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1、The Business Daily of the Global Scheduled Airline Industry Since 1939/aviationdailyInside December 8, 2015AIRLINESGOL Plans Domestic Cuts In 2016PAGE 3REGULATORY/LEGISLATIVEEurope Releases NewAviation StrategyBRUSSELSTheEUsnew Aviation Strategyconsistsof aso-called European Com

2、mission (EC) Communication identifying challenges and opportunities to improve the competitiveness of the EU aviation sector, a proposal for revising the EASA basic regulation and requests to negotiate comprehensive European Union (EU)-level air-transport agreements with a number of key third countr

3、ies.European Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc presented the European Commissions eagerly awaited Aviation Strategy on Dec. 7 in Brussels. But the long-term planin the making for more than a yearmay well achieve much less than it aspires to do.The EC is seeking no less than 12 mandates to negotiat

4、e comprehensive aviation agreementswhich will be similar to U.S. open skies dealscombined with a high level of compliance to EU standards. This is a huge number of mandates. And while there is no certainty that the Council, which represents the 28 member states, will grant all these authorizations,

5、it is equally uncertain that all third countries on the ECs wish list will have an appetite to engage in these far-reaching open skies talks because they deem that the interests of their airlines and their whole aviation ecosystem are better-served on a bilateral basis with each EU member state.The

6、United Arab Emirates (UAE), home of Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways, has not given any indication whether it will embark on open skies talks with the EU as aSTRATEGY, p. 2Dunkerley: Smaller Airlines MarketAccess Too RestrictedPAGE 4REGULATORY/LEGISLATIVEU.S., Japan Fail To ReachDeal On HanedaPAG

7、E 3PROPULSIONGE Begins 777X Engine-Core TestsPAGE 5INDUSTRY DATATop 10 Engine Familys ServiceEvents 2016PAGE 6Airport Profile: RichmondInternationalPAGE 7REGULATORY/LEGISLATIVEEuropean Airline Associations Raise Concerns On Aviation StrategyBRUSSELSEuropean airline associations are taking a hard loo

8、k at the EUs new aviation strategy, expressing concerns about liberalizing air service with certain countries.“We see the added value of the EU entering in negotiations with big non-European countries or regions in addition to the big mandates the EC already enjoys, such as the U.S., Canada and Braz

9、il. We also see merit in the list of countries and regions the Commission has introduced,” Association of European Airlines (AEA) CEO Athar Husain Kahn says. But, he stresses, “we have a problem with a blank time line. We think the EC should be forced to deliver within in a time frame. Negotiations

10、with Brazil are ongoing for more than five years and have gone nowhere. That should not be repeated with other countries. It deprives the industry of market access and operational benefits.”Member states have to halt bilateral air services agreement (ASA) talks with a third country once the EC gets

11、the mandate to negotiate a comprehensive air services agreement with that country.AEA is not alone is demanding to incorporate a well-defined set of criteria on timeEU, p. 2DECEMBER 8, 2015STRATEGY from p. 1bloc. Neither has Qatar. Turkey might say it is interested, but its government has not yet re

12、cognized the concept of the EU in its bilateral air services agreement with EU member statesand it will not do anything that will impede the rapid expansion of Turk- ish Airlines into the continent. And, there is still the unresolved dispute over Cyprus.The EC lists the following mandates in its Avi

13、ation Strategy: the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Gulf Coopera- tion Council (GCC), Turkey, China, Japan, Mexico and Armenia. For the GCC countries, the EC is seeking a mandate to negotiate with the GCC as a group and individually with its members: Bah- rain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar,

14、Saudi Arabia and the UAE.The EC says it selected these countries or regions because they are growth markets and it wants the European aviation industry to tap into theeconomicopportunities generated thereinthecoming decades. The best way to do this, it argues, is through compre- hensive aviation agr

15、eements, as they “ensure market access and promote investment opportunities, facilitate air travel and provide a wider choice for consumers.”The foundation for the liberal stance on market access is the success of the liberalization of the internal EU aviation market and existing EU-level comprehens

16、ive aviation agreements with third countries. Since the signing of the EU air transport agree- ment with the Western Balkan states, the number of passengers has almost tripled. In the case of Morocco, it has doubled. Since the conclusion of the agreements with U.S. and Canada, the combined growth in

17、 passengers between EU and these markets has been more than 3 million.“Unlike other industries, air transport suffers from a number of restrictions in relation to investment and market access which hinder the sustainable and dynamic growth of the sector,” the EC pointed out in its communication.Besi

18、destheopenskies mandates, the EC also will ask authoriza- tionsfromthe Council to negotiatededicated aviationsafety agree- ments with China and Japan aimed at reaching mutual recognition of certification standards. The EU has already such agreements in place with other key aeronautical manufacturing

19、 partnersthe U.S., Brazil and Canadaand the EC says they “significantly” reduce the transaction cost of exporting aircraft and related prod- ucts, ensure high levels of safety in partner countries and help to harmonize product standards worldwide.Cathy Buyck, cathy.buyckaviationweek.co.ukthe Council

20、 on granting the mandates. France and the Neth- erlands, if they opt to protect Air France and KLM, might be very happy with no time-frame limitations for talks with Qatar and the UAE because talks will stop the relentless expansion of air services by Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways in Europe. It

21、aly and Alitalia, of which Etihad is a 49% shareholder, might want exactly the opposite and request a short time cap on the EU-UAE negotiations.For other mandates, such as China, Air France and KLM might lobby their governments to introduce a clause in the mandate that specifies a very short duratio

22、n of the talks because they would not want to see their traffic rights frozen for a long time. China is one of the fastest-growing aviation markets in the world and currently the 11th largest extra-EU market, with more than 7.2 million annual passengers.The Commission is expected to start requesting

23、 its first man- dates each mandate has to be individually requested from the Councilearly next year. It has not revealed which negotiating mandate it will request first, but sources close the Brussels-based executive body of the EU expect it to be ASEAN and maybe Qatar and the UAE.The Aviation Strat

24、egy, which was drafted by the ECs direc- torate general for transport and mobility (DG Move), also takes a liberal approach on control and ownership. The Commission, it vows in its Communication, “will continue to pursue the relax- ation of ownership and control rules on the basis of effective recip

25、rocity through bilateral air services and trade agreements with the longer term objective to do so at multilateral level.”The EU currently caps foreign ownership in airlines at less than 50%, while the control of the company must remain in EU hands. The smaller national airlines argue this impedes t

26、heir access to new capital and non-EU investors, and ulti- mately their survival since most European airline groups are not interested in acquiring a smaller and, often loss-making making, competitor and consider that their probable demise is part of the ongoing consolidation. The EC, however, is in

27、creasingly apprehensive about the concentration into a handful big carriers like in the U.S., and the impact of this on consumers and connectivity.“Bearing in mind the commercial and financial importance of many airlines and the significant upfront financial needs of airlines to operate efficiently

28、in a highly competitive environ- ment, the relevance and importance of ownership and control requirements should be carefully examined in this light,” the EC asserts.Several major foreign investments in EU airlines, including Air Berlin and Virgin Atlantic, have taken place over recent years, trigge

29、ring reviews of the investment rules by civil avia- tion authorities and the EC to ensure that the control of EU airlines remains in line with EU law. Several investigations are still ongoing. The EC says it intends to publish interpretative guidelines on the application of the regulation on the own

30、ershipEU, p. 5EU, from p. 1frame and results in the mandates. Some member states are concerned about the consequences of the mandates for their bilateral negotiations and point out that, if negotiations drag on for too long, EU carriers risk losing certain opportunities they could have through bilat

31、eral talks.This undoubtedly will lead to heated debates, and some major bargaining, when dialogue starts between the EC and 2 DECEMBER 8, 2015AIRLINESGOL Plans Domestic Cuts In 2016To cope with Brazils volatile economy, Sao Paulo- based GOL will reduce the number of takeoffs on domestic routes by be

32、tween 4-6% in the first half of 2016, the airline announced on Dec. 7 at its annual investor day.“To give you an idea of what were talking about, this numberconsidering the upper margin of the guidancemay represent in one month a reduction of 1,700 flights, or two days less in terms of flights when

33、compared to our current offer,” CEO Paulo Sergio Kakinoff said.GOL is not the only airline that has suffered from these economic woes. Brazilian carriers experienced a nearly $500 million combined loss in the first half of 2015, IATA Direc- tor General Tony Tyler said in November during a speech at

34、the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association Airline Leaders Forum in Puerto Rico.“The situation in Brazil is dire,” Tyler told the audience. Asa result, Brazilian airlines have been making adjust-ments to their networks. Last quarter, GOL announced it would defer all but four of its 1

35、5 Boeing 737-800 deliveries scheduled in 2016 and 2017, and lease out more aircraft to non-Brazilian carriers compared with the previous year (Avia- tion Daily, Nov. 13).Kristin Majcher, REGULATORY/LEGISLATIVEU.S., Japan Fail To Reach Deal On HanedaThe U.S. and Japan c

36、oncluded three days of talks last week in Washington, but no deal on further access to Tokyo Haneda Airport has emerged yet.One of the goals of the consultationsformal talks provided for by the 2010 open skies dealwas to explore greater access to Haneda. Now, the government of Japan has given U.S. c

37、ar- riers four nighttime slot pairs at the airport, but U.S. carriers want more access. Japan earlier this year suggested that it could allow daytime flights to the U.S. from Haneda (Aviation Daily, Sept. 10). But consultations have failed to yield a deal, a source familiar with the negotiations tol

38、d Aviation Daily.Focused FlyingThe airline will focus domestic flying at its three main hubs: Sao Paulos Guarulhos International Airport, Rio de Janeiro, and the capital city of Brasilia. GOL is a leader in the first two cities, said Kakinoff, and has an equal share with its competitor TAM in Brasil

39、ia.“Rio de Janeiro, the second-largest market in Brazil, together with the offer that we have in Sao Paulo, gives the company an important advantage in relation to any competi- tor, even after the drop in corporate demand,” Kakinoff said. “This corridor has the greatest contribution for operational

40、results.”Kakinoff said that overall, Brazils economy in 2015, “was totally different from the projections.” The real has depreci- ated by as much as half in the past year, leading to both lower travel demand and higher expenses. As a result, the airline reduced its domestic supply from 5-7% this qua

41、rter alone.This is the first specific guidance the airline has given for 2016, but the move to lower capacity comes as no surprise in light of recent economic statistics that did not indicate relief.Numbers released by Brazils statistics agency on Dec. 1 showed that the countrys economy contracted e

42、ven more than analysts predictions, with GDP falling 1.7% in the third quarter compared to the three months before. Compared to the same period a year earlier, that quarterly decline widens to 4.5%the largest drop since those data were first collected in 1996.Even before those numbers were released,

43、 GOL was exer- cising caution about the year ahead.“We see that its pretty much unlikely that the industry could prevent itself of further capacity reductions,” Kakinoff had said on Nov. 12, ahead of the bleak economy numbers and most recent investor update. The airline posted a net loss of about$2.

44、13 billion reals ($557 million) in the third quarter, 67.5% of which were related to exchange rate and currency variations.Open CommunicationsHowever, a source told Aviation Daily the channels of com- munication on the issue are now open, and the two sides are “confident” a satisfactory deal will be

45、 reached.Haneda has been a bone of contention between the two countries since the open skies deal was struck five years ago. The timing of the nighttime slots makes operations to the U.S. East Coast commercially unviable. Now, four carriers operate to Haneda from the West Coast and Hawaii. United Ai

46、rlines flies from San Francisco, Hawaiian Airlines from Honolulu, Delta Air Lines from Los Angeles. American Airlines will begin flights from Los Angeles in February.Last week, Susan Kurland, assistant secretary of trans- portation for aviation and international affairs, told Aviation Daily that the

47、 Haneda issue would be at the forefront of consultations, the first held since the open skies deal went into force (Aviation Daily, Dec. 4). It is uncertain when or if new consultations on the issue will occur.Madhu Unnikrishnan, 3 DECEMBER 8, 2015STAFFEDITORIAL191

48、1 North Fort Myer Drive, Suite 600, Arlington, VA 22209 Tel:+1-703-997-0333, AIRLINESDunkerley: Smaller Airlines Market Access Too RestrictedHawaiian Airlines CEO Mark Dunkerley told a Washington audience that government policy has not kept pace with changes in the airline indus

49、try, limiting smaller carriers market access.“Market access is becoming a more difficult issue for smaller airlines compet- ing against airlines that are substantially larger,” Dunkerley said recently during a luncheon speech at the Aero Club of Washington. He cited data showing that the major airli

50、nes involved in antitrust-immunized (ATI) transatlantic joint ventures (JVs) went from having a 41% market share on U.S.-Europe air travel in 2000 to an 87% market share in 2014.Dunkerley said that the airlines, such as American Airlineswhich is in a trans- atlantic JV with British Airways, Iberia a

51、nd Finnairand Delta Air Lineswhich is in a transatlantic JV with Air France, KLM and Alitalia and another with Virgin Atlantic Airwayspromised lower fares resulting from JV efficiencies when they applied for ATI. “What has actually happened is weve seen a very substantial increase in fares” that don

52、t correlate with operating costs on the routes, he said, adding that smaller carriers have been mostly squeezed out of transatlantic markets.Dunkerley said that in “many, many international markets,” passengers are left withlittle-to-no choice of which airlines to fly.EDITORIAL STAFFEditorIn Chief M

53、adhu Unnikrishnan Deputy Editor Kristin Majcher Editorial Director Joseph C. AnselmoU.S. Reporters James R. Asker, Guy Norris, Brian Sumers, Graham Warwick Europe Cathy Buyck, Jens FlottauAsia-Pacific Bradley Perrett, Adrian SchofieldAssociate Producers Michael Johnson, Donna ThomasCopy Editor Diana

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56、asts.User Engagement Laurie Grossman, Tel: +1-646-233-4434 Pacific ProblemsBecause there are fewer point-to-point transpacific markets, the consequences of reduced competition “will be worse in the Pacific,” Dunkerley said. “The implication for competition and passenge

57、r choice in the Pacific is going to be more profound.”Dunkerley posed a question to an audience filled with many people who have an influence on U.S. aviation public policy: “Do small airlines have a role in preserving the competitive landscape in aviation, not only domestically but internationally?

58、”The Hawaiian CEO said he believes smaller airlines like his “are a very important competitive force” in the global air-transport industry, adding, “Smaller airlines want to get out there and compete. We want to provide a competitive impetus.” But increasingly smaller airlines dont have access to marketswhether in the form of slots, route rights or “behind feed”to enable them to compete in a post- consolidation age dominated by international JVs, Dunkerley said.Dunkerleys remarks on “