Latest News

Asia's airline companies blame supply chain concerns for interfered with operations

A siaPacific travel demand has recuperated from the pandemic, but profits at the region's airlines are under pressure from supply chain issues interrupting operations and exposing them to strengthening consumer defense rules, industry executives say.

A lack of parts, labour and brand-new aircrafts as the aviation market emerged from the pandemic has accompanied higher-than-expected repair work required on the latest-generation engines.

The supply chain concern is the biggest difficulty the market is dealing with, Subhas Menon, the director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) stated at the trade body's annual conference in Brunei this week.

Turnaround times for engine maintenance are at record lengths, with airline companies having to cut flights, relocation parts around and lease stop-gap engines or aircrafts to keep operations ticking.

Thai Airways CEO Chai Eamsiri stated servicing the Rolls-Royce engines on its Boeing 787 jets utilized to take around three months, however that has blown out to about 6.

We need to extend the airplane. We utilized to run 12.5 hours a day, now we have to extend it to 13 plus, he told Reuters on the sidelines of the event.

SUPPLY CHAIN AGGRAVATION

The heads of significant carriers consisting of Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines and Kazakhstan's. Air Astana expressed aggravation with maintenance. times and stated federal governments trying to improve customer. protections ought to stop positioning the blame on airlines for. delays.

The origin is originating from the supply chain ... However we are. the one facing the consumer, Eamsiri informed the meeting.

Malaysia, Australia, Thailand and the Philippines are amongst. the nations beefing up airline company customer protections to need. refund options when it comes to delays and cancellations, as is. the United States, though the rules are not as difficult as EU. guidelines requiring payments to affected guests.

Aviation makers have to get their act together, Air. Astana CEO Peter Foster said.

Amidst a lack of planes, labour and parts, Malaysia. Airlines suffered a string of service interruptions this year and. cut its network capacity by 20% from September.

Malaysia's civil aviation regulator cut the period of the. provider's air operator certificate to one year from 3 years. after an examination.

All airlines are wringing the neck of our suppliers,. Malaysia Airlines CEO Izham Ismail told attendees.

Engine servicing used to take around 55 days before the. pandemic, today it requires 100 or more, Ismail stated.

Representatives of Plane and Rolls-Royce said. independently they were working to deal with supply chain snags,. consisting of enhancing providers' access to financing.

AIRFARES FALLING

Travel in the Asia-Pacific area, which accounts for around. 32% of international guest traffic, recovered later than other. parts of the world due to a belated lifting of pandemic travel. restrictions, especially in China.

In September, guest volumes for 40 Asia-Pacific based. providers balanced 97.5% of the corresponding month in 2019,. according to AAPA data.

Airline companies internationally have actually been seeing stable need but. airfares are declining as a post-pandemic travel boom abates and. most planes are back in the skies.

Singapore Airlines, seen as a bellwether for the area,. last week posted a 48.5% plunge in interim net profit,. reflecting stiff competition, and flagged its earnings would. remain under pressure regardless of robust travel need.

(source: Reuters)