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Boeing won orders for 39 wide-body aircraft from Singapore Airlines as Southeast Asia’s biggest long-distance carrier upgrades its fleet over the next decade with more fuel-efficient models in an effort to cut costs. The airline agreed to buy 20 777-9s, which are set to debut at the decade’s end, and 19 787-10s, the longest Dreamliner model, for $13.8b at list prices that don’t reflect customary discounts, Singapore Air said Thursday. Deliveries of the jets will start as early as in the financial year ending March 2021, the carrier said, adding it also has options to buy six more of each of the two models. The new deal would provide a critical boost to two high-profile Boeing products amid a tough market for twin-aisle jets. The Chicago-based company has been working hard to land sales of its upgraded 777X family after twice announcing it would cut output of current models. The new aircraft will replace some of Singapore Air’s ageing Boeing planes such as the 777-300ER, while giving the carrier’s low-cost units rights to jets not yet on the market. “Singapore is a deeply respected long-haul carrier, both in terms of brand quality and technical proficiency,” said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with Fairfax, Virginia-based Teal Group. “It would be a fantastic endorsement.”<br/>

Air Canada is touting its Canadian credentials as it introduces a fresh look for its staff uniforms and fleet of planes for the first time in a dozen years. The country’s largest airline unveiled its new livery at rebranding events for customers and employees on Thursday at airports in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. In keeping with the patriotic marketing theme, the Canadian flag will be painted on planes next to the registration letters, near the tail. Calin Rovinescu, the carrier’s CEO, and Ben Smith, president of passenger airlines, said they are proud to be leading Canada’s flag carrier that represents the country at airports around world. “We are an 80-year-old iconic Canadian company that takes our role and our duty to represent our country very seriously,” Smith said. “The biggest billboard is the tail of our airplanes.” The current paint scheme on planes features the red maple leaf set in a dotted pattern on the aircraft’s tail. The new version is a black backdrop on the tail, with the red maple leaf encircled, harkening back to the rondelle (circular) design of the past. Back on stable financial footing for the past several years, the airline is hoping to distinguish itself amid fierce battles on overseas routes. About 300 planes will get the rebranding treatment, although Air Canada’s Rouge leisure unit will retain its separate look with red and white. Rouge recently had 46 jets in its fleet.<br/>

United's regional carrier operations are shrinking as traffic across the Atlantic continues in a tailspin. Those are the two major takeaways from the January operations report the Chicago-based carrier released late Wednesday. The new data shows United's regional traffic in January shrank 3.4%, while mainline traffic was up 6.9% year over year. Overall domestic traffic was up 4.7% year over year in January. Internationally, the big falloff was in trans-Atlantic travel, down 2.5% year over year last month. The continued drop-off in travel to Europe was offset somewhat by stronger traffic across the Pacific (up 6.1% year over year) and to Latin America (also up 6.1%). Consolidated traffic for United's entire route system for the month of January was up 4.0% year over year, as consolidated capacity grew by 4.7%. The biggest growth in capacity came in the Pacific market (up 6.0 percent year over year) and Latin America (up 6.8% year over year). United said the growth in overall capacity was partly fueled by a much higher flight completion rate in January of this year compared to a year ago.<br/>