Aerospace Diary

The Covid-19 pandemic and disease-containment measures by governments, most drastically the US ban on flights from most of Europe, will shake up the aviation finance sector as airlines struggle to conserve cash amid a collapse in international traffic. Scope Ratings says the rising risk of airlines defaulting on their debt payments – see  Airlines: coronavirus outbreak accelerates industry consolidation; conserving cash key to survival  (5 March) - will lead to a steep decline in aircraft values across the board. “Investors need to brace themselves for a direct hit on aircraft values  which will increase the credit risk of aircraft-financing transactions,” says Helene Spro, aviation finance  analyst at Scope. “Investors exposed to some highly leveraged transactions are likely to see a loss,”  says Spro. One caveat concerns the degree to which governments, particularly in Europe,  will be will...

 by Neelam Mathews Dec 20, 2018 Boeing upholds its buoyant outlook of the Indian market and raised its long-term forecast for new aircraft demand for the fifth consecutive year, projecting the country’s airlines will need 2,300 new jets by 2037. This is 9.5 percent more than its previous prediction for a supply of 2,100 new aircraft by 2036 made last year and compares with a forecast for some 1,600 new jets predicted back in 2014. If the revised outlook materializes, Indian airlines would almost quadruple their fleet over the next two decades. The Indian commercial fleet stood at 620 aircraft at the end of July, according to data of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. “Unprecedented” domestic passenger traffic and rapidly expanding low-cost carriers (LCCs), which account for 64 percent of the total seat capacity in India, fuel the need for new aircraft, Boeing said. India’s domestic passenger traffic has recorded a consistent double-digit growth for the past 50 ...

Boeing’s senior vice president for Asia-Pacific and India sales, Dinesh Keskar. If there is one common factor in Indian aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) for the past decade, it’s that the status quo remains. Not much has changed, although there are signs that interest in the sector on the subcontinent is increasing. Contributor  Neelam Mathews  attended the recent MRO South Asia Summit in New Delhi. THE FIGURES ARE INSPIRING  as carriers grow their fleet sizes and India is leading the trend. Asia’s Commercial Services market, worth a hefty US$3. 2 trillion — the highest in the world- according to Boeing’s 2017-36 forecast, will see a compound annual growth rate in MRO of 5.2 percent. The commercial services market in South Asia (India and neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) is forecast at to be worth US$410 billion, of which the share of maintenance and engineering will be 22 percent, training and pil...

by  Neelam Mathews  -  August 3, 2017, 1:40 PM Budget carrier SpiceJet is using some of its Q400s for India's Regional Connectivity Scheme. (Photo: Neelam Mathews) Boeing’s 20-year market outlook for India, released on July 31, reflects the manufacturer’s optimism that the Indian economy will remain strong and grow from the world’s seventh to third largest by 2037. But that outlook may underestimate the need for smaller regional jets identified during a conference the following day in India’s northeast region. Based on the expected economic underpinning, Boeing forecast a demand for 2,100 new airplanes valued at $290 billion over the next two decades, increasing from the 1,850 new airplanes it predicted last year. “This is the highest-ever forecast we have presented for India,” Dinesh Keskar, Boeing senior vice president of sales for Asia-Pacific and India, said during a briefing in Delhi. The bullish Boeing forecast, however, calls for only 10 new delive...

by  Neelam Mathews  -  June 17, 2017, 11:39AM Subcontractor for precision machining, sheet metal fabrication, assembly, forging and special processing for  OEM s and Tier 1 customers, India’s decade-old Aequs Aerospace (Hall 2b, Stand   E170 ) has been on a consistent and disciplined growth trajectory, especially in the past two years. Global acquisitions have helped the company locate closer to a regional customer base and help complement its technical capabilities across the value chain for mechanical parts, Aravind Melligeri, chairman and   CEO   of Aequs, told   AIN . “ Our goal at the 2017 Paris Airshow is to show what we are offering to the world…an ability to deliver value and quality for components of landing gears, actuators and engines parts, including machining capability—[also] including 4D machining,” said Melligeri.  Headquartered in Belagavi in the southern state of Karnataka close to Goa, Aequs is located on ...

by  Neelam Mathews  -  June 22, 2016, 9:06 AM Air Astana hopes that next year's Expo 2017 event will boost traffic to and from Kazakhstan. [Photo: Neelam Mathews] A highly devalued currency and collapsing oil revenues have left Kazakhstan’s economy in the doldrums, leaving flag carrier Air Astana to recalibrate its business plan with a stronger emphasis on international routes. In February 2017, the airline is due to start paying for three new Boeing 787 widebodies that may prove to be a heavy drain on its  U.S.  dollar reserves. At a June 15 press briefing in Almaty, Air Astana president and  CEO  Peter Foster did not definitively confirm that the 787 deliveries will go ahead as planned. “That is something we have got a close eye on given the weak currency market,” he told  AIN . “We will have to see how the market develops. Obviously, markets are not huge at the moment and growth has slowed down.” Air Astana’s plan has been...

Neelam Mathews Apr 24, 2016 Pix-Neelam Mathews As the Indian Air Force (IAF) squadrons hit a low of around 33 against the 42 projected and India has come closer to signing 36 Rafales for its Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft requirement, it is now looking at a second line of fighters to be produced in the country.  Given that the IAF has a varied fleet with spares inventory management getting tedious and more expensive, what happens to commonality we asked Chief Arup Raha. It is no secret that lack of commonality in aircraft models has made inventory management a grueling task for the IAF in the past. “Commonality in the IAF fleet is very important. We have too many inventories, and each aircraft requires spares., " confessed CAS to AerospaceDiary. In an exclusive, he added that "while it was best is to have lesser inventories, we have so many Su-30s. We cannot keep expanding one particular fleet (as) there are vulnerabilities and (so) we (must keep) balance....

Neelam Mathews March 2016 Asian Aviation

Kurt Baes, Willem Romanus, Mattias Banck of Arthur D. Little The aerospace and defense (A&D) industry today struggles with a duality: defense-driven segments take hits due to significant governmental budget cuts, while commercial aircraft manufacturing is enjoying double-digit growth. Commercial aircraft deliveries at Airbus and Boeing grew by a CAGR of 7.5% between 2010 and 2015, with both companies registering record annual deliveries in recent years. Nevertheless, the commercial aircraft value chain is under stress: only half of the manufacturing firms in the chain show healthy profitability growth, and European players especially have struggled to enhance shareholder value. Which strategies should players take to surf the growth wave? Commercial aircraft manufacturing: steady and strong growth, sizeable order backlog Air traffic growth and the replacement of ageing fuel-inefficient aircrafts are driving the global commercial aircraft market. The two major OEMs, Ai...