Below is a snapshot of the top 5 most popular Blue Swan pieces published in 2017:
Emirates faces a big dilemma – how do you replace the A380?
With continued slow sales – or should that be non-existent sales – of the Airbus A380 over the past two years and it looking increasingly likely that the manufacturer will not proceed with an updated A380neo version in favour of the minor A380plus upgrades revealed at the Paris Air Show this year, Emirates Airline now faces a major dilemma. How to you replace the largest capacity aircraft currently in the market?
To read the full article, visit Emirates faces a big dilemma – how do you replace the A380?
Monarch administrator wins appeal to retain London slots; Birmingham and Manchester slots already reallocated
The UK Court of Appeal has overruled a previous decision to return the slots of collapsed carrier Monarch Airlines to slot coordinator ACL for reallocation to operators for summer 2018. It upheld an appeal from the failed airlines administrators KPMG against the earlier court decision that had stripped it of rights over valuable airport slots. KPMG now hope to raise capital by selling the slots at London’s Gatwick and Luton airports to other airlines to pay Monarch’s creditors.
To read on, visit Monarch administrator wins appeal to retain London slots; Birmingham and Manchester slots already reallocated
Exclusive: Singapore announces new low cost startup to operate domestic flights
NB: Ok, so this started off as a joke in the Blue Swan office, so we thought we would share it with the world. We didn’t expect it to receive so many hits but we were thrilled.
Singapore has traditionally been a leader in international liberalisation, Singapore Airlines has been a world leader in the full service market and the government has maintained a very liberal access regime; but domestically things have been held rather tightly. Until now, getting around Singapore has been almost exclusively restricted to surface transport, by road or rail.
That is all about to change, as a new domestic LCC, to be named Laksair, will commence operations with a fleet of 12 737MAXs, effective Jun-2018. The aircraft will be leased from Airbus Leasing Corp, but in the medium term Laksair plans to purchase the equipment.
To read on, visit Exclusive: Singapore announces new low cost startup to operate domestic flights
Malindo Air shelves plans for launching Melbourne and Sydney
Malaysia’s Malindo has shelved plans for expansion in Australia after parent Lion Group reallocated Malindo’s first three widebody aircraft to another subsidiary. Malindo is currently an all-narrowbody operator but had been planning to take delivery of three A330-300s in 4Q2017. As Blue Swan previously highlighted, Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne and Sydney were high on the list of A330 routes for Malindo. Melbourne was expected to be launched first with service beginning before the start of the summer peak season.
To read on, visit Malindo Air shelves plans for launching Melbourne and Sydney
Brisbane to Seattle? You got to be kidding!
Qantas has talked about Brisbane-Seattle or Brisbane-Chicago to round out the initial portfolio of routes to be launched with the new 787-9 fleet. Qantas supposedly will select the US airport that provides the best deal but given the relative grim prospects of a Brisbane-Seattle route the talk about Seattle seems to be more a negotiating ploy than a serious option.
To read on, visit Brisbane to Seattle? You got to be kidding!