ADP, operator of airports in France, central Asia, India and elsewhere, raised its full-year profit forecast on Thursday for a second time citing a rebound in air travel and a spike in flights out of Kazakhstan as Russian air space remained closed. ADP operates the airport in Kazakhstan's biggest city Almaty, which has seen a surge in passenger and cargo traffic since March as airlines divert flights there after Western countries and Russia implemented bans on using each other's air space. Passenger traffic at Almaty in the first nine months of this year was double levels seen in 2019 before the pandemic, ADP said. The company, which also runs Paris airports Orly and Roissy Charles de Gaulle, said it expects its EBITDA margin for 2022 to be above 34.5%, at the upper end of the target range it had upgraded in July. "The booking dynamic for the rest of year and the beginning of 2023 is strong, we see no impact from inflation or reduction in purchasing power at this stage", Chief Financial Philippe Pascal said in a call with analysts. ADP said it expects passenger numbers this year to recover to between 77% and 83% of levels seen by the group in 2019 and between 78% and 82% for Paris Aéroport, in the upper part of the target ranges, also raised in July. However, the group said it remained cautious and kept its 2023 guidance unchanged.<br/>
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Major South Korean carriers are slowly resuming flights into several cities in China, although the number and level of passengers pales in comparison to the robust schedules before the strict border controls introduced by Beijing two and a half years ago to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Some 1,649 flights travelled between South Korea and China in September, according to the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, carrying 50,289 passengers. This represented an improvement from August, but still considerably lower than the 10,261 flights that carried 1.47m passengers in November 2019 before the start of the pandemic. “There were nearly no flights between Korea and China until last September, or there would be so many cases where flights would abruptly get cancelled because there were Covid patients on previous flights,” said Bae Bo-kyun, president of the Korean Merchants Association in Foshan in China’s southern Guangdong province. “My plan on returning to China was postponed by two months because my flights got cancelled twice.” On Tuesday, China’s National Development and Reform Commission released a document containing measures by the top state planner to stabilise and further increase foreign investment, which included moves to “ease” travel by executives, technicians and their families. But China remains committed to its zero-Covid policy, although it recently cut the quarantine period for overseas travellers to seven days plus three days of medical surveillance. Flagship carrier Korean Air, as well as Asiana Airlines, have slowly been resuming their flights from Incheon International Airport, with budget carriers Jin Air, Jeju Air, T’way Air, Air Busan and Air Seoul also now operating flights between South Korea and China. Asiana Airlines announced on Wednesday that it will resume its Incheon to Hangzhou and Shenzhen routes in November, having already resumed services to Beijing, Nanjing, Changchun and Harbin. Asiana Airlines first resumed its services to China in July 2020 on its Incheon-Nanjing route.<br/>
Boeing released a bullish 20-year forecast for China’s commercial jet market, confident that the country can emerge from the challenges of Covid and a slowing economy and be a major driver of sales. The US manufacturing giant expects China to need 8,485 new passenger and freighter planes valued at $1.5 trillion through 2041. That figure is more than a fifth of global aircraft deliveries over the next two decades, Boeing said in a statement Thursday. China’s commercial fleet will grow to more than 9,600 planes in that time from about 3,900, the company said. “We have full confidence that China’s commercial aviation market will continue to prosper, despite recent economic headwinds,” said Peter Gao, Boeing’s Greater China vice president, commercial sales and marketing. “China’s economic fundamentals will continue to fuel the significant demand for both its passenger and cargo fleets.” Still, the forecast is slightly lower than last year, when Boeing said Chinese airlines would need 8,700 new aircraft over the following 20 years, valued at $1.47t. The company didn’t say why this year’s outlook was lower.<br/>
Boeing has cut planned deliveries of its workhorse 737 Max jet for the second time this year, even as airlines worldwide are short of planes. The US aerospace manufacturer estimated it would deliver 375 of the single-aisle aircraft in 2022. Boeing had planned at the start of the year to deliver about 500 before cutting its forecast to “the low 400s” in July. The 737 Max deliveries will continue at a pace of a little more than 30 a month into 2023, said Brian West, chief financial officer, as the company on Wednesday reported a Q3 net loss of $3.3bn. West said customers received 88 737 Max planes in the quarter. Executives said they delivered fewer than promised because supply chain disruptions impeded the flow of jets along the production line. “We expect [the supply chain] will continue to be challenged over the course of 2023,” said David Calhoun, Boeing CE. “What’s our job in this supply-constrained world? Well, in the factories, we don’t push the system too fast. We slow down when we have to and try not to compound problems.” The 737 Max brought crisis to Boeing after two crashes killed 346 people in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019. It is continuing to sell aircraft built during the Max’s lengthy grounding following the crashes. Reaching 450 at their height, inventories of the Max were 270 at the end of the quarter, Boeing said. About half the 270 were reserved for airlines in China, but Boeing is now looking for different buyers for some of them as the country’s Covid-19 restrictions constrain demand for air travel and tensions between Beijing and Washington make it harder for Boeing, a marquee American manufacturer, to sell there. “We still would like to deliver planes to China,” Calhoun said. “But we also are clear-eyed about the geopolitical risks that are out there, and we’re not going to impart new risks on our investors.”<br/>
Airbus has unveiled a wider and longer cabin for its A350 in a battle for wide-body sales against Boeing - while quietly ditching the slogan on which it waged a fierce dispute over elbow space with its arch-rival a decade ago. The two planemakers routinely go head to head over fuel efficiency. The latest salvo concerns some of the world's prime real estate - the cabin of a big jet where comfort meets cost. Airbus said in a blog it was introducing a New Production Standard (NPS) to make A350s lighter and more flexible. Changes include scraping four inches off interior walls and making the cabin longer by moving a bulkhead and squeezing the cockpit. "It increases comfort in all classes," said Anais Marzo, head of cabin interiors marketing. Boeing declined comment, but people familiar with its pitch to airlines said it insists its comparable jet is more spacious. Critically for resurgent wide-body jet market competition, the Airbus upgrade allows up to 34 more seats to reach more than 400 on an A350-1000, compared with the 406-seat Boeing 777X. Extra seats affect airlines in two ways: they open up more revenue if airlines can fill them, and they reduce cost per seat - a metric that can lead to lower fares and determine which jets airlines buy. "It is roughly 11% more efficient in economy-class pricing," said cabin expert and independent aviation journalist John Walton, who first reported the changes. Currently most A350 economy cabins have nine 18-inch wide seats per row. The A350 NPS will boost that to 18.7 inches.<br/>