Boeing's high-tech 787 Dreamliner has had its share of trouble, from early production delays to batteries that smoked and burned, grounding the worldwide fleet for months in 2013. Now the company's flagship plane is facing a new challenge: slowing sales. Boeing needs to sell dozens of 787s to help recover nearly US$30b it has spent on production and not yet accounted for in its earnings. But the industry is in a sales slump. Sales of Boeing and Airbus wide body jets have fallen 51% since 2013, and some analysts and investors predict that without more 787 sales in the near term, Boeing will have to take a sizable charge to write off some of the 787's deferred costs. Boeing has sold 1,154 so far, however, the tally falls short of the 1,300 planes Boeing is using as the basis of deferring the charges in its accounting. <br/>
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Embraer may ask the WTO to probe whether govt subsidies enabled Bombardier to offer its C Series aircraft to Delta Air Lines at below the production cost. Delta agreed last month to buy at least 75 of Bombardier’s jetliners, an order valued at US$5.6b based on list prices. Bombardier has a $1b commitment for investment from Quebec’s govt and is negotiating for federal aid as well. “This causes too big of a distortion in the market,” Paulo Cesar de Souza e Silva, head of Embraer Commercial Aviation, said. “We are analysing the situation, looking for more information and already in talks with the Brazilian govt.” Bombardier’s Q2 results will include an “onerous contract provision” to be recorded as a non-cash charge of $500m in conjunction with 127 C Series purchase agreements. <br/>
Frustrated travellers are turning to the complaint box in growing numbers as long lines and delays getting through airport security result in missed flights. Complaints filed on such topics as courtesy and processing time surged in March to the highest levels in the past year, according to the DoT’s monthly Air Travel Consumer Report released Monday. Reports filed over the time it took TSA to screen passengers grew more than 10-fold, to 513 this past March from 48 in March 2015. Concern about lack of courtesy by TSA screeners increased more than three-fold, to 1,012 in March from 294 a year ago. Other categories of complaints on the screening process and traveller’s personal property were also at the highest levels recorded in the past year, according to DoT. <br/>
Airlines cancelled and delayed fewer flights in March and consumer complaints were down. The DoT said Monday that 81.5% of flights on the main airlines arrived on time during March, up from 78.7% in March 2015. Hawaiian Airlines was the best performer, while Spirit Airlines finished last. About 1% of flights were cancelled during the month, an improvement from 2.2% a year earlier. The figures don't include more recent periods, in which thousands of passengers have missed their flights because they were stuck in long security-checkpoint lines. The report covers the 12 largest US airlines. Flights on Hawaiian, which routinely operate in good weather, arrived on time 89.9% of the time. Delta Air Lines was second-best at 87.9%. Spirit arrived on time just 64.6% of the time, followed by Virgin America at 73.8%. <br/>
ACCC chairman Rod Sims says airlines will be free to raise their fares to compensate for cuts to hidden surcharges the Reserve Bank is planning to impose, but argues competition will limit any such move. Analysts expect the domestic airline duopoly will be able to hike their fares to compensate for big changes in surcharges due to be decided by the Reserve Bank Friday. The RBA wants to force airlines to change the flat fees of between A$7 and $30 they charge now to a percentage based on the true cost of accepting credit card payments. Flat fees will be allowed, but limited to payments where the cost is actually a flat fee, like for the use of debit cards. This will slash the fees on short domestic flights, but hike fees on expensive international flights up to fivefold. <br/>