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CHICAGO (Reuters) – United Airlines said on Wednesday it has decided to remove the Boeing 737 MAX from its flying schedule until Sept. 3, leading to about 1,900 total flight cancellations in August.
The Federal Aviation Administration earlier said it has identified a new potential risk that Boeing Co must address on its 737 MAX before the jet can return to service.
(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by Chris Reese)
NEW YORK (Reuters) – JetBlue Airways Corp has sued Walmart Inc for trademark infringement, after the world’s largest retailer began using the name Jetblack for its text-based personal shopping service.
In a complaint filed on Friday night in Manhattan federal court, JetBlue called Jetblack a “transparent attempt” by Walmart to capitalize on the goodwill associated with the carrier’s trademarks.
JetBlue also said Jetblack was likely to cause “significant consumer confusion” as Walmart expands the service, and warned that Walmart intends further infringements by using additional “Jet+color” names such as Jetgold and Jetsilver.
Walmart did not immediately respond on Monday to requests for comment. The lawsuit also names Walmart’s Jet.com unit as a defendant.
Introduced in May 2018, Jetblack calls itself a “personal shopping and concierge service that combines the convenience of e-commerce with the customized attention of a personal assistant.”
Walmart launched Jetblack in part to help the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer expand beyond its brick-and-mortar base and compete with such services as Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Prime, especially among consumers in urban areas.
JetBlue is based in Long Island City, New York.
The case is JetBlue Airways Corp v Jet.com Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 19-05879.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Susan Thomas)
PARIS (Reuters) – U.S. arms makers say European demand for fighter jets, missile defenses and other weapons is growing fast amid heightened concerns about Russia and Iran.
The U.S. government sent a group of unusually high-ranking officials including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to the Paris Airshow this year, where nearly 400 U.S. companies were showcasing equipment as the United States and Iran neared open confrontation in the Persian Gulf.
Lockheed Martin, Boeing and other top weapons makers said they had seen accelerating demand for U.S. weapons at the biennial air show despite escalating trade tensions between the United States and Europe.
“Two Paris air shows ago, there weren’t a lot of orders,” said Rick Edwards, who heads Lockheed’s international division. “Now … our fastest growth market for Lockheed Martin in the world is Europe.”
Many European nations have increased military spending since Russia’s annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014, bolstering missile defenses and upgrading or replacing ageing fighter jet fleets. NATO members agreed in 2014 to move toward spending 2% of gross domestic product on defence.
Eric Fanning, chief executive of the Aerospace Industries Association, said the NATO pledge and European concerns about Russia were fueling demand. “I do think it reflects the increasing provocations of Russia,” he said.
Industry executives and government officials say growing concern about Iran’s missile development program is another key factor. Tehran’s downing of a U.S. drone came late in the air show, but executives said it would support further demand.
“Iran is our best business development partner. Every time they do something like this, it heightens awareness of the threat,” said one senior defence industry executive, who asked not to be named.
Edwards said Lockheed’s F-35 stealth fighter, selected by Belgium, is poised to win another new order from Poland, while Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania are also working to replace Soviet-era equipment.
Edwards and other executives say they see no impact from the ongoing trade disputes between U.S. President Donald Trump and the European Union.
U.S. Army Lieutenant General Charles Hooper, director of the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), said Europe accounted for nearly a quarter of the $55.7 billion in foreign arms sales his agency handled in fiscal 2018.
Hooper said the U.S. government was making concerted efforts to speed arms sales approvals and boost sales to help arm allies with U.S. weapons.
Ralph Acaba, president of Raytheon Co’s’s Integrated Defense Systems business, said the company was boosting automation and working to deliver the Patriot missile system and other weapons in half the five-year period previously typical.
“Europe is really big for us now, and that’s a big change in just the last few years and even the last 18 months,” he said.
In addition to wooing new Patriot customers, Raytheon is upgrading existing systems for customers like Germany, which is likely to finalize a contract worth potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to the company in coming months.
Thomas Breckenridge, head of international sales for Boeing’s strike, surveillance and mobility programs, is eyeing contracts wins for Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets in Germany, Switzerland and Finland.
“There’s a huge appetite in Europe for defence as a whole,” he said.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Jan Harvey)
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Daimler has cut its earnings outlook for this year after lifting provisions for issues related to its diesel vehicles by “a high three-digit million euro amount”, the carmaker said on Sunday.
Group earnings before interest and tax for 2019 are now expected to be at last year’s level. Previously, the carmaker had expected the figure to be “slightly higher”.
The revision is related to an increase in expected expenses linked to “various ongoing governmental proceedings and measures with regard to Mercedes-Benz diesel vehicles,” the company said.
A spokesman declined to elaborate on the nature of those issues.
However, Sunday’s profit warning follows news over the weekend that Daimler must recall 60,000 Mercedes diesel cars in Germany after regulators found that they were fitted with software aimed at distorting emissions tests.
The transportation ministry said it was expanding its investigation into further models.
The company also said it was reducing its forecast for the return on sales for Mercedes-Benz vans.
It now sees a return between minus 2% and minus 4%, below its previous forecast of a return on sales of 0% to 2%.
(Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Jan Harvey)
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. casino operator Eldorado Resorts Inc has agreed to merge with Caesars Entertainment Corp in a cash and stock deal that values its peer at about $18 billion including debt, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.
The agreement comes three months after Reuters reported that Caesars had agreed to give Eldorado access to its books under pressure from billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who earlier this year was awarded seats on Caesars’ board.
The deal, which is expected to be announced on Monday, values Caesars at close to $13 a share, according to the sources. The combined company’s ownership would be split roughly between Eldorado and Caesars shareholders, the sources said.
The sources asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. An Eldorado spokesman said the company did not comment on rumors or speculation. Caesars did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The combination of the two companies would create a serious competitor to larger casino industry players, such as Las Vegas Sands Corp, Wynn Resorts Ltd and MGM Resorts International.
Caesars’ shares closed on Friday at $9.99. The company, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2017, operates casinos with the Harrah’s and Horseshoe brands. It had 53 properties in 14 U.S. states and five countries outside the United States at the end of December.
Eldorado has a market value of $4 billion. It also had long-term debt at the end of March of $3.1 billion. It owns and operates 26 properties in 12 U.S. states.
(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis; Editing by Peter Cooney)
(Reuters) – Eleven passengers and crew were killed on Friday evening when their plane crashed near an airfield in Hawaii, authorities said, during what broadcasters said was a skydiving trip.
The twin-engine King Air plane, with eleven people onboard, went down soon after takeoff from Dillingham Airfield and there were no survivors, the Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) said.
The fire service said the aircraft was engulfed in flames when fire crews arrived. “We are still gathering information as to the intent of the flight and what they were doing,” Honolulu Fire Department Chief Manuel Neves told a news conference.
The news report said the plane was on a skydiving excursion and the Federal Aviation Administration would investigate the crash.
The HDOT said Federal inspectors are continuing to investigate the cause of the crash.
Dillingham is a joint-use airfield operated by the HDOT under a 25-year lease from the U.S. army, according to its website.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Australia’s Qantas Airways Ltd said on Wednesday it would order 10 Airbus SE A321XLR jets and convert another 26 from a prior order to the new long-range model.
That will take its total A320neo family order to 109 planes, from 99 previously.
The A321XLR jets, to be delivered from mid-2024, have a 4,700 nautical mile range that will allow Qantas or its low-cost arm Jetstar to perform longer-range flights in narrow body jets.
“It can fly routes like Cairns-Tokyo or Melbourne-Singapore, which existing narrow-bodies can’t, and that changes the economics of lots of potential routes into Asia to make them not just physically possible but financially attractive,” Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce said in a statement.
Jetstar operates an A320 narrow body fleet, but Qantas uses the rival Boeing 737. Joyce said the A321XLR had plenty of potential uses across both airlines and it would decide closer to the date on where they would be deployed and if they would be used for growth or to replace older jets.
Jetstar is due to receive 18 A321LR jets from 2020 to 2022 and plans to deploy them on domestic and international routes.
The additional 10 jets are valued at more than $1 billion at Airbus list prices, although airlines typically receive substantial discounts.
Qantas said it retained flexibility around the timing and structure of the deliveries depending on market conditions.
“All fleet decisions we make are ultimately guided by our financial framework, which balances our capital expenditure and need to invest for the future with our debt levels and ongoing returns to shareholders,” Joyce said.
Qantas is expected to decide next year on a replacement for its 75 737 jets, which comprise the backbone of its domestic fleet, Joyce said in February.
Contenders include the A320neo family, the 737 MAX and Boeing’s proposed new mid-sized airplane.
(Reporting by Jamie Freed; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
PARIS, June 19 (Reuters) – Israel-based Elbit Systems on Wednesday said it would keep an eye out for possible acquisitions if the proposed merger of U.S. aerospace companies Raytheon Co and United Technologies Corp triggers certain divestments.
“We could have several opportunities coming from that kind of merger,” Ran Kril, executive vice president for International Marketing & Business Development, told Reuters at the Paris Airshow.
Kril said Elbit was committed to expanding in the United States, and would keep a close eye on any possible divestments ordered by U.S. authorities reviewing the proposed merger.
He said Elbit expected to wrap up the purchase of the night vision business of Harris Corp in the autumn. Antitrust authorities had ordered the sale of that business as a condition for approving Harris’s merger with L3 Technologies.
“We’ve decided to grow in America and after the Harris acquisition, we will always find opportunities to expand our portfolio and our presence in the U.S.,” Kril said.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, editing by Deepa Babington)
Le Bourget, France, June 19 (Reuters) – Airbus unveiled an aircraft deal with Taiwan’s China Airlines on Wednesday, snatching the carrier’s medium-haul fleet renewal from Boeing a day after its U.S. rival made a shock entry into the single-aisle fleet of British Airways owner IAG.
The European planemaker said China Airlines had signed a preliminary deal to buy 11 A321neo aircraft, worth about $1.4 billion at list prices, while leasing another 14.
Although much smaller than the IAG letter of intent for 200 Boeing 737 MAX announced on Tuesday, the China Airlines deal signals intensified competition in Asia where Boeing this week predicted 40 percent of jets would be delivered over the next 20 years.
Airlines can rarely be persuaded to jump ship to rival suppliers because of the costs of training and parts, but this week’s Paris Airshow has witnessed two such announcements as sold-out planemakers mount incursions to continue their growth.
In a further competitive twist, Boeing announced on Monday it would take over the supply of spare parts for the remaining Airbus A320 fleet at British Airways.
China Airlines announced the leasing part of the deal in May and Reuters reported it would pave the way for the Taiwan carrier to switch its medium-haul fleet to the Airbus A320neo.
The rare deal to replace older 737s took years to complete and was drafted before the 737 MAX was engulfed by a crisis involving two crashes and a worldwide grounding, sources said.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher, Editing by Mark Potter)
LE BOURGET, France, June 19 (Reuters) – Wizz Air will use 20 new extended-range, narrow body Airbus jets primarily to connect existing destinations in its disparate network rather than to fly to new places, the budget airline’s Chief Executive Jozsef Varadi said on Wednesday.
Indigo Partners, the private equity firm of veteran low-cost airline investor Bill Franke, agreed on Wednesday to acquire 50 of the new long-range version of Airbus’ A321neo jet, 20 of which will go to Wizz.
Wizz, which operates a fleet of 113 Airbus A320 and Airbus A321, would not need to change its operating model to accommodate the new A321XLR jets, Varadi said, as it would be able to fly essentially the same planes a little longer.
“Our network spans from the Canary Islands to Astana in Kazakhstan, from Reyjavik in Iceland to Dubai,” Varadi told Reuters after the announcement at the Paris Airshow.
“The XLR gives use the opportunity to connect more dots in our existing network. This is what we’re looking at.”
Airbus opened the Paris Airshow with the launch of the A321XLR, but the announcement was overshadowed on Tuesday when Boeing said British Airways-owner IAG intended to order 200 of its grounded 737 MAX jets.
Hungary-based Wizz, which is focussed on central and eastern Europe, said it had used existing option positions to secure the deal for the A321XLRs, bringing the airline’s total of outstanding firm orders for Airbus aircraft to 276 jets.
Varadi said that in the longer term, it was possible the jet would help open routes to new destinations, but it was not a priority.
“We have always been excited about planting new flags in new territories,” Varadi said. “But the vast majority of the XLR capacity will come in existing markets.”
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Mark Potter)
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