Fed up with delays that have plagued production of luxurious jetliner cabins, Boeing is forming its own company with a major seat supplier to the auto industry. The joint venture with Adient will be based near Frankfurt, Germany, along with a technology centre and an initial production plant, the companies said Tuesday. It will market seats to airlines and leasing companies that are ordering new planes and retrofitting older ones. The strategy furthers Boeing’s foray into so-called vertical integration as CE Dennis Muilenburg seeks to bring more work back in-house. That’s a reversal of the global outsourcing that dominated strategy at the planemaker a decade ago. Boeing said the Adient Aerospace venture was prompted by seat production foul-ups and a capacity crunch that have delayed jet deliveries and frustrated airlines. <br/>
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Airbus CE Tom Enders slammed Brexit and US president Donald Trump’s pro-America trade policies as presenting twin threats to its business, while singling out the UK’s vote to leave the EU as posing the bigger issue. The developments amount to a “double whammy” of protectionist hazards, Enders said. Brexit will weaken British industry and aerospace manufacturing in particular by increasing costs and curtailing competitiveness, the CE said late Monday. While Airbus will seek to mitigate the impact on its business, “whatever we can do, the net result I’m afraid will be negative,” he said. And, under Trump, the US is “no longer fighting for opening markets but to close the US market to foreign companies and foreign competitors,” with arch-rival Boeing a direct beneficiary, Enders said. <br/>
A second winter storm in as many weeks is causing hundreds of flight cancellations across the US, airlines reported Tuesday, potentially dealing a further blow to carriers' Q1 outlooks. As the storm sweeps across southeast Texas and up the East Coast dumping snow, sleet and freezing rain, airlines have already canceled flights into Wednesday in anticipation of difficult conditions. American Airlines had canceled some 270 flights between Tuesday and Wednesday as a result of the storm, it said. Delta Air Lines said it had canceled about 275 Tuesday flights and expected additional cancellations in New York and Boston as the storm tracked north. United Airlines said it had canceled more than 700 flights Tuesday. <br/>
In 2017, airline industry labour costs rose as new contracts were signed. Oil and fuel prices edged up. No matter: Pent-up demand for air travel and restraint in adding capacity are keeping US airlines — both network and value carriers — in the black. Through Q2 of 2017, the airlines had enjoyed 17 straight quarters of profitability. That year, not only was operating revenue up — to a combined US$2.4b — but for the first time in a while, combined passenger yield was rising as well. A return to growth in passenger yield is an example of the industry’s resilience. Passenger yield fell double digits from 2014 through 2016, hitting a year-over-year low in Q3 2016 of 13.4 cents. The system-wide yield by Q2 2017 was 13.9 cents, after finally beginning to rise. <br/>
Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport added 4.8m passengers last year with the help of a 6-runway setup that’s unique in Europe, putting it almost level with Paris Charles de Gaulle as the region’s second-busiest hub. Schiphol attracted 68.4m travellers, consolidating its lead over Frankfurt and putting it within 1m of the total at Charles de Gaulle. London Heathrow remained Europe’s leading airport despite the constraints of only 2 runways as airlines turned to bigger planes to boost capacity. The UK hub isn’t due to get a third strip until 2025 at least. Amsterdam lifted passenger numbers 7.7% in the 12 months, the most among Europe’s top bases, following 9.1% growth in 2016. That’s contributed 10.2m more travellers in just 2 years, the equivalent of adding an entire airport such as Glasgow’s main hub. <br/>
Asia-Pacific will drive demand for air travel over the next 2 decades, according to the 2018 Air Travel Outlook report produced by Expedia in collaboration with the Airlines Reporting Corporation. Based on the IATA 20-year air passenger forecast, air travel routes to, from and within Asia-Pacific will see an extra 2.1b annual passengers by 2036 -- an average growth rate of 4.6%. China is expected to displace the US as the world's largest aviation market by 2022, while India will overtake Britain, currently ranked fifth, by 2025, with Indonesia catching up by 2030. Thailand is anticipated to enter the world's top 10 largest aviation markets during the forecast period. <br/>