Smaller airlines that operate in the shadow of the nation’s four dominant air carriers are increasingly feeling pressure to merge with others to gain access to more planes and airport gates. Those dynamics were on display in a federal courtroom in Boston on Tuesday where JetBlue Airways tried to persuade a judge to let it buy Spirit Airlines for $3.8b. It was also at play this past weekend when Alaska Airlines proposed acquiring Hawaiian Airlines for $1.9b. The outcome of these deals could be pivotal for the companies and the US airline industry, in which four companies control more than two-thirds of the national market and exert dominance over big airports in places like Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth and Newark. If one or both mergers are approved, the deals would be the largest in years. The last major wave of airline mergers ended when American Airlines combined with US Airways in 2013. In addition to American, the industry is now dominated by Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines. Each of those companies controls so many gates and takeoff and landing slots at their hub airports that they are unlikely to ever lose more than a small percentage of travelers flying to and from those cities. Bigger airlines also generally pay less for planes and other equipment because their size allows them to negotiate better deals. “The power of size in this industry is tremendous,” said Christopher Raite, a senior analyst at Third Bridge, a research firm. “There are just these inherent advantages that size gives you.” The dominant position of the big four airlines featured prominently in JetBlue’s defense arguments in a federal antitrust case brought by the Justice Department against its acquisition of Spirit. In his closing arguments on Tuesday, Ryan Shores a lawyer for JetBlue, said that smaller airlines “need the network breadth to be able to compete with the larger airlines.” The Justice Department’s lawyer, Edward Duffy, countered that the sale would eliminate a small but important source of competition. Spirit typically sells tickets for less than JetBlue and other airlines. And he contended that more than 135m airline passengers a year would suffer if Spirit was no longer helping to push down fares on the routes that those travelers fly. By acquiring it, Duffy said, JetBlue would turn into the kind of market-dominating giant that it says it want to compete against.<br/>
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European safety authorities are proposing revisions to the regulatory framework governing maintenance training organisations, in order to cut the risk of fraud. The changes to Part-147 are contained in a newly-issued proposal from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. EASA says the proposal intends to address the impact on safety, as well as the credibility of the maintenance training system, arising from fraud cases and, in some cases, “cultural acceptance of cheating”. It highlights the situation experienced by the Greek-based Hellenic Aviation Training Academy which was caught up in allegations of examination fraud, and had its approval to issue certificates of recognition revoked by the Hellenic civil aviation authority in 2014. EASA pointed out, at the time, that fraudulently-obtained certificates had been used by individuals to gain maintenance licences. “There is an immediate cause of safety concern that persons could have been issued licences and are exercising certification privileges or releasing aircraft after maintenance, without having sufficient basic knowledge to do so,” it stated. EASA conducted, in late 2016, a survey on the maintenance licensing and training system which highlighted “shortcomings and areas of improvement”. In its proposal it states that most reported fraud cases occur in examinations performed by maintenance training organisations outside of their approved locations – and particularly when examinations are held outside the territory for which their authority is competent. “While it is very difficult to evaluate the real extent of the problem and to confirm the fraud cases themselves, the frequency of the feedback suggests that such occurrences are more than just isolated cases,” it adds. Along with the safety risk the proposal aims to address the requirement for adequate knowledge – among student and organisation personnel – of the language in which the training is being delivered.<br/>
Major airport expansion projects are taking off across Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, and a new airline is set to launch next year -- all banking on an expected boom in air travel in South-East Asia, fuelled by Chinese and Indian tourists. But there are doubts about whether it will materialise in an uncertain economic environment and as worries about the impact of travel on climate change deepen. Thailand's Really Cool Airlines is expected to start flying between Bangkok and Japan around mid-2024, but CEO Patee Sarasin -- a veteran of the region's cutthroat budget sector -- says it has been a battle to launch a new carrier just after a pandemic. "It's a lot of money. It has been quite gruelling to raise the funds," he told AFP. "There are some points (where you say) 'why am I doing this?' It crossed my mind many, many times." Patee ran budget carrier Nok Air for more than a decade, but while he is coy about the finer details of the new venture, he claims it may yet "change the aviation paradigm". Flying took a hammering globally during the pandemic as international travel all but shut down, but the industry is bullish about its bounceback, evidenced by a flurry of big-ticket orders at this month's Dubai Air Show and bumper profit jumps for the likes of Air France-KLM and Ryanair. South-East Asia is becoming a hot property, with private and public players competing for an expanding market. The region currently accounts for 10% of global traffic -- more than 500m passengers in 2019. And Boeing expects this figure to grow around 9.5% a year over the next two decades, well above the global average of 6.1%. Across the region from Bangkok to Hanoi, governments are splashing billions of dollars to update and expand airport infrastructure.<br/>
Boeing delivered 46 narrowbody 737s in November, sources told Reuters on Tuesday. Last month's total brings Boeing's single-aisle deliveries up to 351 units for the year so far, leaving the U.S. planemaker about 25 planes away from making its revised target for at least 375-400 737 deliveries this year. Last month's 737 deliveries included 45 MAX planes and 1 737 NG-based P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, sources said.<br/>Boeing declined to comment ahead of the release of November order and delivery numbers next Tuesday. Boeing downgraded its original 400-450 plane delivery target for the 737 program in October after a manufacturing flaw by fuselage supplier Spirit AeroSystems forced the planemaker to inspect aircraft, slowing deliveries. It delivered only 19 737s in October and 15 in September. European rival Airbus is set to announce 64 aircraft deliveries over the last month, leaving it 97 planes away from reaching its 720 delivery target for 2023, Reuters reported earlier on Tuesday.<br/>
Airbus delivered 64 aircraft in November, down 6% from the same month of 2022, to bring the total so far this year to 623 units, the planemaker confirmed on Tuesday. The tally leaves Airbus needing what several analysts say is a relatively achievable 97 deliveries in December to reach its full-year target of 720 deliveries. That compares with an average of 93 December deliveries for the past three years or a December average of 131 units in the three years before the pandemic, when supply chains were running more smoothly. Airbus brought its monthly operational bulletin forward by a day after Reuters earlier reported the delivery numbers. Analysts have said Airbus' full-year delivery target is looking increasingly manageable after it missed and eventually abandoned such a goal amid supply problems last year, though CEO Guillaume Faury last week said supply chains remain challenging. Airbus said it had won 1,512 orders so far this year or a net total of 1,395 after cancellations. November's net orders included previously announced new business at the Dubai Airshow and from SMBC Aviation Capital, and reflected an A230neo cancellation from Kuwaiti lessor Alafaco, announced to the Kuwait stock exchange last month. November's data also included the reshuffling of a handful of plane orders between airline group IAG and two of its subsidiaries, British Airways and Aer Lingus.<br/>