US aerospace giant Boeing expressed caution on Monday after executives held talks in Iran on providing new aircraft to Iranian carriers last week. Two months after getting permission from the US government to explore resuming sales to Iran as sanctions are eased on the country, the company said it used the meetings to understand what Iran's airlines needed and the capabilities of its aircraft after decades of being cut off from US suppliers. "Boeing discussed the capabilities of its commercial passenger airplanes and after-market services with Iranian airlines approved by the US government," Boeing spokesman John Dern said. The meetings "enabled us to better understand the status of their current fleets, their route structures, and their plans for future operations." After US sanctions on Iran were partially lifted in January following a deal on its nuclear program, Boeing was given permission by the US Treasury to explore the market. However, it has already been beaten to the punch by Airbus, which has had far more freedom since the sanctions were removed to seek deals with Tehran. Airbus secured a deal to sell Iran 118 planes for about US$25b.<br/>
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In-flight WiFi is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family or catch up on work, but services are often so slow, you're better off sticking to the in-flight magazine. New satellite-based WiFi services promise to change that, prompting a grab for capacity and customers by companies such as Inmarsat, Viasat, Gogo, Panasonic and Global Eagle Entertainment. WiFi on US domestic routes is already widespread although air-to-ground (ATG) technology can mean service is slow. In Europe, a patchwork of regulatory regimes has hindered the creation of any substantial ATG networks, while satellite-based systems have until now been too expensive for short-haul routes. Satellite-based systems can provide coverage across the entire planet, including over oceans, where ATG falls short. Additional beams are typically overlaid to follow traffic flows, to provide extra broadband capacity for more congested flight areas. Inmarsat, a provider of satellite communications to the maritime industry, has spent five years building its Global Express network for aviation. Final ground and flight testing is underway, with three satellites already in service. "Existing solutions have not met market expectations… Despite all of the happy talk, the state of play is an inconsistent patchwork," said Leo Mondale, president of Inmarsat Aviation. Viasat is launching two new high-powered satellites that it says will significantly improve broadband speeds from next year.<br/>
China’s HNA Group has launched a SFr1.4b takeover offer for Switzerland’s Gategroup air services company, in what would be the acquisitive conglomerate’s second big purchase in the country in less than a year. Extending this year’s overseas spending spree by Chinese companies, HNA on Monday announced an all-cash offer for the Zürich-based catering and hospitality group that was previously part of the Swissair national airline.<br/>However, the offer was rejected as insufficient by activist shareholders owning 11.3% of Gategroup shares. Jonathan Herbert, chief investment officer at Cologny Advisors in London, which is acting with Switzerland-based RBR Capital Advisors, said extensive restructuring was needed at Gategroup to boost profit margins. He claimed the Chinese takeover was “a way to blunt our efforts”, and predicted rival bidders would emerge. Chinese conglomerates spent $101b on outbound mergers and acquisitions in Q1 — almost as much as in the whole of 2015. The overseas expansion has been driven by the limited options for domestic investment and a desire to gain global exposure.<br/>
Airbus won 32 aircraft orders and delivered 125 in Q1. After adjusting for cancellations it had 10 net orders. Airbus's March tally included two A380s from an unidentified customer, although it said Air Austral cancelled an order for two of the aircraft. The two deals are not related, a person familiar with the matter said. Airbus expects to deliver more than 650 planes and has forecast that orders will outstrip deliveries for the seventh year running. Rival Boeing said it had 140 gross orders between January 1 and April 5, or 122 after adjusting for cancellations. The US plane maker on Thursday reported 176 Q1 deliveries, down 4.3% from the same period last year. 737 deliveries were stable at 121 aircraft.<br/>
Airbus Group lost an order for two A380 superjumbos from Indian Ocean carrier Air Austral, which had aimed to fit the planes with the highest-capacity seating layout in the history of civil aviation. The aircraft, whose planned 840-seat configuration had led them to be widely labeled by the media as “flying sardine cans,” were removed from Airbus’s order backlog in a monthly update published Monday, confirming a cancellation that had seemed likely after Air Austral repeatedly delayed their delivery. Based on the island of La Reunion, Air Austral ordered the double-decker A380s in 2009, saying they’d be used for single-class budget flights on the “heavy-traffic route” to Paris. It didn’t reveal an exact seating plan -- or specify how many galleys and bathrooms the planes would need for their mammoth passenger load.<br/>While the A380 was certificated for a maximum 853 people based on evacuation trials, most airlines operate the model with 450 to 550 seats in three or four classes, with Dubai-based Emirates, the biggest operator, introducing a two-class 615-seat version. Even with the density that had been planned by Air Austral, the A380 would still have wider seats and wider aisles in economy class than Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner and the planned 777X, Airbus has said. Airbus’s website also showed new orders for two A380 superjumbos, though the identity of the operator wasn’t revealed.<br/>