TOMORROWS TRANSPORTATION NEWS TODAY!
Singapore-based lessor BOC Aviation Limited has placed a firm order with Airbus for 20 A320neo aircraft. Up to 12 of the newly-ordered aircraft will be leased to Colombia’s Avianca Airlines.
Featuring the widest single-aisle cabin in the sky, the A320neo Family incorporates the latest technologies, including new generation engines and Sharklets, which together deliver 20% reduced fuel burn as well as 50% less noise compared to previous-generation aircraft.
Delta Air Lines has successfully completed its previously announced tender offer and has acquired a 20 percent equity stake in LATAM Airlines Group S.A for approximately $1.9 billion, an important milestone toward bringing together the leading airlines in North and South America. This investment continues Delta’s strategy of making equity investments in key airline partners around the globe.
“We look forward to working with LATAM to create a truly world-class partnership that will give our customers unparalleled access throughout the Americas,” said Steve Sear, Delta President — International and Executive Vice President — Global Sales. “Equity investments like this help create alignment within our partnerships as we bring together our brands, enabling us to provide the very best service and reliability for our shared customers.”
In September, Delta and LATAM announced a strategic partnership, including the now completed 20 percent equity investment and also a commercial joint venture. Once fully implemented, this partnership will unlock growth opportunities for both airlines and offer significantly expanded travel options for customers, with access to 435 destinations worldwide.
Most recently, the carriers announced that they will initially launch codesharing for flights operated by certain LATAM affiliates in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru beginning in the first quarter of 2020. The codeshare will offer customers increased connectivity between up to 74 onward destinations in the United States and up to 51 onward destinations in South America.
The enhanced cooperation and codeshare agreements are subject to governmental and regulatory approvals.
Delta and LATAM will launch codesharing for flights operated by certain LATAM affiliates in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru beginning in the first quarter of 2020, pending receipt of applicable government approvals.
The codeshare will offer customers increased connectivity between up to 74 onward destinations in the United States and up to 51 onward destinations in South America.
Delta expects to expand codeshare opportunities to include more destinations in the near future. The airlines are also working toward introducing frequent flyer program reciprocity and reciprocal lounge access.
“This is an important milestone for customers as we begin to deliver on the transformative partnership between Delta and LATAM announced earlier this year,” said Steve Sear, Delta President – International and Executive Vice President – Global Sales. “Once fully realized, this partnership will give us the ability to offer our shared customers an industry-leading network and superior service across the Americas.”
In September, Delta and LATAM announced an agreement that would bring together the leading airlines in North and South America, which once fully implemented will offer significantly expanded travel options for customers with access to 435 destinations worldwide. The enhanced cooperation is subject to governmental and regulatory approvals.
German flag carrier Lufthansa and German national railway Deutsche Bahn have reached agreement on a long-festering dispute concerning an air cargo cartel.
The settlement was announced Aug. 26, although details are being kept confidential by mutual agreement.
The settlement ends a dispute before the Cologne regional court that has been ongoing since 2013.
Settling parties are DB Barnsdale, a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, and Lufthansa Group member companies Lufthansa Cargo, Swiss International Air Lines and Deutsche Lufthansa.
Click the link for the full story! https://finance.yahoo.com/news/lufthansa-deutsche-bahn-settle-air-170533046.html
TRUMBULL, Conn., Aug. 12, 2019 – Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency-Brazil (ANAC) approved the Search and Rescue (SAR) configuration for the Sikorsky S-92A™ helicopter. The certification now enables the operation of S-92® helicopters in Brazil in all production configurations, including offshore oil and gas transportation, search and rescue, as well as regional airline passenger service and VIP transportation. Sikorsky is a Lockheed Martin company (NYSE: LMT).
ANAC-Brazil certified the S-92A aircraft for SAR missions on March 28, following previous verification to 27,700 lbs. Maximum Gross Weight (MGW) load allowance in Dec. 2018, as well as certification of Sikorsky’s Rig Approach™ software auto-pilot feature in Oct. 2014, expanding the full range of capabilities of the S-92A helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky to Brazil.
“For more than 47 years, Sikorsky helicopters have been the workhorses of the Brazilian offshore oil transport market, first with the S-58T in 1972, the S-76® and S-61 since 1979, and over the last 10 years with the larger, further-reaching S-92 heavy aircraft. These new certifications along with the announcement of the forthcoming S-92 A+/B™, help ensure that that the S-92 will continue to be the aircraft of choice in Brazil and around the world for safe, reliable, deep water offshore oil exploration,” said Adam Schierholz, Sikorsky Regional Executive for Latin America.
The S-92 was certified in Colombia in Nov. 2016 and in Mexico in Nov. 2017. In 2018, Sikorsky added an S-92 blade repair capability in Brazil and relocated and expanded its Brazil-based Forward Stocking Location, near Brazilian operators, including Lider Aviation, Omni Helicopters International and CHC Helicopter. Eight Brazilian commercial operators currently fly a total of 90 Sikorsky aircraft throughout the country.
Sikorsky has delivered nearly 300 S-92 helicopters since 2004. With a best-in-class safety record and industry-leading dispatch availability, the multi-mission S-92 aircraft is the preferred aircraft of its size class for offshore oil worker transportation. These helicopters also perform search and rescue missions, head of state missions, and a variety of transportation missions for utility and airline passengers.
For more information, visit Sikorsky Commercial Systems & Services
About Lockheed Martin
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 105,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.
Viva Air, the Latin American group of carriers owned by a founder of Ireland’s Ryanair Holdings Plc, has plans for a third airline in the region plus an initial public offering, to cash in on strong demand for discount air travel.
The company aims to sell shares in New York within two years, Viva’s biggest shareholder, Declan Ryan, said in an interview in Lima. The shares could also be listed on another exchange, such as Colombia’s, he said.
Click the link for the full story from Bloomberg!
SAO PAULO, Jan 11 (Reuters) – Lessor Aircastle is set to repossess 10 jets from Avianca Brasil, the country’s No. 4 airline, after a bankruptcy hearing on Monday, a source familiar with the matter said, potentially disrupting flights for thousands of passengers.
The 10 Airbus A320 planes represent more than 20 percent of Avianca Brasil’s current fleet, according to data provided by Brazil’s aviation regulator, raising doubts about the carrier’s ability to fly its full flight schedule if the aircraft are seized.
And it could lose more planes in the future. Lessor GE Capital Aviation Services and an affiliate are seeking to repossess 12 Airbus A320s from Avianca Brasil, according to James Luton, a GE spokesman.
When the airline filed for bankruptcy protections last month, the airline discussed the possible loss of 14 planes, which it said would affect 77,000 passengers over a three-week period.
A representative for Avianca Brasil declined to comment. The bankruptcy filing came after years of mounting losses and late aircraft payments.
Bankruptcy filings, while providing protection from creditors, do not cover leases, the source of the carrier’s entire 46-aircraft fleet.
Between the end of 2016 and September 2018, Avianca Brasil’s liabilities to aircraft lessors quintupled to 415 million reais ($112 million), according to the carrier’s financial statements.
Still, a Brazilian bankruptcy judge stayed a decision that would have allowed Aircastle to repossess the planes last month. That stay, however, expires on Monday.
Since the stay was issued, the source said, Avianca Brasil has not made any proposal to Aircastle that would have allowed the carrier to keep the planes. Avianca Brasil owes Aircastle more than $30 million, the source added.
The stakes are also high for Aircastle, as Avianca Brasil is its largest single customer, representing some 7 percent of its net book value, according to the lessor’s financial disclosures.
Avianca Brasil is separate from the better-known Avianca Holdings SA, which is based in Colombia. But they share the same owner, a family company owned in part by Bolivian-born airline entrepreneur German Efromovich.
United Continental Holdings gave the family company a $500 million loan last November.
Neither party has revealed why the loan was needed, but Efromovich has been sued for failure to repay his debts in the United States and Brazil in recent years.
($1 = 3.7138 reais)
(Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun)
SAO PAULO, Dec 3 (Reuters) – Two Brazilian airlines, Azul SA and Avianca Brasil, are targets for expansion in the wide-ranging alliance between United Continental Holdings Inc , Colombia’s Avianca Holdings and Panama’s Copa Airlines on U.S.-Latin America routes, Avianca Holdings’ Chief Financial Officer, Gerardo Grajales, told Reuters on Monday.
There was little reference to Brazil, by far the region’s largest market, when the alliance was announced on Friday, but Grajales said the parties to the agreement already had in mind Azul and Avianca Brasil, which operates independently of Colombia-based Avianca Holdings.
“The two airlines complement each other in the Brazilian market,” Grajales said. “From the beginning we thought that Brazil should be covered by our agreement, however, no partnership would be authorized if it did not have an Open Skies agreement.”
The Open Skies agreement between Brazil and the United States was signed into law in May, when discussions among the three airlines were already advanced, he explained.
The airline agreement mimics a partnership between American Airlines and Chile’s Latam Airlines which has been mired in regulatory scrutiny.
The announcement between the United Airlines parent, Avianca and Copa capped off almost two years of negotiations. United will loan Avianca’s majority shareholder almost $500 million to be spent on ventures outside of the airline.
Depending on how it is repaid, United could end up owning a large chunk of the Colombian carrier. United is making no monetary investment in Copa or its affiliates.
United already owns an 8 percent stake in Azul, and has a codesharing agreement with Avianca Brasil, formerly known as Ocean Air.
Shares in Azul were down almost 5 percent on Monday afternoon in Sao Paulo. The world’s largest asset manager BlackRock disclosed late on Friday that it had sold an almost 10 percent stake in Azul’s preferred shares. Hours earlier, the carrier disclosed in another securities filing that it sought to double in size in the next five years.
Azul did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by David Gregorio)
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