unaligned

An Indian airline says a technician was killed when the flaps covering an aircraft's main landing gear accidentally closed on him during maintenance work. SpiceJet says the hydraulic doors "inadvertently" closed on the technician, who was working on a Bombardier Q400 aircraft at Kolkata's airport on Tuesday night. It said Wednesday that the doors were broken open in an attempt to rescue the worker, but he died. Police and the airline are investigating the incident.<br/>

Shares in the parent company of IndiGo plunged on Wednesday after a dispute between the billionaire co-founders of India's largest airline intensified.  Interglobe Aviation fell as much as 17% after Rakesh Gangwal said in a letter to the market regulator that “fundamental governance norms and laws are not being adhered”. Gangwal, who holds a 37% stake in the company, said in the letter posted to the Bombay Stock Exchange, that governance standards had “collapsed” at the airline and called on the regulator to take away the “unusual” controlling rights exercised by co-founder Rahul Bhatia, who holds a 38% stake. The shareholder agreement gives Bhatia’s IGE Group the power to appoint three of the six directors, and the right to nominate and appoint the managing director, CE and president, according to the letter. “Most of these rights are not in accordance with [Securities and Exchange Board of India] regulations,” added Gangwal in the letter. “These unusual controlling rights seem to be the basis for the various violations of law and governance at IndiGo.” The bitter feud threatens to distract the leadership at a time the company is in a prime position to embark on an aggressive international expansion and move into the vacuum left by the collapse of full-service carrier Jet Airways.  <br/>

Shares in one of the Philippines’ largest airlines plunged by almost 40% before recovering almost all of their value, prompting talk among brokers of a ‘fat finger’ error. The curious movements in Cebu Air’s stock began late in Tuesday’s trading session in Manila, when shares in the airline collapsed by 37% to 58 Philippine pesos ($1.13) during the run-off period immediately prior to the bourse’s close. Orders to buy or sell cannot be cancelled during the run-off period, traders said. That represented the airline’s biggest one-day fall since going public nearly a decade ago. Cebu Air’s share price did not stay down for long. On Wednesday, the stock surged 50% to 87 pesos at the market’s open, which is where it stayed for the rest of the day. Traders said the initial plunge in the stock had been caused by a major broker erroneously entering a sell order at a low-ball price of 58 pesos, rather than 98 pesos, a share. “Other brokers went in and bought the …order,” said Rens Cruz, an analyst at Regina Capital Development in Manila. It was “an obvious trading error”. Traders in the Philippine capital and various media reports identified Quality Investments and Securities, a local broker, as the culprit. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<br/>

Indian full-service airline Vistara said Thursday it would launch its international flights in August, a year later than anticipated, with Singapore as its first destination. The carrier, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines Ltd, will launch one daily flight from Delhi and one from Mumbai to the city-state, a popular destination for Indian travellers. The loss-making Vistara airline has said the launch of international flights, which will give it greater scale to grow, is part of its path to profitability. The new services could also ease pressure on international airfares from India, which rose by as much as 32% after the collapse of Jet Airways Ltd in April. Vistara met the requirement of having more than 20 jets needed for international flights in June 2018. However, it took longer than expected to receive further regulatory approvals, which proved a setback at a time when the domestic market was highly competitive. The Jet collapse, which has also pushed up domestic prices, led Vistara to add 6 Boeing Co 737s to its previously all-Airbus SE A320 fleet to fill a supply gap. Vistara said it would use the 737s on flights to Singapore.<br/>

New Japanese budget carrier Zipair Tokyo is on track for a 2020 start date, having been granted an air transport business license by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. The budget arm of Japan Airlines will operate two Boeing 787-8 aircraft, each with 290 seats, on two daily services: Tokyo Narita-Bangkok Suvarnabhumi starting 14 May 2020, and Tokyo Narita-Seoul Incheon from 1 July 2020. According to documents from the Japanese ministry, the carrier has Y5b (US$45.9m) in capital and plans to increase this to Y20b by the start of operations. Its two 787-8s were taken from JAL and reconfigured in a higher-density layout, compared to the 186 or 161 seats the Oneworld carrier operates. According to Cirium’s Fleets Analyzer, JAL has four 787-8s on order, each configured for 240 economy class seats and 50 in business class. These are scheduled for delivery in April, June, August, and December 2020. Cirium’s schedules show Zipair will be the only low-cost carrier on the Bangkok service, but competes with five South Korean budget airlines on the Seoul route, namely Air Seoul, Eastar Jet, Jeju Air, Jin Air, and T’way Air. Bangkok and Seoul were selected as Zipair’s first two routes for efficient fleet utilization at the start-up phase, its CMO Yasuhiro Fukada said in March.<br/>

Virgin Australia Holdings said Thursday that Affinity Equity Partners is seeking to exit its 35% minority stake in the carrier’s Velocity frequent flyer program, five years after its A$335m purchase. Australia’s second-largest airline said that it intended to stay a majority investor in Velocity, which competes with the larger Qantas frequent flyer program for Australian customers. The potential Affinity exit is a fresh test of investor demand for loyalty programs after airlines Air Canada and Brazil’s Gol Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes, which had spun off their frequent flyer programs, last year bought out minority shareholders to regain full control. It also comes as Virgin is re-examining its broader strategy under the leadership of new CEO Paul Scurrah, who took over from CEO John Borghetti in March. Virgin said Affinity, a private equity firm, had requested it explore various options for the stake sale. No time-frame or terms have been set, Virgin added in a statement to the stock exchange. In a bond prospectus issued in 2014, Virgin said there was a potential for Affinity to exit via a float or trade sale within three years of the purchase date. Virgin has a first right of offer in relation to Affinity’s stake in certain circumstances and has the right to participate in other exit mechanisms available to Affinity, according to the prospectus.<br/>

The boss of Europe's Ryanair Holdings warned on Wednesday the impact of the prolonged grounding of Boeing's 737 MAX on the airline's growth plans may start to spill over to next summer if the airplane is not flying again by November. Europe's largest budget carrier needs up to eight months to take delivery of some 50 newly built planes left at the factory by the grounding crisis, so it may have to trim its capacity growth plans for summer 2020 if 737 MAX flights have not resumed by November, CE Michael O'Leary said. "Boeing are telling us at the moment they expect to be back flying by the end of September," O'Leary said. "I think it will fly before the end of this year. I am not sure they will meet the end of September date, but I take comfort from the fact that it seems that now the American, European, Brazilian and Canadian regulators are working together," he added. In May, O'Leary predicted a return to service by July but the FAA has since reported a new potential safety risk that it says must be addressed first. "We are continuing to engage with global regulators and providing information to them as we work towards the safe return to service for the MAX," a Boeing spokesman said by email.<br/>

Airline Norwegian Air said it expected its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to return to service in October and lowered its growth outlook as it reported Q2 results that beat expectations Thursday. It cut its target for a production growth (ASK) to 0-5%, compared to the previous guidance for 5-10%, Europe’s third-largest budget carrier by passenger numbers said in a statement. The firm’s net profit came in a 82.8m Norwegian crowns ($9.68m) while five analysts in a Refinitiv estimate forecast a profit of 76.2m crowns, down from a profit of 300.3m crowns in the year-ago period. <br/>