The Lion Air jet that crashed into the Java Sea off Indonesia earlier this week had experienced problems with the sensors used to calculate altitude and speed on its previous flight, an issue that could help explain why the plane dove into the water. Pilots on the nearly new Boeing 737 Max 8 reported the issue after flying from Denpasar to Jakarta the night before the accident, A Lion Air spokesman said Wednesday. The instruments were checked by maintenance workers overnight and the plane was cleared to fly, he said. Erroneous sensors could be an explanation for the flight track data, said one expert. But he and others cautioned that it’s too soon to say what happened on the Lion Air flight and some of the flight data may suggest some other cause. <br/>
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Indonesia ordered Lion Air to fire its technical director and started an audit of the carrier’s maintenance facility after one of its aircraft crashed in the Java Sea off Jakarta, taking down 189 passengers and crew. The airline also dismissed an engineer who cleared the ill-fated flight JT610 even after the pilots had reported technical issues with the aircraft during a trip a day before the crash. The removals were ordered on the recommendations from the NTSB, the Transport Ministry said Wednesday. The govt will impose “strict sanctions” on Lion Air if a probe by the safety board proves negligence on the part of the airline, the ministry said. A special inspection of the Boeing 737 Max 8 planes ordered by Indonesia after the crash showed no technical issues with the jets operated by Lion Air and PT Garuda. <br/>
Trade union Fórsa has won the right to represent Ryanair cabin crew hired by agencies Crewlink and Workforce. Fórsa, which already represents directly-employed Irish-based Ryanair pilots and cabin crew, has been in talks with both agencies in recent months. The union confirmed Wednesday that it had signed a deal with Crewlink and Workforce giving it sole rights to negotiate for Ryanair cabin crew employed by both agencies. The deal means that the union now has the right to negotiate for all Ryanair cabin crew, irrespective of whether or not the airline directly employs them. Fórsa official Ashley Connolly said the agreement marked the first step towards collective bargaining for Irish-based cabin crew. “We’ve already commenced discussions with Ryanair,” she said. <br/>
Fastjet has warned that it is entering a critical period, with just days left to secure crucial funding. The loss-making airline says it is able to continue operating beyond October, owing to “some improvement” in trading and cash generation. This has bought the company further time to continue discussions with creditors and its major shareholders. It has been seeking additional funds and has also been negotiating to reduce outstanding balances, as well as capital and interest burdens. But while discussions with certain parties have been “positive”, says the carrier, the talks are still continuing. “There can be no guarantee of a successful outcome,” it says. If unable to carry out an equity fundraising or reach an agreement with its key creditors in the “coming days”, it says the group will be “unable to continue trading as a going concern”. <br/>
HNA Group has been trying for months to offload jetliners it ordered from Airbus, according to people familiar with the matter, as the indebted airline-turned-global acquirer wrestles with liquidity challenges. The Chinese group asked the leasing arms of Industrial & Commercial Bank of China. and China Minsheng Banking, among others, to take over at least 10 plane orders, the people said. Talks about the A330 twin-aisle jets, due to be delivered this year, date back to at least April, they said. Aircraft deals are notoriously difficult to exit as they carry significant penalties for customers looking to cancel orders, partly because of the disruption caused to the planemaker’s production lines. The jets would be part of one of China’s biggest corporate garage sales ever. HNA has agreed to sell more than US$22b in assets this year. <br/>
Overcapacity in the increasingly competitive Canadian domestic market has led WestJet to defer 4 Boeing 737 MAX 8s scheduled for delivery next year. However, the carrier continues to see opportunities internationally and announced it would redeploy one of its Boeing 767s on a new transatlantic route after taking its first 787s. “It is clear, we were long on domestic capacity,” WestJet president Ed Sims said. “I think the industry is long on domestic capacity across the length and breadth of Canada..” The 737-8 deliveries will now be split between 2020 and 2021, WestJet revealed Oct 30. The carrier also extended leases on 2 737-700s and 2 737-800s set to expire next year and agreed to lease 2 737-8s that will arrive next year. <br/>
Mexican airline Interjet is falling deeper into debt at just the wrong time. The carrier received a cash injection for MXN900m and is expecting a further MXN1.2n from its board (about US$105m total), according to its Q3 results. Even after getting the first tranche of the injection, the company’s net-debt-to-Ebitdar ratio grew to 11.1 times, up from the 7.1 times the privately-held company reported in January. The rise is mainly due to a 60% increase in the cost of leasing aircraft, which the company attributes to its sale and leaseback transactions. In January, CE Jose Luis Garza said that a then-recent MXN3.2b cash injection would be the last one it would need. The deteriorating financial position comes at a particularly tough time for the company, which is looking to revamp part of its fleet. <br/>