Austrian Airlines on 31 May confirmed the retirement its De Havilland Dash 8-Q400 fleet. The flag carrier says it carried out the last passenger flight with its Dash 8 turboprop aircraft (registration OE-LGI) between Vienna and Innsbruck. The future fleet of Austrian Airlines will consist entirely of aircraft from Airbus, Boeing and Embraer, the airline notes. “Austrian Airlines is well prepared for the phasing out of the Dash. With the comfortable, efficient Embraer and Airbus aircraft, we will continue to offer our passengers a good feeder offer with Vienna as our hub,” the carrier’s chief commercial officer Michael Trestl states. “Dash has had an impressive career in our company, it is and will remain part of our history. We will not forget that," Austrian Airlines’ chief operating officer Francesco Sciortino says. "I would like to thank everyone who has looked after the Dash aircraft over the past few decades, the cabin and cockpit crews, the technical team and many more."

Banks are still open for aviation finance business, despite a small number exiting the space amid the Covid-19 pandemic, according to an industry panelist. “You see the traditional aviation finance banks: they are still open for business. Yes, maybe there is more interest in new deliveries with a strong credit, but they are still there,” says Kenneth Loo, senior vice-president at Novus Aviation Capital, during the Avstonish conference in Hong Kong on 31 May. “Yes, there are a very, very small handful of aviation banks shutting their aviation desks... but there is still quite a lot of liquidity out there supporting the market.” In May, private equity firm Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners and fund manager Bellinger Asset Management joined forces to acquire a $1.1 billion aircraft loan portfolio from National Australia Bank (NAB), as part of plans to launch a joint aviation platform. Summer Li, general manager, aviation, at Haitong UT Leasing HK, takes a more conservative view on Western banks than fellow panellist Loo. “Aviation has not been the flavour of the month still, so they are limiting their exposure [to] aviation in a general sense,” she says, referring to Western banks. “On the Chinese banking side we see they are still supporting, especially state-owned companies like Chinese airlines and Chinese-owned lessors like us.” For lessors, Yoo says opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region are fewer than in the West and competition on RFPs is fierce. “I get quite envious of my colleagues during the weekly team calls. Europe and the Americas seem to have a healthy pipeline of transactions coming back, whereas here in APAC — HK has been doing very well lately, whereas in the neighbouring regions they have more to battle with the latest waves of Covid-19,” he says. On 29 May, a Hong Kong government pandemic advisor Yuen Kwok-yung declared the city’s fourth wave of Covid-19 over, though warned the city to brace for a potential fifth wave, according to a same-day article in local newspaper The South China Morning Post. Loo adds: “From what I see now, lease rates and SLB opportunities, or in general, airlines do have a choice when they come to financing. There’s still a lot of liquidity, a lot of interested parties bidding for a handful of deals. It’s still very much an airline’s world when they need to choose the new delivery financing.”

ICAO’s Council is to carry out a fact-finding investigation into the diversion of a Ryanair Boeing 737-800 over Belarus, to understand whether any member state broke international aviation law. The Council, a governing body which comprises 36 member states, convened for an urgent session on 27 May, four days after the 737 was diverted to Minsk while operating an Athens-Vilnius flight. Authorities detained an opposition activist before releasing the aircraft. ICAO says the Council expressed “strong concern” at the “apparent forced diversion” of the aircraft. Members stressed the importance of establishing the facts of the occurrence and understanding whether there had been “any breach by any ICAO member state” of international aviation law – including the Chicago Convention. Belarus is a member of ICAO – although not a member of the Council – and acceded to the Chicago Convention in 1993. It is also bound by a number of other aviation law instruments relating to safety of civil aircraft. Under the Convention, the Council is entitled to investigate situations which “may appear to present avoidable obstacles” to international air navigation development. “The Council has therefore decided that all relevant facts should be officially established through an ICAO investigation,” says Council president Salvatore Sciacchitano. It has requested the preparation of an interim report to the Council for a subsequent meeting, presenting the available facts and relevant legal instruments. ICAO secretary general Fang Liu has assured that the ICAO Secretariat will offer full support and co-operation.