An Aer Lingus flight to Belfast had a serious incident during landing when it suffered a partial electrical systems failure, a report has found. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch said a number of systems dropped off-line, including some needed for landing. The pilots experienced "natural effects of startle and surprise... without a specified procedure to follow", investigators said. The plane was carrying 32 passengers and four crew. Emerald Airlines, exclusive operator of Aer Lingus Regional services, said the flight had "experienced an unforeseen technical difficulty" during its approach and had landed safely at Belfast City Airport. The ATR 72-600 began 19 September 2022 with a flight from Belfast City Airport to Leeds Bradford Airport. While approaching Leeds Bradford, a master caution message appeared very briefly. The message reappeared after touchdown. The flight commander discussed the fault with an engineer who advised "the underlying cause could be difficult to establish". "Therefore, given the transient, asymptomatic nature of the master cautions and the absence of company engineering support in Leeds, they agreed the crew would operate the aircraft back to Belfast for company engineers to investigate further," the report stated. The same master caution message occurred on the return flight to Belfast before "multiple failures appeared on the engine warning display" during descent. Story has more.<br/>
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Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has launched a fresh broadside against Irish Transport Minister Eamon Ryan as he blamed a passenger cap at Dublin Airport for blocking the airline’s growth. O’Leary said Ryan and his Green Party colleague Catherine Martin, the Minister for Tourism, are “dunces” who should leave politics if they do not act to remove the cap. Ryanair said while it expects to grow traffic at Ireland’s regional airports in Cork, Shannon and Knock, it cannot expand in Dublin due to a limit of 32m passengers per year. The company said the cap limits its plan to grow its Irish traffic by 50% by 2030. The airline’s CE told a press conference on Thursday that Ryan had failed to deliver on the National Aviation Policy of enhancing Ireland’s connectivity, fostering growth in aviation, and maximising the contribution of aviation to national development. O’Leary, one of Ireland’s wealthiest businessmen, posed for photos holding cut-outs of the two ministers wearing green dunce caps. Ryan has previously said the airline chief has become “personally abusive” in his comments. Asked on Thursday if he feels the latest media stunt is abusive, Mr O’Leary said it is intended to be “humorous”. He said: “I can’t imagine when I’ve ever been personally abusive. I’ve said he’s incompetent. I don’t think that’s personally abusive, it’s a statement of fact. I think calling him a dunce is fair, but if he’s that thin-skinned or that upset by personal abuse, I have two suggestions: One, do something useful and lift the cap. Or two, maybe politics isn’t for you, if you can’t handle the occasional barb from some loudmouth like me.”<br/>
American planemaker Boeing needs to make changes, Emirates President Tim Clark said on Thursday, as it faces regulatory scrutiny following the blowout of a panel on one of the airline's MAX 9 jets during a flight on Jan. 5. "They really need to do this. Whether this means a change in the governance model, I don't know. When you change the governance model, it invariably involves changing the people around the old governance model," Clark told journalists in London. He repeated comments that Boeing is in a "last-chance saloon" and that there would be no tolerance for further issues from the planemaker.<br/>
Emirates Airlines will not buy Rolls-Royce's Trent XWB-97 jet engines until it is convinced that they are durable, Emirates President Tim Clark said on Thursday. After previous concerns from Clark, Rolls-Royce had said last year that it was taking steps to improve the durability of the engines.<br/>
Israeli flag-carrier El Al has fended off the impact of the Gaza conflict, posting a full-year pre-tax profit of $125m, and a net of $117m, after experiencing a strong Q4. El Al generated full-year revenues of $2.5b, a rise of 26%, while operating expenses only increased by 19% to $2.23b. While the Gaza conflict triggered a substantial reduction in passenger traffic, El Al says it benefited from decisions by foreign airlines to suspend services to Tel Aviv and its own ability to adjust its network. As a result, it states, the carrier experienced “increased demand” for flights which exceeded its early estimates and which – combined with other factors – had a “positive effect” on its Q4 results. El Al turned in a 21% rise in Q4 revenues to $678m and a net profit of nearly $40m. It says the positive trend has continued into Q1 this year. The airline points out that, after the outbreak of the conflict, it managed to add extra passenger and cargo services despite the drafting of “hundreds” of its personnel as reservists. El Al adjusted its route network, ceasing flights over Omani airspace and to certain destinations, including Istanbul, Marrakech and Sharm el-Shaikh, and bringing forward termination of seasonal services to Marseille, Nice and Tokyo.<br/>
El Al Israel Airlines remains in negotiations to buy short-haul aircraft from both Boeing and Airbus, CEO Dina Ben-Tal Ganancia said on Thursday. Israel's Gaza war has delayed the decision but one will be made this year, she said on the sidelines of the airline's earnings presentation. "We understand we need to make a decision," she told Reuters. "There are a lot of issues with the supply chain and the fact that we are in a war a little bit delayed our discussions, mainly because they were not eager to come to Israel." "It's 50-50%" between the two aircraft makers, she added.<br/>
A flight attendant working for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) left her uniform and a brief thank-you note to her employer in a Toronto hotel room before disappearing, the website India Today reported this week. It’s at least the second time this year such an incident has happened, and the tenth time in the last two years. According to the news site, PIA crew member Maryam Raza arrived in Toronto on a flight from Islamabad on Monday but didn’t report for duty on her return flight to Karachi the next day. A search of her hotel room turned up a note saying “Thank you, PIA,” along with her uniform. Maryam’s disappearance comes just a month after PIA flight attendant Faiza Mukhtar’s similar disappearance. Mukhtar, who was scheduled to fly back to Karachi a day after landing in Toronto, “did not board the flight and disappeared,” PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez Khan told the website TheMediaLine. The disappearances are something of an embarrassing trend for the airline, which has been battling financial and credibility losses in recent years. Last November, Pakistan-based Ary News reported that two flight attendants had “slipped away” after arriving on flight PK-772 from Islamabad to Toronto. Crew members named Khalid and Fida did not show up for their return flight. Similar cases involved crew named Muntazir in July, and Ijaz and Ramzan, both in October 2022. In all, there have been at least 10 missing crew over the past two years, but other disappearances go back to at least 2018.<br/>
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd.’s budget carrier HK Express is holding back “a small percentage” of tickets from sale as it deals with the prospect of new plane delivery delays, CEO Jeanette Mao said. “It’s not good for sales because it leaves a shorter lead time for the booking window,” Mao said in an interview on the sidelines of the Aviation Festival Asia conference in Singapore on Thursday. “Only when there are more assurances then we release to the system for sale.” Hong Kong’s only low-cost carrier is trying to manage the twin effects of a Pratt & Whitney engine grounding that will impact 10 of its jets, while aircraft delivery delays plague the industry. Nevertheless, the budget unit of Cathay has rebounded to around 140% of pre-Covid flight volumes as of February and should be at 170% by year-end. The airline’s expansion is key to helping Cathay meet its target of returning to pre-Covid levels around the end of 2024. As part of its expansion push, HK Express has added new routes this year to Beijing Daxing and Bangkok’s Don Mueang airport. It’s current route network is 70% Northeast Asia, 5% China and 25% Southeast Asia. In the longer term, the carrier wants to be more balanced and diversified, meaning raising flights to China and Southeast Asia to one-third each, Mao said. Load-factors look healthy for Easter and the northern hemisphere summer travel season, and fares should face “gradual” downward pressure as more airlines re-enter or boost capacity to Hong Kong, she said.<br/>
Capital A, the parent of budget airline AirAsia, reported on Thursday its first full-year profit since the COVID-19 pandemic struck four years ago thanks to strong travel and freight demand. Capital A recorded a net profit of 507.6m ringgit ($107m) for the year ended in December, swinging from a loss of 3.3b ringgit in the previous year, it said. Revenue jumped by 129% year on year to 14.8b ringgit in 2023. The figure is also 25% higher than in 2019 despite the company operating only 80% of the fleet it was using in the pre-pandemic year. Tony Fernandes, CE of Capital A and co-founder of AirAsia, said the group has emerged "stronger and more resilient than ever," helped by its diversified business model. Bo Lingam, the CEO of AirAsia Aviation Group, painted a positive outlook for 2024 and set a target of achieving 90% of pre-pandemic capacity for units AirAsia Malaysia, AirAsia Thailand, AirAsia Indonesia and AirAsia Philippines. "We aim to bolster our capacity on routes to China and India, taking advantage of the robust demand while also putting strategic emphasis on other high-yield routes," Lingam said. AirAsia Aviation Group recorded a passenger load of 88% in 2023, an increase of five percentage points year on year. The regional airlines carried nearly 57m passengers in 2023, reaching 77% of the pre-pandemic level. Revenue for 2023 surged 143% to 13.5b ringgit from 2022. Lingam said he expected further upside in ancillary income and a fall in fuel prices. Capital A's subsidiary logistics business, Teleport, posted a 56% year-on-year rise in revenue to 730.9m ringgit, driven by a 275% annual rise in the volume of e-commerce parcels it delivered. Cargo volume also rose 88% in 2023 from a year ago. Teleport's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose to 20m ringgit in 2023, from an EBITDA loss of 26.9m ringgit in 2022.<br/>