truck,” he said.
The truck, which Musk claimed “won’t scratch and dent”, was described as having windows made from armored glass. But the glass cracked like a spider web when hit with a metal ball during a demonstration. Musk appeared surprised but noted that the glass had not completely broken.
Reactions on Twitter ranged from love to hate of the sharply angled vehicle. “I just watched tesla release the #cybertruck and honestly? My life feels complete,” wrote @aidan_tenud, while @nateallensnyde wrote “Its nice to see Elon Musk make a cardboard box car he drew in kindergarten,”.
Musk earlier tweeted the design was partly influenced by the Lotus Esprit sportscar that doubled as a submarine in the 1970s 007 film “The Spy Who Loved Me”.
The truck marks the first foray by Tesla, whose Model 3 sedan is the world’s top-selling battery electric car, into pickup trucks, a market dominated by Ford Motor Co’s F-150, along with models by General Motors Co, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV .
The pickup shifts Tesla more toward trucks and SUVs. The automaker has so far sold mostly Model S and Model 3 sedans, but also offers the Model X SUV and starting next year the Model Y compact SUV.
A focus on the high-performance end of the market is only natural given the success of Ford’s 450-horsepower F-150 Raptor truck, which launched in 2009 and whose sales have since risen annually, according to Ford spokesman Mike Levine.
While Ford does not disclose Raptor sales, Levine said annual demand is well above 19,000 vehicles and the No. 2 U.S. automaker has never had to offer incentives on the model, which costs in the high $60,000 range. Ford also offers the more expensive F-150 Limited, its most powerful and luxurious pickup.
Ford and GM are also gearing up to challenge Tesla more directly with new offerings like the Ford Mustang Mach E electric SUV as well as electric pickups.
Electric pickups and SUVs could help Ford and GM generate the significant EV sales they will need to meet tougher emission standards and EV mandates in California and other states.
The Trump administration is moving to roll back those standards, but electric trucks are a hedge if California prevails.
Demand for full-size electric pickup trucks in the near term may not be huge, however.
Industry tracking firm IHS Markit estimates the electric truck segment – both full- and mid-sized models – will account for about 75,000 sales in 2026, compared with an expected 3 million light trucks overall. The Tesla truck is not part of that estimate.
Ford aims to sell an electric F-series in late 2021, sources familiar with the plans said. It also will offer the Mach E next year as part of its plan to invest $11.5 billion by 2022 to electrify its vehicles.
In April, Ford invested $500 million in startup Rivian, which plans to build its own electric pickup beginning in fall 2020.
GM plans to build a family of premium electric pickup trucks and SUVs, with the first pickup due to go on sale in the fall of 2021. It plans to invest $8 billion by 2023 to develop electric and self-driving vehicles.
(Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu in Tokyo and Peter Henderson in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Miyoung Kim in Singapore and Joseph White in Detroit; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
BRASILIA (Reuters) – A Chinese antitrust regulator has approved Boeing Co’s <BA> deal to buy a controlling stake in the commercial jet division of Brazilian planemaker Embraer <ERJ>, according to a statement on the regulator’s website.
The Boeing-Embraer deal appears on a list dated Nov. 19 of transactions “approved unconditionally” that is posted to the website of the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation’s anti-monopoly department.
The document gives no further details, only saying that the case was adjudicated 10 days earlier on Nov. 9.
Boeing, the world’s largest planemaker, has been seeking to finalize its purchase of 80% of Embraer’s commercial jet division in a bid to compete with Europe’s Airbus <AIR.PA> in the market for planes with fewer than 150 seats.
China’s approval comes as EU regulators have delayed a decision until both companies provide additional documents, which Embraer has said it is trying to do as soon as possible.
The companies originally said they expected to close the deal this year.
(Reporting by Jake Spring; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd <MHVYF> is confident that it has the technical and production know-how to build high-tech wings for Airbus SE <EADSY> jetliners, the chief executive of the Japanese conglomerate said on Wednesday.
MHI developed sophisticated production processes at its facility in Nagoya in the process of building wings for the Boeing Co <BA> 787 Dreamliner, Chief Executive Seiji Izumisawa said in an interview.
“We have accumulated expertise in producing aerostructures as a tier 1 supplier, so if the opportunity does present itself we will certainly be willing to consider it,” he said.
It is not yet clear whether Airbus plans to outsource wings on future jets, such as its next-generation single-aisle aircraft, which could come out in about a decade.
Such future work would be important to MHI in part because of Boeing’s decision to bring wing production back in-house on its latest jet, the 777X.
“We do have the capability to produce some pretty complicated components,” said Izumisawa, who said he was involved in developing the 787 wings.
(Reporting by Alwyn Scott; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is seen at the company’s Sagamihara plant in Sagamihara, Japan
MONTREAL/WINNIPEG, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Thousands of workers at Canada’s largest railway went on strike for the first time in a decade on Tuesday, disrupting the shipping of commodities and sparking calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government to intervene.
About 3,000 unionized workers of Canadian National Railway, including conductors and yardmen, hit picket lines after both sides failed to resolve contract issues at a time of softening demand for freight service. They continued talks on Tuesday in Montreal amid union concerns over fatigue, safety and ensuring that workers’ breaks are not reduced.
Canada, one of the world’s biggest exporters of farm products, relies on CN and Canadian Pacific Railway to move canola, wheat and other commodities over vast distances from western farms to ports. Crude oil shippers and the mining industry also depend on the railways.
The strike comes at an awkward time for Trudeau’s government, which relies on smaller parties to pass legislation and faces criticism from western provinces about its failures to get new oil pipelines built. Trudeau has said he is not reconvening Parliament until Dec. 5, and the government cannot start the process to force workers back on the job until then.
Andrew Scheer, leader of the Conservatives, the second-largest party in Parliament, and Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage each separately urged Trudeau on Twitter to recall Parliament immediately.
The Canadian mining industry, which accounts for more than half of annual rail freight revenues, depends on CN to transport supplies to company sites and products from their operations.
“This strike will result in a severe reduction or elimination of railway capacity and will trigger the closure of mines with concurrent layoffs of thousands of employees beginning in a matter of days,” said Pierre Gratton, president and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada.
“SCREECHING HALT”
Industry groups ranging from the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters to propane and fertilizer groups said Ottawa needed to step in to limit damage to the economy.
The BC Council of Forest Industries, which represents the sector in British Columbia, expressed concerns about the disruptions caused by the strike for rail transport.
“Ninety percent of the forest products we produce are sent to export markets in North America and around the world,” Susan Yurkovich, the body’s president, said.
“A disruption of this critical transportation network will adversely impact BC forest companies at a time when we are already facing significant challenges and increasing competition from around the globe”, Yurkovich added.
CN and CP also collectively handle nearly all grain movement in Western Canada, the country’s crop belt, split roughly evenly between the railways.
The stoppage “has an impact before it even begins because companies pull back sales in anticipation of a strike,” said Wade Sobkowich, executive director of the Western Grain Elevator Association, whose members include Cargill Ltd, Richardson International and Viterra Inc.
CN’s shipments of hazardous goods such as crude are likely to come to a “screeching halt” even if the railroad’s management steps in to limit freight volumes, said Kent McDougall, chief commercial officer at Torq Energy, which loads crude oil in Western Canada onto trains operated by both CN and CP.
A strike may temporarily constrain CN’s volumes, but will not likely have a meaningful long-term impact on the company’s earnings, Credit Suisse analysts said in a research note on Monday, adding that Ottawa has historically been quick to intervene.
Shares of Montreal-based CN were down 1%, while the benchmark Canadian share index was up slightly.
Canadian Labour Minister Patty Hajdu and Transport Minister Marc Garneau said they are monitoring the CN strike situation closely after meeting with the two sides on Monday.
CN said in a statement that it was “disappointed” at the strike action. CN’s service in the United States will continue operating despite the strike.
The company said on Friday it would cut management and union jobs as it grapples with an economic slowdown.
Rail workers with the Teamsters held their last strike in 2009, when locomotive engineers walked off the job for five days, the union said.
(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg Additional reporting by Kelsey Johnson, David Ljunggren and Steve Scherer in Ottawa and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Sandra Maler and Leslie Adler)
