Vol. 25 No. 3 April 2018 orientaviation.com FOLLOWING THE MONEY Jet Airways CEO, Vinay Dube, is focused on building a full service network that “follows the money” Tailored charter services Qatar Airways commits India outpacing China rejuvenating Japanese to expansion despite in air passenger tourism into Australia mounting losses growth INDUSTRYSPECIAL INSIGHT REPORT lead world Asia-Pacificin cabincarriers innovation Now you can accept payments in virtually any form. Saying yes to alternative forms of payment means saying yes to new streams of revenue. Our payment solutions integrate easily with your current systems, helping you accept AFPs at a lower cost. And navigate the global payments market with ease. A more complete payment program starts with UATP. Learn more at UATP.com. CONTENTS Volume 25, Issue 3 COVER STORY 20 FOLLOWING PUBLISHED BY THE MONEY ORIENT AVIATION MEDIA GROUP Mailing address: Global aviation veteran, GPO Box 11435 Hong Kong Vinay Dube, is relishing Office: 17/F Hang Wai Commercial Building, his role as CEO of India’s 231-233 Queen’s Road East, Jet Airways where he is Wanchai, Hong Kong Tel: Editorial (852) 2865 1013 focused on streamlining E-mail: [email protected] operations and Website: www.orientaviation.com “following the money”. Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Christine McGee E-mail: [email protected] Chief Correspondent Tom Ballantyne Tel: (612) 9638 6895 Fax: (612) 9684 2776 E-mail: [email protected] Greater China Correspondent Dominic Lalk Tel: (852) 2865 1013 E-mail: [email protected] COMMENT EXECUTIVE PROFILE North Asia Correspondent 5 Getting there in India? 14 Australia’s Alliance Airlines charts new territory Geoffrey Tudor for Japanese tourists Tel: (813) 3373 8368 E-mail: [email protected] ADDENDUM 6 AirAsia’s Fernandes has Myanmar on his mind India Correspondent R. Thomas 6 Mainland China harnesses Big Data to improve Tel: (852) 2865 1013 industry behaviour E-mail: [email protected] 6 HNA Group’s Gategroup IPO collapses Photographers 7 Qantas Group looks to “Project Sunrise” after Rob Finlayson, Graham Uden, Ryan Peters Perth-London nonstop takes off 7 Drone’s near miss in Auckland shakes up Chief Designer Chan Ping Kwan regulators Printing Printing Station(2008) NEWS BACKGROUNDERS 8 All Nippon Airways widens LCC gap with Japan ADMINISTRATION Airlines General Manager Shirley Ho E-mail: [email protected] INDUSTRY ADDENDUM ADVERTISING 26 Rolls-Royce breaks ground on Derby test bed Asia-Pacific, Europe & Middle East 26 Air China and CFM inaugurate China MRO facility Clive Richardson 26 AFI KLM E&M and Vietnam Airlines renew long Tel: (44) 7501 185257 E-mail: [email protected] term partnership 26 SITA promises India seamless biometric air travel The Americas / Canada Barnes Media Associates 27 China Eastern Airlines and GE Aviation sign Ray Barnes digital services agreement Tel: (1 434) 770 4108 Fax: (1 434) 927 5101 27 Singapore companies target airport E-mail: [email protected] development projects [email protected] 11 Qatar carries on regardless as losses climb 27 SpiceJet boosts fleet with leased B737MAX 8s 12 India outpaces China in air passenger growth from CDB Aviation Follow us on Twitter @orientaviation 13 South Korea clamps down on rogue budget also - keep up with the news of the week with Orient Aviation’s Week in the carriers INDUSTRY INSIGHT REPORT Asia-Pacific 17 Design challenges ahead for Boeing’s New Regional trends in aircraft cabin design © All rights reserved Midsize Airplane 30 Asia-Pacific carriers lead the world in interiors Wilson Press HK Ltd., 18 Korean Air benefits from UK funding for innovation Hong Kong, 2018 Bombardier’s C Series jets 30 Flight Centre loses out to competition watch dog APRIL 2018 / ORIENT AVIATION / 3 A million reason$ to fl y ATR. That’s why we’re the Regional Leader. atr-aircraft.com Choosing ATR’s solutions generates $1 million of savings annually, per aircraft, compared to their direct competitors. This explains the vast success of the program and its leadership in terms of orders, deliveries, backlog, operator base, investor’s opinion and residual value retention. O 17T0877_AP_05_OrientAviation_202x273mm_GB.indd 1 O 19/05/2017 17:51 O O O O O O COMMENT Getting there in India? India’s airport infrastructure is close to crisis mode. airport, 30 kilometres away at Navi Mumbai, has been Domestic passenger numbers will exceed 300 million this delayed by a series of land disputes and is not scheduled to year yet the country’s airport network will only be able to open until 2023 – at the earliest. handle 317 million passengers annually. India’s government, under prime minister Narendra With passenger numbers rising every 12 months by Modi, has made aviation expansion a priority. Airlines have above 20%, including this February’s figures of 24.14% over responded to demand with orders for jets valued at US$250 the same month a year ago, airport saturation is a given. billion. Indian passenger numbers are forecast to grow five-and-half But views vary about India keeping up with demand for times in the next two decades, which raises numerous red new infrastructure, especially as some analysts predict India flags, particularly for air safety. will have a billion air passengers a year by 2030. Earlier this India is by no means the only country in the Asia-Pacific year the government committed to $10 billion in airport that has failed to invest in sufficient aviation infrastructure to infrastructure. Doom sayers believed $45 billion might be meet rising airline demand, but its situation is worse than in the right number. many nations in the region because its aviation growth is so In such a conflicted debate, it might be worth taking explosive. note of an airline veteran who is the new CEO at Indian full It is forecast that by 2023 to 2025, India’s 30 to 40 service carrier, Jet Airways. Vinay Dube told Orient Aviation busiest airports will be operating beyond their capacity. Ten in this month’s cover story that “I can honestly say we have of them, including Dehradun, Jaipur, Guwahati, Mangalore, a wonderful minister, a great secretary and an excellent Srinagar and Pune, are there already. directorate general of civil aviation”. Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport “Is it the world’s best in terms of maturity, rules and (CSIA), which is functioning at 94% capacity, cannot expand regulations? Of course not. There is a lot more we can do. because it is ringed by slums. Construction of a second But they are great people to work with. Absolutely.” ■ TOM BALLANTYNE Chief Correspondent Orient Aviation Media Group The most trusted source of Asia-Pacific commercial aviation news and analysis ORIENT AVIATION ORIENT AVIATION CHINA “It has established itself as the primary source of information on industry topics in the Asia-Pacific region” APRIL 2018 / ORIENT AVIATION / 5 ADDENDUM AirAsia’s Fernandes has Myanmar on his mind AirAsia Group is not slowing known for a long time. He is a Au Aviation is owned by the down in its drive to establish well-respected guy. We’re going Thien Minh Group, which is budget joint ventures across the through that process”. ultimately owned by Tran Trong region, particularly in Southeast Fernandes also said he Kien. Asia. Co-founder and group expected AirAsia Vietnam to Apart from its airline CEO, Tony Fernandes, said in be up and running by October. expansion, AirAsia is rolling a Reuters interview last month “Once you’ve covered Vietnam out additional services to its 80 that the Malaysia-headquartered and Myanmar, you’ve got million plus customers, including company was discussing the all the big Southeast Asian foreign exchange to e-commerce launch of a joint venture carrier populations,” he said. “We have products and content. in Myanmar. had great support from the “The biggest asset is our “It’s not going to be a big Vietnam government and we data. Southeast Asian businesses airline, because the airport have a great partner. My team is like ride hailing company, Grab, infrastructure is not there. But it very bullish about it.” have to spend a fortune to build is a market of 50 million people AirAsia Vietnam, announced that brand and data. We have and it will develop over time,” in April last year, will be 30% 89 million customers travelling he said. Fernandes declined to owned by the AirAsia Group with us every year and we have identify the potential partner but with the remaining 70% held data going back 18 years. We’re revealed “we had a good meeting by Vietnam’s Gumin Co., Tran more than an airline. That’s the with someone in Sydney. He Trong Kien and general aviation message for 2018, like Amazon has a good airline that we’ve company, Hai Au Aviation. Hai is more than a bookseller.” ■ Mainland harnesses Big Data to improve industry behaviour Mainland China is pushing hard Social Credit Management System director general of the Law infringements, including to implement “Social Credit” is a critical development for the Department of the CAAC, Gou transporting dangerous goods regulations in its aviation sector industry, speakers said. Rengang, told the symposium. that could lead to an accident, Gou with rules that apply to foreign and Social credit uses Big Data to The information will reveal said. Firms on the Black List “will local carriers, the International Air rate businesses and individuals how companies and individuals lose the right to apply for slots for Transport Association’s assistant and will be used by Chinese have responded to China’s civil one year,” he said. general counsel, Max Xie, told authorities to stop people it views aviation rules and regulations, and The Grey List will come into the association’s recent legal as undesirable from travelling.