YANGON (Reuters) – A Biman Bangladesh Airlines plane skidded off the runway when it landed in bad weather at Yangon’s international airport on Wednesday evening, injuring at least 17 people, officials said.
The Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft was carrying 29 passengers and four crew when it bounced while landing during heavy winds in Myanmar’s commercial capital, Bangladesh’s ambassador said. The plane was severely damaged.
The 17 who sustained mostly minor injuries were admitted to a local hospital, Manjurul Karim Khan Chowdhury, told Reuters.
“The main reason, the pilot told me, was the weather – crosswinds,” he said, “When he was trying to land… suddenly the aircraft jumped, went up and went down heavily.”
A photo published by the Myanmar Times showed the plane halfway off the runway with its fuselage apparently broken.
Shakil Miraj, general manager for Biman Bangladesh, also blamed bad weather for the crash.
The airline flies between Yangon and Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka four days a week.
A spokesman for Myanmar’s Department of Civil Aviation declined to comment, saying the department had not received a report of the incident from the ground.
Reporting by Thu Thu Aung, Simon Lewis, and Poppy McPherson in Yangon and Ruma Paul in Dhaka; Editing by Frances Kerry and John Stonestreet
HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Hong Kong flagship carrier Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd said on Tuesday it is in “active discussions” about an acquisition involving budget airline Hong Kong Express Airways Ltd, although an agreement has yet to be reached.
Such
a deal would give Cathay exposure to the growing budget-travel market
at a time when a lack of slots at Hong Kong International Airport has
constrained its ability to follow peers like Singapore Airlines Ltd and
Qantas Airways Ltd and set up its own budget brand.
The
Hong Kong carrier has instead shifted some destinations from its main
brand to its regional carrier, Cathay Dragon, as part of a
transformation plan designed to cut costs and increase revenue. It has
ordered 32 Airbus SE A321neos for Cathay Dragon.
Cathay
said it had decided to go public about the discussions in response to
media reports suggesting it may be in talks to acquire shares in Hong
Kong Express Airways Ltd and full-service sister carrier Hong Kong
Airlines Ltd from cash-strapped Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co Ltd.
It
did not detail the potential value of the transaction, nor the size of
the stake it would hold. It said it would issue an additional statement
when appropriate.
An analyst last year estimated to Reuters that HK Express could be worth about $300 million.
HNA and HK Express did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A
person with knowledge of the matter said the companies appeared close
to reaching an agreement and noted Cathay’s parent Swire Pacific Ltd had
historically taken majority stakes when making investments.
Cathay is not interested in Hong Kong Airlines because it has both similar routes and full-service positioning, the person said.
A
second person with knowledge of the matter said Cathay had signed an
exclusivity period for discussion but other parties remained interested
in HK Express if a deal could not be reached.
Both sources spoke on the condition of anonymity as discussions are confidential.
ANTITRUST
Given Cathay’s dominance of Hong Kong’s aviation market, a deal could attract scrutiny from the competition regulator.
Some
analysts have also expressed doubts about the likely benefits of any
deal. Daiwa analyst Kelvin Lau said he did not see much value from the
acquisition as the two airlines flew similar routes, but also because
Cathay would need to undertake significant reform to add a budget wing.
Jefferies analyst Andrew Lee however said in a note to clients it would be “positive for Cathay Pacific” as it would give the airline greater access to a different passenger segment in the low-cost market.
FLYING HIGH
News
of Cathay’s interest in HK Express comes just weeks after Hong Kong’s
flagship carrier projected its annual profit at more than double analyst
estimates, sending its shares surging nearly 9 percent.
Shares
of Cathay have risen more than 19 percent so far this year, compared
with an 8 percent fall in 2018. The airline’s shares jumped more than 3
percent on Tuesday morning.
Cathay has faced repeated questions from investors over the last few years about its failure to set up a budget carrier.
Chief
Executive Rupert Hogg has said it would be difficult to do so until a
third runway was completed at Hong Kong International Airport in 2024,
opening up more slots.
“Our
home-based airport is full at the moment, or largely full, and so it’s
not a perfect place to develop a model from scratch,” he told CAPA
Centre for Aviation last May.
HK
Express operates a fleet of 25 A320 family aircraft to regional
destinations around Asia, according to plane tracking website
FlightRadar24.
Embattled
HNA Group is more than a year into the process of unwinding a $50
billion acquisition spree that at its peak netted the company stakes in
banks, fund managers, hotels, property and airlines, among other assets.
(Reporting by Donny Kwok in Hong Kong and Jamie Freed in Singapore; Additional reporting by Kane Wu in Hong Kong; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Stephen Coates)
Any landing you can walk away from is a good one, as the old saw goes—but it’s usually better when you don’t have to have emergency services personnel help you off the plane. And that goes double for times when the firefighters don’t need a ladder to reach the boarding door. Still, on the ground is on the ground—which is a place it seems likely that the passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 4933 are very happy to be right now, after their commuter jet landed off the runway in rural Maine, ripping the landing gear off in the process.
The United Embraer EMB-145XR commuter jet, which was operated by regional carrier CommutAir under the United Express banner, took off from Newark Liberty International Airport this morning at 9:23am, according to Flight Aware, on a route that was scheduled to see it landing and at the gate in Presque Isle, Maine, at 11:30am.
