Delta Air Lines has successfully acquired a 20 percent equity stake in LATAM Airlines Group S.A for approximately $1.9 billion.
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.
In 1996, Bombardier Transportation pioneered a new mobility solution for Singapore’s first light rail transit system – the driverless BOMBARDIER INNOVIA APM 100 automated people mover. This fully automated transit system went into service in 1999 on the revolutionary Bukit Panjang LRT line to improve the quality of life for residents by connecting outlying residential areas with the high-capacity Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) rail network as well to schools, retail, community and healthcare centers.
2019 marks the 20th anniversary of the first APM’s entry into service, a historic milestone for Bombardier. The INNOVIA APM system embodies the evolution of automated transit operations over many years at numerous locations around the globe, from London and Guangzhou to Phoenix and San Francisco – the INNOVIA APM is in use in many of the world’s busiest international airports and city districts. Currently, Bombardier has 32 APM vehicles circulating Bukit Panjang with an annual ridership of 24 million passengers, bringing residents closer to their homes.
Singapore’s Bukit Panjang LRT line
Singapore’s Bukit Panjang LRT line, runs on afully-automated people mover system based on the INNOVIA APM 100 automated people mover system. Already in service in many of the world’s busiest cities and biggest airports, this proven passenger mobility solution provides safe, swift and seamless connectivity between the outlying residential areas and the city.
The iconic Bukit Panjang LRT line is an 8-km automated guideway transit solution intended to serve the residential town located in the West Region of Singapore, acting as a replacement to the many buses deployed through the town, especially during rush hour. With an estimated population of 140,000, half of Bukit Panjang’s residents rely on the LRT for their daily commute. A complete loop journey takes 28 minutes, serving 13 stations, providing a feeder service to connect residents to the two high-capacity North-South (red) and Downtown (blue) MRT lines, moving them to the city.
Operating on a dedicated elevated guideway at a speed between 20km/h to 65 km/h, this arrangement ensures consistent service that provides shorter waiting times for the passengers without interfering with surrounding road traffic. The current BOMBARDIER CITYFLO 550 rail control and signalling system and wireless communications supports the system’s operation while ensuring seamless integration into the city’s existing infrastructure.
Singapore’s INNOVIA APM system
Upgrading Bukit Panjang
In 2018, Bombardier signed an asset replacement contract to upgrade the Bukit Panjang LRT system by supplying a fleet of 19 BOMBARDIERINNOVIA APM 300 vehicles, retrofitting 13 existing INNOVIA APM 100 vehicles, as well as upgrading its current CITYFLO 550 technology to the advanced CITYFLO 650 CBTC solution for a smoother ride for commuters. Other works include power rail enhancement and condition monitoring through Train Control Management System.
Working hand-in-hand with the Singapore Land Transport Authority to design a next-generation train with modern aesthetics, the new features incorporated advanced technology for improved performance and functionality, as well as enabling interchangeability with existing APM 100 vehicles. From 2022, the asset replacement is set to improve rail reliability, safety and availability for optimal performance of the Bukit Panjang LRT line.
The ride ahead
After two decade of services, the system achieved an improved performance and for the period of October 2018 to September 2019, it reached a rail reliability performance of 64,000 train-km before a delay of more than five minutes occurs on the system. Along with the Bukit Panjang LRT system upgrade, Bombardier will support a ten-year maintenance and spare part supply agreement to provide reliable services, ensuring that the authority and operator gain the maximum value from their assets over the lifetime of their system with proven competence. The renewed APM system will continue to set the high urban mobility standards for the Bukit Panjang LRT line and globally in the frame of Bombardier’s urban transit innovation.
Singapore LTA’s target is to expand its urban rail network to 360km by 2030, which creates demand and opportunities for rail manufacturers while driving innovation towards Singapore’s Smart Nation vision. Bombardier’s full spectrum of rail solutions, combining technology and performance with empathy, from driverless metros to automated people mover, helps deliver sustainable mobility and reduces energy consumption to create substantial benefits for operators, commuters and the environment.
Investing in Singapore for the last twenty years, Bombardier has delivered 276 driverless BOMBARDIERMOVIA metro cars for Singapore’s Downtown Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line and 32 INNOVIA APM 100 cars for the Bukit Panjang LRT system. In 2018, two asset replacement contracts were awarded to supply 19 new INNOVIAAPM 300 cars for the Bukit Panjang LRT line and 396 MOVIA metro cars for the two high-capacity North-South and East-West MRT lines. Bombardier is committed to designing better trains, customizing solutions and creating better ways to move residents across Singapore, making sure Bombardier’s mobility solution works for the community and providing for the future.
The renewed INNOVIA APM system will continue to set the high urban mobility standard for the Bukit Panjang LRT line and globally in the frame of Bombardier’s urban transit innovation.
The Commonwealth of Australia has taken delivery of the first of three very long range Falcon 7X trijets it has acquired for government VIP service.
The other two aircraft, to be operated by the Royal Australian Air Force, will be handed over in the following months.
The VIP units are being delivered with the latest connectivity solutions, intended to provide seamless access to high speed broadband data anywhere in the world.
The Falcon 7X offers a combination of range, and operational flexibility that no other large cabin business jet can match. The 5,950 nm 7X can fly from Canberra to any point in Asia nonstop or link Canberra to Washington or London in one hop. It can land on short and challenging runways and operate across a wide range of environmental conditions, including extremely hot and humid and dry desert climates. And the aircraft’s three-engine design provides additional safety margin and frees operators of twin engine operating constraints when flying intercontinental transoceanic routes.
These characteristics explain the immense popularity the 7X has enjoyed since its service introduction more than a decade ago. More than 280 of the big trijets have been delivered to date around the world.
“We are extremely honoured that Australia has once again chosen to renew its confidence in our Falcon product line,” said Eric Trappier, Chairman & CEO of Dassault Aviation. “The RAAF already has decades of successful experience operating Dassault aircraft, from the Mirage III fighter to the Falcon 20 and Falcon 900 business jets.”
Australia has been a key market for the Falcon for almost half century. The company’s first business jet, the Falcon 20, entered commercial service ‘Down Under’ in 1967, two years after its entry into service. The Falcon 20 entered the inventory of the RAAF the same year (under the name Mystère 20) and served in the RAAF’s transport and utility wing for 22 years before being replaced by the Falcon 900. The five-aircraft Falcon 900 fleet remained in operation through the early 2000s.
More than 120 Falcon aircraft, including over 50 Falcon 7Xs, are currently flying with public and private operators in Australia and other Asia Pacific countries.
