ANA is stepping up efforts to ensure it has enough pilots for its low-cost subsidiaries in the face of a worldwide crew shortage and fierce competition in the no-frills sector. The airline will pay Y30.4bn ($265m) next month to acquire a supermajority position in Peach Aviation, the low-cost carrier in which it already holds a 38.7% stake. ANA will acquire the additional 28% from the public-private Innovation Network Corporation of Japan and First Eastern Aviation, an investment fund in Hong Kong. The broad explanation for the consolidation is that it will “accelerate Peach’s growth in its next phase of development”. But behind that, the company acknowledges, is a more immediately critical incentive: the raised stake will legally allow Peach to recruit senior pilots and other crew with advertising that uses the supposedly more alluring ANA brand. That ability, say people in the industry, could prove pivotal for Peach as Japan’s low-cost carriers strive towards the 20-30 per cent market penetration enjoyed by counterparts in Europe, the US and elsewhere in Asia. Low-cost penetration levels in Japan stand at a little more than 10%, a reflection of the popularity of bullet trains for domestic travel and the challenge to convince conservative travellers they are reliable, respectable alternatives to ANA and JAL, the big incumbents. Japanese budget airlines are barred from training pilots from scratch and are forced into a recruitment market where their brands are less known or attractive to the experienced crew they need. Peach’s ability to recruit using the ANA brand, said an airline official, could make a substantial difference.<br/>
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United Continental has taken a close look at an all-new jetliner that Boeing engineers are developing for trans-Atlantic flying, and the airline likes what it sees. "What we've seen so far is very, very interesting to us," said Andrew Levy, United's CFO. "We certainly hope Boeing launches the airplane. We think there is a need for it." An endorsement from United, a large Boeing customer, would go a long way toward making the business case for so-called middle-of-market jetliners. While the airplane concept exists only on paper so far, Boeing has honed the design to seat between 225 and 260 passengers and worked to bring production costs in line with prices that airlines would be willing to pay. "I wouldn't be surprised if there is a decision to offer by this year," John Plueger, CEO and co-founder of Air Lease, said of the first step in Boeing's process to formally introduce a new plane. "That might be a bit early, a bit aggressive. But that would not surprise me." United had been among the skeptics of the jets that Boeing has spent years developing to fill the gap in its product line-up between the largest of the narrow-body 737 models and the smallest 787 Dreamliners. As Boeing is designing a twin-aisle aircraft with the range to fly from London to New York, budget carriers are shifting more mid-range flying to relatively inexpensive narrow-body jets such as Airbus' A321neo. After delving deeper into the Boeing design, "we're convinced, we get it. We understand the economics," Levy said at the ISTAT annual conference in San Diego. "We thought a twin made no sense, but we walked through it and had our questions answered. From what we've seen, we like it. But it's a paper airplane. Hopefully they'll launch it."<br/>
United Airlines is set to incorporate a technical stop on the inbound sector of its Houston Intc'l-Caracas Simón Bolivar flights given increasing concerns about the security situation in the Venezuelan capital. Schedule data shows that starting April 4, United's Caracas service will stop for just one hour in Aruba before continuing on to Caracas. The flight has a one-hour turnaround in Caracas with the outbound sector proceeding non-stop back to Houston. Travel blog Boarding Area suggests that the reason for the Aruba stop is to ensure the safety of crew, although no official announcement has come from United. United does not have 5th Freedom rights to/from Aruba so will not be setting down or picking up passengers en route. Caracas is considered to be one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Last year, the Mexico Citizens Council for Public Security placed it at number one, based on the number of homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.<br/>