asianaviation.com · wheels and brakes it’s that simple tpaerospace.com untitled-1 1 17/02/2019...

MRO DOWN UNDERAustralia ups its game

in aviation maintenance

STILL ALIVEA380 technology will live on after the plane leaves the air

CROWDED KANSAIOne region in Japan plays host to to 3 major airports

Collaboration: The Way ForwardNEW TECH MAY HELP DELIVER SEAMLESS ATM IN ASIA

VOL 17, NO. 09 NOVEMBER 2019

WHEELSAND BRAKESIT’S THAT SIMPLE

TPAEROSPACE.COM

Untitled-1 1 17/02/2019 21.02

AsianAviation | June 2016 3

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Asian Aviation (AAV)

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Editor: Matt Driskill [email protected]

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CONTENTS

FEATURES14 COLLABORATION:

THE WAY FORWARD The Asia-Pacific region is facing numerous

challenges in its quest for seamless ATM, but further regional collaboration and new technology are expected to help the region move forward.

16 A380: HIT OR MISS? The A380 has bought much to aviation and

although the economics may not look pretty, its legacy is better judged by the impact it has had on Airbus.

19 HEAVY MAINTENANCE FINDS A NEW HOME

Aircraft heavy maintenance has been shifting around the globe as operators cut costs but with demand increasing and skilled labour becoming harder to find that picture is changing.

22 ASIA TOPS IN CLEAN CABINS East Asia stands out among world aviation

markets for its fleets of newer aircraft, demanding passengers and competition among airlines. These trends combined this year to deliver a sparkling outcome: Seven of the world’s cleanest cabins went to Asian airlines in awards given by Skytrax.

24 ONE REGION, ONE CONSORTIUM, THREE AIRPORTS

Japan is a crowded country both in terms of residential real estate and how close airports are to each other. AAV looks at three Kansai area airports that are competing for traffic.

26 EASTERN PROMISE By 2038, air travel to, from, and within Asia-Pacific

will have become the most important such market in the world, according to Airbus' latest forecast.

28 GLOBE-TROTTING MARVEL Bombardier’s flagship, the Global 7500, is one of

the latest business jets to join the exalted ranks of business aviation’s ultra-long-range segment.

30 BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES The future is promising, but also challenging

according to the 2019 Aviation Benefits report from the Industry High Level Group (ILHG).

33 AIR ASTANA EXTENDS FLIGHT ENVELOPE

Air Astana plans to expand in Asia with destinations including Shanghai, Tokyo and Singapore in the next two years.

4 VIEWPOINT Plenty of blame to go around

NEWS6 BUSINESS AVIATION

NEWS

7 ROTOR/UAV NEWS

8 MRO NEWS

9 INTERIORS NEWS

10 INDUSTRY NEWS

241916

On the cover: Air traffic controllers on duty. Photo courtesy of Airways New Zealand.

4 AsianAviation | November 2019

VIEWPOINT

Plenty of blame to go around

READING THE FINAL REPORT issued by Indonesian authorities on the crash of Flight 610 that killed 189 people is sobering because of the light it sheds on just how fragile is the aviation ecosystem that transports millions of people around the world every day.

The chain of events leading to the crash, and to a later crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX, is not really that complicated. In its rush to market a competitor to the Airbus A320, Boeing made mistakes in its design of the MCAS system on the 737 MAX by relying on a single sensor, by not including MCAS information in the manual, and by gaming the system with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that let it basically regulate itself and the MAX’s certification. The FAA shares blame by offloading oversight to Boeing as a way to save money. Lion Air shares blame too because its maintenance crew should have grounded the downed plane the day before when it exhibited the same problems that doomed it, and the pilots share blame as well, according to the report, because their flying skills weren’t up to what they should be.

Call me cynical, and you’d be right, but at the bottom of this sad chain of events lies that old evil that we call money. Boe-ing, which is in a mature industry wherein incremental improvements and not huge changes in plane making are the order of the day, saw the A320 as a threat to its 737 cash cow and needed to come up with a way to compete and yes, make money, or at least not lose money to Air-bus. Modifying a 50-year-old 737 design with more fuel-efficient engines was cheaper than coming up with a clean-sheet design. Shielding the MCAS system from regulators and pilots was cheaper than disclosing it and making pilots go through additional training that would cost its airline customers money. For Lion Air, keeping the plane in the air was paramount because a plane on the ground does not make money.

Boeing, for its role in the two crashes, is taking heat, as it should, in the public eye and on Capitol Hill in Washington. CEO Dennis Muilenburg took some heavy criticism from US officials including calls that he should resign. Muilenburg, an engineer by training, is probably not the best witness to put before a hostile congressional

hearing. He tried his best to spin Boeing’s work and time after time talked about changes that Boeing has made to its “safety culture” that includes setting up a special board committee on safety, realigning its engineering staff to report to the company’s chief engineer, and more. The question remains though, if Boeing was as committed to safety as Muilenburg claims, why weren’t these “safety improvements” already in place? Why did it take two crashes for Boeing to change the way it views safety? In a word, it was money.

This was brought home to me as I listened to Boeing’s earn-ings call with Wall Street analysts in late October. Time after time Muilenburg and his financial team said the company remained com-mitted to “safely returning the 737 MAX to the air”. They discussed

how the company was coping with the grounding of the global MAX fleet, how much it cost, how it was working with suppliers and airlines and a couple of times, they even spoke of the dead in the two MAX crashes. But most of the time they spoke about getting “airlines com-fortable with the MAX”, they talked about possibly shutting down MAX production if the grounding continued and talked about how the MAX will affect Boeing’s cash flow for years with one official saying Boeing’s “number one use of cash is for organic growth of the company.”

It was an earnings call after all so I sup-pose I shouldn’t be surprised that the

dead passengers took a back seat to Wall Street. Boeing and its customers need Wall Street to finance their planes and their airlines so having the majority of questions and conversations be about money is to be expected, but it was disturbing because it made me wonder where the priorities really are for the industry. And then I realised, the dead don’t pay dividends.

Matt Driskill EDITOR

[email protected]

SINGAPORE AIR SHOWA look at the technology on display and sales outlook for Asia's top show

BAGGAGE HANDLINGAirlines continue to make great strides in keeping bags on schedule

CYBER SECURITYThe entire aviation ecosystem is paying big bucks to stop hackers

The question remains though, if Boeing was as committed

to safety as Muilenburg claims, why weren’t these “safety improvements” already in place? Why did it take two

crashes for Boeing to change the way it views safety? In a word, it was money.

Find out more at

asianaviation.com

GET COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE OF THE LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS FROM YOUR TRUSTED SOURCE…

Business Aviation News


DASSAULT’S FALCON 6X PROGRESSES TOWARDS FINAL ASSEMBLY Dassault Aviation announced that its new Falcon 6X was nearing initial assembly with the first airframe expected to be fully assembled by year end. The all-new ultra-wide-body twinjet is scheduled to conduct its first flight in 2021 with a planned entry into service in 2022.

BOMBARDIER CELEBRATES ENTRY-INTO-SERVICE OF GLOBAL 6500 Bombardier recently celebrated the entry-into-service of the latest addition to its Global family, the Global 6500 jet. The achievement is notable given the aircraft, and its Global 5500 sibling, only received their Transport Canada certification on 24 September.

Gulfstream announces all-new G700Gulfstream Aerospace unveiled its all-new Gulfstream G700 on the eve of the 2019 National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Convention & Exhibition in Las Vegas. The G700 will have the tallest, widest and longest cabin in the industry when it comes to market, with leading speed and range capabilities to match. The all-new large cabin business jet will be able to fly 7,500 nautical miles at Mach 0.85 or 6,400 nautical miles at Mach 0.90, allowing it to fly farther and faster than any competitor in the business-jet industry. With space for up to five living areas, the G700 will offer a range of passenger amenities including an extra-large galley with a passenger lounge or crew compartment; a six-place dining or conference room, and a master suite with shower. Further passenger-friendly features of the aircraft will include the industry’s lowest cabin altitude, 100 percent fresh air and an extremely quiet cabin. Customer deliveries of the G700 are expected to commence in 2022. Meanwhile, Gulfstream announced it had delivered 25 Gulfstream G500 aircraft to customers just over a year after the aircraft entered service. — BENN MARKS

EXECUJET MRO SERVICES INCREASES MAINTENANCE CAPABILITIES IN AUSTRALIA

ExecuJet MRO Services recently an-nounced it had increased its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) footprint in Aus-tralia with a new line maintenance facility opening at Queensland’s Brisbane Airport. ExecuJet MRO Services, which is a Das-sault Aviation company, already has main-tenance facilities in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. — BENN MARKS

OJETS ADDS BOMBARDIER GLOBAL 5000 TO FLEET

OJets recently announced it had added a Bombardier Global 5000 to its fleet of charter aircraft. OJets, which operates an all-Bom-bardier fleet of aircraft, now has four Global 6000s, a Global 5000 and a Challenger 650 in its inventory. The Global 5000 will operate under Elit’Avia’s Maltese AOC. — BENN MARKS

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CITATION LONGITUDE ENTERS SERVICE, CONNECTIVITY ADDED

Textron Aviation recently announced it had received supplemental type certificate (STC) approval for the Gogo AVANCE L5 connec-tivity system upgrade for its Cessna Citation X+, Citation Sovereign+ and Citation Lati-tude business jets. Aircraft equipped with

the system will experience faster inflight connectivity speeds and an enhanced net-work to support on-the-go business needs. The STC increases the company’s Approved Model List to include eight Citation business jet models.

Textron Aviation also recently announced that deliveries of its new flagship Citation Longitude business jet had commenced. The new clean-sheet super-midsize aircraft only received its FAA type certification on 21 September 2019. — BENN MARKS

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Rotor/UAV News

AsianAviation | November 2019 7

LCI LAUNCHES CO-INVESTMENT VEHICLEHelicopter lessor LCI has launched a helicopter co-investment vehicle which contains five aircraft all on long-term lease — three Leonardo AW139s and two Sikorsky S92s — valued at over US$100 million. The co-investment vehicle has been launched in partnership with Flexam Tangible Asset Income Fund which has contributed to the capitalisation.

the agreement, Vodafone will be EHang’s exclusive partner to provide connectivity to all EHang AAVs operating in Europe, with the vehicles to be fitted with Vodafone SIM cards. EHang will use the 5G Vodafone net-work for communications between the AAVs and command-and-control centres that reg-ulate their operations, as well as with each other to ensure safe and efficient transporta-tion through urban airspace. Once approved by regulatory authorities, EHang and Voda-fone will collaborate on AAV test flights and further work on mobility platform services that provide digital and streaming content to AAV passengers, support payments and identity verification.

In further developments, German company Volocopter has successfully conducted a manned flight of its prototype vehicle over Marina Bay in Singapore as part of its ef-

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Urban air mobility pioneers take their partners and make progressPioneers in the urban air mobility sector are forming new partnerships to accelerate de-velopments in the fast-moving sector. In the latest collaboration, Boeing has partnered with Porsche, signing a memorandum of understanding to explore the premium air mobility market. The partnership will see Boeing, Porsche and Boeing subsidiary Au-rora Flight Services develop a concept for a fully electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle, with engineers from both compa-nies to develop and test a prototype. Both partners will bring their respective expertise to study the future of premium personal ur-ban air mobility, says Boeing. The partners will establish an international team to ad-dress various aspects of urban air mobility, including analysing the market potential for premium vehicles and potential use cases.

Meanwhile, Chinese autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) company EHang has part-nered with telecoms and technology com-pany Vodafone on developing an urban air mobility ecosystem. The development will initially be centred in Germany before extending to other parts of Europe. Under

forts to bring commercial air taxi services to the island city state. The flight involved a 2X model of the company’s Volocopter test se-ries flown by a pilot onboard. The flight cov-ered a distance of 1.5km and lasted for two minutes at an average cruising height of 40m. Prior to this flight, Volocopter had performed intensive testing in Germany, as well as un-dertaking a rigorous flight test programme at Singapore’s Seletar Airport to verify the 2X performance under local conditions.

Volocopter also unveiled its first VoloPort prototype in Singapore, on the floating dock in Marina Bay. The VoloPort, developed in conjunction with Skyports, is the only physi-cal infrastructure required for the air taxis and are designed to provide a seamless air taxi experience, fully integrated into existing in-frastructure. Skyports, which develops, owns and operates the VoloPorts, has identified a number of potential locations and air taxi routes across the city state. — EMMA KELLYKOPTER COOPERATES WITH KOREA

European helicopter manufacturer Kopter Group has signed a memorandum of un-derstanding with South Korea’s Korea Aer-ospace Industries. The MoU is designed to lead to cooperation in the areas of local as-sembly, production, customisation and sales of Kopter’s SH09 single-engine helicopter in

South Korea. The partnership could also lead to sales to other Asian countries from South Korea, says Kopter. “The SH09 is the ideal complement to KAI’s current helicopter port-folio and fully meets Korea’s market needs,” says Christian Gras, Kopter executive vice president customers. — EMMA KELLY

AW139 REACHES 1,000TH MILESTONE

Leonardo has delivered the 1,000th AW139 helicopter to Italy’s Guardia di Finanza in a ceremony at Leonardo’s plant in Vergiate in Varese, Italy. The manufacturer has received

orders for 1,100 of the type from more than 280 customers in 70-plus countries. The AW139 has flown almost 2.5 million flight hours since 2004. — EMMA KELLY


MRO News

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Liebherr making moves in AsiaLiebherr Aerospace announced three new agreements and expanded its involvement in Asia-Pacific. In October it announced a 10-year agreement with aircraft manufacturer ATR covering the supply of components, re-pairs and associated services for more than 300 aircraft covered by the ATR Global Main-tenance Agreements. A new air management system developed by Liebherr will enter into service in 2020 on ATR’s aircraft family, for which Liebherr also supplies the cabin pres-sure control system and anti-ice valves.

Fuji Dream Airlines (FDA) has signed a long-term agreement for the overhaul of the landing gear systems of its 10 Embraer E170 aircraft. Takehiko Handa, general manager for maintenance of Fuji Dream, said: “We at Fuji Dream Airlines have been operating Liebherr ’s E170 landing gears for a long time and are fully satisfied with the excellent quality of Liebherr ’s products as well as their overhaul services.”

Liebherr also signed a long-term agree-ment with Japan Airlines subsidiary J-Air for the maintenance of the landing gear systems on its fleet of 15 E170 aircraft. “In-tense collaboration of the teams during the selection process has enabled us to find customised solutions, optimised to J-Air ’s requirements,” said Ekkehard Pracht, gen-eral manager aerospace of Liebherr-Singa-pore. — MICHAEL DORAN

TIGERAIR EXTENDS DEAL WITH AJW

Tigerair, a Virgin Australia company, an-nounced in October it has extended its spare parts power-by-the-hour (PBH) contract with AJW Group. The original agreement was signed in 2014 and cov-ers Tigerair ’s fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft for material requirements across compo-nents groups including airframe and engine line-replaceable units, wheels and brakes, auxiliary power units, thrust reversers and consumables.

AJW CEO Christopher Whiteside said: “I’m pleased that we are able to continue and grow our partnership with Tigerair. To-gether we share the desire to challenge ex-isting practices and to innovate the industry. It is for this reason that our partnership has continued to flourish over the years. Tigerair was AJW’s first major contract in Australia and our work over the past five years has demonstrated the group’s strength across the Australasia region.” — MICHAEL DORAN

LUFTHANSA TECHNIK SUPPORTS CHINA CARGO AIRLINES' 747s

Lufthansa Technik (LHT) and China Car-go Airlines have signed an agreement for Total Component Support (TCS) for three Boeing 747-400 freighter aircraft, covering more than 400 part numbers. The five-year agreement is the first between the two companies and LHT ’s first TCS con-tract with a direct service provision to a Chinese customer. “China Cargo Airlines is very glad to sign the agreement with Lufthansa Technik and we realise that Chi-na Cargo can obtain more professional and stronger support from Lufthansa Technik,” said Ji Shuhu, vice president of China Car-go Airlines. “We are looking forward to the

further cooperation and good relationship with Lufthansa Technik in many fields.” — MICHAEL DORAN

THAILAND MRO GETS A BOOST IN CHONBURI

TurbineAero Asia has officially opened its new 90,000 square-foot MRO facility in Chonburi, Thailand. TurbineAero provides commercial, airline and military customers with comprehensive maintenance solutions for their auxiliary power units, accessories and components. “This project represents another big step in the development of the aerospace industry in Thailand and confirms the country’s position of being the growth area within ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific region,” said Peter Gille, vice president and general manager of TurbineAero Asia. “We are proud to announce that out of the top 12 ranked airlines in the world, six of them

have long-term contracts with TurbineAero Asia for APU MRO.”

Also located in Chonburi is Triumph Avi-ation Services Asia who has been awarded a two-year wheel and brake MRO contract from Starlux Airlines for their A320neo fleet. Starlux is expected to commence operations in early-2020 and plans to grow its fleet to 10 A320neo and 17 A350XWB aircraft by 2021. “We continue to expand our service offerings and customer base across the Asia-Pacific region and working with customers like Star-lux help with that expansion,” said William Kircher Executive Vice President Triumph Product Support. — MICHAEL DORAN

LHT


Interiors NewsUPGRADED QANTAS A380S RETURNThe first of 12 Qantas Airbus A380s to be upgraded has returned to service. The aircraft features a revised configuration with 30 fewer Economy Class seats than before and a 27 percent increase in Premium Economy. The aircraft now feature 14 First Suites (the same as before); 70 Business Suites (six more); 60 Premium Economy (up by 25); and 341 Economy (down by 30), making a total of 485 passengers (up by one). The Qantas Business Suite replaces the previous Skybeds; new Premium Economy class seats (the same as on the Dreamliners); a larger lounge space; an update to the First Class Suites; and a new colour palette and in-flight entertainment in the economy cabin. A further two aircraft will undergo retrofit before the end of this year, with the fleet to be upgraded by the end of 2020.

VIETNAM LAUNCHES CONNECTIVITYVietnam Airlines has launched in-flight connectivity in conjunction with service provide SITAONAIR and Inmarsat operator VISHIPEL, becoming the first carrier in the country to offer connectivity. The airline will offer connectivity across its fleet, with an initial four Airbus A350s currently offering the services.

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Project Sunrise test flights provide passenger comfort and well-being insightsQantas is expecting to gain new insights into in-flight passenger comfort and well-being on ultra-long-haul flights following the first of a number of planned test flights as part of Project Sunrise.

Cabin lighting, in-flight meals and beverages, and passenger movement, exercise and sleep patterns were all the focus of research on the record-breaking New York to Sydney Boeing 787-9 flight on 21 October. The data will be used to develop the in-flight product for the airline’s proposed direct flights from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to London and New York from 2023.

Some 49 passengers and crew on-board the test flight, which took 19 hours and 16 min-utes, experienced a unique in-flight service, based on recommendations from researchers from the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre (CPC). Passengers were fitted with wearable devices and followed a specially designed sleep, food and beverage and physical movement schedule. Food and beverage items and food service timings were all adjusted to encourage body clocks to adjust to the destination time zone, while specific times were allocated for out of seat movement and activities.

Pilots and crew also participated in research conducted by the Cooperative Research Centre for Alertness, Safety and Productivity, with the results to establish optimum crew work and rest patterns.

Another research flight — between London and Sydney — is planned for November with a third between New York and Sydney to follow in December.

The findings from these flights will be added to research the airline has already conduct-ed of passengers on long-haul flights in conjunction with the CPC to identify scientifically backed methods to reduce fatigue. One study, involving 463 passengers across all cabin classes on flights of 9-17 hours duration into and out of Australia, found that 54 percent of people used ear plugs or noise cancelling headsets to help them sleep; 38 percent drank alcohol; and 10 percent used sleeping tablets. On arrival, only 47 percent went out into the sunshine which is a proven way to reduce jetlag. — EMMA KELLY

AIR NEW ZEALAND UNVEILS ECONOMY STRETCH

Air New Zealand will launch its new cabin product, Economy Stretch, on its widebody fleet from late 2020. Economy Stretch will offer more comfort than standard economy, including a 35-inch seat pitch (31 inches in standard Economy and 41 inches in Premium Economy), premium headset and a plush pil-low. Economy Stretch will feature the airline’s existing Economy seat, but with sculpted upholstery and flexible headrest. The airline is currently reconfiguring its long-haul fleet of Boeing 777-200s, 777-300s and 787-9s with the new product. Economy Stretch will be located at the front of the Economy cab-in, with up to 42 seats. The product will be available for purchase from early next year and will be onboard all long-haul flights from late 2020. — EMMA KELLY

Industry News


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Cathay warns of downturn and IATA wants Hong Kong to help protect aviation jobsHong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific recently released traffic figures for Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon and the numbers were not good. The dire report coincided with an appeal by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to Hong Kong’s beleaguered govern-ment to consider some sort of financial aid package to the city’s aviation sector. All of this comes as the anti-government protests that have been roiling Hong Kong since June look set to continue, possibly threatening plans by Cathay to host the upcoming Assembly of Presidents of the Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines set for 21-22 November. Cathay for its part released September traffic figures that showed a decline of 7.1 percent for September 2019 compared to the same month a year ago. Total passengers carried were 2.42 million. Passenger load factors decreased by 7.2 percentage points, the company said, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), rose by 9.8 percent. In the first nine months of 2019, the number of passengers carried grew by 1.3 percent and capacity increased by 6.9 percent, as compared to the same period for 2018.

Meanwhile, IATA, which represents the global aviation industry, said “maintaining aviation connectivity is critical to Hong Kong” and called on Hong Kong’s government to “consider financial relief measures to support the 330,000 jobs and 10.2 percent of GDP dependent on the aviation and tourism sector…Airlines cannot immediately change their scheduled services,” IATA went on to say. “Rather, the immediate impact is a combination of ad-hoc cancellations as well as a decline in the passenger load factor. Airlines have reduced the number of scheduled seats in the market, although the size of the reduction so far suggests that the downturn is expected to be of a temporary nature. However, any prolongation of the disturbances may induce airlines to more drastically change the amount of services, either in terms of seats and/or frequencies. Maintaining aviation connectivity is critical to Hong Kong. The government should consider financial relief measures…” — MATT DRISKILL

BAA TRAINING BREAKS GROUND ON CHINA CENTRE

BAA Training China has started work on a six full-flight simulator aviation training centre as part of its joint venture Avia Solutions Group and Henan Civil Aviation Development and Investment Company (HNCA) signed in July, 2019. The facility is located in Zhengzhou city in Henan province and is set to open its doors in the second half of 2020 and as stat-ed previously will be designed to provide the capacity of 40,000 flight hours per year and train approximately 4,000 pilots. As aviation experts predict, Asia Pacific area demand for new commercial pilots will account for 38 percent of the global demand with more than half of it to fulfil China’s market. Boeing has just recently updated their forecast for the upcoming 20 years, stating that Chinese car-riers will need 8,090 new planes until 2038, which exceeds the previously predicted fig-ure by 5.2 percent. — MATT DRISKILL

SINGAPORE HOSTING AVIATION CARBON TRADING EXCHANGE

A digital platform that will allow airlines to trade carbon credits is being set up in Singapore. The AirCarbon Exchange will be headed by Edwin Khew, the company’s chairman and co-founder, who said the ex-change will be the world’s first global block-chain-enabled, multi-stakeholder carbon trading hub, representing carbon trades worth more than US$100 billion. He said the new AirCarbon Exchange will provide a ready supply of credits called EEUs (eligible emission units), for those in the transpor-tation industry to acquire carbon dioxide (CO2) offsets for compliance and voluntary purposes when the list of compliant units is approved.

The carbon credits will be securitised into tokens using blockchain technology, making them highly liquid, fungible and tradable, said AirCarbon. Each tradable token will be backed by one equivalent tonne of carbon credits. — MATT DRISKILL


INDIGO SIGNS FOR 300 A320NEO FAMILY AIRCRAFT

India’s IndiGo has placed a firm order for 300 A320neo family aircraft in a deal worth US$33 billion at list prices and before cus-tomary discounts. This marks one of Air-bus’ largest aircraft orders ever with a sin-gle airline operator. This latest IndiGo order comprises a mix of A320neo, A321neo and A321XLR aircraft. This will take IndiGo’s total number of A320neo family aircraft orders to 730.

“This order is an important milestone, as it reiterates our mission of strengthening air connectivity in India, which will in turn boost economic growth and mobility. India is expected to continue with its strong avi-ation growth and we are well on our way to build the world’s best air transportation system, to serve more customers and de-liver on our promise of providing low fares and a courteous, hassle free experience to them,” said Ronojoy Dutta, CEO of IndiGo. IndiGo is among the fastest growing car-riers in the world. Since its first A320neo aircraft was delivered in March 2016, its fleet of A320neo family aircraft has grown into the world’s largest with 97 A320neo aircraft, operating alongside 128 A320ceos. — MATT DRISKILL

EMBRAER SIGNS WITH FLEXJET FOR US$1.4 BILLION FLEET DEALEmbraer announced that it has signed a purchase agreement with Flexjet for a fleet of Embraer business jets, which in-cludes the recently certified Praetor jets and the Phenom 300. The announcement was made at the 2019 National Business Aviation Association’s Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) in Las Vegas and is valued at US$1.4 billion at current list prices. With the signing of the

deal, Flexjet becomes Embraer ’s Praetor fleet launch customer. “We are very grateful for Flexjet’s renewed commitment to Em-braer through this new agreement, which reflects the growth and the strength of our partnership over the past 16 years and symbolizes our ongoing support for their journey ahead,” said Michael Amalfitano, president and CEO for Embraer Executive Jets. — MATT DRISKILL

AIR PREMIA ANNOUNCES COMMITMENT FOR FIVE BOEING 787 DREAMLINERS

Boeing and Air Premia announced the Ko-rean start-up airline plans to buy five 787-9 Dreamliner airplanes, following an agree-ment to lease three 787-9 jets from Air Lease Corporation earlier this year. Air Premia, which plans to launch operations in 2020 is poised to become South Korea’s second

Dreamliner operator. The commitment, val-ued at US$1.4 billion at list prices, will be re-flected on Boeing’s Orders & Deliveries web-site when it is finalised. “This is an exciting decision for Air Premia as we look to deliver a world-class experience to our customers, while also operating the most fuel efficient

fleet,” said Peter Sim, CEO of Air Premia. With its base at Seoul Incheon International Air-port, Air Premia announced its plan to launch operations in September 2020. The carrier will initially operate regionally in Asia before expanding its network to Los Angeles and San Jose by 2021. — MATT DRISKILL

MITSUBISHI’S SPACEJET LOOKS TO BE DELAYED AGAIN, ORDER CANCELLED

Mitsubishi Aircraft is seeking a sixth post-ponement on delivering its rebranded Space-Jet regional passenger plane and the compa-ny announced one of its biggest customers, Trans States Holdings, has cancelled an or-der for 50 of its SpaceJet M90s because the

aircraft do not comply with US union rules on regional jet use. The labour union scope clause governs what planes pilots can fly, re-stricting planes heavier than 86,000 pounds (39,000kg) and with more than 76 seats from being flown on regional routes. The cancel-

lation leaves the Japanese plane maker with only 163 firm orders. Parent company Mit-subishi Heavy Industries has sought a review from outside experts to help set a delivery date beyond the standing mid-2020 target for the 90-seat-class jet. — MATT DRISKILL

Industry News


Lion Air crash report blames Boeing design, pilots and maintenanceThe final report by air accident investiga-tors into the Lion Air crash of a 737 MAX in Indonesia that killed 189 people a year ago spread the blame among Boeing, the US Federal Aviation Administration, Lion Air’s maintenance crew and the pilots them-selves. The report came out just before Boe-ing CEO Dennis Muilenburg testified before both houses of the US Congress where he faced calls to resign his position.

The report found that after Boeing changed the original MCAS design, increasing its au-thority to move the horizontal tail, or stabi-lizer, from 0.6 degrees to 2.5 degrees, “the higher limit caused a much greater move-ment of the stabilizer than was specified in the original safety assessment document.”

“The design and certification of the MCAS (Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmenta-tion System) did not adequately consider the likelihood of loss of control of the air-craft,” the report states. “A fail-safe design concept and redundant system should have been necessary for the MCAS.”

The report also said Boeing failed to detect a software error that resulted in a warning light on the MAX not working, as well as Boeing’s failure to provide pilots any information about the flight control system. Both failures contributed to the crew’s ina-bility to understand what was happening, the report said. “The absence of informa-tion about the MCAS in the aircraft man-uals and pilot training made it difficult for the flight crew to diagnose problems and

apply the corrective procedures.”The report also found that a critical sen-

sor, a second-hand unit repaired and sup-plied by a Florida company, was faulty, and it found strong indications that it was not tested during installation by Lion Air main-tenance staff. And though similar faults had occurred on the previous flight of the same airplane, Lion Air ’s maintenance staff failed to ground the airplane, says the report.

The report also faulted the two pilots on Lion Air JT610, particularly the first officer, who was unfamiliar with procedures and had shown himself in training to have prob-lems in handling the aircraft.

The report concludes with a long series of recommendations including:

—A fail-safe re-design of MCAS. — Adequate information about MCAS to be included in pilot manuals and training — Closer scrutiny in future of any system capable of taking over primary flight control actions from the pilot. — Design consideration of the effect of all possible flight deck alerts and indications on pilot recognition and response.Larger tolerance in Boeing’s designs to

allow operation by a diverse population of pilots. Earlier this week, the families of the Lion Air crash victims were told mechanical and design issues contributed to the crash of a Lion Air 737 MAX jet last October, Indo-nesian investigators told victims’ families in a

briefing ahead of the release of a final report.Meanwhile in Washington, Muilenburg

faced calls to resign because of perceived shortcomings in Boeing’s “safety culture”. In a sharp exchange with Rep. Jesus Garcia, (D-Ill), Muilenburg refuted claims that Boe-ing was only interested in profits and not people and said Boeing’s “business model is about safe airplanes.”

Garcia pushed back at the CEO and said “it’s pretty clear there has been a culture of greed and compromising safety at Boeing…Mr. Muilenburg, you did everything to drive profits over safety. You skirted certification requirements or regulators at every corner, and your employees even admit to lying to the FAA…A culture of negligence, incompe-tence or corruption starts at the top and it starts with you. You padded your personal finances by putting profits over safety and now 346 people, including eight Americans, are dead on your watch…I think it’s time that you submitted your resignation, don’t you?”

Muilenburg replied, “Congressman, I re-spectfully disagree with your premise on what drives our company.”

Garcia then concluded: “Ok, well whether or not you or your colleagues are incriminat-ed in the ongoing criminal investigation, the facts remain: It was either gross negligence, incompetence or corruption. You’re at the top. I think it ’s pretty clear to me, to the families of the victims and to the American public that you should resign and do it im-mediately.” — MATT DRISKILL

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Boeing CEO Dennis

Muilenburg

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

AIRPORTS COUNCIL INTERNATIONAL (ACI WORLD) announced that Patrick Lucas has been appointed director for

economics. Lucas is currently Head of the Airport Business Analytics Unit within the ACI Economics Department, having joined the organisation in April 2011. An economist by profession, Lucas has 18 years of experience in analytical economics. He has overseen ACI World’s global airport data collection and has led the authorship of major flagship publications, the World Airport Traffic Report, the World Airport Traffic Forecasts, and the Airport Economics Report.

BURRANA announced the appointment of David Pook as vice president, Marketing and Sales Support where he will lead Burrana’s global marketing

team focused on leveraging cabin technology to help airlines create unique passenger experiences and enhance their brands.

EMBRAER has named Victor Vieira Dos Santos as its new marketing director for Embraer Commercial Aviation Asia-Pacific based in

Singapore. Dos Santos has been working at Embraer for more than 10 years. Prior to the current position, he was the Head of Market Strategy leading the development, communication and execution for the organisation’s global strategic planning.

INTERNATIONAL AVIATION CONSULTANCY THE GILES GROUP has named Mark Rudo a senior associate. Rudo was recently vice

president Quality, ODA, and Product Support at ALOFT AeroArchitects.

SINGAPORE-BASED LAMINAAR AVIATION INFOTECH has appointed Jahan Alamzad as president of LAMINAAR Americas and

was also named as acting chief operations officer (COO) of the LAMINAAR Group, overseeing world-wide operations.

THE BOEING COMPANY has elected retired Adm. John M. Richardson as its newest member. Richardson, 59, served as the 31st chief of

Naval Operations from September 2015 until August 2019, when he retired from the U.S. Navy after 37 years of service.

THE BOARD OF AIRPORTS COUNCIL INTERNATIONAL (ACI) ASIA-PACIFIC announced it has appointed Stefano Baronci as director

general for Asia-Pacific. Baronci currently serves as director of economics at ACI World in Montreal, Canada. He will take up his new position in Hong Kong in December 2019.

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WHILE AIR TRAFFIC IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION continues to grow at a seemingly unstoppable rate and is forecast to continue at 4.8 percent per annum through to 2035, progress towards imple-menting the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s Asia-Pacific Seamless Air Traffic Management Plan has been slow.

The plan is intended to lead to seamless ATM operations throughout the region, allowing it to cope with the booming traffic it is experienc-ing and expected to face. The plan was devised based on research and development in the United States and Europe from their seamless ATM initiatives — the US NextGen and Europe’s Single European Sky. Both of those regions are very different to the Asia-Pacific, however.

The directors general (DG) of civil aviation from 34 Asia-Pacific states committed to the idea in 2009 with the release of the Kansai Statement, with an Asia-Pacific Seamless ATM Planning Group established to develop a detailed plan for the region. The work cul-minated in the Asia-Pacific Seamless ATM plan which was endorsed in June 2013 and set out timelines and requirements for regional air traffic flow management (ATFM), collaborative decision-making (CDM) and performance-based navigation (PBN), among other ATM

procedures and concepts. The subsequent Beijing Declaration in early 2018 saw 36 governments commit to the timely implementation of the Asia-Pacific Seamless ATM Plan.

Implementing the plan has proved easier said than done, how-ever, with the region’s DGs of civil aviation at their latest meeting in Kathmandu, Nepal, earlier this year, acknowledging that slow implementation of the seamless ATM plan is one of the four main ATM challenges facing the region, all of which are closely connect-ed. Other challenges they identified are civil-military cooperation; issues like the Pakistan ATM contingency operation when Pakistan airspace was closed to civil air traffic due to tensions with India; and electronic air navigation flight information region data, with an inadequate response from states. Civil-military cooperation — or a lack of — is a significant factor in the region’s relatively poor ATM efficiency compared with other parts of the world, notes Raphael Guillet, chief of ICAO’s Asia and Pacific regional sub office, with regional progress “well behind”, he adds.

“Despite past commitments by states and DGs to implement the Asia-Pacific Seamless ATM Plan, and also the expectation by the

Collaboration: The way forwardThe Asia-Pacific region is facing numerous challenges in its quest for

seamless ATM, but further regional collaboration and new technology are

expected to help the region move forward. Emma Kelly reports.

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ministers of civil aviation in their Beijing Declaration to implement, in general the Asia-Pacific has failed to meet its objectives,” ICAO said at the Nepal meeting. ICAO revealed the wide gap between states in the region in terms of completed objectives. By July 2019, Singapore was leading the region in terms of completed objectives — although even the city-state had not met 100 percent of the ob-jectives — followed by Australia, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, North Korea, French Polynesia and Japan. At the other end of the scale, however, are Bhutan and Papua New Guinea which have failed to meet any objectives.

“The significant gap noted between the expected and actu-al achievement represented a major failure by states to conduct whole-of-government planning and to execute such plans,” says ICAO. It adds: “In general, even the 10 priority regional targets planned for Phase I — November 2015-November 2019 — had not yet been achieved. Only Automatic Dependent Sur-veillance-Contract/Controller Pilot Datal-ink Communications [ADS-C/CPDLC] had been largely successful.” The other nine priority areas — civil-military coordination; civil-military Special Use Airspace; ADS-B airspace; air traffic surveillance (ATS) with data integrated; ATS inter-facility datalink communications (AIDC); PBN approaches; ATFM/CDM; and aeronautical information management (AIM) — have only been par-tially or “unacceptably implemented” across the region, laments ICAO. ATFM/CDM, for example, has only been implemented at 20 international high-density airports in the region, with 24 planning programmes by the end of 2020, according to Guillet.

“Given the poor progress of Seamless ATM implementation, the need for greater emphasis on whole-of-government planning at the state level was a necessity,” says ICAO, calling for states to develop a National Air Navigation Plan (NANP) which should be of “robust status”. Few states have reported to ICAO having developed a NANP, says Guillet, pointing to Indonesia, Lao, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and the Philippines as those that have.

The Asia-Pacific Seamless ATM Plan, which is now known as the Seamless Air Navigation Service (ANS) Plan, has undergone con-siderable change in order to help states implement the objectives, says ICAO. At the Nepal meeting, ICAO called on states to engage in regional discussions and efforts to accelerate the plan’s progress, emphasising the need for whole-of-government planning.

Cooperation and collaboration are key to making progress, ICAO believes. “Cooperation and collaboration have proven tremendously successful to helping all member States in the contemporary global aviation system live up to their ICAO obligations,” says Dr Olumuyiwa

Benard Aliu, ICAO Council president. “We have always achieved our greatest air transport progress when we have approached our challenges together, as a single and unified sector,” he adds.

The Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) is also stressing the need for collaboration in order to progress seamless ATM in the region, along with new technology. “With passenger numbers around the world set to double by 2036, safeguarding and developing our airspace has never been so important. Asia-Pacific is forecast to be the fastest growing region over the next two dec-ades, and it is clear that it requires a specific and unique approach to handling this demand to achieve truly seamless operations,” Jeff Poole, director general of CANSO recently told attendees at the CANSO Asia-Pacific Conference in Fukuoka, Japan.

“New tools and technologies are fast drivers of change in the industry. Digitisation, artificial intelligence, automation and data an-alytics are improving the safety and efficiency of ATM, while remote and digital towers and space-based surveillance are also enhancing performance,” says Poole. “With a strong culture of innovation and early adoption of technologies, Asia-Pacific is in a unique position

to trial and implement such new technologies and pioneer change in a way that can add value across the region and globally,” he adds.

Poole points to successful joint regional ATM projects in the Asia-Pacific already under way and yielding results, including the Asia-Pacific Distributed Multi-Nodal ATFM initiative; the adoption of space-based ADS-B in the region; the implementation of a region-al system-wide information management (SWIM) model for data exchange; the use of remote and smart control towers; long-range ATFM concepts of operations; and unmanned aircraft systems traffic management options.

SWIM, for example, is seen as an important enabler for seam-less ATM in the region, allowing seamless information flow among stakeholders. Its implementation requires a harmonised approach across multiple States to yield benefits. Singapore and Thailand, with the support of the United States and the International Air Transport Association, initiated a SWIM demonstration project for ASEAN nations. The SWIM in ASEAN Demonstration was due to take place in November and is designed to provide the region with a better understanding of the concept. It is hoped that the demon-stration could encourage greater interest in the region for further such collaboration.

AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

◀ The Asia-Pacific Seamless ATM Plan, which is now known as the Seamless Air Navigation Service, has undergone considerable change in order to help states implement the objectives.

The significant gap noted between the expected and actual achievement represented a major failure by states

to conduct whole-of-government planning and to execute such plans. In general, even the 10 priority regional targets

planned for Phase I … had not yet been achieved.

ICAO


REGIONAL AVIATION

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AIRCRAFT TECHNOLOGY

IN FEBRUARY 2019 when Airbus called time on producing A380s, opinions were divided; some were captivated by its beauty and comfort while others pointed to the US$25 billion development cost to produce just 250 aircraft as a failure.

After 18 years Airbus will end A380 production in 2021 but the air-craft is set to continue flying into the next two decades with carriers such as Qantas and Singapore Airlines investing millions of dollars in upgrading cabins.

The A380 has brought much to aviation and although the econom-ics may not look pretty, its legacy is better judged by the impact it has had on Airbus; a legacy that lives on in aircraft like the A350XWB and the A321XLR.

Airbus vice president for product marketing Antonio Da Costa says the A380 has made Airbus the company it is now and the DNA of the A380 can be seen in aircraft flying today. “The A380 was very much the aircraft programme that cemented the integration of Airbus where previously we were working as four entities in a partnership,” he says. “The A380 acted as the glue that put these four companies into one and that was what made Airbus the global entity it is today. The A380 taught us that we need to develop air-craft as a family of different sizes for different needs,” he says. “And that’s why we have now designed the Airspace cabin for single-aisle aircraft to offer a consistent experience whether you are flying a 320, 350 or 380.”

To understand the A380 legacy is to trace back many of the fea-tures that airlines now promote to their introduction in 2007, when the aircraft first flew with Singapore Airlines. The A380 brought the widest Economy Class seat, the quietest cabin, the freshest air, variable mood lighting and ground-breaking inflight entertainment systems that have made flying much more comfortable today.

“The beauty of the A380 is it brought a little something for every passenger in every class,” Da Costa says. “It allowed a higher level of segmentation and this is where we started to see four classes

appearing on an aircraft.”He says that increasing seats in Premium Economy is an indus-

try-wide trend and that in 2009 there were 10 airlines with dedicated Premium Economy seating, but this has grown to 61 today. “We get feedback from airlines that per square foot of real estate used by that seat they are one of the most profitable seats they have in their fleets,” he explains.

To get an aircraft with a maximum take-off weight of 575 tonnes and certified to carry up to 853 people off the ground Airbus had to develop new systems and incorporate advanced materials.

“We needed to go into new technologies and that’s why we brought in a higher level of carbon composite relative to any other aircraft that had appeared before,” says Da Costa. “At that time the A380 was the record holder with 25 percent of the primary structure in composite material.”

With the A380 an obvious choice for long-haul flying, Airbus de-veloped cockpit technology to ease pilot workloads and build on the enhancements its fly-by-wire systems had introduced. Technologies such as integrated modular avionics, head-up displays, integrating the traffic avoidance collision avoidance system into the autopilot and an automated brake and vacate feature were unveiled.

Although the A380 has only been in production for around 16 years there have been improvements and modifications made as the aircraft has matured and technology has advanced. Improved engine technology has reduced fuel burn by up to 3 percent, new satellite navigation capabilities have been integrated into the avionics and IFE connectivity enhanced.

All Nippon Airways is a new A380 operator and for its aircraft the rear staircase was re-designed from the iconic spiral shape into a straight-line profile to improve access, an illustration of how Airbus continues to evolve the design.

“The A380 will be flying for decades to come and we are contin-uing to make sure this aircraft is at the top of the aviation market today and tomorrow,” says Da Costa.

Qantas started flying the A380 in 2008 and uses its 12 aircraft to ◀ An A380 on the final assembly line.

A380: Hit or miss?In the last 50 years, three aircraft have left indelible marks on commercial

aviation, the Concorde, Boeing 747 and Airbus A380 and yet only one is

universally judged a success. Michael Doran looks at how the A380 will live

on even when the plane is no longer flying.


AIRCRAFT TECHNOLOGY

carry more than 2 million passengers a year to Singapore, London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Dallas. After 10 years in service the fleet is progressively being refurbished and the first aircraft was returned to fly in October.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce says the mid-life upgrade of the A380 would ensure its status as one of the most popular aircraft with customers.

“The A380 is a crucial part of our long-haul fleet and this upgrade program will see customers enjoy everything the aircraft has to offer for years to come,” Joyce says. It will also provide an increase in business and premium economy seating to help match the demand we’re seeing on our long-haul routes.”

Overall seating will be increased to 485, with an extra six business suites and 25 Premium Economy seats being added and 30 Econo-my seats removed. A new upper deck lounge for First and Business Class passengers has been added and Business Class suites have been upgraded and reconfigured to give direct aisle access for all passengers.

“Working with Airbus we’ve been able to use the cabin space more efficiently and improve the economics of the aircraft while also pro-viding a better experience in every part of the aircraft,” Joyce adds.

Airbus’ Da Costa says: “The world has moved on since the A380 joined the skies and comfort standards have also moved. This is a way of actually making sure the 380 continues flying into the future and we have indications from other airlines who are looking at doing similar cabin retrofits.”

Emirates is the flagship A380 operator with 112 now in service and another 11 to come. The A380 has been the cornerstone of the airlines network since 2008 and CEO Sir Tim Clark says its demise has led to a review of the total network. “We haven’t been growing at the pace we used to because of geopolitical issues in the region and elsewhere,” he said earlier this year. “But that’s given us time to take stock of what the network is going to look like in five to ten years and what the fleet fit in that network and the type of aircraft is going to be. As far as Emirates is concerned, these aircraft will be flying until the mid-30s, so there is a long time to go before the aircraft disappears from Emirates fleet,” Clark said.

Emirates have withdrawn two A380s from service and Clark indi-cated these will be used as a source of spares for major overhauls and that the aircraft had been fully written down. “Clearly, the de-mand in the second-hand market isn’t there so when we’ve got the life out of the aircraft that we had planned we’re indifferent to what happens to them in the sense we don’t have any value left in them and we don’t have to take any writedowns.”

A sobering financial issue for the aircraft is what is going to hap-pen with the aircraft that are retired or returned to lessors, as some airlines have already flagged? Aviation consultancy IBA reports that 38 percent of the A380 fleet is leased with a significant number of leases set to expire between 2023 and 2029.

Transitioning the aircraft to new operators is not an easy task with prohibitively high costs for cabin reconfiguration and unlike the Boeing 747 there is no possibility of converting the A380 into use as a freighter.

IBA head of valuations Mike Yeomans says: “With key A380 op-erators selecting twin-engine aircraft for their future widebody fleet and limited apparent interest from potential secondary operators placing used aircraft in the market will be challenging.”

With significant numbers of A380s heading for heavy mainte-nance there will be a market for spare parts from retired aircraft and German A380 lessor, The Dr. Peters Group estimates components revenue around US$45 million per aircraft.

Like the 747, the A380 is loved by passengers and has changed the face of aviation. Viewed as an isolated program it has not lived up to its financial objectives but as Da Costa says, “it has made Airbus the company it is today.” That’s got to be worth a lot.

▲ Airbus developed cockpit technology to ease pilot workloads and build on the enhancements its fly-by-wire systems had introduced.

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This is a way of actually making sure the 380 continues flying into the future…

ANTONIO DA COSTA


Aircraft heavy maintenance has been shifting around the globe as operators

cut costs but with demand increasing and skilled labour becoming harder

to find that picture is changing. Now Australia wants to get involved.

Michael Doran reports on new developments down under.

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Heavy maintenance finds a new home

▲ Alliance Airlines aircraft to be maintained by Hawker Pacific in Cairns.


MRO

BRISBANE-BASED ALLIANCE AIRLINES operates the world’s larg-est fleet of Fokker aircraft and it has selected Hawker Pacific for its heavy maintenance needs, work previously done in Europe. The com-ing together of Hawker Pacific, a Jet Aviation company, and Alliance is a case where excess MRO capacity meets an airline’s need at the right time, supported by government investment and local skills training.

At its Cairns MRO operations, Hawker Pacific was doing heavy maintenance on a range of aircraft, including De Havilland Dash-8 and ATR turboprops but needed to fill excess capacity. Jason Burzacott, vice president MRO Services Hawker Pacific Australia, says one of the biggest challenges for any MRO is actually keeping the facility full and that’s why they were looking for new opportunities.

“We looked at the Fokker aircraft in the region and when we assessed the numbers, we deemed it to be a viable opportunity,” he says. “But at the time our hangar facility did not give us the confidence to be able to say yes to any major new opportunities.”

With significant financial support from the Queensland govern-ment Hawker Pacific expanded their Cairns hangar by 50 percent and set-up the Fokker capability in 2018.

“This was a new aircraft in our system, so we had to get all the tooling and do the training and Alliance has been very supportive of us in that space,” he explains. “We have worked with Alliance right from the start and they entrusted us our first aircraft of that type for heavy maintenance.”

Burzacott says they have since done another two Alliance aircraft and expect to do nine aircraft in 2020 but the Alliance work still

leaves ample capacity to fill.“The MRO market in our region is far greater than our capacity

and traditionally our biggest challenge has been cost,” he says. “Australia is not a cheap place to do work but that is starting to equalise quite a bit. There is a global shortage in these fields and people are recruiting skills globally which is enforcing a more level playing field in the cost of labour.”

With the Fokker aircraft and the Alliance fleet being relatively new in the workshop there is a period of consolidation underway but with good numbers of Fokker, ATR and Dash-8 aircraft in Asia-Pacific there is no shortage of opportunities.

“Typically, we have taken in a lot of ATR and Dash-8s from around the region, including from Indonesia and some Dash-8s from Philip-pine Airlines,” he says. “All the other Fokker operators in the region get their heavy maintenance done overseas so we are talking to them about bringing that work back here.”

With heavy maintenance moving offshore and an ageing work-force, finding skilled labour is an issue, particularly with Cairns being 1,700 kilometres from Brisbane. The Queensland MRO community, supported by a government push to grow the aerospace industry, got together around 15 years ago to look for a solution.

That solution was Cairns Aviation Skills Centre, managed by training organisation Aviation Australia, which provides engineering training from a location at Cairns Airport.

“Over those 15 years there have been around 600 engineering students trained and 85 have been recruited by Hawker Pacific,” Burzacott says. “I am convinced we would not be here in Cairns if not for the school providing the good quality students into our facility.”

Alliance Airlines is Australia’s leading provider of contract, wet-lease and charter services and operates the world’s largest fleet of Fokker aircraft. Today it owns 49 Fokkers, a mix of turboprops, F70 and F100 jets with 40 flying under the Alliance banner.

It became the largest Fokker operator when it purchased 21 air-craft from Austrian Airlines in 2015 and at the same time reviewed its heavy maintenance needs for the expanded fleet. CEO Lee Schofield says that until then Alliance had handled its own heavy maintenance from bases in Brisbane and Adelaide. “It became a very large fixed cost and we were effectively driven to have two aircraft in the hangar at all times in order to keep the workforce productive, which was not ideal,” he says.

The aircraft acquired from Austrian were being maintained in Slovakia by Austrian Technik which made an attractive pitch to do the heavy maintenance for the entire fleet, which Alliance accepted.

“It was going pretty well but flying a regional jet to the other side of the world has a cost,” Schofield says. “When we had the lower level checks we got to the point where the cost of the ferry flight meant that European maintenance was not as attractive.”

It was then that Hawker Pacific approached Alliance with a pro-posal to bring the heavy maintenance back to Australia, an option not previously available.

“What changed is that before Hawker Pacific approached us,

▲ At its Cairns MRO operations, Hawker Pacific was doing heavy maintenance on a range of aircraft, including De Havilland Dash-8s but needed to fill excess capacity.

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MRO

there was previously no external Fokker maintenance provider in the country for us to consider,” he says. “Now they are doing it in Cairns, where we have a base, and having an externally based maintenance provider is far more attractive than us doing it ourselves.”

Alliance looks after its own line-maintenance and Schofield says they will continue to use the European providers for some work and have the option of Fokker Services in Singapore.

Having a stable maintenance base is important to Alliance as it plans to operate its Fokker fleet for some time yet. “Alliance has set a very clear direction on our Fokker fleet where we have openly stated that we have got at least another nine to ten years in these aircraft,” he says.

Also based in Brisbane is Heston MRO, a business born in De-cember 2018 when Europe-based parent Heston Aviation acquired Aircraft Maintenance Services Australia from Singapore International Airline Engineering Company.

While 2019 has been the first year of operation for Heston MRO, it launched with more than 25 years experience in maintaining air-craft for international airlines from line-maintenance bases around the country.

Acting CEO Asta Zirlyte says that 2019 has been the start of its journey “to become an independent total technical care partner for airlines in the region.” Although the focus has been on the existing line-maintenance operations, Heston has added new services and capabilities and has more to come in 2020.

“This year we made a number of steps under the updated strat-egy,” she says. “We launched components solutions, applied for on and off-wing engine repair certification, strengthened the team and added new customers.”

Looking to 2020, Zirlyte says they expect to see their first engine service projects, an expansion in component solutions to add repairs, enlarged stock holdings and to add heavy maintenance support.

“We believe there is an opportunity to launch an efficient light heavy maintenance facility in Australia as there has been too much off-shoring of heavy maintenance MRO beyond the financial logic,” she explains.

“It makes no economic sense to justify a ferry flight from say Melbourne to the Philippines or Singapore to perform light checks there,” she says. “The flight itself will cost up to half of the check itself and the man-hour rate gap is narrowing between Southeast Asia and Australia.

“The overall concept of maintenance is shifting from being ex-tremely labour intensive to being more efficient, data-driven and technologically advanced. This shift creates opportunities for high labour-cost areas like Australia and there is an open opportunity to create MRO facilities differentiated not by labour-rate but by technological leadership.”

The two mainline airlines Qantas and Virgin are showing no appe-tite to either expand or commence heavy maintenance in Australia. In a statement Virgin Australia says it is not currently considering establishing a heavy maintenance facility in Australia and that it “works with contracted MRO organisations in New Zealand and Asia to perform heavy maintenance on its aircraft.”

Qantas has its Australian heavy maintenance base in Brisbane where it maintains its B737 and A330 fleet. In 2017 it opened a new engineering facility in Los Angeles at a cost of more than US$30 million to maintain A380, B747 and B787 aircraft. In January Qan-tas subsidiary QantasLink announced it was to cease the heavy maintenance of its B717 fleet in Australia, placing the work with ST Engineering in Singapore.

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▲ Alliance Airlines is Australia’s leading provider of contract, wet-lease and charter services and operates the world’s largest fleet of Fokker aircraft.


REGIONAL AVIATION

EAST ASIA STANDS OUT AMONG WORLD AVIATION MARKETS for its fleets of newer aircraft, demanding passengers — some of whom still find flying a luxury — and competition among airlines including budget carriers. These trends combined this year to deliver a sparkling outcome: Seven of the world’s cleanest cab-ins went to Asian airlines in awards given by the British aviation consultancy Skytrax

Eva Airways of Taiwan ranked No. 1 for cabin cleanliness. Japan Airlines and ANA All Nippon Airways took the number two and three spots, respectively. The next three, in the order ranked, were Singapore Airlines, South Korea-based Asiana Airlines and Hainan Airlines of China. Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways came in No. 8. Five airlines between the 10th and 20th spots are also headquartered in East Asia. Asian airlines dominated the top 10 in other recent years, as well.

Passengers shaped the ratings by submitting evaluations for cleanliness and “presentation”, Skytrax says on its World Airline Awards website. They specifically appraised the lustre of cabin panels, carpets, seat areas, tables and lavatories.

Asian airlines probably assumed they needed to keep clean for business survival, aviation analysts say. Their younger fleets give them a head start, as it’s relatively easy to keep a newer aircraft clean, said Eric Lin, aviation analyst with the UBS investment bank in Hong Kong. Asian passengers often demand more luxury than counterparts in the West, he added. Flying is new for a lot of pas-sengers in countries where the economies have flourished later than those of the West. “If you look at developed markets like Europe and the States, flying is like taking a bus,” Lin said.

In January, Taiwan-based StarLux Airlines will open its first three routes, all in Asia, and offer unusual amenities for First Class as well

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Asia tops in clean cabinsIn Asia, where flying is still a luxury to many, airlines sweep clean cabin

awards. Ralph Jennings in Taipei takes a look at the winners.


AIRCRAFT INTERIORS

as Economy Class passengers, a publicist for the new company said Monday. The airline’s chief executive officer has said he believes more passengers should have access to in-flight luxury.

Cultures in Asia prize product appearance as part of overall value, said John Grant, director of JG Aviation Consultants in the United Kingdom. “It’s I suspect partly cultural, very much about positive po-sitioning and in many cases pride in what they are doing,” Grant said. “As for consumer choice, there is no doubt that the soft factors are very much taken into account by travellers. Ultimately all aircraft tend to travel at the same speeds, take the same time to get from A to B and therefore those softer aspects become key product differentiators.”

Inter-airline competition has grown fierce in Asia because budget carriers have grown fast over the past decade. Low-cost carrier ca-pacity in the Asia-Pacific more than quadrupled from 2008 to 2018, the CAPA Centre for Aviation market research organisation in Hong Kong says. The gain translates to about 600 million seats flown last year, the organisation says. The major budget airline markets are in Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia. Budget cabins are not nec-essarily dirtier than higher-end rivals, Lin said, though some low-cost carriers fly so frequently that it’s hard to make time for clean-up while planes are on the ground.

Southeast Asian airlines may emphasise cleanliness to compete with the region’s standard bearer Singapore Airlines, said Song Seng Wun, an economist in the private bank-ing unit of CIMB. “When we have the likes of Singapore Airlines that set the standards, I suppose the rest would like to put that as one of their KPIs,” said Song, who is based in the Southeast Asian financial centre. Singapore Airlines declined comment for this report.

Attention to cleanliness has also perked up following news reports in major media outlets of unwashed passenger blankets and cabin air left to spread disease, Lin said. To name one example, the World Health Organisation called air travel one way that severe acute res-piratory syndrome (SARS) spread in Asia in 2002 and 2003.

Keeping a cabin clean doesn’t cost an airline much compared to other maintenance and operation expenses, analysts point out, and labour for sanitation jobs runs cheaper in much of Asia compared to the West. Airlines that lease aircraft have another incentive to keep cabins clean, because the lessors usually demand planes be returned in the same condition received, Grant said. “Therefore, in the long run, keeping that interior as fresh and clean as possible does provide a payback right at the end of the aircraft’s lease,” he said.

Passengers on the award-winning Asian airlines might notice that seats and tray tables are dry and unblemished, with the levers to unlock and move them in perfect working order. Every passenger

might get a blanket and, separately, earphones wrapped in plastic. Floors, including those in lavatories, may to be cleaned after meals.

Eva Airways made a conscious decision when it started flying in 1991 to keep clean, a spokesperson for the company said. The air-line at that time “imposed a stringent standard” to sanitise aircraft because “we considered clean and immaculate cabin environment as an essential element of our in-flight service and a comfortable journey for our passengers.” The airline’s employees have beaten the standards of other airlines through “intensive cleaning” of cabin surfaces often touched by passengers, the spokesperson said, and “even the corners not noticed by travellers are cleaned regularly.” Training for flight attendants includes lessons on keeping cabins and lavatories always clean, the spokesperson added.

Surfaces in Eva’s aircraft cabins are “never sticky,” said Nicholas Chen, an international lawyer based in Taipei who has flown the airline regularly since its inception, largely to China, Europe and the United States. “This is especially apparent with tables, armrests and seats,” Chen said.

The lawyer recalls from his youth flying on a now defunct US-based airline and an “erosion of the industry” in terms of offering quality flight experiences. “I believe that...sweating the details is the reason for the widespread societal brand loyalty being both earned and deserved”

among today’s airlines,” he said. “When one is in an enclosed space, in close proximity to many strangers for whatever length of time, if the environment is not clean, everyone will notice it. In the era of communicable diseases, this is one every traveller’s mind."

Eva Airways also asks a supervisor from its ground services provider EGAS to oversee cleaning jobs and “scrutinize” results, the spokesperson said. Another cleanliness inspection takes place before every flight departs.

The airline, which belongs to the Evergreen Group transport and logistics conglomerate, took second place in the 2018 Skytrax clean cabin awards. “Eva’s employees worked hard to win the best cabin cleaning in the world award from Skytrax this year,” the airline spokesperson said. “Our goal is not only to provide an airline experi-ence that meets five-star standards but also to challenge ourselves in providing the most caring and exquisite services.”

Other Asian airlines on the 2019 awards list declined comment. The three non-East Asian carriers among the top 10 were Swiss In-ternational Air Lines in seventh place, Qatar Airways in ninth place and Lufthansa right behind it. Skytrax also named Qatar Airways the “world’s best airline” this year among 100 contenders, with Sin-gapore Airlines in second place and ANA in third.

◀ Eva Airways imposed a stringent standard to sanitise aircraft because it considers a clean and immaculate cabin environment as an essential element of in-flight service.

Our goal is not only to provide an airline experience that meets five-star standards but also to challenge ourselves

in providing the most caring and exquisite services.

EVA AIRWAYS


LOCATED WITHIN 70 KILOMETRES OF EACH OTHER, Osaka International (Itami), Kansai International, and Kobe serve primarily the second-largest metropolitan area of Japan, Keihanshin (Kyo-to-Osaka-Kobe). Until recently, all three of these airports were run by the Japanese government. However, on 1 April 2016, Kansai Airports - a consortium led by the Japanese financial services group Orix (40 percent) and the French airport operator Vinci Airports (40 percent) - took over management of the two Osaka airports. Exactly

two years later, on 1 April 2018, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the consortium, Kansai Airports Kobe, took over the operations of Kobe Airport, finalising the privatisation of the three Kansai-area airports.

Having opened in 1939, Itami airport is the oldest of the three. For decades, it served as both the domestic and international gateway to the area. However, due to, among other reasons, its proximity to residential areas and related concerns about noise pollution, the airport faced challenges with growth. As such, the government de-

One region, one consortium, three airportsJapan is a crowded country both in terms of residential real estate and how

close airports are to each other. Japan correspondent Keishi Nukina takes a

look three Kansai area airports that are competing for traffic.

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AIRPORTS

cided to diminish Itami’s role, and build Kansai International Airport on an artificial island off the coast of Osaka Bay. When Kansai airport opened in 1994, international flights were moved there, leaving Itami airport open to domestic flights only.

Kobe Airport, the newest of the three airports, attracted controver-sy not only due to its high costs to the local government, which was already indebted due to having to recover from the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995, but also due to its proximity to the other two airports. In fact, when it opened in 2006, to protect the growth of Kansai airport, only up to 60 landings and departures a day were permitted at Kobe, international and charter flights were banned, and operating hours were restricted.

In October 2019, those restrictions were slightly eased, and Kobe airport now allows up to 80 landings and departures a day until 23:00. Itami airport remains restricted to a maximum of 370 domestic landings and departures a day between 07:00 and 21:00. No similar restrictions are in place at Kansai airport which is open 24 hours a day both to domestic and international flights and thus presents the most significant growth opportunity of the three.

The Japanese government started the process of privatising the country’s airports in 2013 when it enacted the Act on Operation of National Airports Utilising Skills of the Private Sector. The privatisa-tion of Itami and Kansai airports was the first major project of the initiative, and after numerous bidders dropped out throughout the process, the Kansai Airports consortium won a 44-year concession lasting from April 2016 until March 2060 as the sole bidder. This marked Orix ’s entry into the airport management business and Vinci Airports’ entry into Japan. Two years later, the consortium was selected as the preferred bidder for, and the eventual winner of a 42-year concession agreement to operate Kobe airport as well.

In FY2015 (year ended March 31, 2016), the year before their privatisation, Kansai airport was used by 24.06 million passengers and Itami airport by 14.63 million passengers. Since Kansai Airports took over management of the airports, those numbers have grown to 25.72 million and 15.1 million in FY2016, 28.8 million and 15.68 million in FY2017, and 29.41 million and 16.3 million in FY2018. Adding the 3.19 million passengers that used Kobe airport in FY2018, the three airports under the consortium’s management served a total of 48.9 million passengers in the last full fiscal year.

The numbers in FY2018 would have been even higher had it not been for Typhoon Jebi which, in September 2018, severely limited operations at Kansai airport for a few days. With that in mind, Yoshiyuki Yamaya, representative director and CEO, and Emmanuel Menanteau, representative director and co-CEO of Kansai Airports, commented that “in order to welcome more passengers on the way to reaching our goal of serving over 50 million passengers at the three airports combined in FY2019, we are more than ever commit-ted to becoming disaster resilient airports.”

The traffic growth at Itami and Kobe airports is, with the exception of the recent Fuji Dream Airlines’ entry to Kobe, limited to the exist-ing carriers due to slot restrictions. Kansai airport, on the other hand, has been able to fuel its growth by attracting a significant number of new foreign carriers, especially from China and Southeast Asia. Among others, Juneyao Airlines (Qingdao), Sichuan Airlines (Xi’An), Thai Lion Air (Bangkok), Vietnam Airlines (Da Nang), and Xiamen Airlines (Hangzhou) launched new routes to Kansai airports in the first three years under Kansai Airports’ management. In FY2018, 23 percent of international passengers using the airport were from China, 27 percent from Korea, and 16 percent from Southeast Asia. The number of Chinese passengers using the airport increased by 16 percent year-on-year in both FY2017 and FY2018.

The financial performance of Kansai Airports has been on an up-ward trajectory as well. In its first year of managing the airports, the company has recorded revenues of 180.2 billion yen (US$1.6 billion) and a net profit of 16.9 billion yen (US$155 million). Those figures have grown to 206.4 billion yen and 28.3 billion yen in FY2017, and 220.4 billion yen and 29.6 billion yen in FY2018. In fact, the year-on-year growth of revenues and profits between FY2017 and FY2018 outpaced that of traffic.

One of the key drivers behind that has been the growth of Kansai Airports’ “non-aero” segment. It increased from 99.8 billion yen in revenues in FY2016 to 130.1 billion yen in FY2018 and went from contributing 55 percent of the total revenues to 59 percent. The majority of that growth can be attributed to duty-free sales at stores directly managed by the consortium which doubled from about 30 billion yen in FY2016 to about 60 billion yen in FY2018. Of that, as much as 72 percent was spent by Chinese visitors.

With 26.44 million passengers processed across the three airports in the first half of FY2019 (April 2019 - September 2019), Kansai Airports’ growth shows no signs of slowing down. The record-break-ing number represents an 11 percent year-on-year increase. Going forwards, however, the consortium faces three challenges: the limited growth potential of Itami and Kobe airports, the significant reliance of Kansai airport’s growth on traffic from China, and the political tensions in the region. The ongoing dispute between Ja-pan and South Korea caused a 7 percent year-on-year decrease in South Korean passengers traveling to Kansai airport. At the same time, a 52 percent increase in Chinese passengers has increased the airport’s exposure to a potential slowdown of Chinese tourism growth even further.

All that said, Kansai Airports has been able to diversify its traffic by attracting more passengers from other, even distant, regions of the world as well. Since the consortium took the airport over, AirAsia X launched a route to Honolulu, Qantas to Sydney, British Airways to London, and Delta Air Lines to Seattle. In 2020, Swiss is expected to return to Kansai airport for the first time in 18 years, Qatar Airways in four years, and Turkish Airlines in two years. On top of all of that, the three airports are also set to enjoy additional attention and growth thanks to EXPO 2025 which will be held in Osaka.

◀ Kansai International Airport was built on an artificial island off the coast of Osaka Bay.


MANUFACTURER FORCAST

A 200 PERCENT INCREASE in the next 20 years will see Asia-Pa-cific leading world airline traffic (revenue passenger-kilometres (RPKs) by 2038. Services emanating from the region will include 10 of the world’s largest traffic flows, according to Airbus. The European manufacturer ’s latest Global Market Forecast (GMF) indicates that, during the 2019-38 forecast period, the domestic China market will increase by 220 percent to generate the largest traffic flow.

Overall, Airbus analysts see 4.3 percent average annual traffic growth that will generate demand for 39,210 new passenger aircraft with 100+ seats and freighters with capacity for over 10 tonnes. Some 36 percent (14,210 units) will be replacements, 64 percent (25,000) will provide growth, and these will be supplemented by 8,470 current machines remaining in service. Asia-Pacific will ac-count for 42 percent of deliveries, ahead of North America and Europe, each with 36 percent.

How does Airbus see the Asia-Pacific airline fleet and what will be traffic trends in the coming 20 years? The region operates the youngest passenger fleet of jetliners in service, excluding freighters.

While the average age of the global fleet has declined since 2004 from almost eleven years to less than ten, aircraft flying in Asia-Pa-cific — less than a decade old, on average, 15 years ago — are now typically between six and seven years old, says Airbus.

Eastern promiseBy 2038, air travel to, from, and within the Asia-Pacific region will have

become the most important such market in the world, according to Airbus.

European correspondent Ian Goold considers the manufacturer’s latest

20-year market forecast.

AIRBUS GLOBAL MARKET FORECAST: NEW DELIVERIES 2019-38

NEW PASSENGER AIRCRAFT* — DELIVERIES BY REGIONSIZE AFRICA ASIA/ PACIFIC CIS EUROPE LATIN AMERICA MIDDLE EAST NORTH AMERICA TOTAL

Small 960 12,765 1,298 5,760 2,400 1,630 4,911 29,724

Medium 188 2,168 125 1,035 189 473 696 4,874

Large 101 1,391 75 639 95 1,097 362 3,760

TOTAL 1,249 16,324 1,498 7,434 2,684 3,200 5,969 38,358

NEW FREIGHT AIRCRAFT** — DELIVERIES BY REGIONSmall — — — — — — — —

Medium 14 102 16 56 12 14 285 499

Large 6 117 29 49 - 31 124 356

TOTAL 20 219 45 105 12 45 409 855

*100+ seats (passenger aircraft); **10+ tonnes (freighters). Source: Airbus GMF 2019.

AIRBUS GLOBAL MARKET FORECAST —NEW DELIVERIES*MARKET 2019-38 SHARE

Africa 1,269 3%

Asia-Pacific 16,543 42%

CIS 1,543 4%

Europe 7,539 19%

Latin America 2,696 7%

Middle East 3,245 8%

North America 6,378 17%

WORLD TOTAL 39,213 100%

*Passenger and cargo aircraft. Source: Airbus GMF (2019).


The fleet will almost treble in size by 2038, according to Airbus: the current 7,105-strong force (as at 1 January) is seen as growing to 19,225 units. Of these, around 2,900 current machines are expected to remain in service.

Asia-Pacific will see 16,325 new deliveries in the coming 20 years. Satisfying forecast traffic and route developments will require 12,120 aircraft for market growth, supplemented by 4,205 further machines to replace retired aircraft.

The great majority will be small, single-aisle designs flying up to 3,000 nautical miles, of which operators in the region will need 12,765, says Airbus. These will be supported by 2,169 medium-size, up-to-5,000 nautical mile-range aircraft. Finally, there will be de-mand for 1,391 large, twin-aisle jetliners for which the manufacturer does not nominate a maximum range.

All this capacity is to accommodate Asia-Pacific airline traffic growth that Airbus forecasters say will continue to comfortably exceed global expansion rates. After growing 6 percent annually during 2018-28, traffic is seen as increasing at a slightly slower 4.9 percent in the following 10 years (compared with global RPK growth of 4.6 percent/year and 4 percent/year, respectively).

Overall, this will represent a 20-year compound annual increase of 5.5 percent (4.3 percent globally), says Airbus. Breaking down the predicted overall growth trend, Airbus says that Asia-Pacific intra-regional and domestic traffic combined will increase at around 5.8 percent/year, while inter-regional annual growth is expected to be 4.6 percent.

As well as providing a crystal-ball’s view of perceived prospects, the manufacturer offers a detailed picture of the current Asia-Pacific market. Despite a recent modest “slowdown,” the region will continue leading global economies with the manufacturer expecting an aver-age 4.1 percent “real” compound annual growth in gross domestic product (GDP) during 2019-38.

It notes that over the past 50 years, Asia-Pacific’s share of increased global GDP has gone from 21 percent in the 1970s to a 54 percent expansion in this decade. “Today, although India is now outpacing China in economic growth, Asia-Pacific remains linked to China and its transition to a service/domestic consumption based economy.”

China’s economic transition to services will lead domestic and regional sources of growth — “particularly private consumption” — that will play a larger role in coming years, according to the GMF. “Concerns over slowing Chinese economic growth have eased recently, but trade tensions with the USA are a downside risk at least in the short term.” Meanwhile, emerging manufacturing hubs such as Vietnam and Indonesia could stimulate traffic growth, says Airbus.

The region’s burgeoning wealth has been accompanied by grow-ing air-transport importance, with its share of global capacity (avail-able seat-kilometres [ASKs]) increasing from 23 percent in 2000 at an average 6.5 percent/year — “significantly faster than Europe and North America”. By last year, Asia-Pacific was the leading region, providing the focus for “a third of all air-travel capacity”.

Having previously highlighted the socio-economic importance of middle-class travellers, the 2019-38 GMF points out that in all regions the growth of this market is most impressive in terms of its speed of transition and the size of its share, as well as the sheer size of the group. “In 2008, 32 percent [of people] — or 1.2 billion — in Asia-Pacific [was] middle-class. By 2018, this had expanded to nearly 50 percent, or 2 billion people, and by 2038 is projected to grow to 72 percent, or 3.3 billion people.”

Over the past 20 years, the importance of intra-regional traffic be-tween nations or states has risen, as has domestic travel, according to the company. Since 1998, such local traffic has grown from 22 percent to 33 percent and together with other (unspecified) air travel accounts for “nearly 60 percent of all Asia-Pacific traffic”.

The region’s domestic market has become highly concentrated, with more than 90 percent of traffic accounted for by five nations: China (57 percent), India (11 percent), Japan (9 percent), Indonesia (8 percent), and Australia (6 percent). The dominant China and In-dia markets have grown at “impressive” rates since 1999, recording respective 12.4 percent and 11.1 percent annual growth rates. Japan, Indonesia, and Australia have seen “very strong” growth rates com-pared with the global level.

But for intra-regional traffic flying between Asia-Pacific countries the story is “quite different”, with a much more fragmented market portrayed. “Without looking at the data, it would have been hard to guess that the largest flow would have been between China and Thailand, for example,” say Airbus market analysts. In 2018, that market represented some 6 percent of intra-Asia-Pacific market capacity, while that between Australia and Singapore provided a further 4 percent.

Reflecting airline industry performance also in Europe, Airbus says that growth in the “highly fragmented” intra-Asia-Pacific market has been enhanced by the opening of new internal routes. Both regions have been stimulated by low-cost carriers (LCCs), which have played an important role in Asia-Pacific.

CARGO TO GOOver the coming 20 years, Airbus expects global trade to grow at 3.3 percent/year, almost doubling to around US$45 trillion by 2038. This demand is predicted to stimulate a 50+percent increase in the 1,800-strong dedicated freighter-aircraft fleet to just over 2,800 aircraft. North America is forecast to continue supporting the largest regional fleet (about 40 percent of all cargo aircraft), while Asia-Pacific will employ nearly 30 percent, says the manufacturer. However, Asia-Pacific will become the largest in international trade as its share increases from some 36 percent to 43 percent by 2038. Intra-Asia-Pacific trade flow is forecast to grow by 140 percent over this period.

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THE MAJOR POINT OF DISTINCTION with the aerospace com-pany’s latest flying marvel is that it can fly farther than anything the competition can throw at it — an enormous 7,700 nautical miles — making long flights a breeze for the elegant machine.

That makes the Global 7500 a game changer in the world of endurance flying, as Matthew Nicholls, Bombardier Aviation com-munications and public affairs senior advisor, explains.

“The Global 7500 aircraft is the largest and longest-range pur-pose-built business jet in the world and has a range of 7,700 nautical miles and a maximum speed of Mach 0.925 (982 km/h or 610 mph). The aircraft was widely publicised as being able to connect some of the world’s most expansive city pairings, including routes such as New York to Shanghai, and Singapore to Seattle. Today, Bombardier

can confirm that with its extended range, the Global 7500 is the only business aircraft that can connect New York to Hong Kong, and Singapore to San Francisco. Some other notable city pairs in-clude Montreal-Bangkok; Montreal-Colombo; Toronto-Hong Kong; Toronto-Johannesburg.”

But ultra-long-range bragging rights aside, the refined aircraft also packs serious real estate. The cabin alone is 54-feet 5-inches long (from cockpit divider to aft most cabin, excluding baggage compart-ment), 8-feet-wide and 6-feet 2-inches high, providing a lot of space for interior design flexibility. Throw in Ka-band worldwide Internet connectivity, giving passengers the option to download, stream, video conference or share content to their hearts’ content and the Global 7500 is basically a well-equipped and appointed mobile apartment.

Globe-trotting marvelBombardier’s flagship aircraft, the Global 7500, is one of the latest business

jets to join the exalted ranks of business aviation’s prestigious ultra-long-range

segment. Benn Marks looks at the details.

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BUSINESS JETS

“Customer feedback for the Global 7500 has been very strong and there are several reasons it is making its mark in the industry. The Global 7500 aircraft is the industry’s first and only business jet to feature four distinct living areas, a dedicated Crew Suite, and the industry’s largest, most well-appointed kitchen. In contrast to conventional open-plan cabins, this modular concept allows for a true home and office in the sky. In-flight activities can take place both simultaneously and privately, so dinner can be prepared in the kitchen, served to guests in the Conference Suite, all while passengers rest peacefully in the Master Suite,” Nicholls says.

The Bombardier senior PR advisor points out there are 15 to 20 Global 7500 aircraft in production this year, which are currently in Bombardier ’s completions centre in Montreal; and more than a dozen of the type are expected to be delivered this year too (from Bombardier ’s completions facilities in the same city). Also, sales figures for the new Global jet are impressive considering it only received its type certification from Transport Canada in September 2018, followed shortly after by the US Federal Aviation Administra-tion (FAA) in November 2018 (both within 24 months after the first flight of Flight Test Vehicle (FTV) 1. From there, the aircraft entered service in December 2018. That said, with its large spacious cabin, formi-dable range and speed, plus the fine legacy that previous models of the company’s highly successful Global product line has established with customers worldwide, it ’s hardly surprising to learn the Global 7500 is already operating with a number of happy customers.

Nicholls says Bombardier’s new Global jet has been bought by ultra-high-net-worth-individuals (UHNWIs), private company/cor-porations and fractional ownership organisations — many of whom are repeat Bombardier ultra-long-range jet customers. And, for those residing in the APAC region, who could also be categorised as falling into the above buyer demographic, and for whom long-range travel is par for the course, Nicholls says the Global 7500 has certainly piqued their curiosity too, along with others.

“We are thrilled with the worldwide response the Global 7500 has received. The aircraft has garnered significant interest from existing customers as well as concept buyers worldwide for its industry-de-fining design, performance, short-field capability and outstanding reliability…With its outstanding range, smooth ride, and superb performance, the Global 7500 is perfectly suited for customers in the APAC region. While Bombardier does not disclose information regarding its customers, the Global 7500 has garnered plenty of interest from potential APAC-based customers.

It’s not just the Global 7500’s record breaking ultra-long-range

credentials and spaciousness that are making it a hit with custom-ers. Its extensive use of the latest technology available in business aviation today is also bringing it the wider industry ’s attention as well. For instance, the aircraft’s two latest generation General Electric GE Passport powerplants not only reliably generate an immense amount of power for the jet (something in the order of 18,920lb of thrust per side), they’re also notable for cutting back heavily on the noise and emissions fronts; elements that make them ideal for operators, passengers travelling in the aircraft and the environment.

Additionally, the Global 7500’s highly advanced wing design is another feature that provides considerable benefits in terms of overall performance. Nicholls says the aircraft is more than capable of accessing challenging airports with short runways located at high elevations, in hot temperatures such is its unique design.

The Global 7500 is perfectly suited for customers flying in to chal-lenging airfields. Its impressive long-range performance as well as its short-field and steep approach capabilities allows it to operate out of demanding airfields such as Saanen Airfield and London City, and connect key cities in the Middle East, Africa and the continental US. With its advanced wing technology, the Global 7500 generates unprecedented amounts of extra lift on take-off and approach due to its sophisticated slats and flap system. It also maximizes aerody-namic efficiency and increases performance all the while improving

safety and offering a smoother ride. Its advanced wing also provides the fastest cruise speed in the industry, unmatched short take-off and landing performance and the smoothest ride in the skies.

From a systems point of view, the aircraft comes equipped with the latest Bombardier Vision flight deck, including elements such as synthetic and enhanced vision systems, and advanced fly-by-wire technology with side stick controllers; collectively making the large Bombardier jet very safe and easy to fly. For passengers however, the Global 7500 also comes equipped with the much vaunted Nuage seat. This totally revamped seat design has no peer in terms of pas-senger comfort and is streets ahead of what can be found in most, if not all, first class airline cabins. In terms of flights approaching the 16-17-hour mark, the new Nuage seat is also perhaps the best DVT-preventative innovation imaginable. Nicholls says the Global 7500’s appeal lies in its uncompromising passenger comfort and amenity, performance and technological sophistication. He fur-ther adds that Bombardier’s latest offering to the ultra-long-range segment is an industry game-changer — and one that’s certainly redefined what’s possible in it.

◀ The Global 7500 aircraft is the largest and longest-range purpose-built business jet in the world and has a range of 7,700 nautical miles and a maximum speed of Mach 0.925.

The Global 7500 aircraft is the industry’s first and only business jet to feature four distinct living areas, a dedicated Crew Suite,

and the industry’s largest, most well-appointed kitchen.

MATTHEW NICHOLLS, BOMBARDIER AVIATION


RELEASED IN OCTOBER IN MONTREAL, the report is produced by the ILHG, which itself is made up of officials from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Airports Council International (ACI), the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), and the International Coordinating Council of Aerospace Industries Associations (ICCAIA).

The 2019 version lays out 75 years of aviation success, but also reports that for the industry to meet its expectations of doubling air traffic over the next 20 years and “de-carbonise” the industry, governments and the private sector will have to step up their investments.

As the title of the report indicates, the ILHG likes to point out the good things aviation brings to the world. A few data points include:

— Today, 1,303 scheduled airlines operate over 31,717 aircraft, serving 3,759 airports with the support of 170 air navigation services providers; — If the global aviation sector were a country, its total contribution (direct, indirect, induced and catalytic) of US$2.7 trillion to the gross domestic product (GDP);

—The industry supports 65.5 million jobs; — The industry carried 4.3 billion passengers in 2018, a 6.4 percent increase over 2017; — Airlines carried 58 million tonnes of freight in 2018, a 2.4 percent increase over 2017; — Scheduled commercial flights totalled 38 million in 2018, a 3.5 percent increase over 2017; — There were 48,500 routes globally, an increase of 2,900 compared to 2017; — Of the US$2.7 trillion in economic impact, tourism/catalytic accounts for US$896.9 billion, “induced” accounts for US$454 billion, indirect accounts for US$637.8 billion and direct accounts for US$704.4 billion.The report also highlights how the aviation industry drives global

trade and e-commerce with an estimated US$6.8 trillion worth of goods transported internationally by air in 2018, representing 35 percent of world trade by value, despite representing less than 1 percent by volume. “Aviation’s advantage over other modes of transport in terms of speed and reliability has contributed to the

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Benefits and challengesAviation’s Industry High Level Group (ILHG), which includes officials from top

rules-setting bodies, released its Aviation Benefits report for 2019 recently.

The report highlights the past 75 years since the founding of the Convention

on International Civil Aviation and says the future is promising, but also

challenging. Matt Driskill dug into the details.

AVIATION BENEFITS

market for same-day and next-day delivery services, ILHG said in the report.

If aviation continues to grow as projected, by 2036 the industry will account for 98 million jobs and generate US$5.7 trillion in GDP, a 110 percent increase from 2016. The aviation industry in the Asia and Pacific region has, in recent decades, become a success story with an impressive level of growth. Political commitments made to the liberalisation of air services have helped to increase regional and domestic connectivity and enhance intra-regional trade. Air travel demand will also be stimulated by the growing population and middle class in the region. In Asia, the industry supports 30.2 million jobs and US$684 billion in GDP.

The projected growth however, will depend on sustainable world economic and trade growth, as well as declining airline costs and ticket prices. Other factors, including regulatory regimes (such as liberalisation of air transport), technological improvements and fuel costs will also impact future growth. If growth were to slow due to restrictive trade, immigration, political factors and increasing fuel price, the total number of jobs supported by the air transport sector (including air transport supported tourism) could be 12 million lower by 2036 than the base forecasts. In this scenario,

the contribution of the air transport sector to world GDP would be US$820 billion lower, with an additional US$390 billion lost through lower tourism activity.

The ILHG says in the report that “a large number of investments in the modernisation and expansion of quality aviation infrastruc-ture are required over a long period. The global investment needs for airport expansion and construction, for example, are estimated at US$1.8 trillion from 2015 to 2030”. The group added that while “aviation’s socio-economic benefits, its cross-cutting nature and multiple links to other economic sectors are widely recognised, this has rarely translated into the level of investment which is necessary to truly derive these benefits”. They also said the aviation industry has been paying for the “vast majority of its own infrastructure costs (runways, airport terminals, air traffic control), rather than being financed through taxation, public investment or subsidies. Infrastruc-ture costs are covered through payments of user charges, as well as other revenue sources. In addition, airlines and their customers are forecast to generate US$136 billion in tax revenues in 2018.

In order to level the playing field for the industry, the ILHG said in the report that “it is necessary for states to take pragmatic meas-ures, for example, by engaging multi-stakeholders, diversifying funding sources and elevating the role of the private sector, includ-ing through private investment, business reform, private finance

◀ A rendering of the flights crisscrossing the world at any given time.


AVIATION BENEFITS

initiatives, public-private partnerships (PPPs) and various incentive schemes. Where private capital is required, appropriate and targeted oversight delivering the right incentives needs to be put in place to guarantee capital injection into much needed infrastructure while safeguarding consumer interests and increasing efficiency in the use of infrastructure. Such policy decisions will not only affect an infrastructure operator’s bottom line but also the overall services and choices that are offered to the travelling public.”

The group also gave the industry a checklist for maximising the benefits of aviation. The list includes:

— ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLANNING: Mainstream the priorities of the aviation sector in States’ economic development planning so that aviation can be used as an economic development driver; — AIR TRANSPORT REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: Establish and apply good governance for air transport, i.e. the institutional, regulatory, and policy frameworks, in which air transport is designed, implemented and managed; — AVIATION INFRASTRUCTURE: Develop quality aviation infrastructure (including air navigation systems and airports) commensurate with the level of predicted traffic growth and based on ICAO’s global plans; — RESOURCE MOBILISATION: Promote diversified funding and financing sources in partnership with states, international and regional organisations, the industry, as well as multi-lateral development banks and other financial institutions; — SAFETY AND SECURITY: Comply with ICAO’s global standards and policies, as well as the industry standards to continue enhancing civil aviation safety and security; — ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: Reinforce efforts toward minimising the environmental effects from civil aviation activities, especially the achievement of the aspirational goals of carbon neutral growth from 2020; — PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT: Foster an informed and engaged public as a crucial partner to advance sustainable air transport solutions.As mentioned earlier, in Asia-Pacific, the aviation industry sup-

ported 30.2 million jobs and US$684 billion in GDP. The report said that “every person directly employed in the aviation sector and in tourism made possible by aviation supported another nine jobs elsewhere in the region. The sector in Asia-Pacific directly employed 3.3 million people in 2016. In addition to the US$148.7 billion of direct impact in GDP, the sector, through the effect of the procurement of goods and services through the supply chain has an impact of US$119.9 billion. The benefits that arise when employees of the industry and its supply chain spend their wages in the local consumer economy account for another US$127.9 billion in economic impact. Direct, indirect and induced, in total, contribute US$396.5 billion to the Asia-Pacific GDP. In addition, the spending of foreign tourists arriving by air in the region accounts for US$287.8 billion of the total economic impact.

OutlookThe wider trend of liberalisation is likely to provide a further boost to the region’s expanding tourism industry, trade connections, and air connectivity. The increasing population and expanding middle class will also contribute to the surge in air travel demand. According to ICAO’s long-term traffic forecasts, Asia and Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing region in terms of passenger traffic, at an annual rate of 5.3 percent up to 2045. For freight traffic, the region is projected to grow 3.9 percent annually for the same period as passenger traffic, the second highest growth rate among all regions. This increase will, in turn, drive growth in economic output and jobs that are supported by air transport in the next decade. By 2036, it is forecasted that the impact of air transport and the tourism it facilitates in Asia-Pacific will have grown to support 44 million jobs (46 percent more than in 2016) and a US$1.7 trillion contribution to GDP (an increase of 151 percent).

Being the engine of global growth, Asia-Pacific faces challenges during this phase of aviation development. In particular, it is proving difficult to make aviation infrastructure improvements in the region fast enough to keep pace with the accelerated growth in demand. Among the world top 25 busiest airports by passenger numbers in 2018, ten are from Asia-Pacific and their traffic levels continue to in-crease. Although some major hubs in the region are moving forward with robust expansion plans, many are already operating above their planned capacity, resulting in an escalation of delays. In addition, due to airport capacity constraints, it is estimated that in 2030 around 33 percent of traffic at the region’s 22 busiest airports will be lost or redirected to less attractive airports. Massive investment is required to close infrastructure gaps and to adequately maintain and upgrade infrastructure already in place. The investment needs for airport expansion and construction in the region are estimated at US$6.51 billion per year to 2020.

With regard to public finance, governments must consider how to mobilise greater domestic resources, access new external re-sources and improve public expenditure management. Concerning private finance, public-private partnerships have already become a key mechanism for channelling private resources for infrastructure development in the Asia and

Pacific region. To attract investors, the legal and regulatory frame-work needs to be improved in terms of transparency and certainty.

The projected expansion of the aviation sector in the region will also bring the need for effective regulatory oversight that keeps pace with this growth, as well as the recruitment and training of the necessary skilled manpower. The most likely scenario is that airlines in the Asia and Pacific region will need to train an average of 12,249 new pilots, 2,537 new air traffic controllers, 14,779 new maintenance technicians and 20,142 new cabin crews a year until 2037. In addition, the Asia and Pacific region has yet to achieve the kind of “seamless connectivity” that would allow countries to make the optimal use of air transport, and thereby bring down transport and logistics costs. The facilitation of transport and the improvement of logistics performance would enhance the competitiveness of the region’s developing countries.


AIRLINES

AIR ASTANA HAS LAUNCHED the first of seven ordered Airbus A321neoLR planes, also the first in Central Asia, with flights initially from Kazakhstan’s Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport to Moscow. Destinations soon to be added include Prague, Mumbai and Jeddah. Three A321 Long Range (LR) aircraft will be added by June next year and three more by late 2020 or early 2021.

The airline has ambitious plans to expand in the Asian region with its LR variant. The Airbus A321LR is on lease from US-based Air Lease Corp and is a long-range version of the A321neo, with increased maximum take-off weight and associated design modifi-cations. The aircraft is configured with 16 Business Class seats and 150 Economy Class seats.

“This aircraft gives us huge flexibility in terms of range and ca-pacity because it’s not too large,” said Peter Foster, president and CEO of Air Astana. Referring to the new aircraft “as the driver of change”, the LRs will replace the existing ageing B757s that fly on long-haul services to destinations including Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Seoul.

“The LR covers most of the routes which we aspire to fly in our network,” Foster explained. Asia is on the top of the list. Air Astana is looking to expand its Asian network over the next two years fol-lowing the delivery of the LRs. New destinations under consideration include Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo.

Air Astana’s first international destination was Beijing in 2002 and China holds significance given economic ties are strengthening be-tween the two nations. Tokyo will be on the cards once a subsidy for the route is confirmed by the government. “We have already applied for this,” said Foster. Kazakhstan is the largest economy in Central Asia, accounting for more than half of the region’s GDP.

When asked about flying to Singapore, where the only connection to Central Asia was pulled out by Uzbeg Airlines in April this year, Foster said: “Singapore as a destination is expensive compared to Malaysia and Thailand as the purchasing power of people in Ka-zakhstan is less, resulting in an imbalance of traffic. The dynamics could change if more Singaporeans wanted to fly to Central Asia. Presently there is a low level of promotion.” Foster said the PATA conference, comprising the travel trade meeting held in Nur-Sultan recently had generated a lot of interest in the region. “We will look at flying to Singapore (at a later stage) selling Central Asia as a multi-destination.”

While business is down on flights to Hong Kong because of ongoing anti-government protests, “Kazakh visitors are resilient,” said Foster. A large number of travellers are on transit and are not affected by the events, he said.

With the Russian government having opened a fast e-visa route to the region surrounding St Petersburg for numerous countries in-cluding Thailand, China and India, “this opens the door, particularly from Delhi from where we will soon start double dailies. It will be the jewel in our crown,” said Richard Ledger, Air Astana’s vice president for marketing and sales.

A codeshare signed with the largest private Russian carrier, S7 Airlines, is key for Air Astana’s expansion plans into Russia. The two carriers already have a maintenance agreement for the Airbus 320neo family, for which they share a fleet commonality. “Russia is an important market for passenger transportation from Kazakh-stan. We see great advantages in widening our presence in Russia through our partnership,” said Ledger.

Air Astana extends flight envelopeAir Astana plans to expand in Asia with destinations including Shanghai, Tokyo and Singapore in the next two years reports Neelam Mathews.

▲ The press and public got a look at Air Astana’s new A321neo long-range aircraft which the airline will use to expand its Asian route network.

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AsianAviation | June 2016 34

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