Emirates is implementing its Airbus A380 retirement plan which will see its fleet size peak shortly before declining to around 90-100 aircraft by the mid-2020s. The airline, which took delivery of its first A380 in 2008, is to cut its orders for the type from 162 to 123 in the wake of Airbus’s decision to axe the programme in 2020. Cirium fleet data shows that the current fleet stands at 112 aircraft. “You’ll start seeing A380s coming out of our fleet for various reasons, and we’ve always said this,” says Emirates Airline president Tim Clark. “These are being dealt with on a tail-by-tail, month-by-month basis under a retirement [schedule] that is well planned already.” “We are in the process of [starting A380 retirements]. Two have been deactivated. They are under retirement because we’ve got a major overhaul coming up and it’s best to take the old aircraft out – they’re all written down – and take the gear off them rather than buy a $25 million main landing gear. I need two, possibly three, to meet that [overhaul] requirement.” “Clearly, the demand in the secondhand market isn’t there. So when we’ve got the life out of the aircraft that we had planned – in fact we’re extending them by a couple of years – we’re indifferent to what happens to them in the sense that we don’t have any value left in them and we don’t have to take any write-downs."

Source: FlightGlobal

American Airlines is taking steps to strengthen its business as it continues to feel the impact of labour tensions and delays in the return to service of the Boeing 737 Max. “The point that I want to make is that 2019 should have been much better for American,” president Robert Isom told investors during the 4 September Cowen & Company Global Transportation Conference in Boston. He adds that the airline has not produced the margins and earnings it had hoped to see this year despite record second quarter revenue. The ever-changing return to service date of the Max has impacted American’s operations, Isom says. “It has put us in a position where we have not been able to pursue our fleet harmonization…and it has also been frustrating for our team.” The carrier recently pushed back its timeline for reintroducing the Max to 3 December, one month later than its previous estimate. However, the overall timeline for reintroducing the Max to the skies remains uncertain. The Max is not American’s only issue - ongoing labour tensions with mechanics have also impacted American’s operations this year. The airline claimed that its mechanics unions, the Transport Workers Union (TWU) and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), were supporting an illegal work slowdown that resulted in the cancellation of hundreds of flights. The TWU had said it had not instituted a slowdown, but on 12 August a Texas judge issued a permanent injunction against the two unions.

Source: FlightGlobal

Scandinavian budget carrier Norwegian is putting up slots at London Gatwick as part of an exchange package as it seeks to delay repayment of unsecured bonds. The airline says it is requesting extension of the maturity dates for two sets of unsecured bonds – designated NAS07 and NAS08 – until November 2021 and February 2022. These bonds originally had due dates of December 2019 and August 2020. Norwegian says the request to delay the repayment is intended to "ensure successful operations" and provide "adequate liquidity headroom". It points out that the value of the Gatwick slot portfolio exceeds that of the $380 million nominal value of the bonds. The airline stresses that it operational performance "continues to improve" with projected earnings of NKr6-7 billion ($658-768 million) at EBITDAR level for the year, despite the impact of the Boeing 737 Max grounding and the technical issues affecting its Rolls-Royce Trent-powered Boeing 787s. But Norwegian says that, while it has been making "significant" progress, its working capital has been "negatively affected" – to around NKr1.5 billion – by the aircraft problems. "In addition, terms in the credit-card acquirer market have tightened," it adds, putting the impact of amounts not received from these acquirers at NKr4 billion during the second quarter.

Source: FlightGlobal