Reuters reports that top U.S. airlines including Delta, United, and American, issued ground stops on Friday citing communication issues, as a global outage roiled operations across a wide swathe of industries around the world. American Airlines, however, later said in a statement it had re-established operations. Frontier and Spirit too cancelled directives to ground planes. It was not clear if the groundings reported by the major U.S. airlines were related to outages at Microsoft, and cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike that affected “banking, healthcare and a number of other sectors globally on Friday.”
Full Story (Reuters)
Tag: American Airlines
American Airlines Sets New Record with its Longest Flight by Distance
Simple Flying reports, “American Airlines made history this morning with the arrival of its inaugural nonstop service from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to Australia’s Brisbane Airport. The flight set a new record for the longest route by distance flown by American Airlines, and it is now the longest route on the growing Brisbane Airport network map.”
Full Story (Simple Flying)
American Airlines to Purchase ZeroAvia’s Hydrogen-Electric Engines for Regional Jets
Aviation Week Network reports, “American Airlines has signed a conditional purchase agreement with ZeroAvia for 100 hydrogen-electric engines to power regional jets. The airline has also increased its investment in the U.S.-UK startup.”
Full Story (Aviation Week Network)
FAA to Set New Maintenance Requirements for Pratt & Whitney PW1100G Engines
FlightGlobal reports that the FAA “plans to place new maintenance requirements on airlines after learning that more components in Pratt & Whitney PW1100G engines may be affected by a powder-metal manufacturing problem.” The FAA “laid out new proposed requirements in a regulatory filing released on 11 December, saying some PW1100G rotors, hubs and air seals will need ‘accelerated replacement’ due to the manufacturing issue.” The proposal “would affect 430 US-registered PW1100Gs, which power Airbus A320neo-family jets.”
Full Story (FlightGlobal)
American, Delta, United Driving MRO Spending in North America
Aviation Week reported that the North American MRO market “is projected to account for 21.8% of the worldwide total from 2024-33.” This will “derive from more than 67,000 service events, according to the 2024 edition of Aviation Week Network’s Commercial Aviation Fleet & MRO Forecast.” The active North American aircraft fleet “increases from just more than 9,480 active aircraft in 2024 to more than 11,200 in 2033, an 18% increase during the period.” This growth “of the fleet and the commensurate utilization expected will drive MRO spending to increase by more than 9.3% over 10 years.” The forecast “projects that Boeing aircraft will account for the majority of MRO expenditures by type certificate holder, capturing more than 57% of the total market, followed by Airbus (29%) and Embraer (7%).”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
American Airlines Boosts Its Fleet Plan with Order of 260 Narrowbody and Regional Jets
FlightGlobal reports, “American Airlines has placed orders for 260 new aircraft, including those produced by Airbus, Boeing and Embraer, with deliveries expected to begin later this decade.”
Full Story (FlightGlobal – Subscription Publication)
American Airlines Exceeds 3Q Profit Estimates
Reuters reports on Thursday American Airlines posted its third-quarter earnings, which “beat estimates for third-quarter adjusted profit.” American “said bookings for the upcoming holiday season have been steady, sending its shares up nearly 5% in morning trading.” According to Reuters, “U.S. airlines with international operations are seeing relentless demand for long-haul flights as a stronger dollar encourages more Americans to plan holidays abroad.” American CEO Robert Isom said, “Domestic demand remains steady, while international demand continues to drive revenue growth led by the Atlantic, Caribbean and Central America.”
Full Story (Reuters)
Airlines Plan to Add New Routes Hoping for Continued Strong Travel Demand
AP reports that building on strong bookings this summer, American Airlines “said Thursday it will add three new European destinations next summer and revive another international route that it last flew in 2019.” The announcement “comes one day after Delta Air Lines said it will expand service to China later this year.” The news from two of the biggest US carriers “underscores the airline industry’s confidence that its strong recovery from the pandemic will continue and that planes will remain packed.” American said that next summer it “will add flights to Copenhagen, Naples and Nice, France – all new destinations for the airline – from Philadelphia.” It plans to “resume flights between Chicago and Venice that were dropped four years ago.”
Full Story (Associated Press)
American, Southwest Report Profits as Industry Recovers
FlightGlobal reports that airlines are increasing the amount of flights and destinations it is offering as the industry begins to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting slowdown in travel. Analysts “still suspect the industry will not fully recover for several years – possibly not until 2023 – and a second wave of Covid-19 infections or another industry shock could set back revival.” In response to the increase in demand, US airlines “have brought about 450 passenger aircraft out of storage since mid-May, bringing the combined US in-service fleet to about 4,000 aircraft, Cirium fleets data shows.” By “comparison, US carriers operated about 6,700 passenger aircraft at the beginning of 2020, before the global downturn, according to Cirium.” US airlines “in June will carry about 29.6 million seats on domestic flights, up 29% from May, though still down 66% from 86.2 million seats in May 2019, Cirium schedules data shows.”
Full Story (FlightGlobal)
IATA Expects Transatlantic Travel to Resume in Coming Weeks
Reuters reports that International Air Transport Association Director General Willie Walsh said he is “optimistic that we will see a relaxation in relation to transatlantic flying during the coming weeks.” British and American airlines have been pushing the US and UK to “re-open travel between the two countries” amid rising vaccination rates. Reopening transatlantic air travel “would be a huge boost for airlines.”
Full Story (Reuters)
American Airlines CEO Believes Airline Can Become Much Larger
The Dallas Morning News reports that American Airlines CEO Robert Isom believes the carrier can become “much bigger.” Isom said, “We actually have the assets in place to fly a much larger airline. […] We’d like to get the regional fleet back up as much as we can. We talked about having about 150 planes on the ground in the second quarter, and our goal is to get those flying as soon as we can.” American “and other airlines are struggling with exactly how fast they can rebuild their networks after severe job cuts, furloughs and expense-tightening in 2020 and early 2021. Meanwhile, ticket prices have soared past 2019 levels and airlines are pocketing record revenues despite operating fewer flights.”
Full Story (Dallas Morning News)
American Airlines Cuts More International Flights Over Boeing Dreamliner Delays
The Wall Street Journal reported that due to delivery delays of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners, American Airlines in a securities filing on Friday announced plans to temporarily suspend some international routes this summer.
Full Story (Wall Street Journal)
American Airlines to Reduce International Flights Next Summer Due to Lack of Widebody Aircraft
Reuters reports that American Airlines “plans to scrap, reduce or delay the introduction of flights to several international routes next summer because of a lack of widebody aircraft.” American Airlines “said Boeing Co’s (BA.N) delay in delivering 787 jets, including 13 aircraft that were expected to arrive by this winter, has crimped its ability to ramp up capacity.”
Full Story (Reuters)
American Airlines Reserves an Order of 50 Air Taxis from Vertical Aerospace
Reuters reported that American Airlines will be making “pre-delivery payments” for 50 electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft from British Vertical Aerospace. American made a $1 billion deal with Vertical last year, for up to 250 of the aircraft, which “can carry four passengers and a pilot” at up to 200 mph for over 100 miles. Last year, Vertical Aerospace announced orders from Virgin Atlantic as well.
Full Story (Reuters)
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Airlines Experiencing Pilot Shortage
Bloomberg reported that US airlines are experiencing an ongoing pilot shortage, “but a purging of employees at the start of the downturn in 2020 has left the industry ill-prepared for a rebound.” American Airlines CEO Robert Ison said, “We don’t have the regional aircraft flying the summer right now [that] we would like.” Ison added, “This is a fantastic opportunity for people that want to come in and fly planes. They can make a lot of money.” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said on an earnings call last week, “The pilot shortage for the industry is real and most airlines are simply not going to be able to realize their capacity plans because there simply aren’t enough pilots, at least not for the next five-plus years.” As a result, United likely will not operate 150 regional jets due to a lack of pilots, even though there is demand for flights. Bloomberg said airlines have “scaled back plans for a rapid resumption of pre-pandemic flight schedules,” with United planning to operate 13% fewer flights in the second quarter than in the same quarter in 2019. Likewise, Delta Air Lines plans to operate 16% fewer flights, and American Airlines 8% fewer flights, mostly due to a lack of pilots at regional airlines. Bloomberg added that both American and United are working with Landline Co. to offer bus service between regional airports and larger airports.
Full Story (Bloomberg)