Adiós amigo - Spanair ceases operations

As if CCA, Cirrus and AirAlps were not enough, we lost yet another airline on Friday. Spanair (JK), which was a Star Alliance member with a hub in Barcelona El Prat Airport, suddenly ceased operations at 22 o'clock GMT and left thousands of passengers stranded across Europe. Those are good news for Spanish airlines Vueling and Air Europa which are expected to do their best filling the gap left from their competitor. Needless to say, Ryanair, easyJet, Iberia, Vueling and Air Europa immediately launched rescue fares, while SAS (SK) promised to help unlucky passengers as much as possible.

Spanair flight 5022 crash near Madrid Barajas
in 2008 left a scar on Spanair's image. 154
people lost their lives.

Although JK was in the red for a long time, it was not viewed as an airline on a brink of collapse by experts. SK was the majority shareholder since JK was funded in 1986, but became only the minority shareholder in 2009 when JK was sold to a group of investors from Catalonia. JK was then subsidized by the Government of Catalonia, although those subsidies were considered illegal by the European Union. The government recently made a decision to no longer invest in JK, so the airline had to find a new investor. Qatar Airways was close to buying 49% stake in JK, but unfortunately for them, the deal never materialized. Without any investors, the airline simply collapsed.

This leaves a huge gap in Barcelona, but it is safe to assume that Vueling and Air Europa will expand rapidly in the market. Star Alliance now became the only airline alliance without its player in the Spanish market, so they might want to do their best at keeping TAP Portugal away from IAG.

JK was never favored by its passengers - it was regarded as offering poor and overpriced service, something that simply couldn't work in such a dense market like Spain. But now, it's too late for an overhaul. As we can see, JK was just a bubble waiting to be burst.

Turboprop week: WestJet and EuroLOT to order Q400; ATR provides more details on 90-seater

It has been an interesting week for turboprop manufacturers Bombardier and ATR so far. Canada's second most powerful airline, WestJet, is considering introducing Q400 aircraft to its fleet to better compete with Air Canada and other regional airlines in Canada. EuroLOT is also reported to be close to ordering Q400, therefore moving away from ATRs they operate now. And finally, ATR outlined its 90-seater plan.


WestJet considering Bombardier Dash8 Q400
As already mentioned, WestJet (WS) is the second largest airline in the Canadian market, right after Air Canada. They claim to have reached the point where there are no longer any markets left in Canada that can be profitable with their 737 (97 in fleet) service, so they now have to choose a smaller aircraft for shorter routes and smaller markets. That aircraft, according to WS, will be the Q400.
WS will now compete not just on larger markets, but also on regional level against Air Canada, Jazz, Porter and others connecting smaller communities with larger gateways across Canada. Definitely, the biggest winners here will be Canadians from smaller cities which complain that short domestic trips are overpriced - airfares will instantly be lowered when WS enters those markets.
They will become yet another low-cost carrier that abandoned single-type fleet policy and ordered another aircraft.
WS is planning to place this 40 aircraft order next year.

EuroLOT likely to order Q400 soon

Reports are coming over from Poland that EuroLOT (K2) will soon place an order for 12 Q400s. EuroLOT does regional flying from its base in Warsaw on contract for LOT Polish Airlines (which hold a stake in K2, but majority is held by the government), but recently also started flying on its own from other cites in Poland. K2 operates a fleet of 13 ATR 42 and 72 aircraft. It is speculated that Q400 will both replace some older ATRs, and be used for opening new routes. More details are expected to come soon.

ATR outlines 90-seater plans
Avions de Transport Regional gave some more details about the 90-seater turboprop which is expected to enter service in 2017. ATR92, as many are already calling it, would be larger than ATR72 and also have the possibility of stowing luggage under the cabin-floor. None of the current ATRs can hold luggage under the floor, so one can imagine that this aircraft will have wider fuselage than other ATRs. You can find more details here. It is expected that Bombardier, which announced the 90-seater after ATR, will soon provide more details about their own program as well.

Norwegian orders 222 narrowbodies

It came out of the blue. Not many were expecting Norwegian (DY) to make such a huge order, order that includes 22 Boeing 737-800s, 100 Boeing 737 MAX8s, 100 Airbus A320neos and options. This deal is very interesting for two main reasons:

Size
DY currently operates 62 Boeing 737 aircraft. This deal basically means huge expansion for the airline. Don't be confused by airline's name, it has bases outside Norway and it can open bases in the EU. However, do note that not all of these aircraft will be operating at once. The airline will be retiring some aircraft from these orders at the same time as taking deliveries of those that were scheduled to enter its fleet later. Furthermore, we can easily conclude that DY received a nice discount due to the size of the order.


Split order
American Airlines, which used to be Boeing-only operator for a long time, surprised everyone in July last year when they ordered both Boeing and Airbus aircraft. Airbus now claims another victory as DY were Boeing-only until now as well. Ordering larger fleets of aircraft designed for the same market from two manufacturers is considered good business - it is easier to overcome trouble if either of those aircraft experience any sort of problems (both before and after entering the service), and you can play manufacturers off against each other and secure yourself lower prices.

Overall, it will be interesting to watch how and where DY expands. Also remember they have 6 Boeing 787s on order to try their luck on long-haul low-cost model, something that many experts claim that simply can't work in most cases.

Turkish Airlines investing in LOT Polish Airlines

"Yes I want to buy LOT!" How does that sound to you? That's what God..., sorry, the CEO of Turkish Airlines (TK), Temel Kotil, said almost 2 years ago. And now, it seems that his intentions will finally become reality.

Apparently, LOT Polish Airlines (LO) was chosen from a list of more than dozen of other carriers that offered themselves to TK. It must have been a very lucky moment for executives at LO when they were notified that TK picked them. Because if it wasn't TK, they would probably need to wait for Lufthansa to digest some of their recent acquisitions before they could take over LO and convert it to nothing more than a feeder airline (probably).


I have no idea which other airlines were on the table, but I'm sure that TK did lots of thinking and that LO really was the best choice. LO, as an airline that offered itself to TK, has a lot to gain from TK, but I'm not quite sure how much TK can gain from LO.

However, there are a few things! It is widely known that Istanbul Ataturk (IST), TK's hub, has some capacity problems (if you can call them that way since an airline growing faster than the airport is a dream come true for many airport officials). Through this acquisition of LO, TK could make Warsaw (WAW) their new airport for transfer passengers. LO already has flights to North America, good infrastructure at its hub in WAW (runways being able to sustain gear-up landings, etc.), so they only need TK to connect WAW with their destinations in Asia or Africa. This could make IST breathe more easily and ready for TK's other endeavors. Furthermore, TK showed interest in getting their hands on Embraer's E-jets, while LO showed interest in getting rid of the smaller version they have in their fleet. Win - win!

Still, the only defined thing about this deal is that it has yet to be defined, so we should wait for more news on the deal before any real conclusions can be made.