Latest results from travel data analytics firm Cirium revealed that the most punctual airline last year in the global category was Colombia’s Avianca Airlines, which achieved an 85.73% on-time performance rate, followed by Brazil’s Azul Airlines (85.51%), which lost its top ranking. Qatar Airways came in third with an 85.11% OTP rate. A global airline is defined as one that serves in three regions daily, the company said. An airline’s on-time performance is calculated by whether the plane arrives at the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time and if it departs within 15 minutes of the scheduled departure time. In Asia-Pacific, Japanese carriers All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines claimed the top two spots with on-time performance rates of 82.75% and 82.58% respectively. Thailand’s Thai AirAsia fell to fourth place last year from first in 2022. Indian low-cost carrier Indigo rose to fourth from fifth place last year on the back of the company’s rapid expansion. The airline, which has the largest fleet size and market share in India, became the first Indian carrier in 2023 to carry 100m passengers in a calendar year. It had an on-time performance score of 82.12%, the report showed. “IndiGo has really emerged as a powerful player in APAC. Their operations have been transformed since Covid,” said David White, vice-president of business development at Cirium. “It’s giving both ANA [All Nippon Airways] and JAL [Japan Airlines] a run for their money in terms of their on-time performance,” White said at an online press conference ahead of the report’s release. Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport was the world’s most punctual airport in 2023. This was followed by India’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad. The Indian airport did not make the top 10 rankings in 2022, and the monumental jump to second is on the back of “pretty phenomenal” investments, said Mike Malik, Cirium’s chief marketing officer.<br/>
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The Airport Authority Hong Kong is offering its first-ever local currency public bond, pricing a HK$4b ($512m) debt deal as passenger traffic recovers at the financial hub. The 3.5-year bond is priced late Tuesday to yield 3.83%, according to a person familiar with the matter. The proceeds will be used for the airport’s capital expenditure, including plans for its third runway project and general corporate purposes, said the person, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to discuss it. The airport operator received orders over HK$11.1b from 57 accounts, the person said. Its last bond offering was a year ago, when it marketed a $3b four-part debt deal, including a five-year green note of $1b. Hong Kong’s airport passenger traffic has recovered to about 80% of the pre-pandemic level, the airport authority said in a statement on Dec. 27. Passenger traffic at the airport is expected to fully recover to the pre-pandemic level by the end of 2024, it said.<br/>
Airbus managed to beat its annual delivery target in 2023 as the planemaker ramped up output in December, according to a website that tracks aircraft handovers. The world’s largest maker of commercial aircraft likely handed over 733 planes to customers last year, according to preliminary data from Aviation Flights Group. Of those, 579 were for its bestselling A320neo family of single-aisle jets, the data show. Widebody A350 aircraft accounted for 57 units, according to Aviation Flights Group. A person familiar with Airbus’s numbers also said the company exceeded its goal, delivering more than 730 aircraft to customers. Airbus, which had a target of 720 deliveries for the year, declined to comment. The figures, if confirmed, would vindicate Airbus Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Faury, who maintained the target throughout the year despite a slow pace of deliveries in the first few months. Toulouse, France-based Airbus was forced to lower its goal twice in 2022 as the fallout from the pandemic led to shortages in supplies. Output at Airbus typically surges in December, as the European planemaker runs factories at full bore to meet annual targets. Airbus and rival Boeing Co. are trying to strike a balance between customers buying planes in record numbers and suppliers still struggling to keep up with the faster pace of production. Airbus started December 97 planes short of its annual target, meaning the company managed to achieve near-record output in the final month of the year. The manufacturer shipped 138 planes in December 2019.<br/>
Russian federal air transport regulator Rosaviatsia has approved the airframe design for the Yakovlev SJ-100, the modified Superjet 100 intended to accommodate domestically-produced systems and components. United Aircraft says the change to the type certificate, authorised on 26 December, allows assembly lines to switch to SJ-100 production with a view to delivering the first aircraft this year. It marks a step towards certification, which still requires approval of systems developed under import-substitution initiatives as well as the Russian-built Aviadvigatel PD-8 engine. Airframe clearance follows ground work on test structures at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute in Moscow and the SibNIA facility in Novosibirsk, and approval of new processes to produce them. Rosaviatsia deputy head Andrei Dobryakov says the authorisation is “extremely important”, adding that it “confirms the airframe design is safe and meets all airworthiness standards”. Several Russian carriers operate the Superjet 100 – which has Franco-Russian PowerJet SaM146 engines – and the import-substitution measures are also being applied to servicing components for the powerplant. State technology firm Rostec says local engineers have gained capabilities in repairing the engine’s electronic control unit – in co-operation with Aeroflot and United Engine – and the first such serviced units will enter operation in January-February. Repairs for other components, including the starter valve and combustion chamber, have also been approved. Rostec adds that Russian versions of the fuel filters have been developed and initial batches shipped to carriers.<br/>