A technology failure that temporarily halted all departures of Southwest flights Tuesday is raising fresh concerns about the resiliency of the US carrier's IT infrastructure, industry experts and the carrier's pilots' union said on Wednesday. The Dallas-based carrier has blamed the hour-long outage on a vendor-supplied network firewall failure, causing a temporary loss of connection to key systems. Southwest told Reuters on Wednesday it opted to halt flights out of caution, adding there were no indications of a cyber attack. It declined to identify the vendor and did not address why this failure was not part of the company's planning. While the exact cause is not clear, some industry experts questioned why Southwest systems did not include more redundancy. The carrier has been under fire since a software problem over the Christmas holiday led to over 16,700 flight cancellations, disrupted travel plans for 2m customers and cost it more than $1b. "This would indicate that resiliency is not adequately addressed in their systems," said Eric Parent, a private pilot and CEO of EVA Technologies, a cybersecurity firm with offices in Canada, the US and Europe. "Some significant improvements should be considered to increase their maturity and capacity to maintain operations." Jose Fernandez, a pilot and retired professor specializing in aviation and cybersecurity at Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, added: "If one firewall equipment failure led to this, it's not very resilient."<br/>
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US regional carrier Silver Airways has struck a last-minute deal to avoid eviction from its base at South Florida’s Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood international airport due to owing more than $1.4m in back rent and late fees. But it remains possible that the airline – which flies passengers with ATR-600s in the Southeastern USA and the Caribbean – will lose its main operational base if it continues to default on payments. Steve Rossum, Silver’s CE, told the Broward County Commission on 18 April that “Fort Lauderdale is our most important operating hub” and said that more than 300 of the airline’s 883 employees live in the area. ”Silver is important to this community, and we need to do a better job to rebuild trust with the commission and the Broward County Airport Authority… for Silver to reach its full potential,” he acknowledges. “We think it is vitally important. I am actually disappointed in my behaviour…. and that we did not pay our bills in accordance with the terms.” “That is not how we enter business relationships,” Rossum adds. The commission had been set to consider on 18 April whether to terminate Silver’s lease, having been provided with a series of default notices outlining unpaid terminal lease obligations toward its operations at Fort Lauderdale. At one point in early 2022, Silver owed more than $1m in “seriously delinquent” rent, gate fees, landing fees and late fees, according to the county. The airline’s total outstanding balance has since grown to about $1.4m. <br/>
A Spanish pilots union has called a strike at Air Europa to demand more pay, as the airline is in the process of being acquired by IAG SA. The Sepla union is calling on 607 members to strike for several days in May and June given “the company’s zero interest in reaching an agreement that resolves the labor dispute,” according to a statement Wednesday. Wage talks with Air Europa collapsed after union and company representatives failed to reach an agreement after enlisting support from a mediator. IAG in February agreed to pay E400m to take control of its smaller rival. The offer came after years of talks and the collapse of a previous acquisition agreement which fell through under scrutiny from European Union regulators. IAG had initially valued Air Europa at E1b in November 2019, before the Covid pandemic threw the entire global industry into upheaval. If approved by the EC, the deal would allow IAG’s unit Iberia to gain slots at Madrid airport. Analysts have noted that the terms of the transaction are not as good as they were before the pandemic and that the newly-acquired company could add to IAG’s debt burden. <br/>
Ryanair Holdings CEO Michael O’Leary said the discount carrier is prepared to swiftly resume operations in Ukraine once it becomes safe again to fly in the war-ravaged country. The carrier has hired about 60 Ukrainian pilots and about 80 cabin crew that are mainly located at Ryanair’s bases in Poland as it waits for the market to eventually reopen, O’Leary said on a panel at the Bloomberg New Economy Gateway Europe. The airline would plan to create 30 routes and have several bases in the country within 12 months after returning, he said. “We could fly there in about two weeks,” O’Leary said. “We’re actively looking at ways and looking where we can charge back into Ukraine.” The CEO said rebuilding Ukraine will provide a huge opportunity for European businesses to participate and accelerate, and aviation will play a key role because “the Russians will probably blow up the roads and bridges on the way out the door” so moving people via aircraft will be key. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent closing of the country’s air space, Ryanair was the second-largest airline in the market, and O’Leary predicted it could become No. 1 once life returns to normal. <br/>
Ryanair will have to trim its July schedule because it expects around 10 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft will be delayed due to manufacturing issues, Group CE Michael O'Leary said on Wednesday. "We are beginning to look at schedules maybe being about 10 short for July. We'll get maybe 12 by the end of June and then we hope 12 by the end of July," O'Leary told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Dublin. The airline had been due to receive 22 of the planes in June and two in July, he said. "We will certainly have to trim some flights out of the system. I don't think there will be route cancellations." The Irish airline in a statement on Friday said it was assessing with Boeing how delays, related to certain components made by one of the US firm's main suppliers, would impact its schedule. The focus of any cuts, O'Leary said, would be on high-frequency routes such as those between Britain and Ireland. Boeing has promised an updated delivery schedule by Friday, he said. "So really we don't know where we are at the moment, which is very regrettable. This is the third unauthorised mod [modification] that we've suffered that have delayed deliveries so it's very disappointing," he said.<br/>
UK long-haul start-up Sentra Airways has formally applied for an operating licence with the country’s aviation regulator. Sentra is intending to open services to West Africa – identifying an initial route from Manchester to Accra in Ghana – and last year agreed to acquire an Airbus A330-200 from US lessor Air Lease. The carrier states that it aims to stop “exploitation” of passengers by reducing journey times between the two cities. It has applied for a type ‘A’ operating licence, according to the UK Civil Aviation Authority. Such a licence is required for operating aircraft with 20 seats or more. The company has also applied for charter and scheduled route licences.<br/>“Setting up Sentra was an obvious solution to the problem for hundreds of travellers,” the would-be carrier says. It indicates that it aims to open additional services from the UK – and the USA – to Africa. Sentra intends Manchester to be its operational base, but the company is located in Bradford. It has identified its first aircraft as MSN1138, a Rolls-Royce Trent 700-powered airframe which was originally delivered to China’s Sichuan Airlines in 2010.<br/>
The Comac ARJ21 has entered commercial service internationally, with Indonesian low-cost carrier TransNusa using the aircraft on the Jakarta-Bali Denpasar sector. Flight tracking web sites show that on 18 April the aircraft operated flight 8B5111 on the Bali-Jakarta route, as well as the 8B5112 return service. Chinese news outlet Ecns.cn showed an image of staff and passengers in front of the aircraft Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport. Apart from the Ecns.cn story, neither TransNusa or Comac issued a statement about the flight. Chinese social media suggests that the aircraft has completed 100h of verification checks in Indonesia. Comac delivered the ARJ21 to TransNusa in December 2022. The aircraft has 95 seats in an all-economy layout, with the interior and exterior of the jet customised at the request of TransNusa. Comac has previously said that the aircraft was delivered under the auspices of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which seeks to expand Chinese investment and infrastructure internationally. Cirium fleets data indicates that the aircraft is leased from China Aircraft Leasing (CALC), which entered a cooperation pact with TransNusa in 2019. In January 2021, CALC placed an order for 30 ARJ21s with TransNusa. CALC holds a stake in TransNusa via its 72.28% stake in Aviation Synergy (Caymen), which in turn owns Naga Pacific Holdings, which has a 49% stake in TransNusa, according to filings on the Hong Kong stock exchange.<br/>CALC CE Mike Poon is also listed as holding 14.1% in Aviation Synergy, and deputy chief Winnie Liu 13.1%.<br/>
The CEO of Nok Air says the low-cost carrier may not complete its business rehabilitatiion within the mandated five year period, citing fuel costs, the foreign exchange rate, and aircraft availability as reasons why. CEO Wutthiphum Jurangkool would not guarantee the court supervised rehabilitation plan would be finished by the latter half of 2026. "Regarding the pace of rehabilitation, fuel cost remains higher than in 2019 and the exchange rate and airplane restoration must be factored in," he said "Passenger demand is quite strong, but it depends on how fast we can increase the jet fleet to cater to that growth." The CEO also says his airline faces manpower shortages. As first reported in ch-aviation, Nok Air has now phased out its last DHC-8-Q400s but wants to add six narrowbody jets to its fleet. Wutthiphum says the limited Q400 seating capacity and high maintenance costs made them unprofitable to operate. The exit of the turboprops leaves the carrier with a 14-strong fleet of B737-800s. Since entering the business rehabilitation process 18 months ago, Wutthiphum says the carrier's financial fortunes have improved, largely on the back of increased travel demand. In a recent stock market update, he said the airline was meeting its financial commitments per the rehabilitation plan, but had so far only paid down 2% of the amount Nok Air has agreed to repay to creditors. Wutthiphum says expanding operations and the network, now constrained by the lack of available aircraft, will generate more revenue and speed the repayment process up.<br/>