United Airlines to launch nonstop flight between Singapore and San Francisco

United Airlines will introduce daily nonstop flights between Singapore’s Changi Airport and its San Francisco International Airport hub, it announced on Friday (Jan 29).

This will be the first nonstop service between Singapore and San Francisco and the only one to the US from Singapore. The Boeing 787-9 aircraft will be used for this nonstop service, it added.

Flying times will be approximately 15 hours, 30 minutes eastbound and 16 hours, 20 minutes westbound, saving customers up to four hours' journey time each way from previously available flights, the airline said.

Eastbound flights, which will start on Jun 3 subject to government approval, will depart Changi Airport at 8.45am daily, arriving at San Francisco International Airport at 9.15am the same day.

The westbound return flight will depart San Francisco at 11.25pm daily, arriving in Singapore at 6.45am two days later.

Vice President of Atlantic and Pacific Sales Marcel Fuchs said the new service will offer "unique benefits to customers travelling from Singapore not only to San Francisco but also to dozens of other cities across the Americas via our San Francisco hub".

The airline has timed the new flights to connect with destinations throughout the US, Canada and Latin America at San Francisco, providing a one-stop service between Singapore and more than 40 US cities. These 40 cities include more than 25 that do not currently have one-stop services from Singapore, it said.

With the launch of the nonstop Singapore-San Francisco service, United will terminate services between Singapore and Tokyo's Narita Airport from Jun 2. However, it will maintain its daily service between Singapore and Hong Kong.

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Tiger Airways continues recovery with higher Q3 net profit

Budget carrier Tiger Airways on Friday (Jan 22) posted a net profit of S$6.8 million for the three months to Dec 31, 2015, in a sign that business is turning around.

The net profit for the fiscal third quarter was a marked improvement over the S$2.2 million earned a year ago. It also marked a reversal of the S$12.8 million net loss reported for the second quarter ended Sep 30.

Tigerair's revenue for the quarter rose 1.5 per cent to S$187.4 million, while its fuel costs fell by a third to S$43.5 million.

Commenting on its prospects, Tigerair said economic conditions remain uncertain. Surplus capacity in the industry will continue to exert downward pressure on yields in the near term, it added.

The budget carrier also said, however, that low fuel prices offered some respite. Tigerair is current the subject of a takeover bid by majority shareholder Singapore Airlines, which wants to take the budget carrier private.

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Boeing cuts 747-8 production as air freight slows

Boeing said on Thursday (Jan 21) it would cut back production of its freight workhorse 747-8 aircraft by half as the air cargo industry slows.

Boeing said it could move from completing one 747-8 per month to one every two months from September.

The company said data in November showed air freight had contracted by 1.2 per cent over a year, even as air passenger volumes grew 5.9 per cent.

"We are closely monitoring the air cargo market as we work to win additional orders to support ongoing future production," said Boeing chief financial officer Greg Smith.

Boeing will take a US$569 million charge against after-tax earnings for the fourth quarter of 2015 for the production cut. Earnings will be reported on Jan 27.

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Singapore Airlines introduces new services to Canberra, Wellington

National carrier Singapore Airlines will operate a new route, called the "Capital Express", to Australia's Canberra and New Zealand's Wellington, it announced in a news release on Wednesday (Jan 20).

Subject to regulatory approvals, flights will operate four times per week from Sep 20 on a Singapore-Canberra-Wellington route, with return flights on a Wellington-Canberra-Singapore route, it said.

Route timings for the new route based on a launch date of Sep 20, 2016. (Table: Singapore Airlines)


Flights along the new route will be operated with the 266-seat retrofitted Boeing 777-200s fitted with 38 Business Class seats and 228 Economy Class seats, it added in the release.

Singapore Airlines said with the launch of Capital Express, it will be the first airline with flights between Canberra and Wellington, as well as the first to operate regularly scheduled international services to and from Canberra.

“This new service linking Singapore, Canberra and Wellington reflects the close ties between the three countries,” said Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong.

Flights will be available for booking through the Singapore Airlines website, call centres and travel agents in the coming weeks, the company said.

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Airlines to enjoy low fuel in 2016, costs under spotlight

Airlines can look forward to continuing low oil prices for at least this year, helping to boost profits and drive demand for travel, but need to be wary of a swift rebound and focus on staff costs, experts said at a conference on Monday.

Low oil brings non-fuel costs at airlines into the spotlight, and highlights the difference between legacy carriers such as Lufthansa and Air France-KLM and low-cost airlines like Ryanair, analysts said.

Oil prices hit their lowest since 2003 on Monday, as the market braced for additional Iranian exports after sanctions against the country were lifted over the weekend.

Mike Corley, head of Mercatus Energy Advisors, said at the Airline Economics conference in Dublin he would not be surprised to see oil prices drop by another US$5-US$10 a barrel, but cautioned that prices could bounce back quicker than people expect.

IAG CEO Willie Walsh, lauded for cost-cutting at British Airways and Iberia, said the group would continue to focus on costs in 2016 and labor would probably be the biggest part of its cost base this year as fuel comes down.

"We compete with the likes of Ryanair, the most aggressive low-cost airline in Europe. We've got to have a cost base that enables us to compete in an effective manner," he said, highlighting a decision to move some office jobs to Krakow, Poland.

Jozsef Varadi, CEO of low-cost carrier Wizz Air , said only 8 percent of costs at the eastern European carrier were staff costs but it too had to keep cutting because labor costs would otherwise creep up with inflation.

"Others run campaigns for reducing costs but that's how we do business," he told Reuters, adding the carrier was nearing Ryanair in terms of its cost base.

Low prices are also prompting more airlines to look into their fuel hedging strategies, with some wanting to hedge and others scaling back existing programs, Mercatus' Corley said.

U.S. airlines are typically much less hedged than their European counterparts.

United Airlines used to hedge around 30-40 percent of its annual fuel needs but that is down at around 15 percent for the current year, Ted North, managing director corporate finance, said.

However, low oil prices were not expected to result in airlines cancelling orders for new fuel-efficient planes, developed when the oil price was high, Peter Morris, chief economist at Ascend, said.

"The oil price has gone down, but the added benefit is someone has brought a whole new range of toys to play with," he said.

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New pilot school boosts Singapore's hub status

A NEW pilot school has opened near Changi Airport, boosting Singapore's status as a key training centre in a region where there is growing demand for cockpit crew.

Housed in a six-storey facility at Changi Business Park Crescent, the $95 million Haite Singapore Aviation Training Centre is owned by China-based aerospace firm Haite Group.

Catering mainly to airlines in South-east Asia, it has two flight simulators and aims to add five more over the next five years. With seven simulators, it will be able to provide about 50,000 training hours a year.

Haite Singapore managing director Marc Nadeau expects to secure its first airline customer over the next few days but declined to say which one.

It is the group's first such facility outside China where it currently trains more than 2,000 pilots and flight crew each year for airlines such as Air China, China Eastern and Philippine Airlines.

With airlines buying more aircraft, it is estimated that more than half a million new pilots will be needed globally in the next 20 years.

Four in 10 are expected to be hired by Asian carriers.

Singapore Technologies (ST) Aerospace also has a pilot training arm and in the first quarter of next year, Singapore Airlines and aircraft manufacturer Airbus will open their new pilot school at Seletar Aerospace Park.

Mr Nadeau said: "We have some very big players in the region but each player has its own particular role. We are addressing not just the commercial aviation market but also business aviation and the helicopter segment. This is where we distinguish ourselves. We address all aircraft types and all aircraft segments."

Speaking at the official opening of the facility yesterday, Senior Minister of State for Transport Josephine Teo said Haite is a welcome addition to Singapore's aviation industry, which has more than 100 companies offering a full suite of services, such as aircraft maintenance and repair, parts distribution, and aircraft leasing.

Ms Teo said the firm's presence here "is a testament to Singapore's importance as an aerospace hub for the region and an excellent example of how we can partner Chinese companies to facilitate their international expansion, especially into the growing South- east Asian market".

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Batik Air flight makes emergency landing in Indonesia, no bomb found

An Indonesian Batik Air flight with 122 people on board made an emergency landing in Makassar in South Sulawesi after a suspected bomb threat, a government official said on Friday.

No bomb was found on the plane.

"I got a call from Sultan Hasanuddin airport in Makassar giving information about a bomb on Batik Air flight flying from Ambon to Jakarta," said J.A. Barata, spokesman for the transport ministry.

"Details on how they found out is unclear yet, I'm still waiting for information. The police is in charge of that now."

The plane was isolated from other flights and airport operations were not affected, said Tommy Soetomo, chief executive of airport operator Ankasara Pura I.

Batik Air is a subsidiary of Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air.

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Scoot to launch flights between Singapore and Kaohsiung

Scoot will launch flights between Singapore and the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung from Jul 9 this year, the budget airline announced on Thursday (Apr 16).

The airline’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft will operate the thrice-weekly flights, said Scoot in a news release.

The Singapore-Kaohsiung flight will depart at 7:55am on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from Jul 9. Meanwhile, the flight from Kaohsiung to Singapore will depart at 9:30pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from Jul 9.

Scoot currently operates daily flights between Singapore and Taipei.

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The jumbo jet faces a make or break year at Boeing, Airbus

The jumbo jet, for many years the workhorse of modern air travel, could be close to running out of runway.

Last year, there were zero orders placed by commercial airlines for new Boeing 747s or Airbus A380s, reflecting a fundamental shift in the industry toward smaller, twin-engine planes. Smaller planes cost less to fly than the stately, four-engine jumbos, which can carry as many as 525 passengers.

The slump in sales of the jets has raised questions over how long manufacturers can sustain production. It has also fueled internal debate in both companies over the future of the planes, sources said.

The outcome of those discussions will affect the value of existing fleets and thousands of production jobs at the plane makers and their many parts suppliers.

Sales forces at Airbus Group NV and Boeing Co are fighting for potential orders plane by plane as they seek to keep production going beyond the end of the decade, said other aviation market sources. The aircraft makers are offering discounts of at least 50 percent from catalog prices of around US$400 million for a jumbo jet, those sources said. Airbus has said it is also considering a revamp to make its 'superjumbo' more attractive to buyers.

Boeing in September plans to slow the pace of production of its latest 747-8 model to an average of 1.3 planes a month from 1.5 currently. At that rate the orders it already has in hand will only keep the production line going for 2 1/2 years.

The crunch, though, will come earlier because it can take up to two years from ordering the first part to finishing a jet, and no one wants to start the process if it is unclear whether the plane will be completed and delivered to a customer.

"I can see demand for the 747-8 in small numbers, but you have got to ask if they can keep the production line open if they don't get some new orders," said Tony Whitty, chief executive of UK-based aircraft re-marketing firm Cabot Aviation, which trades, manages and leases jets. "You also wonder at what price they are selling."



LONG DESCENT
Use of the 747 has dropped steadily over the last two decades, reflecting the rise of two-engine jets that have come close to matching its range. Over the same period production of large twin-engined jets like the Boeing 777 has risen seven-fold. Last year, Boeing booked 283 new orders for the 777 and now has a backlog of 547 orders.

Airbus is more upbeat than Boeing about the prospects for jumbo jets but both now agree it has become a niche category. Airlines still need jumbo jets but only for certain polar flights - where a two-engine jet may be less safe than a four-engine jumbo because of the lack of places for an emergency landing - and busy routes where landing slots are scarce.

The risk is most visible for Boeing, where investors could face a US$1 billion accounting charge if 747 production is shut down, according to company disclosures.

Boeing recently received a high-profile boost with a provisional order for two new jets to serve as Air Force One for the U.S. President but the 747's future depends a lot more on sales of the much-less glamorous windowless freight model. That has a unique hinged nose and can carry very large equipment, such as oil drilling rigs.

So far this year, Boeing has sold three. Atlas Air Worldwide recently said it plans to order more for its cargo fleet, but wouldn't say when or how many. The world's biggest 747 freight customer, Cargolux , also says it likes the plane, but has a pending order for only three.

A sustained upturn in air freight traffic could secure the 747 a longer future. International freight traffic rose 4.8 percent last year, but volume has only just recovered from a collapse in 2009 during the financial crisis.



CARGO HAULER
Boeing reckons some 143 older freighters will need to be replaced, stretching demand for the 747 through the 2020s, the program vice president, Bruce Dickinson, said in an interview.

"We know there is a long-term market for this airplane and some of the unique things it can do," Dickinson said from his office overlooking the 747 production line at the giant Everett plant near Seattle.

But Boeing’s effort to sell new 747s is overshadowed by the many older 747s available for lease, which have suddenly been made more attractive because of a big slide in fuel prices since the middle of last year. Leasing companies say there is scant interest in new 747-8s when 82 freighters are baking in desert parking lots.

The older planes can be leased for as little as US$400,000 a month, compared with up to US$1.4 million in monthly lease payments for a new 747-8 freighter, experts say.

"That's a pretty big difference," said Gueric Dechavanne, vice president at Collateral Verifications, a Connecticut-based aircraft appraisal firm.

Some companies have extended 747 leases for three to four years, said Aengus Kelly, chief executive of leasing company AerCap .

"It's a challenge to lease a freighter," Kelly told Reuters. "It's definitely a challenge to sell them."

Airbus’s A380 is a newer plane – its first flight was almost exactly 10 years ago - and has become a mainstay of Middle East carriers that offer opulent suites to first class passengers. But the drop in demand is prompting Airbus to weigh whether to revamp the plane with new engines, or carry on with the existing model.

Airbus has 161 orders for the planes in hand, or more than five years of production. But it acknowledges that not all of those jets will be delivered, leaving it with barely three years of guaranteed output. Given the long lead times, Airbus must bring in more orders soon to avoid having to taper production.

“We are always looking at product improvements, but there is so much untapped potential in the existing aircraft,” said Airbus marketing head Chris Emerson.

Airbus could announce an A380 revamp as early as the Dubai Airshow in November, but must first find a way to assure investors it can recover several billion dollars of development costs, sources said. Analysts say on option could be to apply for more European government loans, though that risk

s exacerbating trade tensions with the United States.

Top customer Emirates is offering to double its planned purchase of 140 A380s if Airbus carries out the improvements, which the Dubai carrier’s Chief Executive Tim Clark tells Reuters will be "extremely good for the (airline’s) bottom line."

But Airbus’s board is unlikely to back a new A380 model for just one customer.

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Asiana Airways plane hits antenna as it lands at Japan airport

An Asiana Airways plane smashed into a communications antenna as it came in to land at a Japanese airport, footage showed Wednesday, injuring 27 people in an accident redolent of the airline's fatal 2013 crash in San Francisco.

Aerial footage from Hiroshima airport in western Japan showed the localiser - a large gate-like structure, six metres (18 feet) high that sits some distance from the start of the runway - splintered, with debris spread towards the landing strip.

Sets of wheelmarks were visible on the grass area in front of the runway, while at least one large fragment of the localiser - which aircraft use to find the landing strip - was on the tarmac.

Several hundred metres away, skid marks showed the Airbus A320 had careered off the runway and rotated more than 90 degrees. What appeared to be a chunk of the localiser was seen dangling from one wing and emergency escape chutes were deployed.

Those on board flight OZ162 from Incheon, near Seoul, to Hiroshima, spoke of terror and confusion.

"There was smoke coming out and some of the oxygen masks fell down. Cabin attendants were in such a panic and I thought 'we are going to die'," a woman told Japanese networks late Tuesday.

All 73 passengers and eight crew members had evacuated, and no one was killed, but 25 passengers and two crew members had been injured, Japanese officials said.

An aviation safety official at the transport ministry in Tokyo told AFP that teams of investigators were on their way.

"The left side of the aircraft's horizontal tail was damaged... but how the accident occurred should be determined as the transport safety board carry out their investigation," he said.

The South Korean carrier said 18 passengers - 14 Japanese, two Koreans and two Chinese - had been hurt. Only one of them had to stay overnight in hospital. There was no explanation for the discrepancy between Asiana and the Japanese authorities.

"Asiana Airlines apologises for causing concern to the passengers and the people over the accident," it said in a press statement.

"Asiana Airlines has immediately set up a response team to cope with the aftermath.

"As to the determination of the cause of the accident, we will co-operate as closely as possible with the relevant authorities." An Asiana spokeswoman told AFP in Seoul it was checking Japanese news reports that the flight was approaching the runway at a lower altitude than normal before it grazed the communications tower near the runway.

Tuesday's accident carries echoes of an Asiana flight that crashed in San Francisco in July, 2013, killing three people and leaving 182 injured.

US investigators concluded that a mismanaged approach for landing in a highly automated cockpit was the probable cause of the accident, in which a Boeing 777 clipped a sea wall with its landing gear, then crashed and burst into flames.

The South Korean Transport ministry ordered a 45-day suspension of Asiana Airlines' service to San Francisco as a penalty.

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Air Canada flight makes abrupt landing in Halifax

An Air Canada plane came off the runway after landing at Halifax Stanfield International Airport in Nova Scotia early Sunday, the airline reported, as passengers and crew were checked for injuries.

The airline said on Twitter that flight AC624 from Toronto "exited runway upon landing at Halifax. All passengers have deplaned, going to terminal."

Air Canada did not say what caused the aircraft to leave the runway after landing, but heavy snow was forecast in the eastern Canadian city. Environment Canada issued a snowfall alert and warned of low visibility.

Halifax Airport said 23 people were taken to hospital for observation and treatment of minor injuries.

There were 132 passengers and five crew aboard the flight, which departed from Toronto at 9:05 pm (0105 GMT Sunday).

Flightaware.com said the aircraft was an Airbus A320.

Several counties in the the eastern coastal province of Nova Scotia were affected by Saturday's winter weather alert.

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Crash pilot was psychiatric patient, planned big gesture - paper

The co-pilot suspected of deliberately crashing an airliner, killing 150 people, had told his girlfriend he was planning a spectacular gesture so "everyone will know my name", a German daily said on Saturday.

The Bild newspaper published an interview with a woman who said she had had a relationship in 2014 with Andreas Lubitz, the man French prosecutors believe locked himself alone in the cockpit of the Germanwings Airbus on Tuesday and steered it into the French Alps, killing all on board.

"When I heard about the crash, I remembered a sentence... he said: 'One day I'll do something that will change the system, and then everyone will know my name and remember it'," said the woman, a flight attendant the paper gave the pseudonym of Maria W.

"I didn't know what he meant by that at the time, but now it's obvious," she said. "He did it because he realised that, due to his health problems, his big dream of working at Lufthansa, of a having job as a pilot, and as a pilot on long-distance flights, was nearly impossible."

"He never talked much about his illness, only that he was in psychiatric treatment," she told the paper, adding they finally broke up because she was afraid of him.

"He would suddenly freak out in conversations and yell at me," she recalled. "At night he would wake up screaming 'we are crashing' because he had nightmares. He could be good at hiding what was really going on inside him."

The woman also told Bild: "We always talked a lot about work and then he became a different person. He became upset about the conditions we worked under: too little money, fear of losing the contract, too much pressure."

A Lufthansa spokesman declined to comment. The company and its low-cost subsidiary Germanwings took out full-page advertisements in major German and French newspapers on Saturday, expressing "deepest mourning".

Lufthansa and Germanwings offered condolences to the friends and families of the passengers and crew and thanked the thousands of people in France, Spain and Germany it said had helped since the crash.

German officials said there would be a ceremony on April 17 in Cologne Cathedral attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and senior officials from other countries including France and Spain.

Also on Saturday, relatives of the Germanwings captain whom Lubitz locked out of the cockpit before the crash visited a memorial to the victims in the French Alps, while a special mass was held at the small cathedral in nearby Digne-les-Bains.

"OVERSTRESS SYMPTOMS"
German authorities said on Friday they had found torn-up sick notes showing the co-pilot had been suffering from an illness that should have grounded him on the day of the tragedy. Germanwings, the budget airline of the flag carrier Lufthansa, has said he did not submit a sick note at the time.

German newspaper Welt am Sonntag quoted a senior investigator as saying the 27-year-old "was treated by several neurologists and psychiatrists", adding that a number of medications had been found in his Duesseldorf apartment.

Police also discovered personal notes that showed Lubitz suffered from "severe subjective overstress symptoms", he added.

The New York Times on Saturday quoted officials as saying Lubitz had also sought treatment for vision problems that may have jeopardized his ability to work as a pilot.

German state prosecutors and police spokesmen declined to comment on the media reports, adding there would be no official statements on the case before Monday.

Investigators have retrieved cockpit voice recordings from one of the plane's "black boxes", which they say show that Lubitz locked himself alone in the cockpit, as his fellow pilot desperately tried to break in, and caused the airliner to crash.

A chief French investigator said on Saturday it was too early to rule out other explanations for the crash.

"There is obviously a scenario that is well known to the media and which we are focusing on," French investigator General Jean-Pierre Michel told French media.

"But we have no right today to rule out other hypotheses, including the mechanical hypotheses, as long as we haven't proved that the plane had no (mechanical) problem," he added, pointing out that a second black box containing flight data had not been found yet.

(Additional reporting by Georg Merziger, Maria Sheahan, Tom Käckenhoff, Ingrid Melander and Reuters television; Editing by Andrew Roche and Raissa Kasolowsky)

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150 killed in plane crash in French Alps

A plane operated by the budget carrier of Germany's Lufthansa crashed in a remote area of the French Alps on Tuesday (Mar 24), killing all 150 on board in France's worst aviation disaster in decades.

With the cause of the accident a complete mystery, authorities recovered a black box from the Airbus A320 at the crash site, where rescue efforts were being hampered by the mountainous terrain.

Local MP Christophe Castaner, who flew over the crash site, said on Twitter: "Horrendous images in this mountain scenery. Nothing is left but debris and bodies. Flying over the crash site with the interior minister - a horror - the plane is totally destroyed."

Video images from a government helicopter flying near the area showed a desolate snow-flecked moonscape, with steep ravines covered in scree.

Budget airline Germanwings said the Airbus plunged for eight minutes but French aviation officials said the plane had made no distress call before crashing near the ski resort of Barcelonnette.

"A black box was found and will be delivered to investigators," Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said. Weather did not appear to be a factor in the crash, with conditions "calm" at the time.

"There was no cloud at the plane's cruising altitude", winds were "light to moderate" and there was no turbulence that could have contributed to the crash, French weather officials said.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls said there were no survivors, adding that the authorities "can't rule out any theory" on the cause of the disaster.

The plane, carrying 144 mainly Spanish and German passengers - including two babies - and six crew, was travelling from Barcelona to the western German city of Duesseldorf when it came down.

German authorities said 16 German teenagers on a school trip were on board the doomed plane, as tearful relatives rushed to the airports in the two cities anxiously seeking information about their loved ones.

'IT IS A TRAGEDY'

It was the first fatal accident in the history of Germanwings, and the deadliest on the French mainland since 1974 when a Turkish Airlines crashed, killing 346 people.

French President Francois Hollande said he would meet his German and Spanish counterparts at the crash site on Wednesday. "It is a tragedy, a new airline tragedy. We will determine what caused the crash," Hollande said.

The dead included Germans, Spaniards and "probably" Turks, Hollande said, while Belgium said at least one of its nationals was on board.

Germanwings said 67 Germans were believed to have been on board while Spain said 45 people with Spanish sounding names were on the flight.

A crisis cell has been set up in the area between Barcelonnette and Digne-les-Bains along with an emergency flight control centre to coordinate the chopper flights to the crash site.

Authorities commandeered a large meadow with dozens of helicopters taking off to head to the crash site. Valls said one helicopter had been able to touch down at the site of the accident but locals described the difficult terrain that awaited rescue teams.

"Ground access is horrible, I know the Estrop massif, it's a very high mountainous area, very steep and it's terrible to get there except from the air during winter," local resident Francoise Pie said. A witness who was skiing near the crash site told French television he "heard an enormous noise" around the time of the disaster.

'DARK DAY'

The plane belonged to Germanwings, a low-cost affiliate of German flag carrier Lufthansa based in Cologne. "We've never had a total loss of aircraft in the company's history until now," a company spokeswoman told AFP. Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr described it as a "dark day."

A spokesman for Airbus, the European aerospace giant, did not give any information about possible causes but said the company had opened a "crisis cell" and was sending experts to the scene.

French civil aviation authorities said they lost contact with the plane and declared it was in distress at 10.30am (5.30pm Singapore time). However, the aircraft's crew did not send a distress signal, civil aviation authorities told AFP.

"The crew did not send a Mayday. It was air traffic control that decided to declare the plane was in distress because there was no contact with the crew of the plane," the source said.

In 1981, a plane crashed on the French island of Corsica with 180 people on board.

In July 2000, an Air France Concorde crashed shortly after take-off from Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport en route for New York, leaving 113 people, leaving mainly Germans dead and eventually leading to the supersonic airliner being taken out of service.

The world's worst air disasters remain the Mar 27, 1977, collision of two Boeing 747s on the runway at Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 people, and the Aug 12, 1985 crash into a mountainside of a Boeing 747 belonging to Japan Airlines, killing 520 people.

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Hong Kong airport gets green light for S$25bn third runway

The Hong Kong government gave final approval today (March 17) for a third runway at the Asian financial centre's airport, aiming to meet surging growth in passengers and air cargo.

Officials said the project will begin next year and cost HK$141.5 billion (S$25 billion).

About 650 hectares of land will be reclaimed from the sea for the runway and a new passenger building. Construction is expected to be completed by 2023.

Hong Kong International Airport expects to reach maximum capacity under its current layout by 2022 at the latest.

Last year, the airport handled 63.4 million passengers and 4.4 million metric tons of cargo, both records.

The airport predicts that the third runway will allow it to handle 102 million passengers and 8.9 million tons of freight a year by 2030.

Across Asia, airport operators are scrambling to build new terminals or expand existing ones to keep up with growth in air travel.


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Qatar Airways boss accuses Delta of flying 'crap' planes

The chief of Qatar Airways on Monday denied his company receives subsidies and accused rivals Delta Air Lines of flying "crap" older planes, escalating hostilities between Gulf and American carriers.

Speaking at an arts conference in Doha, Akbar al-Baker said any money his airline receives from the state is in the form of "legitimate" equity and added his company's fleet of aircraft were much cleaner for the environment in comparison to Delta.

"I think Mr Anderson (CEO of Delta, Richard Anderson) doesn't know the difference between equity and subsidy. We never receive any subsidy," Baker said.

He was responding to claims made earlier this month by three US airlines - Delta, American and United - that Qatar, along with carriers in the United Arab Emirates have received US$42 billion in unfair subsidies to wrest business away from competitors.

Baker also accused Delta of flying "crap airplanes that are 35 years old", when talking about pollution by the aviation industry.

In contrast, Baker said Qatar Airways had an "ultra-modern fleet" and was the lowest CO2 contributor in the aviation industry.

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Singapore Airlines' passenger numbers fall in February

Singapore Airlines (SIA) carried fewer passengers in February amid a decline in capacity.

SIA’s passenger load factor fell 1.6 percentage points on-year to 75.2 per cent in February, the airline said in a news release on Monday (Mar 16). SIA's systemwide passenger carriage fell 3.5 per cent on-year, with a 1.3 per cent reduction in capacity.

The greatest drop in passenger demand was for routes plying the Americas and Europe. These fell 7.4 percentage points and 5.4 percentage points respectively, said the airline.

“The competitive landscape continues to be challenging,” said SIA. “Singapore Airlines will remain nimble to redeploy capacity to better match market demand and promotional activities will continue in relevant markets.”

SILKAIR PASSENGER NUMBERS IMPROVE
However, SilkAir’s passenger numbers went up in February, with a 1.2 percentage-point increase on-year in passenger load factor, to 72.7 per cent.

SilkAir carried 10.3 per cent more passengers in February, while there was a 12 per cent on-year increase in capacity.

The overall cargo load factor went up by 5.2 percentage points to 63.3 per cent. Cargo traffic went up 17.1 per cent, while overall capacity rose 7.6 per cent. The load factor went up for all route regions as the capacity changes were closely matched with demand, said SIA.

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SIA gives older pilots a month's extension

Singapore Airlines (SIA) will allow captains above the age of 62 to fly until the end of April instead of March, as earlier announced, following discussions with the pilots' union and the Manpower Ministry.

The one-month extension was given as talks over SIA's decision not to re-hire retiring pilots continue, airline spokesman Nicholas Ionides said.

Both sides are exploring more long-term options, including allowing captains to stay until they turn 64, with shorter flying hours, The Straits Times has learnt.

Another alternative is to have them take no-pay leave. No further details were available.

The Manpower Ministry was approached by SIA and the Air Line Pilots Association - Singapore to help resolve the matter.

Last month, SIA said it would stop offering re-employment to captains above the retirement age of 62. Those already on re-employment contracts - that allowed them to fly until they are 64 - would also have to leave by the end of March, the airline said.

The decision affected more than 90 captains, including the union president, Captain Mok Hin Choon.

At the time, SIA, which employs about 2,400 pilots, said the decision was necessitated by a manpower surplus that has persisted in the past few years and is not expected to change until March next year at least.

The excess manpower is due to network changes and a challenging business environment, and despite measures taken to alleviate the surplus, including voluntary no-pay leave and voluntary movements to subsidiaries.

The challenges have hit business, with operating profit at the parent carrier plunging by 33 per cent year-on-year to $87 million in the three months to Dec 31.

Various measures, including plans to launch a premium economy product in August, have been taken to boost yields and profits.

To counter a slowdown in the premium air travel market, SIA started long-haul budget carrier Scoot more than two years ago and has taken a bigger stake in short-haul airline Tigerair.

But it will take time for the benefits to be realised, industry analysts said, and, until then, SIA will continue to watch its expenses, including manpower costs.

When contacted yesterday, Capt Mok declined to comment, citing ongoing negotiations.

The Straits Times, however, understands that if the dispute is not resolved, the union is likely to take the matter to the Industrial Arbitration Court.

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Rescuers scour Taiwan crash site as pilot hailed a hero

Taiwan rescuers scoured a river for 12 people still missing from a TransAsia plane crash on Thursday (Feb 5), as the pilot, who died in the crash, was hailed a hero for apparently battling to avoid hitting built-up areas.

Hundreds of rescuers in boats, as well as divers and soldiers mounted the search in the chilly waters, as the death toll rose to 31 with more bodies located including those of the pilot and co-pilot, authorities said. The TransAsia ATR 72-600 crashed shortly after take-off from Songshan airport in Taipei on Wednesday, hitting an elevated road as it banked sidelong towards the Keelung River, leaving a trail of debris including a smashed taxi.

In an operation overnight, large parts of the plane's fuselage were lifted from the river, enabling rescuers to recover bodies trapped inside, as divers on Thursday battled strong currents to search downstream for more victims.

Fifteen people were injured in the incident, while 12 people remained missing from the 58 people on board flight GE235. The two persons in the taxi clipped by the plane were still hospitalised, said TransAsia Airways in a statement.

The airline has started giving out emergency relief funds of NT$200,000 (S$8,600) to the families of those affected - those on board and those who were in the taxi. Nine families have received the funds, and the airline is in the process of giving out the money to the remaining families. TransAsia has also given out funeral allowance of NT$1.2 million (S$51,000) to the families of the victims who have been identified, it said.

Pilot Liao Chien-tsung was applauded by aviation experts for apparently steering the turboprop plane, which had 53 passengers and five crew on board, away from populated areas, potentially avoiding more deaths and damage. "The pilot apparently made a conscious effort to avoid further and unnecessary casualties by ditching in the river. It was a very courageous move," Hong Kong-based aviation analyst Daniel Tsang told AFP.

Emotional citizens posted their praise and condolences on social media sites. "I believe the pilot managed to steer the plane away from high-rise buildings, he is a hero," Gin Oy, a writer and actress, said on her Facebook page.

The Apple Daily newspaper ran a front-page story thanking "the pilot for saving Taipei". "We are proud of him. He was very brave to avoid the buildings," Liao's aunt told reporters at a funeral home in Taipei. Friends and relatives described the 41-year-old Liao as a diligent and family-loving man from a humble background who studied hard to join the air force before becoming a commercial pilot.

President Ma Ying-jeou paid his respects to the victims and comforted their families at a funeral home in Taipei and was scheduled to visit the wounded at several hospitals later Thursday.

Near the river, dozens of weeping relatives called out the names of their loved who perished as monks chanted scripts and waved the victims' clothes in front the plane's wreckage in a religious ritual to guide the spirits home.

Condolences from aboard poured in. Pope Francis sent a message to Taiwan's archbishop Hung Shan-chuan offering prayers for the dead and "strength and comfort" for the injured and mourning. The United States' de facto embassy in Taiwan also offered its condolences.




TODDLER'S ESCAPE

Tales of miraculous escapes have emerged. Television footage showed a father cuddling his toddler son as they were taken to shore by boat after being rescued on Wednesday. Together with the child's mother, the family had switched seats on the plane "out of a hunch" that saved their lives, the United Daily News said, quoting a family friend.

Their new seats put them next to a crack in the plane after it crashed and Lin was able to pull his wife to safety and then revive his son after spotting him in the water, blue and unresponsive.

"My brother just can't live without his son. When he found him, after lying in cold water for three minutes and with no signs of breathing or heartbeat, he performed CPR. He brought his son back," survivor Lin's brother Lin Ming-yi told reporters.

The accident, which occurred on a domestic route to the island of Kinmen, was the second fatal crash for TransAsia since July. Desperate crew shouted "Mayday! Mayday! Engine flameout!" as the plane plunged out of the sky, according to a recording thought to be the final message from the cockpit to the control tower.

Among the 15 survivors of the crash, 26-year-old flight attendant Huang Jin-ya was lucky for the second time - she was supposed to be on the plane that crashed in July, killing 48, but switched her shift, according to local reports. "She crawled out of the plane using her last moments of consciousness and saw water everywhere. She kept crying and said to me 'I thought I was going to die'," said her aunt according to United Daily News.

A total of 31 Chinese nationals were onboard the plane, with at least 16 dead, 12 missing and three injured, the government said. Some of the grieving relatives arrived in Taiwan on Thursday. Local media reported that among the Chinese victims, 26-year-old tour leader Wang Qinghuo from Xiamen was due to get married on Sunday.

The Civil Aeronautics Administration has grounded a total of 22 ATR planes from two Taiwanese airlines for safety checks following the accident.

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ICAO establishes minute-by-minute aircraft tracking

An international aviation summit gave strong backing on Wednesday (Feb 4) to a plan to have all commercial flights emit a distress signal every minute in emergencies, in response to last year's Malaysia Airlines disaster.

A large majority of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)'s 191 member states are in favour of implementing the plan as soon as possible, said officials, paving the way for its adoption next year.

The plan was prompted by last year's disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in what remains one of history's great aviation mysteries. The aircraft, with 239 people on board, has never been found, nearly a year on.

"Global tracking will not prevent accidents," said ICAO chairman Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu. Radar can track a plane but coverage is spotty and fades when aircraft are out at sea or they are flying below a certain altitude.

Under the new rules, airlines will be required to track their aircraft using a system that gives their location at 15-minute intervals. "When an airplane is in distress, the system will repeat the signal every minute," Aliu told a press conference.

The ICAO Council is expected to ratify the proposal in November, making it obligatory for all airlines starting in 2016. According to officials, it's the quickest and easiest fix to a growing air safety concern - locating downed aircraft. "We can do it today and it's not expensive," said Nancy Graham, director of the ICAO's Air Navigation Bureau.

The head of the International Air Transport Association, which speaks for the airline industry, agreed. "A number of airlines are planning to improve now the ways of tracking their airplanes," IATA president Tony Tyler said.

At the Montreal meeting due to wrap up on Thursday, delegates also agreed in principal on a new way to disseminate warnings about the imminent risks of flying over war zones. A repository would be created containing all risk information, much of which is currently available to carriers but is often fragmented.

The creation of a central database administered by the ICAO is in response to the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 last July after being shot down over eastern Ukraine.

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Several dead after TransAsia plane crash lands in Taipei river

A TransAsia Airways plane has crash landed into the Keelung River in Taipei, breaking into several pieces and injuring more than 10 people. At least 12 people have been reported dead.

Sixteen people have been rescued and sent to hospital, of which two of them were dead on arrival, said Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA). Thirty are still trapped or missing, reported TVBS. More than a hundred rescuers are currently involved.

The plane, TransAsia GE235, had 58 people aboard when it crash landed at 10.56am, local time, reported TVBS. Of the 58, there were 51 adults, two children and five crew members. Taiwan's CAA said the plane lost contact at 10.53am.

Thirty-one mainland Chinese tourists were among those on board, Taiwan's tourism bureau said.

The plane was an ATR-72, which just arrived in Taiwan last year, reported TVBS. The plane was on a domestic flight when it hit a road bridge before ploughing into the river, the AFP reported.

Taiwan's TransAsia Airways was involved in a deadly crash in July last year, when its plane, GE222, attempted to land in stormy weather and crashed on the island of Penghu, killing 48 people and wrecking houses and cars on the ground.

Footage taken from TVBS shows the plane hitting a vehicle while passing close to a highway.

Unverified images from a Twitter user in Taiwan have shown images of the plane flying close to a highway and going almost sideways before it hit the river.

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