Branson mulls Virgin America 2.0

Richard Branson, the founder and CEO of the Virgin Group, says he is considering setting up a successor carrier to Virgin America (VX, San Francisco, CA) a week after the airline announced its proposed sale to Alaska Airlines (AS, Seattle Tacoma Int'l) for a total of USD4 billion. (www.ch-aviation.com) More...

Lion Group to convert Batik Air into all-Airbus carrier

Batik Air (ID, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) will transfer its entire fleet of ten B737-800s and six B737-900(ER)s to its Lion Group sister carrier, Malindo Air (OD, Kuala Lumpur Int'l), the latter's chief executive Chandran Ramamurthy has told to ch-aviation. (www.ch-aviation.com) More...

Singapore Airlines to switch Houston stopover from 4Q

Singapore Airlines (SQ, Singapore Changi) has announced it will switch the stopover on its Singapore Changi to Houston Intc'l flights from Moscow Domodedovo to Manchester Int'l with effect from October 30 of this year. The route will continue to operate 5x weekly. (www.ch-aviation.com) More...

Brussels Airlines to replace ARJ-100s with Airbus metal

Brussels Airlines (SN, Brussels National) will replace four ARJ-100s, currently used on regional European routes, with three A319-100s and two A320-200s during the upcoming summer season. (www.ch-aviation.com) More...

Iran Air courts SriLankan over unwanted A350s, codeshare

Iran’s Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development, Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan, says Iran Air (IR, Tehran Mehrabad) has yet to make a decision concerning the possible lease of three A350-900s from SriLankan Airlines (UL, Colombo Int'l). (www.ch-aviation.com) More...

Vietnam Airlines, JetStar Pacific, VietJetAir ink orders

Airbus Industrie (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) has signed deals with three Vietnamese carriers involving forty aircraft during Airbus President and CEO Fabrice Brégier's on-going visit to the country's capital, Hanoi. (www.ch-aviation.com) More...

Ethiopian set to add maiden A350 in May

Ethiopian Airlines (ET, Addis Ababa) is on track to take delivery of its first A350-900 - ET-ATQ (cn 40) - next month in line with the type's original delivery schedule. Ethiopian has a total of twelve of the type on order from Airbus Industrie (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) with an additional two on lease from AerCap. (www.ch-aviation.com) More...

Antonov to sever Volga-Dnepr ties by early 2017

Ukraine's Antonov Design Bureau (Gostomel) will sever all cooperation initiatives with Russia's Volga-Dnepr Group the manufacturer's Group president, Alexander Kotsuba, has said. (www.ch-aviation.com) More...

Mitsubishi may again delay MRJ90's delivery date

Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation (Nagoya Chubu) may again delay the delivery of its first MRJ90 in order to make some technical modifications to the aircraft, Bloomberg reports. (www.ch-aviation.com) More...

DOT fines four carriers for passenger rights violations

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) says it has fined Alaska Airlines (AS, Seattle Tacoma Int'l), American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth), United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare), and Southwest Airlines (WN, Dallas Love Field) for providing inaccurate information to passengers about how much compensation they could potentially receive for being denied boarding against their will, or “bumped” on oversold flights, and for lost, damaged, or delayed baggage. (www.ch-aviation.com) More...