Airbus's December 2020 order book changes revealed

Air Canada warms to A321neo(LR)s

Air Canada (AC, Montréal Trudeau) sees potential for the A321-200NX(LR) to play a role in its flexible response approach to post-COVID capacity changes, President and Chief Executive Mike Rousseau said during the carrier's 1Q21 quarterly earnings call.

"I think we've done a pretty good job covering ourselves for growth beyond our expectations, but certainly also for even further fine-tuning and potentially getting rid of the A319-100s if the market doesn't come back as fast as we want it to. That gives us the opportunity to then step into potentially a new type of aircraft like the A321neo(LR)s, for example, that that potentially has a place in Air Canada's fleet as we go forward," Rousseau said.

The Canadian flag carrier is a sizeable operator of Airbus narrowbodies. Together with its leisure subsidiary Air Canada rouge (RV, Toronto Pearson), it operates eighteen A319-100s, nine A320-200s, and twenty A321-200s, the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows. Except for thirteen A321s operated by Air Canada rouge, all the remaining Airbus narrowbodies...

Airbus's April 2021 order book changes revealed

US DOJ joins corruption probe into Garuda's CRJ1000 deal

The United States Department of Justice has requested documents from Bombardier Aerospace concerning the sale of eighteen CRJ1000s to Garuda Indonesia (GA, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) in 2011 and 2012, a transaction which is already under investigation by the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Reuters has reported.

Bombardier told the news agency that it "knew nothing about this" until the SFO began its proceedings in late 2020. The Canadian manufacturer has since launched an international audit, which has thus far not revealed any wrongdoing.

"So far we’ve been looking at it since the SFO reached out and now the DOJ is reaching out but you know on our side we haven’t found anything. But we will definitely continue to collaborate," Chief Executive Eric Martel said.

Garuda Indonesia acquired the 18 regional jets between 2012 and 2015. It has been trying to retire them for a number of months, citing their poor fit for the Indonesian domestic market. In February 2021, Chief Executive Irfan Setiaputra announced a unilateral return of all twelve aircraft of the...

PAL to seek Chapter 11 protection from creditors - report

Reeling from a series of severe lockdowns and travel restrictions, PAL Holdings has told lessors that it may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States by the end of the month, sources told Cirium.

The Philippine Airlines (PR, Manila Ninoy Aquino Int'l) parent is reportedly planning to seek court protection from creditors as it undertakes debt restructuring, with a US Chapter 11 filing among the options. It told the Philippine Star newspaper that it would issue an official statement on the issue at the proper time.

International law firm Norton Rose Fulbright is working with the carrier as its counsel on the restructuring, the sources said, while New York-based finance specialist Seabury Capital has been hired as an adviser.

According to earlier reports, PAL Holdings had around USD5 billion in liabilities, including its outstanding obligations to lessors.

The ch-aviation fleets ownership module shows that Philippine Airlines’ fleet of 61 aircraft and its subsidiary Air Philippines’ fleet of 30 aircraft are made up of a mix of Airbus,...