Guernsey airline Aurigny has warned of disruption after one of its planes experienced a "substantial" bird strike. The States-owned airline said the bird strike on Friday night caused "significant damage" to the engine cowling, or engine covering. It said it was working to source a replacement part as it does not have a spare. Bosses said affected customers would be contacted directly. The airline said: "We have unavoidable disruption to parts of our schedule. "We are working hard to source the replacement part and are in contact with other airlines to provide capacity. "Our colleagues at Guernsey Airport are assisting by keeping the airport open late for us. "On behalf of the whole team at Aurigny, we sincerely apologise for the disruption to your travels. Affected customers will be contacted directly and we will post public updates at the earliest opportunity."<br/>
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Delays in getting airplane deliveries from Airbus (AIR.PA) due to supply chain disruptions are limiting IndiGo's ability to grow as quickly as it would like in some markets, the airline's Chief Executive Officer Pieter Elbers said on Monday. India's aviation market is booming as demand for air travel accelerates from pandemic lows. With global demand for planes rising, Boeing (BA.N) and Airbus are scrambling to meet the overflowing order book amid supply chain issues. "There's an opportunity in the markets where we would like to serve our customers and we cannot do it yet to the extent we would like to," Elbers told Reuters in an interview, asked about pressure from the shortage of aircraft supply. "Customers are back knocking on our doors to fly. There's a market out there. The whole pressure on the supply chain is of course something we're not happy with," Elbers said. India, expected to become the world's third-largest economy by 2030, is the fastest-growing civil aviation market and Boeing forecasts that over the next 20 years its carriers will need 2,210 new planes. IndiGo, India's biggest airline with more than 50% share of the market, has seen a resurgence in domestic and international demand with its capacity doubling over the past year. In the short-term, IndiGo is meeting some of this demand by extending leases on existing planes and working with partners like Turkish Airlines, which has rented IndiGo a large jet complete with crew to fill international capacity.<br/>
The relaunch of India’s Jet Airways, which faced legal hurdles in recent months, is still in progress, and will see the airline take a “new approach” to its business model. Speaking at the CAPA India Aviation Summit 2023 held in Delhi, Sanjiv Kapoor, the airline’s CEO-designate, says the relaunched business strategy “will not be a copy paste” from the old airline, which collapsed in 2019 as the country’s largest privately-owned carrier. “There’s going to be a new approach to fleet… a new approach to revenue management, a new approach to customers, a new approach to IT and digital and how it benefits the end-users,” says Kapoor, an industry veteran who previously held senior leadership roles in compatriots SpiceJet and Vistara. He declines to elaborate further, but stresses that the relaunched carrier - which he calls ‘Jet 2.0’ - will learn from the lessons of its failed predecessor. A debt-laden Jet Airways collapsed in 2019 after running out of cash. A resolution plan from new owners Murari Lal Jalan and Kalrock Capital received court approval in June 2021, paving the way for the airline’s revival. The full-service airline received its air operator certificate from Indian regulators in May 2022, and had previously stated its plans to relaunch in the third-quarter of 2022. However, by November the airline had yet to take off, and reports emerged of a legal wrangle between the airline’s new owners and creditors over the revival plan - a move that could derail Jet’s return. <br/>
Indian low-cost carrier Akasa Air plans to launch international flights by the end of the year, around 18 months after it started operations in 2022. Airline chief Vinay Dube also confirms that the airline intends to place a “much larger” aircraft order by year-end, with the 737 Max 8 expected to be the mainstay of the fleet in the near-term. Dube, speaking to FlightGlobal at the CAPA India Aviation Summit in Delhi, says the airline has yet to determine which international points it will serve. However, he notes the “many opportunities” in the surrounding region, including the Middle East and Southeast Asia. He says: “We haven’t determined whether…five years down the road,…[what proportion international will be] of our network. We haven’t yet given guidance on that.” Dube says Akasa will adjust capacity according to demand and profitability: “[The aircraft] assets are movable. If International is more profitable, we [can] direct a little more towards international [operations].” Akasa launched operations in August 2022 and operates a growing fleet of Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. It currently flies 110 domestic flights a day to 17 cities, with a fleet of 19 jets. By March 2024, Akasa’s fleet will grow to 28 aircraft, says Dube. At the 2021 Dubai air show, the carrier ordered 72 Max 8s; deliveries will run until 2027. <br/>
The president of the Marshall Islands, David Kabua, has declared a state of emergency in the country due to a shortage of goods caused by the grounding of Asia Pacific Airlines (Guam) (P9, Guam International) in early February 2023. Radio New Zealand reported that with the airline grounded, the remote archipelagic country has struggled to import necessities from elsewhere. The national hospital in Majuro is reportedly suffering from a shortage of medical supplies, while local residents have not been receiving mail. The government is urgently looking to attract other airlines to provide vital air cargo connectivity to the islands. The ch-aviation capacities module shows that Air Marshall Islands (CWM, Majuro) provides exclusively domestic connectivity between the various islands, while Majuro and Kwajalein see limited international connectivity provided by United Airlines and Nauru Airlines. Asia Pacific Airlines has been grounded since early February after an FAA audit revealed irregularities in its pilot licencing. The US regulator concluded that none of the airline's pilots was qualified to fly, as individuals who provided proficiency checks were not adequately trained. The carrier, which operated three B757-200(PCF)s and one B757-200PF on routes connecting various Pacific territories, remains dormant.<br/>