All the activity in the narrowbody segment planned for 2016 stands to make it one of the busiest years in recent memory for airliner makers, while airlines around the world look to reap all the expected economic benefits the new engine and airframe technology promises. With November’s certification of the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-powered Airbus A320neo and Transport Canada's approval of the Bombardier CSeries on December 18, the Pratt geared turbofan, for example, gets its first chance to prove its double-digit fuel improvement claims in revenue service. Meanwhile, as Bombardier and Airbus execute first delivery of their single-aisle jets, Boeing and China’s Comac continue preparations for first flight of the 737 Max 8 and C919, respectively. Finally, by the middle of the year Airbus expects to deliver the first CFM Leap-1A-powered A320neo, while Embraer prepares for first flight of the new E190E2, the Pratt & Whitney PW1900G-powered derivative of the E190 scheduled for certification in the first half of 2018.

While the culmination of several long campaigns this year certainly looks like progress, the path to reaching this point didn’t track as straight as some had hoped, and last year in many ways marked a defining moment for troubled programs such as the CSeries. Finally completing all its certification testing after more than two years of delays, the CSeries didn’t reach the proverbial finish line before receiving a much needed financial boost late last year from the provincial government in Quebec, which promised to inject $1 billion in capital in return for a 49.5-percent stake in the project.

The new investment by the Quebec government came three weeks after Bombardier and Airbus each confirmed that they had explored “certain business opportunities” together and that talks had ended following reports that Bombardier offered a majority stake in the CSeries to the European airframer.

Another troubled program that has seen its fortunes turn over the past year—the Mitsubishi MRJ—flew for the first time in November, marking the start of a flight-test program expected to see the 90-seat Japanese jet ply U.S. skies this year as a major part of its certification effort. Plans call for the first of four MRJ90 prototypes to arrive in the U.S. in the second quarter to begin a flight-test campaign at Grant County International Airport at Moses Lake, Wash., to take advantage of its long runways and lack of regular scheduled airline service. Other testing sites in the U.S. include Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport in Colorado, where the company plans to conduct high-altitude takeoff and landing tests. Meanwhile, it has chosen Roswell International Air Center in New Mexico for special runway tests and McKinley Climatic Laboratory in Florida for extreme environment testing. It also plans to employ 150 engineers at a new engineering center in Seattle to support all the testing activity in the U.S.

While regional jets and narrowbodies attract much of the attention this year in terms of service entry and flight-testing, widebody developments also continue to speed along as well. After a successful entry into service of the 787-9 last year, Boeing’s 787-10–the straightforward stretch of the -9 the company bills as the most fuel-efficient airplane in the world–stands ready for 100-percent design release this year, in time for entry into service in 2018. On the other side of the Atlantic, work continues apace on the stretched version of the Airbus A350-900 called the A350-1000. On November 5 the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engine under development for the big jet made its first flight on the European airframer’s A380 flying test bed, marking the start of a nine-month test program leading to first flight of the A350-1000 by mid-year.

To virtually all the world’s airliner manufacturers, goals for 2016 center on plan execution rather than new product launches. One exception could come from Airbus in the form of what has become known as the A380neo. If Emirates Airline had its way, Airbus would launch a re-engined A380 this year, but Toulouse would need a commitment from more than just one customer to risk such a potentially massive investment on a program that hasn’t yet proved itself worthy of the costs it has already incurred. Most recent indications from Airbus executives point to a possible service entry not until after 2022, in which case a launch this year would seem unlikely.       

Whether or not Airbus launches the A380neo, 2016 will bring with it plenty of opportunity for airframers to prove their mettle, whether that means executing successful entries into service or reaching program milestones on time. It should also give observers the chance to second-guess if things don’t go as planned. In any case, through the successes and setbacks, it looks sure to keep everyone involved busy making aviation history.

Two months after the suspected destruction of a Russian airliner by a terrorist bomb over Egypt’s Sinai Desert, Italian company D’Appolonia has unveiled equipment designed to protect aircraft from the impact of a bomb explosion. Fly-Bag is a bomb-proof container that can be fitted in baggage compartments and/or cabins to resist the dynamic and thermal impacts of an explosion.

According to Genoa-based D’Appolonia, the equipment is made from existing commercially available ballistic protection materials. For a standard ULD cargo pallet, the weight of each bag would be up to around 66 pounds, while the unit required to protect an entire baggage hold would weigh up to around 220 pounds. Smaller units for passenger cabins weigh just over 10 pounds.

D’Appolonia declined to explain what volume of explosives Fly-Bag can provide protection against. It has also yet to publish prices for the product but estimated a cost of “some thousands of euros per unit.” Fly-Bag is now patented and the manufacturer has received European Aviation Safety Agency certification to fit the equipment in the hold of an Airbus A320. According to the company, Fly-Bag is lighter and more flexible to use than existing blast-proof containers, which are made from rigid materials.

The equipment works by absorbing shock waves from an explosion through a mechanism that controls the deformation of the multilayer fabric used to make the bags. Each Fly-Bag has several layers, which perform a specific function, such as fragment retention, absorption of shock waves and fire resistance.

According to D’Appolonia, Fly-Bag units can be installed in a variety of locations in just a few minutes. The company can provide the bags in a variety of sizes to fit aircraft up to the size of a Boeing 747.

“This new-generation fabric container marks a turning point in aviation safety,” commented D’Appolonia CEO Roberto Carpaneto. “It is light and flexible enough to be used on all aircraft, and full-scale tests have proven it will protect aircraft and passengers from explosions caused by any explosives hidden in the baggage.” 

Airbus said on Wednesday that it has agreed with Lufthansa Group to postpone delivery of the first A320neo from this week until early next year. According to a statement issued to AIN, the manufacturer continues to work with Lufthansa and engine maker Pratt & Whitney on efforts to bring the new narrowbody into service “within the next few weeks.”

“To deliver on our priority—for our customers a service-ready A320neo from Day 1—some more documentation items need to be addressed by Pratt & Whitney and Airbus in its role as the overall manufacturer of the aircraft,” said an Airbus spokesman.

Having now collected orders for more than 4,400 A320neos, Airbus expects the delay to result in negligible financial effect. However, the delay does mark a failure to meet a long cited deadline of year-end 2015 for delivery of the re-engined narrowbody. It also marked another apparent hitch involving the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G, problems with which forced Airbus to redistribute certification work among its flight-test articles to recoup time lost on the first aircraft, grounded by a defect in one of its geared turbofan engines in April and again in late September due to another still unnamed anomaly.

On September 30 Airbus confirmed it had to ground the first Pratt-powered A320neo for a second time during its flight-test campaign, after finding a “minor problem” in one of its engines following hot-weather trials in Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates. At the time the company insisted that the incident would not affect plans to deliver the first airplane by the end of the year. However, an effective change in launch customer resulted when Qatar Airways balked at a temporary operating restriction involving the GTF, leading to Lufthansa's agreement to take the first production example instead.

A German court on Wednesday upheld a government decision to withdraw code share rights between Eithad Airways and Air Berlin on 29 flights through the end of its winter schedule, drawing a sharp rebuke from the Persian Gulf airline and a pledge to appeal the decision. Etihad holds a 29.2 percent stake in Air Berlin.

“The social and economic damage to Germany by this decision is significant,” said Etihad in a written statement. “The withdrawal of approval for code share services on 29 routes materially reduces competition and consumer choice within and beyond Germany and causes inconvenience to passengers.”

In October Etihad won an injunction allowing it to continue operating all its code-share flights with Air Berlin to the 29 destinations in Europe, the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates. At the time, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure had still not approved Etihad’s code-sharing agreements for services during the IATA winter 2015/2016 schedule, which began October 25.

Although the injunction lasted until only November 8, the German government said the two carriers could continue their cooperation until January 15, giving it another 11 weeks to resolve differences with the UAE over what Etihad characterized as a unilateral change of opinion in 2014 by Germany’s Ministry of Transport concerning the code-share provisions of their bilateral air services agreement.

Since 2012, Germany’s civil aviation authority, the LBA, and the Ministry of Transport have approved seven Etihad Airways schedules, including all of its code shares with Air Berlin, on the basis of the Air Services Agreement signed by the UAE and Germany in March 1994 and the Agreed Minutes and Revised Route Schedule signed in June 2000, said the airline. This year, however, the German government decided the bilateral agreement between the UAE and Germany did not cover Air Berlin’s code-share flights with Etihad.

As 2015 came to a close and Boeing shut its factory doors for a traditional 10 days’ respite, the year’s jetliner sales tally fell decidedly in favor of archrival Airbus, as the European manufacturer claimed sales of 1,007 airplanes for the year. But Boeing continued to push skyward, registering orders for another 166 airplanes in late December and raising its 2015 total to 843. Take into account cancellations and Boeing’s net orders for delivery dropped by 100. Although single-aisle activity accounted for much of the order imbalance, Boeing 737 Max vice president and general manager Keith Leverkuhn wouldn’t let questions about the sales lead the Airbus A320neo enjoys over the Max dampen enthusiasm for the latest 737 variant during its December 8 rollout in Renton, Washington.   

“Look, [Airbus] got an 18-month head start on us with their introduction of the A320neo,” he told reporters on the factory floor as workers tested the newly installed main landing gear on the second 737 Max, 1A002. “They gained orders early. By the time we launched, we were very comfortable with the way the marketing [settled] in terms of [the share] being about fifty-fifty.”

Boeing introduced the Max in front of thousands of employees, but relatively few members of the media—more than eight years after the decidedly high-profile unveiling of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The difference between the two airplanes’ respective rollouts reflected the company’s effort to project an all-business approach to producing the first new 737 variant in 19 years, renewing its focus on getting the job done rather than the pomp and ceremony that went along with the Dreamliner’s introduction.

Accompanied by live music, an assemblage of celebrities and a worldwide video feed, the 787 rolled out with great fanfare on July 8, 2007. But after a series of production problems and delivery delays, Boeing didn’t manage to deliver the first Dreamliner to launch customer All Nippon Airways until Sept. 25, 2011.

Unwilling to risk any repeat of past mistakes, the company adopted a policy coined “Right at First Flight” to govern the rollout of the 737 Max, said Leverkuhn.

“That’s the idea of making sure that the systems and how they’re put together have been thoroughly tested so that not only do we know how they’re going to function, but we have an indication of just how reliable they’re going to be,” he stressed. “Since May, our 737 Max team has met all the milestones set for the program, including wing loading, power on, rollout; all have been on time. I’m very proud of the team.”

The 737 Max test program will be the most rigorous the company has ever undertaken, according to Leverkuhn, who set a goal to fly the first of four Max testbeds in early 2016.

“Then we’ll start ‘clearing the envelope,’” he said. “We’ll start by flying low and slow to make sure we understand the handling characteristics and that what we modeled in the wind tunnel was correct.”

The testing program would then expand to include higher and longer flights, increasing speed and looking for flutter in the dynamic response of the aircraft.

In producing an aircraft that incorporates the extensive design changes mandated by the 737 Max program, Boeing is employing a lot of familiar faces. Some 80 percent of the assembly line workers putting together the Max have experience building the 737NG. For them, along with new hires, Boeing created a training laboratory complete with the tools and parts used for building the Max.

Despite Boeing’s “Right at First Flight” mantra, the 737 Max won’t enjoy complete immunity from some of the outsourcing problems that plagued its big brother, the 787. The Chicago-based company dropped GKN, the supplier of its titanium honeycomb inner walls of its thrust reversers, because it couldn’t guarantee the parts in time once production ramps up to the projected 60 per month. GKN had produced between 30 and 40 of the titanium walls at its plant in Santa Ana, California, but expressed reservations about supplying the part in greater numbers.

Boeing managed to address the issue three weeks before the rollout of Aircraft 1A001 on December 8, however. It did not affect the flight-test time line, nor did it affect the first projected deliveries, scheduled for the third quarter of 2017.

While Boeing still plans to install the GKN-made titanium parts in the first few dozen Max aircraft, it has decided to replace them in production with more conventionally designed compressor walls made of carbon fiber, Leverkuhn said.                           

Boeing’s plans to accelerate 737 production from today’s rate of 42 a month to 47 in 2017 and 52 by the end of 2018.

U.S. and European airline labor groups have lined up to oppose an application by Norwegian Air Shuttle’s new UK subsidiary to operate flights to the United States from London’s Gatwick Airport. The groups allege that the subsidiary would be a “flag of convenience” carrier that undercuts labor standards, an allegation they have made against Norwegian’s Ireland-based subsidiary.

The new subsidiary—Norwegian Air UK—plans to begin long-haul service in the first quarter, having obtained an operating license from the UK Civil Aviation Authority on November 13. The license should “open the door for further UK expansion” and potentially add new routes to Asia, South America and South Africa, the parent airline said.

On December 11, Norwegian Air UK applied to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for a foreign air carrier permit to conduct scheduled and charter flights to the U.S. from Gatwick Airport. The carrier requested expedited processing to begin services “as soon as possible,” stating that it would “capitalize on the Norwegian Group’s large and growing position” in the UK to operate. The low-cost carrier has based more than 400 pilots and crew at Gatwick, its UK hub.

Similarly, Norwegian Air Shuttle applied for a foreign air carrier permit in December 2013 for its Ireland-based Norwegian Air International (NAI) subsidiary to operate to and from the U.S. Labor groups and several major U.S. and European carriers oppose that application, alleging that Norwegian seeks to evade both Norwegian and international labor laws and pay pilots less by establishing NAI as an Irish airline. That application is still pending with the DOT.

Norwegian’s application for its UK subsidiary met with a similar reception. “While the application is scarce on details, this is a continuation of Norwegian’s efforts to introduce a flag of convenience airline into the transatlantic marketplace,” said the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, a coalition of unions that represent transportation workers including pilots, flight attendants and air traffic controllers.  

In a January 4 filing with the DOT, labor groups contend that approving Norwegian Air UK’s application “would be incompatible” with a “social clause” labor provision of the U.S.-European Union Air Transport Agreement. “While NAUK’s minimalist application does not disclose what the applicant’s plans are with respect to employment of the pilots and flight attendants who would staff its long-haul operations, it is possible that NAUK intends to use the same model employed by NAI,” the groups state in the filing.

The parties to the filing are the Air Line Pilots Association, the Transportation Trades Department, the Transport Workers Union of America, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the European Cockpit Association.

Norwegian issued the following statement in response to this article: “Following the UK Air Operating Certificate granted to Norwegian, a UK application has been made to the U.S. Department of Transportation for a foreign carrier permit. This is an important step in our plans for continued growth, more routes and new jobs in the UK. All current and future employees in our operation at UK bases will have contracts governed by UK employment law. Norwegian already has major operations and a large route network from UK airports, together with a large base of more than 400 pilots and crew at London Gatwick so we look forward to the DOT's consideration of the UK application.”

Singapore-based lessor BOC Aviation on Thursday announced it has placed a firm order with Airbus covering 18 A320neos and 12 current-generation A320s worth $3.1 billion at list prices. The Bank of China subsidiary signed the deal last month, soon after shareholders approved BOC Aviation’s listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In October the bank said it planned to issue the $3 billion IPO in Hong Kong to finance more aircraft purchases.

“This order underscores our continued confidence in the reliability and operational efficiency of the A320 family aircraft, and reflects its popularity among our customers for short- and medium-haul routes,” said BOC Aviation managing director and CEO Robert Martin.

“We appreciate the mutually beneficial and strong relationship we have built with BOC Aviation over the past 20 years,” added Airbus COO for customers John Leahy. “With this order, BOC Aviation becomes one of Airbus’ top 10 customers.”

Including this latest purchase agreement, BOC Aviation’s cumulative orders to date for new Airbus aircraft have reached a total of 306, consisting of 12 A330s and 294 A320-family narrowbodies, including 64 A320neos.

The deal comes less than two months after BOC Aviation placed an order for 11 Boeing 737-800s and 11 Boeing 737 Max 8s, scheduled for delivery from 2018 to 2021.

Airlines pay a steep price for their memberships in global alliances, but with those costs come the benefits of pooled investment in modernizing information technology hubs and connectivity systems. For Star Alliance, the use of technology to accelerate complex booking and operational processes ranks among the chief advantages, according to executives attending a recent chief executive board meeting in Chicago hosted by founding member airline, United.

In June, Star Alliance collaborated with Sabre to use an industry-first technology to simplify booking of its Round the World fares. Travel agents connected to the Sabre global distribution system (GDS) can now book and automatically calculate the corresponding fares. In the past they often had to calculate pricing manually due to the routings involved in RTW traffic. Meanwhile passengers can now get their boarding passes for all legs of their journey and receive miles for every portion of their trip.

Star also plans to apply lessons learned from running new common IT processes at London Heathrow Terminal 2. It has found the model suitable for airports where existing infrastructure issues or space constraints limit operations. Examples include São Paolo’s Guarulhos, Tokyo Narita and LAX in Los Angeles. “Because each airport terminal is different, solutions will be different,” Star Alliance corporate vice president Christian Klick told AIN. “But we are able to include both process as well as technology solutions in all three. These include ground handling standards, self-service solutions and many behind-the-scenes processes.” Work has started to allow Air India to join Star members at Heathrow’s Terminal 2.

Star Alliance has continuously invested in developing and implementing “plug and play” systems, a concept that allows any member carrier to link its IT systems into a hub operated by the alliance, rather than having to create bilateral IT links. The concept allows Star Alliance carriers to issue boarding passes for all connecting flights on virtually any combination of interline itineraries. It has finished implementing two IT hub applications for frequent flier programs, said Klick. As a result, it has eliminated retroactive mileage crediting. In addition, the new system allows for a near instant update of the roughly 20,000 daily frequent flier status changes across all 28-member carriers.

“To fulfill Star Alliance’s proposition that you can earn status miles and redeem them across the whole network, these systems have to sync behind the scenes,” said Klick. “These two big projects have made this much easier and both of them are online already….Less manual intervention is required and a lower error rate lead to efficiencies for the member airlines.”

Star Alliance has also introduced dedicated security lanes under the Star Gold Track branding for first- and business-class customers at around 70 airports worldwide. It plans to add more locations this year along with Gold Track Immigration at certain airports.

Boeing delivered a record 762 commercial airplanes in 2015, exceeding its target of 755 to 760 and its previous year’s mark by 39. The company also managed to reach its targeted 1:1 book-to-bill ratio with net orders for 768 airplanes valued at $112.4 billion at list prices. At year-end the company held unfilled orders for 5,795 airplanes.

Boeing’s 135 Dreamliner deliveries appear to have accounted for much of the higher-than-expected total for the year. Reporting a production rate of ten 787s airplanes per month, Boeing delivered 15 more of the widebodies than its stated rate would have suggested at the start of the year. As expected, 737s led all models as Boeing delivered 495 of the narrowbodies in 2015. Meanwhile, its ninety-eight 777 deliveries equated to almost exactly the 8.3 per month rate the company projected at the start of the year.

“We had a solid year of orders in 2015, maintaining a strong, balanced backlog that will help ensure a steady stream of deliveries for years to come,” said Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Ray Conner.

Boeing appears to have again outdelivered rival Airbus, although the European airframer won’t reveal its figures for 2015 until it holds its annual press conference on Tuesday. Airbus’s delivery total as of the end of November stood at 556 compared with Boeing’s 709, clearly suggesting an edge for Boeing for the year regardless of a reportedly busy December for its competitor. Nevertheless, Airbus, which had collected net orders for 1,007 airplanes by the end of November, will finish the year with far more sales.

The Federal Aviation Administration does not have processes in place to assess if airline pilots adequately monitor automated systems on the flight deck or maintain their manual flying skills, according to the Department of Transportation (DOT) office of the inspector general. The FAA“can and should do” more to ensure that airlines sufficiently train their pilots in these skills, the IG contends.

In a January audit report to Congress, the IG recommends the FAA define “pilot monitoring metrics” that airlines can use to train and evaluate pilots’ use of automated systems, and standards to determine if pilots are receiving the training they need to manually fly their aircraft. The IG notes that several recent accidents, including the July 6, 2013 crash of an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777-200ER on landing at San Francisco International Airport, “have shown that pilots who typically fly with automation can make errors when confronted with an unexpected event or transitioning to manual flying.”

The IG visited nine airlines and their respective FAA oversight offices while conducting the audit. It reviewed 19 simulator training plans, finding that only five specifically mentioned pilot monitoring, or a pilot’s ability to monitor an aircraft’s flight path, its systems and the actions of other crewmembers.

New procedures that make use of advanced automation to fly more precise flight paths, such as area navigation (RNAV) and required navigation performance (RNP), and to maintain a 1,000-foot reduced vertical separation minimum at altitude, provide pilots with fewer opportunities to practice manual flying skills, the IG said. The FAA to date has implemented more than 1,550 such automated procedures, the office added.

The FAA and industry “are continually working to modernize the National Airspace System and expect deployment and use of advanced procedures using flight deck automation to increase,” the audit report states. “As a result, the opportunities air carrier pilots have during live operations to maintain proficiency in manual flight are limited and are likely to diminish.”

The FAA published a pilot and crew training regulation in November 2013 that contains provisions to improve pilot training “for rare, but high-risk scenarios,” according to the FAA. Among new simulator training requirements, pilots will practice maneuvers for upset prevention and recovery; manually controlled arrival and departure; slow flight; loss of reliable airspeed; stall/stick pusher activation; and recovery from a bounced landing, the IG said. But the industry does not have to fully comply with the regulation until 2019.

In a response to the findings, the FAA said that it shared the IG’s “concerns about an over-reliance on automation and the importance of training pilots to handle unexpected events and manually fly the aircraft.” In January 2014, the agency formed an air carrier training aviation rulemaking committee to provide the industry a forum to make recommendations on training requirements.

The FAA added that the implementation date of the pilot training provisions of the 2013 regulation, “Qualification, Service and Use of Crewmembers and Aircraft Dispatchers,” is Nov. 30, 2018.

ANA Group of Japan will acquire an 8.8 percent share of Vietnam Airlines under terms of an agreement the two carriers announced on January 12. The transaction is valued at approximately $108 million.

The minority share, which is subject to approvals by the Vietnamese government, will allow the two airlines to “take maximum advantage” of the increasing demand for air transportation in the Asian market, particularly in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, the countries with the highest growth potential, the carriers said. ANA, the holding company of Tokyo-based All Nippon Airways, will also place a director on the Vietnam Airlines board and provide the latter carrier with operational and management training, the carriers said.

The share represents ANA’s first investment in a foreign flag carrier, and the first time that state-owned Vietnam Airlines has accepted part ownership by a foreign company, according to Nikkei Asian Review. ANA has been eager to take a stake in a southeast Asian carrier for several years and in 2012 raised around $1.4 billion in new capital through an equity issue. In 2014, it abandoned plans to buy a 49 percent stake in Myanmar's Asian Wings Airways.

“We appreciate the cooperation with ANA Group to participate in the administration and long-term development of the Vietnam Airlines Corporation,” said Pham Viet Thanh, the airline’s chairman. “The cooperation with ANA Group will help Vietnam Airlines acquire new management technologies, expand the market, improve service quality, and increase competitiveness on international markets. I strongly believe this comprehensive cooperation will enhance the value, brand and image of Vietnam Airlines.”

Hanoi-based Vietnam Airlines now operates 66 flights per week on 10 routes between Japan and Vietnam. ANA operates 14 flights a week on two routes.

On January 11, ANA and manufacturer Boeing marked the 100,000th revenue flight by an ANA 787 Dreamliner with a ceremony at Sea-Tac International Airport in Seattle.

Airbus last year delivered a record 635 aircraft and gained 1,036 new orders, expanding its backlog by 401 units. Announcing the 2015 results at a Paris press conference on January 12, Airbus CEO Fabrice Brégier indicated that 2016 will see a strong emphasis on strengthening the production process as the European airframer deals with heavy delivery commitments for several programs.

The total backlog for Airbus now stands at 6,787 aircraft. For 2016, Brégier predicted more than 650 deliveries, including 50 A350XWBs. Airbus expects its book-to-bill ratio to again exceed one.

Lufthansa now expects to receive the first A320neo over the next couple of weeks, rather than late last year as last projected. Brégier confirmed that the slight delay in part involves the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G engines for the new narrowbody. I plans to deliver the first A320neo with CFM Leap engines next summer.

“We have a few limitations [with the PW1100G],” said Brégier, citing issues such as the start time for the geared turbofans. “The start time of these big engines is higher than that of the V2500 [the IAE powerplant now offered as one of two options for the current A320 family]. But it will improve.”

Airbus expects start acclerating production of the A320neo in earnest in the second half of the year. In the first six months of 2016 Airbus wants to ensure production processes “stabilize” at its own factories and at those of its engine suppliers, COO Tom Williams told AIN. He expressed confidence that both Pratt & Whitney and CFM International [offering the Leap 1A engine] can increase their output as expected. Plans call for the A320neo to entirely replace the current version in production starting in mid-2019.

Airbus missed last year’s delivery target of 15 A350XWBs by one airplane. Brégier blamed seat and lavatory supplier Zodiac. He said he had exercised due patience and appeared irritated at the French firm's management team, who he said have been “in denial” about the problems.

Airbus has de-selected Zodiac as an A330neo cabin supplier. However, it does not intend to switch to another equipment manufacturer for the A350, as Zodiac has now instituted a satisfactory “action plan,” according to Brégier. Airbus's production rate plans call for a target output of 10 A350s per month by the end of 2018.

“Now, it is a question of how we bring carbon fiber up to speed [in terms of production rates],” Williams said. Reducing the amount of rework on composite sections of aircraft is important, too, he added. Airbus has begun adding more employees and machine-tools to increase production and make processes “very repeatable.”

It also hopes so-called digitalization will improve production across all Airbus plants and programs because, explained Brégier, it makes workers on the assembly line more connected with the company’s back offices. “We have to fix a lot of quality issues every year, and digitalization should help us anticipate and eradicate the problems,”  he said.

Airbus also worked on improving production rates for the A330 twinjet last year, he stressed. After collecting more orders for the existing model, the airframer now intends to build A330ceos at a rate of six per month until the A330neo enters full production.

In Tianjin, China, where Airbus already operates an A320 final assembly line, plans call for the launch of the investment for an A330 cabin completion and delivery center next month with an undisclosed Chinese partner. Airbus expects the facility to be ready in 2017.

Meanwhile, Airbus delivered 27 A380s last year, allowing it to break even on the program for 2015. Brégier attributed the accomplishment to cost cutting and indicated that he expects the company to manage break-even results even at annual delivery rates in the low 20s.

Airbus confirmed that late last year it did receive an order for three A380s from an undisclosed customer. Although COO customers John Leahy would say only that the contract involves “a global leading airline,” he did little to dampen widely reported speculation that the customer is Japan’s All Nippon Airways. However, Airbus also reported that Russia’s Transaero has cancelled one of its A380 orders, bringing the net sales tally to just two of the widebodies in 2015.

A German appeals court on Thursday reversed a lower court’s decision to block Etihad Airways and Air Berlin from code sharing on 26 international routes through the end of the IATA winter schedule. However, the court did uphold the earlier ruling on five of the 31 routes under dispute because the bilateral traffic agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Germany does not cover domestic services.  

“We are pleased with the ruling, which confirms 94 percent of Etihad Airways’ codeshares,” said Etihad CEO James Hogan. “This ruling is a victory for consumers and competition in Germany…We remain strongly committed to our strategic partner, Air Berlin, and will redouble our efforts to provide a strong competitive alternative to the dominant German carrier, Lufthansa.”

On December 31 the lower court upheld a government decision to withdraw code share rights between Eithad Airways and Air Berlin on 31 flights until March 26, drawing a sharp rebuke from the Persian Gulf airline and an appeal of the decision. Etihad holds a 29.2 percent stake in Air Berlin.

In October Etihad won an injunction allowing it to continue operating all its code-share flights with Air Berlin to the destinations in question to Europe, the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates. At the time, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure had still not approved Etihad’s code-sharing agreements for services during the IATA winter 2015/2016 schedule, which began October 25.

Although the injunction lasted until only November 8, the German government said the two carriers could continue their cooperation until January 15, giving it another 11 weeks to resolve differences with the UAE over what Etihad characterized as a unilateral change of opinion in 2014 by Germany’s Ministry of Transport concerning the code-share provisions of their bilateral air services agreement.

Since 2012, Germany’s civil aviation authority, the LBA, and the Ministry of Transport have approved seven Etihad Airways schedules, including all of its code shares with Air Berlin, on the basis of the Air Services Agreement signed by the UAE and Germany in March 1994 and the Agreed Minutes and Revised Route Schedule signed in June 2000, said the airline. Last year, however, the German government decided the bilateral agreement between the UAE and Germany did not cover Air Berlin’s code-share flights with Etihad.

United Airlines plans to scrap its only direct flight between the U.S. and Dubai in late January after seven years of operation due to what it called the addition of “subsidized” capacity by Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways into Washington D.C., the company revealed in an internal memo released Wednesday. United’s withdrawal means no U.S. airline will fly directly to Dubai after Delta Air Lines drops its service between Atlanta and the Gulf emirate in Februrary. 

“Due to Gulf carriers’ expansion and a recent U.S. government decision, we are discontinuing our Washington Dulles-Dubai service,” said United. “Our last departure from Washington, D.C., to Dubai will be on January 23, 2016, and the last departure from Dubai will be on January 25, 2016. Our joint venture partners Lufthansa Group and Air Canada will continue to serve Dubai.”

In August, the General Services Administration (GSA) announced that it awarded a U.S. government contract for 2016 on the Washington-Dubai route to JetBlue, a codeshare partner of Emirates Airline. The Dubai-based carrier will fly the route for JetBlue and carry some 15,000 government employees. United’s formal protest of the decision proved unsuccessful.

“It is unfortunate that the GSA awarded this route to an airline that has no service to the Middle East and will rely entirely on a subsidized foreign carrier to transport U.S. government employees, military personnel and contractors,” said United regulatory and policy vice president Steve Morrissey. “We believe this decision violates the intent of the Fly America Act, which expressly limits the U.S. government from procuring commercial airline services directly from a non-U.S. carrier. For the Washington to Dubai route, JetBlue merely serves as a booking agent for Emirates.”

United and fellow U.S. carriers American Airlines and Delta Air Lines have formed a lobbying group called the Partnership for Open and Fair Skies in an effort to convince the Obama Administration to revisit open skies agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The so-called Big Three U.S. carriers contend that that Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Emirates Airline all benefit unfairly from government subsidies. Not all the U.S. airlines have joined the campaign against the Persian Gulf carriers, however, as the likes of FedEx fear that other countries might retaliate by limiting their overseas operations.  

Meanwhile, the Gulf airlines not only deny the accusation, they charge that the U.S. airlines have benefitted from several anti-competitive policies of the U.S. government, including generous “stabilization grants,” public assumption of pension obligations, loan guarantees and bankruptcy relief from debt and other obligations following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. 

A German appeals court on Thursday reversed a lower court’s decision to block Etihad Airways and Air Berlin from code sharing on 26 international routes through the end of the IATA winter schedule. However, the court did uphold the earlier ruling on five of the 31 routes under dispute because the bilateral traffic agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Germany does not cover domestic services.  

“We are pleased with the ruling, which confirms 94 percent of Etihad Airways’ codeshares,” said Etihad CEO James Hogan. “This ruling is a victory for consumers and competition in Germany…We remain strongly committed to our strategic partner, Air Berlin, and will redouble our efforts to provide a strong competitive alternative to the dominant German carrier, Lufthansa.”

On December 31 the lower court upheld a government decision to withdraw code share rights between Eithad Airways and Air Berlin on 31 flights until March 26, drawing a sharp rebuke from the Persian Gulf airline and an appeal of the decision. Etihad holds a 29.2 percent stake in Air Berlin.

In October Etihad won an injunction allowing it to continue operating all its code-share flights with Air Berlin to the destinations in question to Europe, the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates. At the time, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure had still not approved Etihad’s code-sharing agreements for services during the IATA winter 2015/2016 schedule, which began October 25.

Although the injunction lasted until only November 8, the German government said the two carriers could continue their cooperation until January 15, giving it another 11 weeks to resolve differences with the UAE over what Etihad characterized as a unilateral change of opinion in 2014 by Germany’s Ministry of Transport concerning the code-share provisions of their bilateral air services agreement.

Since 2012, Germany’s civil aviation authority, the LBA, and the Ministry of Transport have approved seven Etihad Airways schedules, including all of its code shares with Air Berlin, on the basis of the Air Services Agreement signed by the UAE and Germany in March 1994 and the Agreed Minutes and Revised Route Schedule signed in June 2000, said the airline. Last year, however, the German government decided the bilateral agreement between the UAE and Germany did not cover Air Berlin’s code-share flights with Etihad.

Austrian air traffic management (ATM) and communications provider Frequentis Group has acquired ATM system manufacturer Comsoft, of Karlsruhe, Germany, through an insolvency proceeding, the companies announced. They did not disclose the value of the transaction.

Vienna-based Frequentis is an ATM ground infrastructure supplier of communications, information and tower automation systems to air navigation service providers and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. The company employs 1,250 people and generated €214 million ($233 million) in revenue in 2014.

Comsoft specializes in ground-based information and surveillance systems, and has supplied automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) stations to countries including Iceland, India and Papua New Guinea. In addition to its headquarters in Germany, Comsoft has locations in Singapore and the Philippines. It had annual revenue of €40 million ($43.5 million) in 2014.

The companies announced the sale to Frequentis on January 13. According to the announcement, Comsoft filed an application to open insolvency proceedings with the District Court in Karlsruhe in late October. The court began the proceedings on January 1 and appointed lawyer Christopher Seagon as the insolvency administrator. Seagon requested pre-financing of insolvency payments to provide wages and salaries for about 250 employees.

“Following intensive discussions with key stakeholders, Seagon stabilized the business and continued operations in the interim,” the companies said. “With the sale, Seagon secures around 220 jobs and the office location in Karlsruhe. Frequentis thus expands its portfolio, specifically in the areas of air traffic control and air traffic management. Both sides agreed not to disclose details of the sale.”

Under Frequentis, the German company will be called Comsoft Solutions. “I am pleased about this extension to the Frequentis Group,” stated CEO Hannes Bardach. “The high quality solution portfolio of Comsoft, as well as the competence of the Comsoft team, will support the Frequentis Group in its efforts to develop innovative solutions for the ATM market, consistent with international standards.”

Following the United Nations nuclear inspection breakthrough at the end of last week that cleared the way for lifting of sanctions on Iran, the country’s air transport industry appears poised to enter a period of modernization and growth. However, no clear picture has materialized over which manufacturers will emerge winners and losers, and when deliveries of new aircraft could start.

Some observers remain bullish, however. “Iran will buy a total of 80 to 90 airplanes per year from the two aviation giants in the first phase of renovating its air fleet,” Mohammad Khodakarami, caretaker director of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization (CAO), announced last year. “We will purchase airplanes from Boeing and Airbus in equal numbers.” Iranian industry officials project that that their airlines will need 400 to 500 aircraft worth at least $20 billion in total.

But Richard Aboulafia, vice president analysis with Teal Group, warned of several barriers to Iranian airlines’ ability to buy new airplanes. “The post-sanctions Iran aviation market will be good for exactly zero new aircraft,” he said, citing the effect of low oil prices on spending power; the wariness of aircraft finance houses to possible sanctions snapbacks; unexploited “back channels [that] could have allowed Iran to purchase aircraft if it really wanted them”; and “dismal brands” in the face of the Gulf super-connectors. “An aging legacy fleet doesn’t necessarily indicate a strong replacement market,” said Aboulafia. “In fact, very often it indicates that there’s really no market at all.”

Theodore Karasik, a Dubai-based senior advisor to Washington D.C. think tank Gulf State Analytics, told AIN the Iran civil aviation fleet consists of 250 aircraft at present. “They want to buy 400 airplanes by 2025, 100 of which will go to flag carrier Iran Air,” he said. “They spend 25 percent [of revenues] on MRO, compared to a global average of only 6 percent.”

The Middle East’s major airlines have not been slow to explore the Iran opportunity. Tehran served as Emirates Airline’s sole Iranian destination until earlier this year; the airline began flights to the Iranian capital in 1990. It began serving a second Iranian city, Mashhad, on September 1, with five weekly scheduled flights using Airbus A330-200s.

In addition to Tehran and Mashhad, Sharjah’s Air Arabia also serves Abadan, Isfahan, Lar and Shiraz. Meanwhile, Flydubai also serves all those routes apart from Abadan, plus Tabriz, Hamadan, Ahwaz and Bandar Abbas.

UK aviation consultancy OAG recently issued a report analyzing the Iran market, which it said had had grown at an average rate of 3 percent a year over the past decade. “In 2015 there were just over 22 million scheduled seats to, from and within Iran,” said the report. “Total capacity of 22 million for a country of almost 80 million people shows how much potential there is,” it continued. Schedules to, from and within Germany, whose population totals slightly more than 80 million, accounted for 250 million seats. IATA forecasts that Iran’s market will grow to 43 million seats by 2034.

The domestic market is home to 14 airlines but “the current trend appears to be one of decline,” as capacity shrunk 13 percent in 2015.

The largest domestic carrier, Iran Air, suffers from an old fleet and increased competition, and has seen its market share fall from 68 percent in 2000 to 33 percent in 2010 and, finally, to 22 percent last year.

International capacity has grown steadily since 2000, expanding by an average of 6 percent since 2010. While Iran Air lost market share, the likes of all-international carrier Mahan Air has gained in recent years. Still, the most dramatic growth has come from the Gulf carriers, which saw their share of Iranian capacity rise from 21 percent in 2010 to 33 percent in 2015. Turkish Airlines also has done well.

Overall, Iranian carriers’ share of international capacity has fallen since 2010, from 56 percent to 43 percent.

OAG says that 2016 will likely mark the first year in which international capacity exceeds domestic capacity in Iran. European carriers also plan new routes; for example, Air France plans to start services to Tehran from April.

But an incursion by foreign airlines represents only part of the Iranians’ challenge.

“One of the greatest challenges facing Iran’s airlines is not just increasing competition from international carriers but their aging fleets,” said the OAG report. “Decades of sanctions have affected carriers’ ability to source spare parts and new aircraft, resulting in an average fleet age of 22 years for Iranian airlines, twice the international average.”

An apparent difference of opinion between Iran’s ruling elite and the air transport industry over sourcing has led to ambiguity over which airframers appear in the best position to benefit from the lifting of sanctions.

Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ali Khamenei, has pledged Tehran will not cooperate with the West beyond the recently struck nuclear deal and will instead develop economic ties with China and Russia. His views have met with the uncompromised support of the defense ministry and local manufacturers under the ministry’s banner, whose interests lie primarily with development of in-house capability with Russian assistance.

Russian minister for transportation Maxim Sokolov said last year that negotiations on Sukhoi Superjets continued. According to Russian sources, Iranian airlines would get access to three aircraft for operational trials, wet leased from a Russian airline, most likely Red Wings.

Manouchehr Manteki, CEO of Iran Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO), told reporters last September that a preliminary agreement had been signed at the MAKS show in Moscow last year calling for the provision of two SSJ100s on operating lease terms.  

In late September Ilyushin Finance Company general manager Alexander Roubtsov told AIN his company has been talking to four Iranian airlines about the Superjet, as well as the Tupolev Tu-204 and the Irkut MC-21. “We will make an official offer to the Iranian airlines as soon as the sanctions regime is lifted,” he said.

However, Iran’s minister for roads and urban construction stated last year that the Sukhoi Superjet, for example, did not present an option for Iran’s airlines. “We have already reached preliminary agreements with the world’s leading manufacturers,” Ahmad Abbas Akhundi said, referring to Airbus and Boeing.

Although the U.S. trade embargo with Iran remains in place, it has lifted so-called secondary sanctions that applied to non-U.S. individuals and companies. The U.S. has also agreed to allow for limited business activities involving U.S. interests, including the sale of U.S.-made commercial aircraft and parts, clearing the way for direct negotiations between Boeing and Iranian Airlines. The EU, meanwhile, has lifted all nuclear-related financial and economic sanctions, including prohibitions against commercial aircraft transactions. Over the weekend Iranian transport minister Abbas Akhoundi told the semi-official Tasnim news agency that Iran plans to buy 114 civil aircraft from Airbus. However, Airbus has denied holding any direct talks with Iranian airlines.      

“We are studying our way forward in view of this new environment—in full compliance with all international laws,” said Airbus in a written statement.

Bombardier Commercial Aircraft has completed structural assembly of the first production C Series CS100 for launch customer Swiss International Airlines, following full equipage of the final assembly facility in Mirabel, Quebec, and the start of “ramp up” toward full serial production, the Canadian company announced Tuesday. Bombardier expects to deliver the first airplane to Swiss in the second quarter of this year.

On January 18 Swiss flight crews began their CS100 flight training in Mirabel, where they prepare for the route-proving flights alongside Bombardier’s flight crew when the CS100 route-proving aircraft flies to Europe in the coming weeks. The latest phase of preparation for service follows the completion of the North American route-proving program that included more than 35 cities. During the program, the CS100 aircraft conducted flights using typical airline flight routings and operational procedures.

“It's truly a spectacular sight to see the C Series final assembly line fully stacked with production aircraft in various stages of assembly, said Bombardier Commercial Aircraft president Fred Cromer. “The line itself has been designed for maximum production efficiency and our skilled production teams reached a milestone this month when they rolled out the first structurally complete aircraft that will enter service with Swiss in the next few months.”

Plans call for Bombardier to operate the European route proving program from Swiss International’s base in Zurich, Switzerland, using the airline’s schedules, flight crews, maintenance crews and aircraft destinations.

“In addition to the C Series aircraft production ramp-up and European route proving, our C Series program and engineering teams are working diligently alongside our customer services team, transferring employees to various areas for cross-functional training and aircraft familiarization,” said C Series program head Rob Dewar. “The timing is perfect as we now ready the European leg of the C Series route-proving program.”

Bombardier announced that the CS100 had received its type certificate from Transport Canada in December. Bombardier will continue to work with Transport Canada to validate the CS100’s training syllabus, the company said. Meanwhile, it expects the larger CS300 to gain its type certification within the next six months.

Embraer has started the parts production process for the second variant of its new E2 line of narrowbodies, the E195-E2, the company announced Tuesday. Workers have fabricated the lateral rib of the stub on the E195-E2 prototype’s central fuselage II section. Made of aeronautical aluminum, the structure took shape at one of the Embraer’s high-speed machining centers in São José dos Campos, Brazil.
“Just as the roll out and the maiden flight are milestones in any aeronautical program, so is the first metal cut,” said Embraer Commercial Aviation CEO Paulo Cesar Silva. “And it is no different with Embraer. It’s the moment when the aircraft begins to take shape, validating the thousands of hours of engineering development and the virtual drawings made in computers.”

The milestone comes roughly a month before the expected rollout of the 106-seat E190-E2, assembly of which Embraer finished in December. The company expects to fly that model by the second half of this year, possibly as early as July.

Meawhile, plans call for the E195-E2 fly next year, in time for scheduled first deliveries in the first of 2019.

While the E190-E2’s design calls for the same fuselage length now used in the current version of the E195, the E195-E2 will carry three more rows of seats, increasing standard two-class capacity from 108 to 120. Its 2,000 nm range will allow the aircraft to fly from Bangkok to virtually any point in Southeast Asia or virtually the whole African continent from Nairobi and all of South America from Brasilia.

Lufthansa on Wednesday took delivery of the first A320neo following a three-week delay involving engine-related documentation. The handover follows nearly two months of delivery preparation after the November 24 certification of the Pratt & Whitney PW11000G-powered narrowbody, now expected to enter service on Lufthansa's Frankfurt-Munich route on January 24. Lufthansa expects to take delivery of five A320neos by the end of the year.

Lufthansa Group has ordered 116 of the new family–including 45 A321neos–for its Lufthansa and Swiss operating units and Airbus has sold more than 4,400.

Lufthansa became the de-facto launch customer for the A320neo when Qatar Airways balked at an operating restriction related to its Pratt & Whitney engines. In fact, more than one hiccup involving the PW1100Gs during the course of the flight-test program forced Airbus to juggle certification work among its test articles to recoup time lost on the first aircraft, grounded in April by a defect in one of the engines and again in September by a separate problem the companies described as “minor.”

The original three-month pause in testing of the initial two A320neos, both GTF-powered, followed discovery of a manufacturing defect in a 10-inch-diameter retaining ring in the powerplant’s combustor section. Both aircraft had returned to testing by late July. Then, on September 30, Airbus confirmed it had to ground the first Pratt-powered example yet again, after finding a “minor problem” in one of its engines following hot-weather trials in Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates. At the time the company insisted that the incident would not affect plans to deliver the first airplane by the end of the year. Finally, on December 30, Airbus delayed delivery of the first A320neo by “a few weeks” to help Pratt & Whitney to address certain documentation items. 

Airbus continues flight trials of the CFM Leap-1A-powered version of the A320neo, scheduled for certification by the middle of the year.