One of Boeing’s biggest customers issued a call to action to its new management team, expressing frustration with the safety crisis facing the American plane maker and the consequent delays in order deliveries. “We’re not happy really with what’s going on, we always really wanted to see this aircraft entering the fleet when it had been promised — and there is a delay, it’s not only to us,” Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman and CEO of Dubai’s flagship Emirates airline, told CNBC’s Dan Murphy on Tuesday at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai. With 245 passenger planes and five 778 freighters on order, Emirates is Boeing’s largest customer in terms of wide-body jets. But aircraft deliveries by the manufacturer dropped in the first quarter of 2024 to the lowest number since mid-2021 as the company deals with increased scrutiny after a door plug blew out from one of its 737 Max 9 planes midair in January. The company delivered 83 planes in the three months to March 31 — most of them narrow-body 737s — compared with 157 in the prior quarter and 130 planes in the year-earlier period. Al Maktoum, who sits at the helm of the world’s largest long-haul airline and helped launch it in 1985, echoed the sentiments of many other airline CEOs when it comes to expectations for Boeing. “I think they have to put a lot of pressure in order to make sure that they deliver to the customer whatever they promised,” he said. Asked if he had a message for the plane maker, Al Maktoum said: “I always say, you know, get your act together and just do it. And I think they can do it.”<br/>
unaligned
Ticket fare prices this summer are likely going to be lower than previously expected, Ryanair CE Michael O'Leary said on Tuesday, despite previous warnings that rising costs would get passed on to airline customers.<br/>Aviation executives and analysts have said ticket prices were set to go up even more this year as capacity constraints and slower aircraft deliveries limit the amount of planes in the sky despite robust travel demand. However, O'Leary said that prices were not rising as fast as previously assumed. Ryanair shares were down 6.4% at 1354 GMT, with easyJet and Lufthansa shares also down after O'Leary's comments. "Looking at summer ... We thought pricing would be up 5-10%. We're heading to flat (pricing year-on-year) to 5% up, which is surprising with a lot of the Airbus fleet grounded for maintenance," he told Reporters in Brussels. In February, O'Leary said average fares could increase by 10-15 euros in the next five years.<br/>
Air Baltic is having to pay the highest coupon seen in Europe’s junk bond market this year to pull off a last-minute refinancing deal, even with Latvia’s government supporting the sale. The Latvian airline is marketing a E340m junk bond with a yield of 14.5%, to push back the need to repay debt maturing in two months, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. The high rate pulled in over E850m of orders, enabling it to upsize the offer and trim the pricing. At that level, it would still be the highest coupon seen in the European high-yield bond market since September, when Adler Group paid a 21% coupon, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It would mean the company paying nearly E50m in interest costs every year. It’s Air Baltic’s second attempt at a bond sale, and this time the Latvian government looks set to help get it over the line. Investors are demanding higher rates for its debt since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the company’s CEO Martin Gauss said in January. The company was forced to shelve a planned junk sale in October as fears over geopolitical turmoil unsettled markets. Now the government has parliamentary approval to purchase as much as E136m of the debt. The state could buy the bonds alongside private investors, on the same terms, transport minister Kaspars Briskens said last week.<br/>
Australian budget airline Bonza has canceled all flights through May 14 as lessors seek to seize its planes. The embattled carrier grounded its fleet on April 29 after the lessors issued termination notices. Hall Chadwick, which has been appointed as administrators to the airline, said Tuesday it has been in discussions with the lessors to see whether the grounded planes could become operational in the short term, but to no avail. “The administrators have regretfully been advised that the lessors will continue to enforce their rights under the termination notices and, subject to their own requirements and arrangements, seek to reposition the fleet elsewhere,” Hall Chadwick said in a statement. In Australia, administrators are appointed to restructure financially stressed companies before the last resort of declaring bankruptcy. Hall Chadwick said it will continue efforts to resume Bonza’s operations through talks with interested parties, potential investors, and other airlines. After launching last year, Bonza had focused on dozens of new or little-used holiday routes aimed at the local market. But doubts grew about the airline’s ability to fill large jets serving small populations, as well as the accessibility of its app-only booking process. The fate of Bonza also raises questions about its parent 777 Partners, which has laid out ambitious plans to build a global airline portfolio and last year agreed to buy UK football club Everton. Lenders to the firm last week accused it of fraud, claiming it borrowed against $350m of assets that it didn’t own, didn’t exist or were already promised to someone else, according to a complaint filed in New York federal court.<br/>