The Year 2019 in Commercial Aviation

2019 has been a pretty eventful year for commercial aviation for numerous reasons. Most prominently, the Boeing 737 MAX was grounded this year due to a failing MCAS system which caused an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft to crash this year and a Lion Air plane to crash last year, although since the grounding in March, more problems were discovered. Because of this, the year has been probably Boeing Commercial’s worst year in quite a few years, but also was a fantastic year for Airbus. Throughout this article, I’ll highlight some of the ups and downs for commercial aviation this year.

Commercial Aviation In The News: The Highlights

Boeing 737 MAX Grounding:

On March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi crashed in a very similar fashion to the crash of Lion Air Flight 610 in 2018 and led to the deaths of 346 civilians. The problem: the MCAS system, unique to the 737 MAX, which was built to push the nose of the plane down due to the new engines for the MAX, which changed plane’s center of mass and therefore made the plane prone to pitching up, malfunctioned and pushed the airplane nose down as it had incorrectly sensed that the plane was about to stall.

Quickly, aviation authorities, including the FAA (although they were among the last to do so) grounded the aircraft, and there is no sign that it will resume flights before summer in 2020. Since the aircraft’s grounding, more issues have been found in the 737 MAX with its software, and that Boeing didn’t require enough training for the new aircraft for pilots. Since the plane’s grounding, it has been revealed that errors had been found with the 737 MAX before it was certified by the FAA by test pilots, although they were ignored by Boeing and regulators.

Most recently, the CEO of Boeing, Dennis Muilenburg, was fired due to his inability to fix the 737 MAX crisis. Airlines such as American Airlines or United have had to cancel thousands of flights because of the 737 MAX crisis, and thousands more will have to be canceled, since there is no end in sight for the grounding; United even canceled all MAX flights up until June, so it will definitely be a while. Overall, this issue is much more complex than I can fit in this article, and surely this issue will be looked back at by history as one of the catastrophes which can occur as a result of negligence and a lack of care for safety.

Aviation Under Pressure For Emissions

Aviation has come under more scrutiny this year because of its large amount of emissions. Aviation contributes to approximately 2-3% of worldwide CO2 emissions contributing to climate change, which has led to some environmentalists such as Greta Thunberg to stop flying, and the rise of Flygskam, or Flight Shame, in some countries such as Europe, especially in Sweden. It’s unlikely that this will cause any significant impact to air travel, especially because of the rate which aviation is expected to grow over the next decades due to the rise of globalization, the rising worldwide populations, and the greater demand for travel.

Aviation is crucial to worldwide economies (especially those in developing countries, some of which rely almost exclusively on tourism) and allows for a greater interconnectedness in the world and for travel, which is indisputably important. While I disagree that aviation should shamed, I do strongly agree that aviation needs to change and the pressure applied recently hopefully will expedite the process of aviation becoming more sustainable to help lower its negative effects on the climate, which leads me to my next section.

The Dawn Of Electric Aviation:

While aviation has come under scrutiny for its emissions, I would argue that 2019 has been the dawn of electric aviation. While we are far from having electric 787s, regional to short-haul electric aircraft might be closer than you might think. At the Paris Air Show this summer, Israel’s Eviation introduced their first electric prototype aircraft: the Eviation Alice, which will enter commercial service in either 2022 or 2023, and should begin test flights in 2020. The aircraft can fly up to 650 miles and can hold nine passengers, and will debut with Cape Air.

Possibly even more exciting, this year, the first electric aircraft also took flight. While it wasn’t a new plane at all, Harbour Air with a collaboration with MagniX recently retrofitted one of their 62 year old DHC-2 Beavers to become electric and took flight just a few weeks ago, which was a massive achievement for electric aviation. Harbour Air intends to retrofit their entire fleet of floatplanes to become the first fully electric airline over the next few years. EasyJet also hopes to fly an electric plane in the latter half of next decade with a partnership with Wright Electric, although in the mean time, they decided to carbon offset all their flights this year, which, despite your stance on carbon offsets, is indisputably a positive move.

The Airbus A321 XLR Launch: A Boom

Also at the Paris Air Show this year, Airbus launched the Airbus A321XLR, the longest range single aisle aircraft yet and the latest version of the A321neo, which will debut in 2023. It will have a 15% greater range than the A321LR and a 30% greater range than the regular A321neo and will be able to fly a total of 5,400 miles. The aircraft was modified to have more fuel tanks and to have a greater MTOW so that the plane will be able to fly longer distances. The plane is expected to be flown on thinner long-haul routes, which don’t have the need for the capacity of an A330 or 787 but still have a large enough yield for a nonstop flight.

The aircraft was quickly a success, as it quickly got orders from Qantas, Saudia, Jetstar, Aer Lingus, Iberia, Iberia, Middle East Airlines, JetSMART, and Wizz Air. The aircraft has also gotten orders from four US airlines: JetBlue (13 aircraft) Frontier (18 aircraft), American (50 aircraft), and United (50 aircraft). It is expected that JetBlue, American, and United will use the aircraft primarily for flights to Europe and South America, although I personally am a bit puzzled as to what Frontier will do with the aircraft (as it’s unlikely that they’ll start flights to Europe), although they may use it for Hawaii or South American flights.

Airline Bankruptcies

2019 also saw a significant list of airlines go out of business this year, most prominently WOW Air, Jet Airways, and Thomas Cook Airlines (although fortunately, its German subsidiary Condor survived!). A couple airlines (two of which I flew on this year!) were close to collapse this year although which ended up surviving such as Hong Kong Airlines, which recently received another cash injection, and South African Airways, which keeps getting bailed out by the South African government. Air travel is a very competitive and crowded market around the world and is obviously very expensive, although there is no one reason why the airlines go bankrupt. Below is a list of the largest airlines which went insolvent this year.

Airline	Country	Market	Date of Insolvency
Germania	Germany	Leisure	February 5, 2019
Flybmi	UK	Regional	February 16, 2019
WOW Air	Iceland	Low-cost	March 28, 2019
Jet Airways	India	Full service	April 17, 2019
Avianca Brasil	Brasil	Full service	June 24, 2019
Aigle Azur	France	Leisure/low-cost	September 6, 2019
XL Airways France	France	Leisure/low-cost	September 23, 2019
Thomas Cook	UK	Leisure/low-cost	September 23, 2019
Adria Airways	Slovenia	Full service	September 30, 2019
Peruvian Airlines	Peru	Regional	October 2, 2019
Via Air	USA	Regional	October 8, 2019

Business Gets Better, While First Is Going Extinct

Every year, airlines continue to innovate with premium cabin products, especially in business class. This year, a couple of airlines stood out with their new business class products: British Airways and ANA, which I’ll get more into later. We’ve pretty much come full circle when it comes to business and first class. A few years ago, a very large portion of international airlines (if not most) had first class on almost all of their long-haul aircraft, which basically consisted of large flatbed seats which had a fair amount of privacy. Over the past decade, business class has kept improving until it became as good as first class was a decade ago, if not better, with fully-flat suites with closed doors. Even just a decade ago it was somewhat a novelty to have fully flatbed seats in business class, while it has been the norm in first class for the past two decades.

Because business class has become so good, airlines saw a redundancy in having both business and first class, and have for the most part eliminated first class. Airlines that used to have first class on almost all of their long-haul aircraft just a decade ago have either now retrofitted almost all if not all of their long-haul fleet with newer cabins without first class or have completely eliminated it. Examples include that United Airlines has completely gotten rid of their Global First product, Asiana and Malaysia Airlines recently rebranded their first class product as “Business Suites,” and airlines such as Lufthansa, Korean Air, Oman Air, Qatar Airways, American, and Qantas are only keeping first class on a handful of premium aircraft. More and more airlines such as Delta, Qatar Airways, and even China Eastern Airlines are introducing business class suites with fully closing doors, which somewhat resemble what first class used to be. However, some airlines such as Emirates, British Airways, SWISS, and ANA are keeping first class on a large subset of their fleet to use on premium routes for.

On the other end of the spectrum, more and more airlines are introducing premium economy, which somewhat resembles what business class used to look like two decades ago, with leg rests, foot rests, and greater seat width and recline. This is to make up for the absence in the market that used to be for the people willing to pay for a bit more space than economy class but don’t need a full closed suite in business class, or previously first class. The result which we are seeing among airlines are smaller, more intimate and luxurious business class cabins (i.e. Delta’s 777s and A350s) and larger premium economy cabins.

Listed below are the new cabin products airlines introduced, launched, or announced this year in premium economy, business class, or first class.

• New ANA 777-300ER Business/First Class: Last year, ANA stunned the world by introducing what may well be the world’s new best business class product. They introduced a new seat called “The Room,” which features ultra-wide fully closed suites in a 1-2-1 configuration which truly look stunning extraordinarily spacious and are debatably the world’s best business class seats. The seat actually isn’t new: it uses the Safran (previously Zodiac) Fusio seat, which has been on the market for some time now but hasn’t been used by any airline since its release. ANA also introduced a new first class product with fully enclosed suites in a 1-2-1 configuration which aren’t industry leading, but are solid and have what I believe are the largest IFE screens (of course, in 4K) and are a big improvement over their previous poorly designed “Square” first class seat. While airlines such as British Airways and Qatar Airways like to hype their products years in advance, ANA introduced the new seats out of the blue and stunned the world in doing so, which is something I respect.

• British Airways New A350/777/787-10 Club Suite: British Airways introduced the world’s first fully flat bed seat in the late 1990s and had not changed the design of their Club World product…until this year. British Airways debuted their latest Club Suite product this summer on their A350 which has also been retrofitted onto some of their 777s. It uses the Rockwell Collins Super Diamond seat, although they also added closed doors to the seat, which give the seat a lot more privacy, making the seats among the best in the world. The seats will be rolled out onto their entire long-haul fleet and the retrofit process should be complete by 2023. British Airways also introduced a new premium economy product on their A350s this year.

• Virgin Atlantic A350 Business Class: Coincidentally, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic separately introduced the A350-1000 in the same year, and decided to come up with a new Upper Class product. Their new seat is based on the wildly popular Safran Cirrus seat, which is a reverse herringbone seat. Virgin Atlantic being Virgin Atlantic decided to make a lot of tweaks to the seat, many of which are not so popular with consumers, such as making the middle two seats angle towards the aisle as opposed to what the middle seats usually do and what the wind seats do, which is angle away from it. While not an industry leading product, it is a massive improvement over their old herringbone business class product on their A330s, A340s, 747s, and 787s, which lacks privacy and needs to be flipped over to turn into a flatbed. Virgin Atlantic also introduced a new onboard lounge on their A350s, which replaced their onboard bar on previous aircraft and introduced a new premium economy seat based on the Collins MiQ seat.

• Turkish Airlines Boeing 787-9 Business Class: This year, Turkish Airlines introduced a new business class seat for their 787s, which uses the Stelia Solstys III product: the same seat as on Singapore Airlines’ 787-10s and regional A350-900s. The seats are in a 1-2-1 configuration and are staggered and have a fair amount of privacy and storage. They are a big upgrade over their previous long-haul business class seat: the Safran Aura, which lacks privacy and doesn’t have all aisle access. Combined with Turkish Airlines’ fantastic soft product and ground services, this should be among the world’s best business class products. However, Turkish Airlines is thinking of introducing a new business class seat on their remaining 787s and A350s because of bad passenger reviews.
• Egyptair 787-9 Business Class: This year, Egyptair took delivery of their first Boeing 787-9s, which it used to start Washington Dulles flights and also uses for its New York flights. Egyptair uses the Rockwell Collins Super Diamond seat in business class, which is the same seat as on Air Canada’s 787s/777s or on Qatar Airways’ A350-900s, 787s, and A380s. Unlike British Airways, Egyptair opted not to install doors with their seats, although they are still a massive improvement over their old angled (B/E Aerospace Minipod) seats on their A330s and 777s.
• Air France A350-900 Business Class: This year, we saw Air France introduce a new business class seat onboard their Airbus A350-900s. While they do have amazing Safran Cirrus seats onboard their retrofitted 777s and 787s, they decided to introduce a new product onboard their A350s, which also will be retrofitted onboard their high-density 777-300ERs which still have angle flat seats. Air France decided on using the Safran Optima seats, which are found in United Polaris, making Air France the second customer of the Optima seats. The staggered Optima seats (in a 1-2-1 configuration) seats aren’t necessarily better than their reverse herringbone seats on their 777s and 787s, although they should be at least just as comfortable and private.

• WestJet 787-9 Business Class: This year, WestJet took delivery of their first 787-9s, which are their first aircraft to feature their new onboard cabin products, including their first ever business class. WestJet also used the Rockwell Collins Super Diamond reverse herringbone product (although they only have an intimate cabin of 16 seats) for their 787s which also have excellent finishings; the overall product has gotten fantastic reviews since its launch.
• LATAM New Business Class: Since LATAM’s rebranding, they have had pretty varied business class products across their entire fleet with either sub-par angle-flat seats or dated flatbed seats in a 2-2-2 configuration. This year, they introduced their new business class product, using the Thompson Vantage XL seat, staggered seats in a 1-2-1 configuration which are in my opinion, among the best off-the-shelf seats on the market. The seats will be installed across all of their 777s, 767s, and newly delivered 787s and A350s.

• SWISS and Brussels Airlines Premium Economy: Both airlines in the Lufthansa group, both Brussels Airlines and SWISS announced that they would introduce premium economy onboard their long-haul aircraft. While Brussels Airlines launched their new premium economy product this year along with a new business class product (using an updated version of the Thompson Vantage seat), SWISS will introduce premium economy onboard their aircraft in 2021. Both airlines will use similar seats to the premium economy products on partner airlines Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines.
• United Launches Premium Plus: This year, United Airlines officially launched their new premium economy product: Premium Plus. While there were premium economy seats onboard their aircraft in 2018 (which I even reviewed!), this year, United launched their premium economy soft product with enhanced amenities and food.

Exciting New Routes Launched In 2019

As aircraft ranges have gotten longer and longer, airlines have recently launched more ultra-long-haul flights, the most recent of which was United’s flight from Newark to Cape Town. Listed below are some of the most exciting (for the most part long-haul) routes which were launched in 2019 around the world.

• Newark to Cape Town – United Airlines – Boeing 787-9
• Lisbon to San Francisco, Chicago O’Hare, and Washington Dulles – TAP Portugal – Airbus A330-900neo (SFO, ORD, IAD seasonally), A321LR (IAD seasonally)
• Philadelphia to Berlin-Tegel – American Airlines – Boeing 767-300
• Seattle to Hong Kong – Cathay Pacific – Airbus A350-900
• Boston to Honolulu – Hawaiian Airlines – Airbus A330-200
• Austin to Frankfurt – Lufthansa – Airbus A330-300
• Washington Dulles to Tel Aviv – United – Boeing 777-200
• Newark to Naples – United – Boeing 767-300
• Charleston and Pittsburgh to London – British Airways – Boeing 787-8
• Seattle to Singapore – Singapore Airlines – Airbus A350-900
• Milan to San Francisco/Los Angeles – Air Italy – Airbus A330-200

New Airports/Airport Terminals

2019 also brought more airports and airport terminals as the aviation industry grows and older terminals become too small for growing air traffic.

• Beijing Daxing International Airport: This year, Beijing’s second major international airport was opened: Beijing Daxing Airport. It serves as Beijing’s second largest airport and is to the south of the city and replaced Beijing Nanyuan Airport as its second largest airport. It will relieve overcrowding at Beijing Capital Airport and is a hub for low-cost carrier China United Airlines along with being a smaller hub for China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines. Currently, international airlines such as British Airways and Malaysia Airlines serve the airport, although Delta Air Lines will serve the airport next year and American Airlines should move there over the coming years.

• New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport New Terminal: New Orleans’ airport recently opened a new terminal on the north side of its airport which replaced its southern terminal with its old concourses (Concourse A, B, & C). The new terminal has a total of 35 gates but might eventually expand to have 42 gates. While New Orleans Airport mostly has domestic traffic and has sizable operations from both Southwest Airlines and Spirit Airlines, it recently did get transatlantic service seasonally on Condor to Frankfurt and year-round on British Airways to London Heathrow.
• Istanbul New Airport: While Istanbul New Airport technically did open in 2018, it only opened for a few domestic flights up until May of this year, when it fully replaced Istanbul Ataturk Airport. The airport now is Turkish Airlines’ main hub and will be able to accommodate a grand total of 200 million passengers when all phases of the airport are complete in 2025. While the airport is extremely modern, it has had some problems, as it is right by the Black Sea, so the airport often becomes extremely foggy, which relatively frequently causes diversions.

• Singapore Changi Airport: The Jewel: This year, Singapore Changi opened what they call “The Jewel” at the center of the airport, which is a beautiful giant shopping mall with gorgeous botanical gardens at the center. It also is home to a hotel, a Priority Pass airport lounge, restaurants, stores, and even a “Rain Vortex” at the center of it! The Jewel is meant to both be a great place to go during an extended layover at Changi airport (although note that you have to clear immigration to get there) and to be an attraction for locals.

Conclusion

It’s been a pretty eventful year in terms of commercial aviation. Of course, the main story this year was the Boeing 737 MAX scandal and the 346 people who lost their lives because of it. Other major stories in commercial aviation this year include the pressure that it’s had because of emissions, the booming success of the A321XLR, and the multiple airlines which went out of business this year. Overall, I think we can hope for a better year in aviation for next year, with hopefully more innovation to come and an end (but as slow as needed) to the Boeing 737 MAX crisis.