Kingfisher grounds all flights until October 4

Passengers intending to fly with Indian airline Kingfisher over the coming days will have to revise their travel plans.

Employee unrest, a result of staff being unpaid for many months, has forced Kingfisher management to suspend all flight operations until next Thursday at the earliest.

The decision came shortly after Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh told the airline that it would not be allowed to operate if safety rules were not being observed.

Reports on livemint.com state that matters came to a head over the weekend when engineers at Delhi beat up a member of Kingfisher management and stranded passengers on one arriving aircraft by several hours when they refused to connect the airbridge linking the plane to the terminal.

New sky giant: Thai Airways receives its first A380 Superjumbo

Thai Airways received its first Airbus A380 Superjumbo last week, boosting efforts to compete with Singapore Airlines and Emirates for lucrative corporate travellers.

The carrier's planned fleet of six A380s and new Boeing 777-300ERs will help it raise the percentage of seats filled in premium cabins across its network to more than 70 per cent from about 60 per cent, Acting-President Chokchai Panyayong said in a interview in Bangkok. He didn't give a timeframe for the goal.

Load factors in first and business class are "a little bit low," he said. "With improvements in the product and services we can increase that."

Thai's 507-seat A380s and new regional unit Thai Smile will lead a push to win more business traffic as low-cost airlines lure leisure flyers. Budget airlines eventually may boost their share of regional travel to as much as 35 per cent from 20 per cent, Chokchai said.

Berkshire’s NetJets Forms China Venture on Luxury Demand

NetJets Inc., the business-jet operator owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), will form a venture in China as rising wealth and trade spurs demand for luxury flights.

The China operations will be part-owned by investors including Hony Capital and Fung Investments, according to a statement yesterday. NetJets, once Buffett’s “No. 1 worry,” is expanding in China as the country’s growing economy stokes flights by local and overseas customers, the company said.

“The aviation industry is really picking up now in China,” Ernie Edwards, president of Embraer SA’s executive-jet division, said in an interview at a trade show in Shanghai. NetJets agreed in 2010 to buy as many as 125 Phenom 300 business jets from the Brazilian planemaker.

Qantas, China Eastern Plan Cheap Flights for Asia Middle

Qantas Airways teamed with China Eastern Airlines Corp. to form a budget carrier in Hong Kong, the Australian airline’s fourth Asian hub, as it taps faster growing overseas markets.

The two carriers will invest as much as $198 million in equally-owned Jetstar Hong Kong, which will begin flights with three Airbus SAS A320s next year, according to a statement today. The fleet will grow to 18 planes by 2015, it said.

Qantas Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce will challenge Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. in Hong Kong as he targets Asian markets to help turn around unprofitable international operations. The new venture will let the carrier bolster services in Greater China, where annual passenger numbers may double to 800 million by 2020, said Bruce Buchanan, chief executive officer of Qantas’s Jetstar Group.

Pilots' no-show grounds more Kingfisher flights

Stir against continued non-payment of salaries airline says problem temporary, operations should normalize soon.

Kingfisher Airlines on Monday grounded or merged nearly a fifth of its truncated schedule of 180 flights, because many pilots did not report for duty as protest over non-payment of salaries. Their salaries haven’t been paid for four months and travel bills for two months. An airline release said it operated 145 flights on Monday.  Around 300 of the 510 pilots in the airline did not report for duty and would continue to stay away from work. However, the cancellations did not lead to soaring air fares, as most travel agents have already stopped selling Kingfisher tickets.Air fares had risen 15-20 per cent last week, after Kingfisher was suspended from three payment systems of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), including its billing and settlement plan. The latter is a system designed to facilitate and simplify the selling, reporting and remitting procedures of IATA-accredited passenger sales agents, as well as to improve financial control and cash flow for member-airlines.

Narrowbodies make mark in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia has become an increasingly lucrative market for narrowbody aircraft, with the growth of low-cost travel and relaxation of regulations helping to drive orders throughout the region - and fuelling fears of overcapacity.

Most of the existing fleet in Southeast Asia consists of widebodies, and several of the legacy airlines have continued to place orders to replace their ageing aircraft and reduce costs. However, narrowbody aircraft will account for the majority of deliveries in the coming years, analysis of Flightglobal's ACAS database reveals. Many of the major carriers in the region already have large backlogs of orders for both Airbus A320s and Boeing 737s, including the re-engined options that became available to order last year. And a handful of orders could be made this year, including one or two at the 2012 Singapore Airshow.

Asia's Aviation Boom Comes With Rising Competition

While Europe's debt crisis and global economic uncertainty are threatening airline profitability in the West, in Asia airlines are experiencing relatively strong growth.

According to forecasts from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), carriers based in Asia Pacific will make profits of $2.1 billion in 2012. That's 60 percent of the total profits of $3.5 billion predicted for the global airline industry.

But below the surface, there's a growing risk to the health of the region's airline sector from increased competition. Airlines in Asia are adding capacity at such a rapid clip on international routes that industry watchers are growing alarmed.

Airline CEOs will be meeting on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow this week to discuss the challenges facing the sector.

BA and Japan Airlines in joint move on rivals

British Airways and Japan Airlines (JAL) are manoeuvring to take on rivals Lufthansa and All Nippon Airways on routes between Europe and Japan after agreeing a joint venture.

JAL said yesterday it had applied to the Japanese government for anti-trust immunity for the link-up, which would have a market share of almost a quarter.

Korean to weigh 737 Max and A320neo

Korean Air is evaluating both the A320neo and 737 Max for it next generation narrowbody fleet.

"As soon as they come up with a price, we'll look at it, but they don't have a price," said Walter Cho, Korean Air senior vice-president corporate strategy and planning, of Boeing's 737 Max.

Despite being a 737NG operator, Cho said the airline is also considering the Airbus A320neo.