There’s no one definition of a regional airline and that shows in the pandemic’s rebound. TAC Analysis continues its exploration of which types of regional airlines are excelling in the pandemic era, which are struggling, and what this means for the various aircraft types operating at each.
Breeze Airways is on the verge of reality. The nascent airline is readying its route structure and going through its proving runs with the Federal Aviation Administration. The plan to find a new U.S. home for Azul’s sunsetting E190s predates COVID-19, but David Neeleman finds himself with inexpensive aircraft and a shifting lessor business model made for crisis.
Airbus is bringing its biggest aerostructures suppliers home as part of a far-reaching strategy to deeply integrate both its design and supply chain architecture together for future aircraft. A batch of more than 100 recently-delivered Boeing 737 Max aircraft remain grounded following a design change that inadvertently interrupted safe electrical discharge inside areas of the flight deck. And since the start of the pandemic the U.S. has led new aircraft ordering globally by a large margin.
The global airline fleet is not recovering evenly. With global scheduled capacity up over 92% from April 2020, that metric serves better to illustrate just how terrible last April was than how good we find it in 2021. Compared to 2019, the global fleet is producing 53% fewer seat-miles. We’re a long way from where we were before the pandemic.
If certain contractual issues, particularly around the CFM engines, can’t be overcome in this pre-campaign period, a head-to-head competition will follow and likely give the edge to Airbus and the A220.
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Log-in here if you’re already a subscriber Release DateApril 16, 2020The airlines are staring down a slow and uneven recovery...