Airbus is in talks to sell new A380 superjumbo planes to BA this year after securing a program-saving deal from Persian Gulf operator Emirates, according to people familiar with the matter. The UK carrier, which currently has 12 A380s in its fleet, had said in the past that it was looking for six to seven second-hand A380s. Now it’s considering taking a larger number of new ones, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. Airbus’s outgoing head of sales, John Leahy, said Friday he was confident the European planemaker would secure one more A380 order this year. That customer is BA, the people said. Airbus and BA parent IAG SA declined to comment. BA is interested in the superjumbo because of the jet’s ability to maximize the number of passengers per flight at its Heathrow hub, which is running close to capacity limits. The carrier’s main focus is on North Atlantic routes that are among the world’s busiest long-haul services, and it ranks as the No. 1 operator of Boeing Co.’s 747 jumbo, the second-biggest passenger plane after the A380. BA is examining a deal for new planes after concluding that refurbishing used examples of the Airbus behemoth for its own needs would be too expensive, one of the people said. The carrier’s superjumbos are fitted out in a four-class configuration featuring 469 seats, according to its website. IAG Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh has been mulling the business case for second-hand A380s for as least two years, with planes becoming available as the oldest ones come off lease from SIA after a decade of service. <br/>
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A BA pilot was taken off a plane on suspicion of being drunk, officials said, before the aircraft took off from London's Gatwick Airport. The pilot was removed and arrested Thursday night before the British Airways Boeing 777 departed to Mauritius. The incident delayed the flight's departure by more than two hours. Police "received a report of a member of airline staff suspected to have been under the influence of alcohol at Gatwick Airport," a Sussex police spokeswoman said. "A 49-year-old man from Harmondsworth, West Drayton in Hillingdon, was arrested on suspicion of performing an aviation function when the level of alcohol was over the prescribed limit," the spokeswoman said. The man was still in custody as of Friday night. A BA spokesman said the airline was "taking this matter extremely seriously and are assisting the police with their inquiries." "We are sorry for the delay to our customers," the spokesman said. "The aircraft remained at the gate until an alternative third pilot joined the flight crew. The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our top priority."<br/>
Malaysia Airlines’ Airbus SE A380s are flying full on trial services taking Muslim pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, prompting the carrier to say it will establish the operation as a new division as early as the end of this year. The company has been using two of its six A380s to transport people headed to Mecca for the year-round Umrah pilgrimage since November, CEO Izham Ismail said. The planes will ultimately be used for the annual Hajj gathering, one of the world’s biggest travel events. “I felt we needed to go to market fast,” said Ismail, who inherited the proposal when he took over as CEO two months ago. “We’ve been flying these charters daily to Jeddah or Medina and we fill them up every day.” Airbus, which broke a two-year sales drought with the A380 last week, is keen to see the Malaysia plan succeed as it pitches the model for new markets, and has agreed to convert the jets to as many as 700 seats from 498. Ismail said that would have to wait until 2020, when the A380s will be out of service for maintenance, and that the current density may in any case be sufficient. “The passengers who go to the Umrah and Hajj are often elderly, so we can’t cram them into a tin can,” he said. “We can keep the current configuration and offer a product that’s superior to the current Hajj product. It’s a captive market, so we can move the pricing up a little bit.” While flying to Saudi Arabia from Kuala Lumpur, the A380s have already carried groups originating in Indonesia, China and Bangladesh, as well as Malaysia, booked via a network of travel agents. Fares will still be lower than for a normal commercial ticket, though there’s an appetite for business-class perks among some pilgrims that the current layout could address, Ismail said. The project, a brainchild of Ismail’s predecessor Peter Bellew, has been named Amal, meaning “hope” in Arabic.<br/>
Cathay Pacific is poised to announce non-stop flights from Hong Kong to Cape Town, as it looks to fight back at cutthroat competition from mainland Chinese carriers. A year-round service to launch later this year will be announced soon, two people familiar with the plans said, cementing 2018 as one of the airline’s biggest years of expansion, pending approval from authorities. Despite South Africa’s second-largest city having a robust regional economy as a major shipping port for trade, its historic landmarks make it popular for tourism. The flights to Hong Kong will be its first non-stop service to Asia in more than six years. For now, no mainland Chinese carrier flies to the South African city. Competition from the state-run Air China, China Eastern, China Southern Airlines, some of the largest airlines in the world, and privately held Hainan Airlines have been a thorn in Cathay Pacific’s side in the past couple of years. Mainland Chinese airlines have gone head to head with Cathay Pacific, including offering significantly cheaper fares to the same destinations. A non-stop flight from Hong Kong would take around 14 hours. Singapore Airlines flies to and from Cape Town, stopping in Johannesburg first, in a flight lasting 13 hours 55 minutes. It is the only Asian carrier with a flight to that destination at all.<br/>