China Eastern Grounds B737 Fleet Following Crash
China Eastern Airlines grounded its entire fleet of 106 B737-800 aircraft following the deadly crash of flight 5735 in Guangxi earlier today. The plane was carrying 132 passengers and crew. It is not known if there were any survivors, but that seems highly unlikely.
China’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) immediately activated search and investigation teams to the site of the crash. The airline made the decision to ground its aircraft today out of an abundance of caution after Flight 5735 descended from 29,000 feet midflight for reasons that are unknown at this time.
In addition to the 106 B737-800s operated by MU, 30 other Chinese carriers currently operate a total of 1,088 of the aircraft type. The CAAC celebrated 100 million hours of continuous safe flight hours in China last month – a streak that had gone back to 2010 prior to this incident.
Mexico City’s New Airport Opens with a Whimper
Felipe Angeles International Airport (NLU) opened Monday outside of Mexico City when Aeromexico Connect Flight 890 departed at 6:55 a.m. bound for Villahermosa (VSA), the hometown of Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, on what we are now calling the “Presidential Butt-Kissing Express.” Seven other flights will depart the airport today on its opening day, six more domestic flights and Conviasa to Caracas at 4 p.m.
Only three Mexican airlines – Volaris, Viva Aerobus and Aeromexico – are flying from the new airport as it opens, and they’re doing so with a limited schedule of mostly domestic service. Venezuela’s Conviasa is also operating from NLU for the trickle of people who are willingly flying to Venezuela these days.
The airport has capacity for 120,000 takeoffs and landings and 20 million passengers annually. It has 28 gates and 12 remote parking spots for commercial aircraft. The airport is in negotiations with Delta to begin flights to Atlanta and is hopeful of having service to the United States in the second half of the year once it figures out who it can pay enough to fly to the inconvenient and unwanted airport.
Ukraine International Airlines Looking for Work
Ukraine International Airlines is not currently operating any flights, with a suspension in place through April 15 that is likely to be extended well beyond for obvious reasons. As a way to drive some revenue to the company, UIA is looking for partners who would wet-lease its aircraft.
A wet-lease would include leasing UIA’s airplanes and its crews for a specified time period. UIA has a fleet of 30 airplanes including E190s, B737s, and B767s. It’s kind of like renting a really expensive Airbnb to support a Ukrainian family, but in this case you’d actually get an airplane to fly for you.
It’s unlikely that U.S. carriers could take UIA up on its offer due to union contracts that prohibit mainline flights operated by non-union employees at most airlines, but the concept could catch on elsewhere, especially as demand for air travel continues to outpace supply around the world.
- Canada Jetlines appointed Percy Gyara as its new CFO.
- Frontier will operate to one less frontier as it ends service to Wichita.
- GetJet Airlines ended widebody ops.
- KLM will operate flights to 167 destinations this summer according to KLM.
- Ryanair says it plans to be carbon neutral by 2050 and is willing to sue anyone who challenges them on it.
- Smartwings and Eurowings are going wing it together on a new codeshare agreement.
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