All Nippon Airways to retire the 747-400(D) by March 2014

ANA - All Nippon Airways (NH, Tokyo Haneda) has become the last airline to settle a transpacific price-fixing class action lawsuit after agreeing to pay USD58 million to the plaintiffs.

The carrier said in a stock market financial statement that it chose to settle the case "in order to minimize the impact that the Litigation might bring to the corporate value of ANA Holdings and by factoring in the totality of various circumstances, including, among others, the possible effects of a long litigation process".

The airline also underlined that the settlement does not mean a recognition that ANA could be liable for any damages.

The lawsuit was initially filed in 2007 and later extended to cover the alleged price-fixing between 2000 and 2016. ANA was the last carrier subject to legal proceedings after all the other defendants entered into settlements.

Other defendants included Air France, Cathay Pacific, JAL - Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways International, Vietnam Airlines, Air New Zealand,...

Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad Int'l) plans to retire its A380-800s on the "tenth anniversary" of their flying for the carrier, which falls in 2024, Qatar Airways Group CEO Akbar Al Baker told the Aviation Analyst.

"For the A380s, on the tenth anniversary, we will retire them. Once we have paid our financial obligations, they will go. We don’t see any secondary market opportunity," Al Baker said.

The Qatari carrier currently operates ten owned A380-800s. The airline took delivery of the first Airbus quadjet in September 2014 and the last in April 2018. It does not have any outstanding orders for the type.

Al Baker said that Qatar Airways planned to replace the A380s with B777Xs, of which it has sixty on order with Boeing (ten B777-8s and fifty B777-9s).

Qatar Airways currently deploys the A380s from Doha Hamad Int'l to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, Frankfurt Int'l, Guangzhou, London Heathrow, Melbourne Tullamarine, Paris CDG, Perth Int'l, and Sydney Kingsford Smith.

Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) has announced it will end the production of A380-800s in 2021 as the programme's last remaining customer, Emirates (EK, Dubai Int'l), has reduced its order by thirty-nine units.

The Emirati carrier reduced its order for A380s from 162 to 123 units and will take the delivery of the remaining fourteen aircraft over the next two years.

"As a result of this decision we have no substantial A380 backlog and hence no basis to sustain production, despite all our sales efforts with other airlines in recent years. This leads to the end of A380 deliveries in 2021," said Airbus CEO Tom Enders.

Besides the fourteen outstanding units for Emirates, Airbus is also nearing the delivery of three A380s for ANA - All Nippon Airways. The manufacturer's order book also includes twenty units for Amedeo, although it is not certain if the lessor will take the aircraft.

Simultaneously with the cut in its A380 order, Emirates signed a commitment for forty A330-900s and thirty A350-900s....