Azerbaijan airline AZAL has canceled a $1b contract with Boeing to purchase 10 737 MAX jets, a spokesman said on Monday, following the fatal crashes involving the aircraft in Ethiopia and Indonesia. “AZAL refused to buy 10 aircraft from Boeing due to safety reasons,” Pasha Kesaminsy said. Boeing’s top-selling aircraft, the 737 MAX, has been grounded worldwide since the March 10 disaster, which killed 157 people and came just five months after a Lion Air crash in Indonesia that killed 189 in a plane of the same model.<br/>
unaligned
The last vestiges of the Virgin America brand are now aviation history, bringing a formal end to Richard Branson’s brash, groundbreaking effort to put some European flair—replete with cheeky branding and mood-lighting—into US skies. Alaska Air has finished repainting the Airbus fleet it acquired when it bought the Branson-backed carrier three years ago. The 71st and final Alaska Airbus A321neo was scheduled to roll out of a painting facility in Victorville, California Sunday after nine days of refurbishments, resuming commercial service Monday. Alaska is still working to convert all of the former Virgin interiors, a task it expects to complete by next spring. Virgin America’s sale, which occurred despite a protest by Branson, a minority shareholder, marked the beginning of the British billionaire’s retrenchment from airlines. The following year, he cut his share of Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd.—his first airline venture back in 1984—to 20% as Air France/KLM acquired a 31% stake in the carrier. Delta owns 49%. “As I get a little older, I want to be certain that all the necessary building blocks are in place for Virgin Atlantic to continue to prosper and grow for the next 50 years,” Branson wrote in a blog post in 2017. Virgin Group has also trimmed its stake in Virgin Australia to 10%. Four major industrial groups, including Etihad Airways and Singapore Airlines, own more than 80% of the airline.<br/>
SpiceJet has received several proposals to buy into the company, but the Indian budget carrier is only willing to evaluate an offer if it’s strategic, its chairman and majority shareholder said. “SpiceJet has enough cash,” Ajay Singh said in an interview, while attending an industry conference in Seoul. “We have to see if this serves SpiceJet’s long-term interests, and when we come to that determination, we’ll do something. These are typical in a situation when an airline is doing well and the market is as promising as India.” India will need 2,300 new aircraft worth $320b in 20 years, Boeing forecast in February, as an emerging middle-class flies for the first time. Racing to extend its share of that market is SpiceJet, the country’s second-biggest no-frills carrier, which had almost shut down in 2014 after running out of cash. Singh, who started SpiceJet in 2004 and sold it six years later to a regional media baron, repurchased and revived the airline by renegotiating contracts with vendors and cutting unprofitable routes. Crashing oil prices also helped him embark on an ambitious expansion, eventually giving the airline a market value of $1.3b. <br/>
Icelandair will lay off 24 pilots and will not be hiring 21 new pilots, because of the ongoing worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX. The Keflavik-based carrier has a total commitment for 16 MAXs, scheduled for delivery through 2021. “We have not made any changes to our order,” an Icelandair spokeswoman said. She added that Icelandair had three Boeing 737 MAXs in operation when the type was taken out of service and was expecting to grow that fleet to nine this year. “Unfortunately, we have had to end the employment of 24 pilots that joined Icelandair last autumn and had already started working as pilots on the Boeing 737 MAX before its suspension. In addition, a decision was made to cancel the plans of hiring 21 new pilots that have been in training on the MAX. This decision was made as it is expected that the suspension of the 737 MAX aircraft will last longer than anticipated and we have made changes to our flight schedule until Sept. 15 to reflect that,” the Icelandair spokeswoman said. She added that Icelandair is hoping to rehire the pilots once it has better clarity on how the MAX situation will develop.<br/>