The AirAsia family of airlines, consisting of AirAsia Berhad, Thai AirAsia, AirAsia India and AirAsia Japan all saw strong growth in Q4 2018, as well as full-year 2018, ended Dec 31. All of the LCC’s 6 airlines saw a 14% increase in passenger carriage last year, to a combined 74.8m customers. AirAsia Berhad’s consolidated AOCs— AirAsia Malaysia, AirAsia Indonesia and AirAsia Philippines—carried a total of 12.1m passengers in the last 3 months of 2018, up 16% year on year. Passenger growth, measured in RPKs, increased 11%, while capacity, measured as ASKs, grew 14% YOY. The rapid increase in capacity caused load factors to slide 4 percentage points to 84%. Throughout 2018, the consolidated AOC group carried 14% more customers to 44.4m passengers, with RPK and ASK up 10% and 14% respectively. <br/>
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WestJet is making modifications to its Bombardier Q400 turboprop fleet to prevent an issue that has caused at least 3 recent in-flight Q400 depressurisations. One of those incidents involved a WestJet Encore aircraft and 2 involved Porter Airlines' Q400s, and all 3 apparently stemmed from cargo door handles not being properly stowed. "Bombardier has released a recommended modification to fix the issue," WestJet said. "WestJet Encore is completing this modification to the fleet and to-date more than half of our fleet has been modified." WestJet's regional unit Encore operates 47 Q400s. "Although this was human error, it is a known issue on the Bombardier Q400," WestJet adds. "Transport Canada has determined that there is no risk to safety and the decision to complete the modification is at each company’s discretion." <br/>
The captain of a Bangladeshi airplane that crashed in Nepal last year, killing 51 people on board, appeared to have experienced an “emotional breakdown” during the flight, a report has found. The findings, released Sunday by a committee formed by the Nepalese govt, concluded that the pilot’s “irritable, tensed, moody and aggressive” behavior during the flight might have contributed to a “loss of situational awareness” when trying to land. The Nepalese commission found that the airplane’s Bangladeshi pilot, Abid Sultan, who was also in charge of the flight, had been showing signs of problems even before the plane took off from Dhaka. In the air, captain Sultan seemed “very insecure,” the report said. He acted aggressively with other crew members, smoked in the cockpit and complained repeatedly about a colleague’s criticism. <br/>
James F. Parker, who succeeded Herb Kelleher as CE of Southwest Airlines and led the carrier through the aftermath of the Sept 2001 terror attacks, has died. He was 72. Parker died unexpectedly Saturday night, according to Southwest. Parker was a lawyer in San Antonio and former state assistant attorney general before joining Southwest in 1986. He was general counsel in June 2001 when he was named to replace Kelleher as CE. The terror attacks undermined air travel; other airlines cut thousands of jobs. Southwest remained profitable and avoided layoffs, but Parker's tenure was also marked by rising tension with the flight attendants' union. Parker stepped down surprisingly in July 2004 and was replaced by Gary Kelly, who is still CE. <br/>
Flybe Monday backed its chairman in the face of a challenge from one of its largest shareholders over its proposed sale. Flybe confirmed that Hosking Partners, which owns 19% of the group, called at the end of last week for the company’s chairman, Simon Laffin, to be ousted. Laffin has been chairman since late 2013. Hosking is pushing to unseat Laffin in a dispute over the 1p-a-share takeover of Flybe by a consortium including Virgin Atlantic and Stobart Air, agreed this month. The sale valued the company’s equity at GBP2.2m, vastly below its closing market value of GBP36m the day before. Hosking wants to appoint Eric Kohn to scrutinise the sale process. Kohn is chairman of Barons Financial Services and has experience in aviation and aerospace deals. <br/>