The outbreak of the new virus threatens to erase US$29b of this year's revenue for global airlines, mostly for Chinese carriers, as travel crashes worldwide, according to IATA. The trade group said Thursday that the virus causing COVID-19 has the potential for causing a 13% decline in demand for Asian carriers this year. The contraction comes at a time when Asian airlines' sales had been growing. Global air traffic will be reduced by 4.7% for the year, marking the first overall decline in such demand since the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, IATA said. How profits will be affected was still unclear, it said. The estimates foresee a scenario where COVID-19 has a “V-shaped impact,” similar to what happened during the SARS virus outbreak in 2003, with a sharp dive followed by a quick recovery. <br/>
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The disappearance of tens of thousands of flights from China’s skies in recent weeks points to how the coronavirus has hobbled a nation. The flight suspensions started to mount late last month as countries and airlines sharply limited service in response to the accelerating spread of the virus, which as of Friday has infected at least 76,000 people and killed more than 2,200, most of them in China. Within just 3 weeks — from Jan 23 to Feb 13 — the number of daily departures and arrivals for domestic and international flights dropped to just 2,004, from 15,072, according to Flightradar24. Over 13,000 flights a day, lost to a crisis. China’s increasing isolation from the world could have lasting economic consequences. <br/>
Federal prosecutors investigating Boeing are examining whether the planemaker knowingly misled the FAA while it was seeking approval for its 737 Max jet, people familiar with the matter said. Boeing said it was cooperating with the US Department of Justice investigation. The prosecutors in recent months questioned several Boeing employees focusing on whether Mark Forkner, a top pilot at the company, intentionally lied to the regulator about the nature of new flight control software on the jet, according to the report. Forkner had said he might have unintentionally misled regulators, in a series of internal messages from 2016 that became public in October. The messages appeared to have been the first publicly known observations that the MCAS anti-stall system behaved erratically during testing before the aircraft entered service. <br/>
Boeing has found debris inside the fuel tanks of about two-thirds of undelivered 737 MAX jets inspected so far, according to federal and aviation-industry officials, indicating a bigger production-related problem than the company previously suggested. The revelation comes as the plane maker struggles to restore public and airline confidence in the grounded fleet. A Boeing spokesman said Friday the plane maker has found debris in fuel tanks of about 35 jets. While Boeing disclosed the debris problem publicly earlier this week, the latest details shed more light on the scale of the issue. Industry officials said Boeing has so far inspected about 50 of roughly 400 MAX planes awaiting delivery once regulators allow the jet back in the air. Materials left behind include tools, rags and boot coverings. <br/>
Boeing s planning more support for suppliers for its 737 MAX jetliner to prepare them for restarting production—and to dissuade some from seeking more business from Airbus. Boeing suspended MAX production in January after building more than 400 planes it was unable to deliver. That has left a network of more than 600 big suppliers and hundreds of smaller firms in limbo about business that in some cases contributed half their annual sales. Many suppliers had expanded factories and hired more staff to help Boeing fill orders for more than 4,500 MAX jets it had planned to build at a rate of 57 a month. Now, analysts say, it could take 3 years to reach that level when production restarts after the plane is cleared to fly again. <br/>
De Havilland Canada may have left the limelight to arch-rival ATR when it pulled out days before the Singapore air show over concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, but the airframer is confident about prospects for its Dash 8 twin-turboprop in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly high-density variants. The company, which acquired the turboprop programme from Bombardier last year, had planned to display on the static an 86-seat Dash 8-400, 1 of 2 delivered to leasing company TrueNoord, and operated by PAL Express, a Philippine Airlines carrier. De Havilland Canada also intended to demonstrate at the show the TiSeat E2, an ultra-light seat developed by Expliseat which it says helps airlines accommodate up to 90 seats, although the densest Dash 8 configuration currently in service is 86 seats. <br/>