Airbus meets its commercial aircraft delivery goal for 2021

Radhika Bansal

11 Jan 2022

Airbus delivered 611 commercial aircraft to 88 customers in 2021, demonstrating resilience and recovery with progress on ramp-up plans, Airbus said in a recent press release.

In 2021, deliveries comprised:

  AIRCRAFT TYPE 2021 2020 A220 Family 50 38 A320 Family483446 A330 Family1819 A350 Family5559 A38054 TOTAL 611 566 Airbus' aircraft deliveries in 2021 and 2020. (Data - Airbus)

Approximately 25% of commercial aircraft in 2021 were delivered using the established “e-delivery” process, allowing customers to receive their aircraft with minimal need for their teams to travel.  

“Our commercial aircraft achievements in 2021 reflect the focus and resilience of our Airbus teams, customers, suppliers and stakeholders across the globe who pulled together to deliver remarkable results. The year saw significant orders from airlines worldwide, signalling confidence in the sustainable growth of air travel post-COVID.While uncertainties remain, we are on track to lift production through 2022 to meet our customers’ requirements. At the same time, we are preparing the future of aviation, transforming our industrial capabilities and implementing the roadmap for decarbonisation.”  Guillaume Faury, Chief Executive Officer, Airbus

In 2021, Airbus doubled its gross order intake compared to 2020 with 771 new sales (507 net) across all programmes and market segments demonstrating the strength of the company’s full product range and signalling renewed market confidence. 

Commercial aircraft deliveries of 2021. (Image Courtesy - Airbus)

The A220 won 64 firm gross new orders and several high profile commitments from some of the world’s leading carriers. The A320neo Family won 661 gross new orders. In the widebody segment, Airbus won 46 gross new orders including 30 A330s and 16 A350s of which 11 were for the newly launched A350F which also won an additional 11 commitments. 

In the number of aircraft units, Airbus recorded a gross book to bill ratio above one. At the end of 2021, Airbus’ backlog stood at 7,082 aircraft. Airbus will report Full Year 2021 financial results on 17 February 2022.

Airbus delivered 611 commercial aircraft to 88 customers in 2021. (Image Courtesy - ABC News)

Airbus deliveries frequently surge in the final month of the year, but supply chain problems have hampered deliveries of some medium-haul jets while the spread of Omicron has raised fresh doubts over the likelihood of an early rebound in long-haul travel.

ALSO READ - Airbus maintains its lead and surpasses its goal with 610 deliveries in 2021

In Dubai Airshow 2021, Airbus got 412 new aircraft orders. These orders include 269 firm orders as well as 143 commitments.

Let's have a look at them -

Wizz Air - 102 aircraft (75 x A321neo + 27 x A321XLR)Frontier - 91 aircraft (A321neo)Volaris - 39 aircraft (A321neo)Jet Smart - 23 aircraft (21 x A321neo + 2 x A321XLR)Air Lease Corporation (ALC) - 111 aircraft (25 x A220, 55 x A321NEO, 20 x A321XLR, 4 x A330NEO, 7 x A350F)Signed formal MoU with CMA CGM - 4 x A350FUnited Arab Emirates Air Force and Air Defence - 2 x A330MRTTIndonesian Ministry of Defence - 2 x A400MJazeera Airways - 28 x A321neoIbom Air - 10 x A220

ALSO READ - Indigo Partners placed a mega order for Airbus A321neo jets

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Indian Deliveries

InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, the operator of IndiGo, took delivery of a record 36 Airbus SE planes between January and November 2021, according to data from the European planemaker.

In comparison, the other major Airbus customer in India, Wadia-Group operated GoFirst took delivery of six planes in the same period. GoFirst, which has orders for 144 A320neo planes, took delivery of 52 such aircraft by the end of November. This is an increase from 46 A320neo planes at the end of January.

IndiGo took delivery of a record 36 Airbus planes between January and November 2021. (Image Courtesy - IndiGo)

IndiGo, which had ordered 344 A320neo planes, took delivery of 120 such planes by the end of January 2021, increasing to 137 by the end of November. It also ordered about 386 A321neo planes. It had taken delivery of 30 Airbus A321neo planes by the end of January 2021, increasing to 49 by November-end.

Overall, IndiGo has ordered 730 A320-A321 families of planes so far. It has taken delivery of 186 such aircraft till November-end.

Disputes

Qatar Airways in December had started proceedings in a UK court against Airbus in a bid to resolve a dispute over skin flaws on A350 passenger jets, bringing the two sides closer to a rare legal showdown over aviation safety.

The companies have been locked in a row for months over damage, including blistered paint and corrosion to a sub-layer of lightning protection, which Qatar Airways says has now led to the grounding of 21 A350 jets by its domestic regulator.

The middle east major is seeking $618 million in damages from the manufacturer, Airbus in a dispute over untimely erosion of the surface of some of its A350s, according to the court documents.

Qatar Airways seeks $618 million in damages from Airbus in a dispute over untimely erosion of the surface of its A350 Aircraft. (Image Courtesy - Qatar Airways)

Airbus insists the carbon-composite passenger jets are safe to fly despite some “surface degradation,” while Qatar Airways says it is too early to say whether safety has been compromised.

The dispute came to a head when Airbus, in what experts called an unprecedented move, accused the Gulf airline of misrepresenting the problem as a safety issue and threatened to call for an independent legal assessment.

The airline operates 53 A350s, although 20 of the jets have been grounded on the instructions of the Qatari Civil Aviation Authority. Qatar has another 23 on order but has halted further deliveries during the dispute. Singapore Airlines is the biggest operator of the A350.

ALSO READ - Qatar airways sue Airbus for USD 618mn over A350 paint issue

ALSO READ - Qatar Airways takes Airbus to London High Court over A350 skin damage

ALSO READ - In a paint dispute with Qatar Airways, Airbus goes legal

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Air India offers 'one free change' of date and flight for passengers

Radhika Bansal

10 Jan 2022

Air India on Sunday, January 9 introduced special features for its travellers wherein they can modify the number, dates, or sector of their flight booking until March 31 under 'One Free Change'. The feature has been introduced because of the current prevailing situation of COVID-19.

The announcement came for all domestic flights because of “uncertainties" due to the rising Covid-19 cases in India.

In a tweet today, Air India said, "#FlyAI: Because of recent uncertainties due to surge in COVID cases, Air India is offering ONE FREE CHANGE of date or flight number or sector for all domestic tickets (098) with confirmed travel on/before 31.03.22."

https://twitter.com/airindiain/status/1480183124797517829

The aviation sector has started to suffer again as Covid cases are beginning to rise across the country.

In a similar move, IndiGo also waived fees for all its passengers as it cancelled about 20% of flights because of the Covid situation.

"Owing to the increasing number of Omicron infections, large numbers of IndiGo customers are changing their travel plans. In response to customer needs, IndiGo is waiving change fees and is offering free changes for all new and existing bookings made up to January 31, for flights up to March 31, 2022. With the reduced demand, we will also be selectively withdrawing some of our flights from service."IndiGo

Amid a surge in the Covid-19 cases, the Central government on Friday, January 7 announced a seven-day mandatory home quarantine for all international arrivals in the country. All the international arrivals in the country will have to observe a seven-day mandatory home quarantine with effect from January 11 till further orders.

As per the order issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday, January 7, travellers from specified countries at risk will at first, submit a sample for the post-arrival Covid-19 test at the point of arrival (self-paid). Such travellers will be required to wait for their test results at the arrival airport before leaving or taking a connecting flight.

"If tested negative they will follow, home quarantine for seven days and shall undertake RT-PCR test on the eighth day of arrival in India. Travellers shall also be required to upload results of repeat RT-PCR test for Covid-19 done on the eighth day on the Air Suvidha portal. If negative, they will further self-monitor their health for the next seven days. However, if such travellers are tested positive, their samples should be further sent for genomic testing at INSACOG laboratory network," read the order copy.

ALSO READ - IndiGo waives rescheduling fees and may slash flights by 20% due to Omicron

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EU mulls change of rules amid waves of "Ghost Flights", nonetheless, what are they?

Prashant-prabhakar

10 Jan 2022

At first glance, ''ghost flights'' may sound something out of a Hollywood horror flick, with ''Casper-the friendly ghost" in the flight deck perhaps? We'd wish!

A "Ghost Flight" is essentially a planned route flown by airline ''regardless'' of the passengers on-board. And there's a real good reason why planes do that.

Airport World

The European Commission has a rule - commonly referred to as the “80/20” rule-that requires airlines to have 80% of their designated airport slots operating at all times or face losing those slots to another airline during an annual government assessment.

In simple words, airlines will have to continue operating flights on these designated routes even if there are 0 passengers on board. And it couldn't be more relevant in recent times with the Covid pandemic hitting hard on aviation- plummeting travel demands have made it all the worse.

This has already resulted in a loss of 113 billion dollars from the airline's industry. Before this, the industry was growing at a skyrocketing pace with the capacity offered by over 200 airports worldwide. Even then it wasn't enough for all the airlines to accommodate their aircraft upon their will and need. Simply because of a lack of proper infrastructure, limited space, and low availability of runways.

Here's a brief on how actually airlines schedule their operations around the world.

Airports globally are fragmented into slots with each slot valid on a specific weekday for a limited time. These are allotted to a certain plane of an airline, to take advantage of the full range of airport infrastructure necessary to arrive or depart. Under existing European regulations, the airlines must continue to run at least 80% of their allocated slots, or risk losing them to the competitor. The Federal Aviation Administration of the United States, or the FAA, also enforces a similar type of regulation.

NBC News

What happens when a passenger load on a plane is below par or close to nil?  The airline exchange or give away the take-off slot to another airline, for some price, or for free. This enables the airline to retain its given slots in the long run- a process known as "slot resale" or "slot sitting". And quite understandably, none of the airlines wants the slot of another airline. Thereby, for airlines, the loss from running ghost flights is much less than what they will endure, on losing their timeslots

The passenger-less “ghost flights” are a huge expense on the airline and for the environment as well. Reportedly, these ghost flights burn five gallons of jet fuel per mile and emit one ton of carbon dioxide for every two empty seats and that's a significant figure when it comes to carbon emissions- the aviation industry accounts for about 3% of worldwide carbon emission.

After widespread concerns about airlines' financial losses and the impact of emissions on the climate, on March 10, 2020, the European Commission temporarily lifted the ''ghost flight'' rule. Likewise, the FAA has suspended its requirement that airlines use their slots 80% of the time at U.S. airports.

Another possible reason could be to avoid checks. If an aircraft has been parked for a long time, it will have to be checked for airworthiness before it can be flown again. Therefore some airlines fly their aircraft up every few days just to say they have flown. The first wave of the pandemic saw innumerable aircrafts grounded around the world. This is one cheaper way than having all aircraft inspected once the travel bans are lifted.

FlightGlobal

 Long-haul routes and major airlines, in particular, are feeling the crunch of decreased demand. The IATA projects long-haul EU bookings at just 20% of 2019 levels.

Did you know? A Ghost Plane could also probably mean an aircraft in flight which, due to an event that has incapacitated the crew (usually uncontrolled decompression), flies on its last input heading on autopilot until it runs out of fuel and crashes. Or it could also refer to a ''rendition'' aircraft used by national governments to move prisoners internationally.

SOURCE(s)

COVER: Dianora Tintl

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Alliance Air issues tender for the refurbishment of its entire ATR-72 aircraft fleet

Ridz

10 Jan 2022

Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India, has issued a tender to repair its entire fleet of 18 ATR 72 aircraft.

After Air India's successful sale to the Tata Group in October 2021, to be handed over to the conglomerate in the first half of 2022. Alliance Air will remain with the Centre.

As accessed by PTI, Alliance Air's tender, the winning bidder will have to refurbish the cargo net, seat cushion repair, seat cover back and bottom, arm handle, floorboard, seat belts, along with the buckle, tray table, and latch. The tender stated that several other elements such as engine cover, propeller strap, arm cap rest, interior cabin fabric, pitot cover, and small and large curtains have to be refurbished by the vendor.

Airline refurbishing 18 ATR-72 aircraft

According to the tender, Carpet replacement will be required once a year on each aircraft. The tender, which was issued last week, stated that central carpet replacement would have to be carried out every three months or on the conditional requirement on each aircraft.

The service provider is required to carry out carpet cutting as per approved drawing, edge binding beading laying and fixing of carpet in aircraft, as required by the engineering department. Interested bidders will have to submit their technical bids. After approval, they can file the final financial bidding documents.

Alliance Air operates a fleet of 18 ATR 72 aircraft to 48 odd cities in India. Each of these planes has around 70-72 seats.

Alliance Air ATR-72 Aircraft

Ahmedabad, Agatti, Bareilly, Belagavi, Bengaluru, Bhavnagar, Bhubaneshwar, Bhuj, Bikaner, Bilaspur, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Delhi, Diu, Dharamshala, Dimapur, Goa, Gorakhpur, Guwahati, Hubballi, Hyderabad, Imphal, Jabalpur, Jagdalpur, Jaipur, Jammu, Jharsuguda, Kalaburagi, Kandla, Kochi, Kolhapur, Kolkata, Kullu, Lilabari, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mangaluru, Mumbai, Mysuru, Nashik, Pantnagar, Pasighat, Pathankot, Prayagraj, Pune, Raipur, Tezpur are among the current operational destinations in India.

The flight schedule of Alliance Air is structured to enable easy connections to/from smaller cities via the hubs of Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad. Alliance Air provides connections to International stations through its hubs and supports RCS-UDAN. Alliance Air operates a fleet of 18 ATR planes made an operating profit of INR 65.09 crores in FY20 and a net loss of INR 201 crores during the period.

The government on 8 October 2021 announced that salt-to-software conglomerate Tata's have won the bid to acquire debt-laden national carrier Air India for INR 18,000 crores. This includes a cash payment of INR 2,700 crores and taking over INR 15,300 crore debt. The deal, which is expected to be completed by December-end, also includes the sale of Air India Express and ground handling arm AISATS. Alliance Air despite being a subsidiary of Air India the decision to privatize is yet to be made.

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Medical insurance for retired Air India employees finalised by the government

Radhika Bansal

10 Jan 2022

The government has finalised a solution to provide medical insurance to the 30,000 retired staff members of Air India who had opted for the post-retirement medical scheme, a huge relief for the ex-workers as this was not among the pre-conditions for transfer of the airline to the Tata Group, The Economic Times reported.

"Retired employees will get CGHS facility for their OPD requirement and National Health Insurance Scheme for their hospitalisation requirements," said a top government official, who did not want to be identified.

The number of retired employees at Air India is at about 50,000, of these, about 30,000 have opted for the post-retirement medical scheme.

Medical insurance for retired Air India employees is finalised by the government.

The official quoted above added that this is not a pre-condition for the transfer of the airline to its new owners - Tata Group - but was a big concern of retired employees. The government has assured retired employees that their medical benefits will continue and also provided job protection to all existing employees for 12 months from the transfer of the airline.

Air India has about 10,000 employees on its rolls as of the date and about 5,000 of them will retire in the next five years.

As part of its deal to sell Air India to the Tata Group, the government has also ensured that Tata Sons will have to retain all employees of the airline for one year as part of the share purchase agreement signed for the sale of Air India.

The Tata Group will have the option to offer employees of Air India a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) if they look to retrench employees after one year.

The Tata Group will have the option to offer employees of Air India a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) if they look to retrench employees after one year.

The government is also working on a plan to reinstate the salaries and allowances of Air India’s pilots in a phased manner and is looking to offer some shares of Air India before handing it over to the new owners. But a final decision on this has yet to be taken.

The Tata Group won a bid (through a holding company Talace) to buy a 100% stake in Air India along with AI Express and a 50% stake in ground handling company AISATS and the government plan to transfer ownership to the Tata group before the end of January.

While key approvals for the deal have come, the transfer cannot happen now owing to delays in the finalisation of the company's balance sheet and some approvals from international regulators as Air India has international operations.

Air India has about 10,000 employees on its rolls as of the date and about 5000 of them will retire in the next 5 years

After the handover, the Tata Group is likely to operate three airlines - Air India, Air India Express and Vistara - after the government transfers the airline to the group and upon the merger of AirAsia India and AI Express. The group, for the time being, plans to continue with Vistara as a separate entity, as SIA is not on board for the AI deal.

Vistara is a 51:49 joint venture between the Tata Group and SIA. SIA, however, had agreed to be part of the plan to acquire Air India but did not want to continue after Covid impacted their business and funds dried up.

As part of the revival plan, the Tata Group is also blueprinting a 100-day plan for Air India to improve the operational and service standards of the airline that includes its on-time performance, as well as issues related to passenger complaints and call centres.

Tata Group is likely to operate three airlines - Air India, Air India Express and Vistara - after the government transfers the airline to the group and upon the merger of AirAsia India and AI Express.

In December it emerged that Tata Group’s takeover of loss-making national carrier Air India was most likely delayed by a month till January as the completion of procedures were taking longer than expected.

As per the conditions in the share purchase agreement, all formalities of handover would have to be completed within 8 weeks, but this date can be mutually extended by the buyer and seller and is being done in this case. However, some regulatory approvals are yet to come in for the handover, and certain formalities are yet to be completed.

ALSO READ - Handover of Air India to the Tata Group postponed for a month

ALSO READ - Tata-owned Talace offered a loan of INR 35,000 crore from Air India lenders

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IndiGo waives rescheduling fees and may slash flights by 20% due to Omicron

Radhika Bansal

10 Jan 2022

IndiGo on Sunday, January 9 said it will cancel around 20% of its flights because of the surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant and waive change fees till March 31 in response to customer needs. Change fee is paid by a passenger to switch to a different flight date.

IndiGo waives rescheduling fees and may slash flights by 20% due to Omicron.

In a press release, the airline stated that owing to the increasing number of infections, a large number of IndiGo customers are changing their travel plans.

The airline encouraged the customers to digital channels since the call centres have been handling a large volume of calls.

”In response to customer needs, IndiGo is waiving change fees and is offering free changes for all new and existing bookings made up to January 31, for flights up to March 31, 2022.With reduced demand it will also selectively withdraw some flights from service. We anticipate that around 20% of our current scheduled operations will be withdrawn from service. Where possible, cancellation of flights will be done at least 72 hours in advance and customers will be moved to the next available flight and will also be able to change their travel through the use of Plan B (section) on our website."IndiGo's Press Release

Indigo had earlier also announced a Plan B for passengers who have had their flight cancelled or rescheduled due to Covid curbs or weather issues.

“If your flight is cancelled or rescheduled from our end, you need not worry. We have Plan B for you! With Plan B, you can change the time and/or date of your flight or cancel and process refund, at no additional cost," it had said. 

The Plan B offered by IndiGo is applicable if your flight has been cancelled, if your flight timing has been postponed by an hour or more from the scheduled time of departure, or postponed by 2 or more hours from the scheduled time of departure, the airline website notified.

“Once Plan B is availed, any further change or cancellation would be on a chargeable basis as per Indigo T&C," it further notified. 

The revision in capacity from the airline that caters to every six in 10 domestic passengers comes at a time airlines are being forced to fly relatively emptier aircraft. According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s data, seat occupancy in various airlines was down to 55% to 70%.

The surge in cases has also brought down the number of domestic travellers — from above three lakh daily passengers to 2.6 lakh passengers on January 7. Passenger traffic in the first seven days of January had dropped by 16% compared to the same period in December.

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