MARCH 2020 PAGE 30 THE FLYING COLUMN


RYANAIR announced a new route Mykonos-Budapest 1w from July 2020


ICAO reports that some 70 airlines have can- celled all international flights to/from mainland China, and that a further 50 airlines have cur- tailed related air operations. This resulted in an 80pc reduction of foreign airline capacity for travellers directly to and from China, and a 40pc capacity reduction by Chinese airlines. Prior to the outbreak, airlines had planned to increase capacity by 9pc on international routes to China for 2020 Q1 compared to 2019. ICAO estimates that 2020 Instead Q1 seen capacity drop 40pc, or a reduction of about 18m passen- gers compared to what airlines had projected, a potential reduction of US$4 to 5 bn in gross operating revenues for airlines worldwide. Aer Lingus say no additional A321LRs will be available to the airline until the autumn, so no new routes will be added in summer 2021.


A380 The first Airbus A380 to be retired after 10 years in service arrived at Ireland West


Airport Knock for dismantling. Dismantling an A380 is within the capability of EirTrade Aviation who are based at the airport on the Western Apron. The company specialises in airframe disassembly for A380, A340, A330, A321, A320, A319, B777, B757, B737/3/4/5, MD83, ATR72-212A.


DERRY Steve Frazer joined the City of Derry Airport team from his previous position


as Director of Engineering and Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Gulf Helicopters in Qatar, Nordic Aviation Capital (Denmark & Lim- erick) appointed Patrick de Castelbajac as CEO, effective 2020 Q3. Patrick will be based at NAC’s newly opened Headquarters in Limerick. Most recently, he was President of Asia-Pacific region for Airbus. Prior to this, he was Executive Vice-President Strategy and International. From 2014 to 2016, Patrick was CEO of ATR. Prior to this, he worked in Air- bus from 2002 in a variety of senior manage- ment positions. Before joining Airbus, Patrick spent three years with Baker & McKenzie as a lawyer and a member of the Paris Bar.


BA will launch a seasonal Heath- row-Newquay route (A319 5w) 02Jul-


07Sep20, competing with Flybe’s PSO operation Newquay-Gatwick.


VIRGIN Atlantic is to re-launch daily seasonal B787-9 service Heathrow-Cape Town


on 25Oct20 with B787-9. It last operated the route in Apr15.


TUI fly German) cancelled its contract to lease four aircraft to Eurowings, in order to


take advantage of the void left by Thomas


AVOLON has dropped four A350-900s from its total order of 14, while adding 10 more A330-900s to reach 37.


WAHA Capital recorded a net gain of US$11m through the divestment of its remain-


ing 6pc stake in AerCap Holdings NV. This will remove an overhang on AerCap’s stock.


SUNEXPRESS Germany plans to drop its long-haul routes in 2021, which are


operated by Eurowings. R SPAIN TOPS IRISH RYANAIR ROUTES


yanair ‘s leading routes last summer by ASK shows seven of the top 15 routes are to Spanish destinations. Four of the top six routes


are to Spain with Malaga just edging out Faro for the top spot thanks to its


longer sector length. Of the remaining eight routes, there are two each to Italy, Portugal and the UK, and one each to Hungary and the Netherlands. The highest frequency routes last summer were London STN (54w), Lon-


don LGW (48), Birming- ham and Manchester (both 37) and Amsterdam 28. A total of 20 routes were


served at least 2-daily and a further 23 were routes were served at least daily. All routes are served at least 2-weekly in summer.


Last summer Ryanair served 100 destinations from Dublin after adding a dozen new routes. Ryanair offered flights


to 140 destinations from Dublin in 30 years of oper- ating from the airport.


A


Aercap now has 1,334 aircraft with income up 12pc income


Kings of leasing


erCap reported 2019 Q4 net


up 33pc US$309.8m, with total


revenues up 3pc to $1.25 bn. For 2019, net income was $1,145.7m, up 12.8pc,with revenues up 3pc to $4.8 bn.


The increase in net income was


primarily driven by higher lease rents resulting from an increase in average lease assets due to the delivery of new technology aircraft in 2018 and 2019. As of December 31, AerCap’s portfolio consisted of 1,334 aircraft that were owned, on order or man- aged. The average age of the owned fleet was 6.1 years (2.3 years for new technology aircraft, 11.3 years for current technology aircraft) and the average remaining contracted lease term was 7.5 years.


New technology aircraft now com- prise 58pc of the owned fleet. Prior to the grounding, AerCap


had delivered five B737 MAX air- craft that are currently on lease to an airline customer, and it currently 95 MAX aircraft on order. It is uncer- tain when and under what conditions our Boeing 737 MAX aircraft will re- turn to service and when Boeing will resume making deliveries of MAX aircraft to AerCap. As a result, it


Gus Kelly of AerCap: Shareholders will not bear cost of B737MAX


incurred delays and expects to incur future delays on deliveries, and any such future delays are likely to have an impact on financial results. CEO Gus Kelly said he does not


have young current technology air- craft (incl A330 or A330neo) be- cause Aercap focused all new orders for the last decade on new technology


K


AGB AUTHOR KENNY DEPARTS RYANAIR


enny Jacobs is to depart Ryanair after in-


itiating the Always Get- ting Better Campaign. In the six years of


AGB, Ryanair has doubled traffic, doubled profits, and increased load factor by 15 per- cent (to 97pc) by at-


tracting high-margin customer segments like business travellers and group bookings. When they started AGB, the Ryanair net promoter score was -26, and today it is +21. This tells us that Ryanair customers prefer the Ryanair of today to the Ryanair of


that


aircraft. “We will ensure that the share-


holders of AerCap do not bear those losses (from delayed MAX deliv- eries), and that we will receive ad- equate compensation from Boeing in connection with those costs that we are suffering.”


to


six years ago. Ryanair will always be a func- tional brand that delivers value, on-time perform- ance (OTP), and the best route network in Europe — get


right with


great consistency, and the formula works.


Kenny Jacobs


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