Aggressive growth strategies at Europe’s leading discount carriers are poised to overthrow the region’s established airline order. Ryanair, already Europe’s top low-cost operator, boosted its passenger tally 15% to 117m in 2016, a figure that’s set to give it the biggest annual tally of any carrier in the region, ahead of Lufthansa, which reports numbers next week. Norwegian Air Shuttle attracted 29.3m passengers last year, it said Thursday, a 14% increase that’s likely to put it ahead of SAS for the first time. SAS also posts figures next week. And Wizz Air, grew numbers 19% to 23m as it added more destinations in the west of the continent. Discount specialists are piling on passengers using bargain-basement pricing even as a sluggish European economy and the threat of terror attacks acts as a brake on demand. <br/>
unaligned
It flies the fanciest product on the biggest planes on the longest routes. There might not be much more room to soar. Yet, as Emirates dictates new standards of technology, luxury, and range, it’s finding that more and more is beyond its mastery. Conceived as a titanic bet on the growth of what development economists call the Global South—the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and Latin America—the airline is at risk if those emerging markets don’t, in fact, emerge. Emirates in May reported its first-ever annual revenue decline and is cutting some of its plans for growth amid slackening demand from sub-Saharan Africa, Turkey, and Brazil. The slump has industry analysts wondering how Emirates will fill the staggering number of planes it has on order. <br/>
Since Emirates began its wine program 12 years ago, it has spent more than US$500m to develop the best wine list in the sky. Joost Heymeijer, a senior VP who runs the inflight catering service at Emirates, says at any point the airline is flying about 70 different types of wine across its network. The list is fluid, based on the flight path and what vintage is drinking best at that particular time. Over a 12-month period, more than 300 vintages will be served. The company's secret weapon is a nondescript group of warehouses that Emirates owns in Burgundy, France. Many of the wines served on an Emirates flight were bought years ago, and they are stored until they're ready to serve. It's a modern, temperature-controlled, light-deprived location that stores 3.75m bottles of wine. <br/>
Johannesburg-based Solenta Aviation Holdings is to acquire 28% of FastJet as part of a US$48m equity deal, which is expected to be finalised Jan 24. Under the agreement, which is subject to FastJet shareholder approval Jan 23, Solenta will receive 95.6m FastJet shares, worth $19.2m, and 2 board nominations. In return, Solenta will provide FastJet with 3 wet-leased aircraft and other services over the next 5 years. Solenta operates a fleet of 49 aircraft. It is a commercial aviation group that holds 5 African AOCs and has strategic alliances, or AOCs pending, in an additional 7 African countries. FastJet will list a total of 239,082,993 shares on the London Stock Exchange Jan 24, raising $19.2m from the Solenta agreement and $28.8m from other related transactions. <br/>
Hawaiian Airlines has been named the world’s most punctual airline in 2016 according to results released by air travel intelligence company OAG in its annual ranking of on-time performance for all airlines and airports. The OAG Punctuality League, covering 200 airlines from every corner of the globe, revealed that 89.9% of Hawaiian’s flights arrived on time in 2016. “This accomplishment was won through the hard work and dedication of our more than 6,000 employees,” said Mark Dunkerley, president and CE of Hawaiian Airlines. “Together they have made Hawaiian an industry leader not only in punctuality but also in the quality of service”. The airline provides daily non-stop service to Hawaii from 11 gateway cities in North America and also operates approximately 160 daily flights between the Hawaiian Islands. <br/>
Frontier Airlines has canceled more than 50 flights and is giving passengers broad leeway in rescheduling travel plans in advance of the winter storm that could drop up to 10 inches of snow Wednesday in the Denver metro area. The airline started cancelling flights Wednesday morning and adding more cancellations during the day. The early cancellation announcements and liberal rescheduling parameters are part of a concerted effort to improve customer service after 7 out of 10 Frontier flights in and out of Denver were delayed or canceled during winter storm “Decima” in early December. “It’s a very passenger-friendly way of dealing with winter weather,” said a Frontier spokesman. “We’re being proactive in giving passengers a chance to pick the flights that meet their travel plans.” <br/>
Hundreds of passengers of troubled Arik Air were once again left stranded at Murtala Muhammed International in Lagos Thursday following the cancelation of the airline’s flight to London’s Heathrow Airport. Arik Air canceled its London-bound flight due to its inability to purchase aviation fuel. While there is no shortage of aviation fuel in the industry, Arik Air’s supplier refused to sell fuel to the airline due to its debts owed to the supplier. This development could prevent Arik Air from operating its flights scheduled to depart for New York later in the day. No fewer than 300 passengers who had planned to depart for London were stranded at the airport without any airline employees attending to them. <br/>
Hainan Airlines is applying to the US DoT to open routes this year from Chongqing to Los Angeles in Q1 and New York JFK in Q2. The carrier plans to operate these 2 routes 8X- or 9X-monthly using a Boeing 787. The 2 routes have been approved by CAAC, which may mean a lost opportunity for Air China, as typically only one Chinese carrier can operate one international route in China. With China’s fast-growing outbound passenger travel to the US, last month Hainan applied to DoT to open twice-weekly Chengdu-Los Angeles 787 service in Q1 2017 and 3X-weekly Chengdu-New York 787 service in Q2. In Nov 2014, the US and China relaxed new visa regulations, which increased Sino-US travel. However, an industry source said that carriers on the routes are suffering from overcapacity, making it difficult turn a profit. <br/>