Unconfirmed reports have suggested that All Nippon Airways expects Boeing to compensate the airline in cash for the problems with the 787 rather than discounts on future purchases.
ANA has been forced to cancel more than 3600 flights to the end of May due to the grounding of the aircraft type and is seeking restitution from the US aircraft manufacturer.

The Nigerian Federal Government has granted Dana Airline permission to resume flight operations immediately.
“Officials of the Federal Ministry of Aviation and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority met with the Management team from Dana Airlines today in Abuja and deliberated on some safety issues in connection with the operations of the airline,” said the aviation ministry. “At the end of the meeting, the suspension of the operations of the airline which took effect last Saturday was lifted. The airline is to resume normal operations immediately,’’ the statement stated.
“The particular aircraft which had a snag over the weekend is to remain grounded until after its air-worthiness has been re-certified by Boeing, the manufacturer of the aircraft.”

The European Union has warned national governments to ensure that their airlines maintain a “firm and coordinated line” with emissions-trading system compliance.
“To avoid distortion, all aircraft operators (including those registered outside the EU) need to fully comply for flights operated within Europe in 2012,” the Commission said. “It will be important to have a common enforcement approach in cases of non-compliance”.

AirAsia’s proposal to invest $14.5m in a new venture with Tata Sons to begin a new low-cost airline has been approved by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, which vets foreign investment proposals

From April 25, the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will allow airline passengers to carry small knives such as pocket knives, novelty bats and some sporting sticks in carry-on baggage.
The new rules bring US airport carry-on security rules in line with European Union rules.
TSA administrator John Pistole said that allowing these items onboard would align the US with ICAO and European standards and allow screeners to focus on the highest priority threat—non-metallic explosive devices.
Razor blades and box cutters will still be banned from carry-on baggage.

The Administrative Council for Economic Defense – Cade in Brazil has celebrated a Cease and Desist Agreement (TCC) with airline companies Societé Air France and KLM (a Royal Dutch Aviation Company) and two individuals. In the agreement, the parties consent to terminate the practices investigated in the process against an alleged cartel in the air cargo market.
Additionally, the involved parties confess involvement in the practices under investigation. The TCC also provides for the payment of a contribution of BRL 14 million (approximately US$ 7 million).
“Air France and KLM, which are now part of the same group, understood that it would be appropriate to confess the practice and make this contribution,” said the reporting commissioner, Ricardo Machado Ruiz. According to him, the value was set based on the revenues of the companies and the extent of their participation in the alleged cartel.
The investigation began in 2006, based on a leniency agreement – which allows for the reduction or elimination of the penalty of the participant in a cartel that denounces the practice and presents evidence for the investigation. The proceeding involves other companies and investigates the fixing of price and date in the transfer of additional fuel charged in international air freight in Brazil. The alleged cartel will still be judged by the Cade’s Tribunal.
This is the first TCC signed within this investigation. Earlier, in 2010, a draft agreement presented by Aerolíneas Brasileiras was refused by the Cade’s Tribunal.
The amount of the cash contribution to be paid by the TCC signatories will be collected to the Brazilian Diffused Rights Fund, which entrusts the collected money to public agencies and civil nonprofit projects that aim at the recovery of assets and diffuse rights.

Reports are emerging that Bahrain Air failed to transfer passenger fee revenues to the government regularly and had accumulated debt of more than BD2 and a fuel debt of BD15m among others. The airline has been criticized by government sources for failing to take advantage of significant government support and for taking the decision to cease operations without informing the Transportation Ministry.
It has emerged that the government had offered to help the airline pay back its debts by exempting it from parking fees for all its aircraft since its establishment, discounts on air navigation charges and designated air service agreements between Bahrain and other states.

Summer 2013 will see talks begin between the EU and the United States on producing a free-trade agreement that would give birth to the largest free trade zone on the planet, significant enough to add 0.5% or €86bn to overall EU GDP and 0.4% or €65bn to the US economy by 2027. This agreement would in effect encompass over one third of global output and trade.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso made the announcement after President Obama backed reducing trade barriers in Tuesday’s State of the Union address. It is hoped that talks, which will need the agreement of all EU member states and the US congress, can reach fruition signed by the end of 2014.

Now the ramifications for the aviation sector in all this are massive, but before we all go running down the bar to get pasted on the thought of relaxed regulations in the years to come, we have to think about two sobering hurdles in the way. The main one is of course the EU common agricultural policy, that wonder of wonders that just keeps on giving for unproductive sponging French farmers and the other is the far more close to home spat between Airbus and Boeing over subsidies.

Now it is likely that any agreement will bring with it strict rules on subsidies and therefore the European airlines that remain to this day “assisted” would have to be let to fail which in turn makes this a good tool for sorting out and levelling the EU airline sector by cutting overcapacity and supported low prices. On the question of Boeing and Airbus – Well these guys are rocket scientists after all, all they need do is get together and within five minutes they would have worked a way around anything that EU and US regulators can throw at them, thus we should all be far more worried about the reclining French farmers.

Five Forty Aviation Ltd has withdrawn the licences it had granted to FastJet’s operations in Angola, Ghana and Tanzania to use the Fly540 brand with immediate effect. This, the company states, “is due to the failure on the part of FastJet’s Africa Operations to comply with the respective licence agreements signed with the Company”.

Specifically, Five Forty Aviation states that the payment of licence and other fees of US$6.9m, US$0.5m and US$0.3m for Fly540 Tanzania, Fly540 Angola and Fly540 Ghana respectively are outstanding as well as failure to disclose financial information for December 2012. Also, Five Forty Aviation states that “Contrary to the licence agreement and despite several reminders, FastJet’s Africa Operations have not provided information to the Company’s Head of Safety to demonstrate compliance with Five Forty Aviation’s accepted safety systems” and that FastJet has failed to “provide the Company’s Quality Manager with reports demonstrating that the quality systems are in operation “.

A statement by Five Forty Aviation reads: “As FastJet’s Africa Operations have failed to respond, notice has been given to Fly540 Angola and Fly540 Ghana to re-paint their aircrafts in a neutral colour. Additionally, FastJet’s Africa Operations have to re-brand all of the sales offices, removing the Fly540 brand; return all materials containing the Fly540 logo; and rename the companies other than 540. Also, as per the licence agreement, the Company has written to the Civil Aviation Authority in all three countries informing them of the withdrawal of the licences.”

Don Smith, CEO of Five Forty Aviation, said: “We had no choice but to take this action because the most worrying aspect of non-compliance with the licensing agreement is that we have no way of assuring that the planes are safe to fly. We have not received any safety reports for the past three months from FastJet’s Africa Operations and we believe that one plane, which flew with defects from Tanzania and landed in Nairobi on 14 December, should not have flown.”

In a letter to employees American Airlines chairman, president and CEO Tom Horton has stated that a final decision on whether the airline will merge with US Airways is expected “within a matter of weeks.”
Horton said he “focused on creating a framework with the unions … that keeps American competitive.” He added, “The proposed MOU will be reviewed alongside other factors under evaluation as part of making an informed decision about whether a merger should be pursued.”
Horton assured employees that American management is “conducting a collaborative, fact-based analysis to determine the best path forward.” Regardless of which direction it takes, progress made under the Chapter 11 process has created “a strong foundation for the future,” putting American “on course to become a premier global airline,” the CEO stated.