Boeing and Ryanair End Ten Month Negotiation
After ten months of negotiations over a new deal for the 737 MAX, Ryanair is taking its drink cart and going home, claiming that Boeing won’t drop its price enough to meet Ryanair’s cheap-ass price demands for the potential order. This is usually the point when Boeing reluctantly drops it price and they take a picture of both sides smiling holding a model airplane.
Ryanair has been a big customer of Boeing’s, including an order of 75 MAX aircraft just last year. But Ryanair walked away from the negotiating table on Monday ending nearly a year of talks because Boeing refused to lower its price or agree to Ryanair’s stipulation that the manufacturer accept Ryanair vouchers as payment for the planes.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said he was disappointed an agreement couldn’t be reached, and that his carrier does not share Boeing’s optimistic pricing outlook. O’Leary also said Boeing would not agree to Ryanair’s other terms, including reinforcing the aisles to handle hot coals to encourage fast boarding and deplaning to allow for better plane utilization times.
Philippine Airlines Files for Bankruptcy
Philippine Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York with a lender-supported plan that aims to cut $2 billion in debt. The airline will reduce its fleet from 90 to approximately 70 airplanes while cutting routes and future airplane orders.
Routes to London, New York, and Toronto are expected to be cut from the carriers route map. It will focus on routes to Asia, the west coast of North America and domestic flying within the Philippines as those are traditionally the airlines top money-makers. The three routes being cut have been highly unprofitable for the airline which makes one wonder if it had cut them before entering bankruptcy, perhaps it wouldn’t have to enter bankruptcy in the first place.
Airbus agreed to postpone deliveries of 13 new planes and gave the carrier the option to cancel some scheduled deliveries for 2026 and beyond once the airline promised to continue to send 1,000 lumpia to Toulouse every month.
Avianca Battles Low-Cost Competition
Colombian carrier Avianca is adding new point-to-point regional routes on to its route map as it looks to battle an influx of low cost carriers into Colombia and northern South America.
The airline is being forced to alter its business model to compete with LCCs, not just with new routes but by adding seats on its narrowbody jets including going to 186 seats on its A320s, the same number as its LCC competition. It is also investigating how many people it could store in the overhead compartments.
New point-to-point service from Bucaramanga(BGA), Cali (CLO), and Medellin (MDE) in Colombia; Guayaquil (GYE) and Quito (UIO) in Ecuador; and San José (SJC), Costa Rica will connect those cities to other destinations in the Americas.
- Air Seychelles‘s liquidation case is now seeing the government of Seychelles intervene as it makes good on its guarantee to prop the carrier up as needed.
- Air Wisconsin added its first dedicated CRJ freighter aircraft that will enter into service later this year. It’s expected to predominantly ship dairy products.
- Ariana Afghan Airlines resumed domestic operations over the weekend.
- Bamboo Airlines plans to operate 12 “proving flights” from Vietnam to the United Stated between September and November, proving that it can fly empty airplanes across the Pacific with ease.
- Emerald found that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is actually an Air Operating Certificate as the carrier officially became Ireland’s newest airline on Monday.
- Ethiopian is introducing MyShebaSpace which will let passengers in coach pay to block the middle seat… so that Tom from MySpace can sit there and become your very first friend on the airline. Prices start at $30.
- Greater Bay Airlines‘s first plane arrived in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
- KLM expanded its network to Canada, now operating from Amsterdam to Vancouver (4x weekly), Calgary (daily), Edmonton (2x weekly via Calgary), Toronto (daily), and Montreal (4x weekly).
- Jet Airways‘s previously impounded B777 sold yesterday for just $9 million as part of bankruptcy proceedings in the Netherlands.
- United is adding three new Saturday-only routes to the Caribbean. Beginning December 18, it will operate Cleveland to Nassau, Chicago/O’Hare to Guatemala City, and Denver to Roatan, Honduras.
- Virgin Atlantic extended elite status for another six months.
I had the first meeting of my camouflage club today. It looked like no one showed up.