Paris Air Show: Bombardier

Subscription Required. Introduction March 17, 2015, c. Leeham Co.: Bombardier and air shows just don’t get along. In 2009, there was wide anticipation at the Paris Air Show that BBD would announce a deal with Qatar Airways for… Read More

Pontifications: Qatar Air adds US service, US airlines ramp up whining

May 11, 2015: Qatar Airways is going to add service to three more US cities and the US airlines don’t like it. That’s too bad. We’ve heard this story before. First, it was the proposed deregulation of the… Read More

Airbus A350 start stretching its wings

By Bjorn Fehrm Introduction May 6, 2015, c. Leeham Co. Qatar Airways, as the first operator of the Airbus A350, now has four months of experience of the new twin aisle aircraft. As we have described in Bjorn’s… Read More

Pontifications: USA to the World: “We want to fly everywhere. Period.”

Two of the Big 3 Middle Eastern carriers launched a PR counter offensive in Washington DC today. Below are my thoughts. I haven’t weighed in on the current battle between the Big 3 US airlines and the Big… Read More

Pontifications: A350 launch aid, Emirates and the A380, Bombardier and U-Turn Al

March 5, 2015: A350 Launch Aid: Boeing and the US Trade Representative got in a big twist around 2006 when Airbus said it would accept more than $1bn in launch aid from Germany for the A350. At that… Read More

Trip report: flying the A350 to Airbus Group annual press conference

By Bjorn Fehrm Introduction Feb. 26, 2015: As part of the invitation to cover Airbus group press conference in Munich on Feb. 27 where the annual results are presented, Airbus offered the journalists joining from South of France… Read More

Odds and Ends: WTO and 777X tax breaks; US airlines vs Middle East; Goldman and Boeing; ExIm Bank

WTO to examine 777X tax breaks: Well, we predicted this in November 2013 when Washington State extended the Boeing 787 tax breaks to the 777X. And it’s happened. The World Trade Organization is going to take a look… Read More

Playing number games with the A380

Feb. 15, 2015: Orders for the Airbus A380 have been slow, almost glacial, since the program was launched in 2000. Despite a 20-year forecast then and every year since by Airbus that suggests there is a need for… Read More

AirAsia 8501: two weeks later, still looking for the voice recorder

Jan. 11, 2015: It’s now been two weeks and two days (local time) since AirAsia Flight 8501 crashed into the Java Sea. It took nearly two weeks just to locate the tail section of the airplane, which was… Read More

Looking ahead in 2015 in commercial aviation

Here’s a visualization of events to look for in commercial aviation in 2015.