South African carrier Comair has acquired South African leasing and cargo specialist Star Air, as part of its continuing strategy of diversification. Comair—which is a BAs franchisee and has its own LCC brand, Kulula—said in a stock market filing that it had “acquired the assets to extend its diversification strategy into the leasing of aircraft, while also providing Comair with the expertise and systems to establish a base for heavy maintenance checks on its fleet of [Boeing] 737-800 aircraft.” Star Air SAC is a Part 121 carrier, focusing on the wet, dry or damp leasing on short- to medium-term leases to African airlines. The company also provides aircraft maintenance requirements for its own fleet as well as for third-party aircraft. Comair said it is paying $5.1 million for Star, plus profit share payments.<br/>
unaligned
Budget carrier Jetstar Japan is expecting to cancel 70 flights in June, 2% of the total, due to a temporary shortage of pilots. The carrier had already cancelled 16 flights this past weekend. Jetstar Japan said Monday that of the upcoming flights to be canceled, 58 are domestic, including routes between Narita International Airport and New Chitose Airport serving Sapporo, and 12 international flights, including some between Narita and Taipei. Jetstar Japan has started procedures for flight changes or reimbursement for some 7,500 customers impacted by the cancellations. According to the airline, some pilots took a long period of leave in April and May for reasons such as injury, forcing other pilots to cancel their leave plans and stay on duty. Those pilots will go on leave one after another in June, leading to the personnel shortage. With the pilots on leave coming back to work in stages, the airline’s flight schedules will return to normal in July, Jetstar officials said.<br/>
Emirates Airline will launch the world’s shortest Airbus A380 scheduled sector on July 1. The carrier will begin a double-daily A380 service to Muscat, the capital of Oman, which lies just 340km to the southeast. “Oman is an important destination for Emirates, and we will continue to look at ways to grow our operations in the market to best serve our customers,” Emirates’ divisional SVP-commercial operations center Majid Al Mualla said. The launch of the double-daily service will come exactly one year after the first deployment of a one-off A380 service that marked 25 years of Emirates’ operations to Oman. The carrier currently operates a 3X-daily Boeing 777 service to the Omani capital. Both A380 Muscat services will be operated in a three-class configuration, with 429 economy seats on the lower deck, plus 76 flat-bed seats in business and 14 first-class suites on the upper deck.<br/>
Ryanair says it has the lowest greenhouse gas emissions per passenger of any European airline as it releases figures detailing its impact on the atmosphere for the first time today. Aviation is one of a number of industries coming under pressure as public fears about global warming grow, with environmentalists arguing that it adds to the carbon-dioxide emissions that are heating the planet. The Irish airline is publishing figures on Wednesday showing that it produced 66g of carbon dioxide per passenger for every kilometre its craft travelled in May. Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs pointed out that Ryanair would be the first EU airline to begin publishing monthly greenhouse gas data and maintained that it showed the carrier had close to half some its rivals’ emissions. According to the figures, Ryanair flew 14.1m people in May over 17.529m KM, producing a total of 1,157 kilo tonnes of carbon dioxide, which left it with 66g for each individual customer for every KM. Jacobs said that Ryanair expected the figure to be about 67g, with slight variations. “Going back 10 years, we were at 82g. We will get to 60g by 2030,” he added. Jacobs explained that Ryanair’s young fleet, its craft average six years old, burns less fuel than the older models used by some competitors, such as British Airways and Lufthansa, which have planes up to 20 years old. “It’s all about the aircraft,” he said. “BA, Lufthansa and Air France KLM are flying older aircraft, particularly on their longer routes.”<br/>