This is a list of aviation-related events in 2019.
Orders and deliveries
Airbus took 768 net orders in 2019 and delivered 863 aircraft up from 800 in 2018: 642 A320s (including 551 A320neos), 112 A350s, 53 A330s (included 41 A330neos), 48 A220s and eight A380s.[1]
A Saha Airlines Boeing 707
crashes at
Fath Air Base in Iran, killing all but one of the 16 people on board.[7] It was the last remaining 707 in civil operation.
16 January
Airbus breaks ground for a new
A220 final assembly line (FAL) in
Mobile, Alabama, a $300 million investment after the $600 million previously committed for the
A320 FAL, to begin deliveries in 2020.[8]
February
On 14 February, Airbus announced the end of
A380 production in 2021
4 February
Germania Fluggesellschaft, its sister maintenance company Germania Technik Brandenburg and Germania Flugdienste files for insolvency and end flight operations.[9]
Airbus announces that it will end production of the
A380 in 2021 after
Emirates decides to replace its last orders for 39 planes by 30
A350s and 40
A330neos.[11]
16 February
British Midland Regional Limited, operating as
Flybmi, ceases operations and files for
administration; Flybmi operated 17
regional jets to 25 European cities, employed 376 employees and carried 522,000 passengers on 29,000 flights in 2018.[12]
19–21 February
The British
Royal Air Force stages flypasts of
Tornado aircraft to mark their withdrawal from its service.[13]
The
Ilyushin Il-112, the first military transport plane designed in post-Soviet Russia and capable of carrying of up to 5 tonnes, performs its first flight.[29]
Six years after its launch, the five-seat
Flaris LAR01 makes its first flight at
Zielona Góra Airport in western
Poland powered by a single
Williams FJ33 turbofan, targeting Polish S-1 experimental aircraft certification by the end of 2019 to start deliveries to local customers and EASA CS-23 certification aimed for the end of 2020.[30]
9 April
The United States Government threatens to place tariffs on European Union products over improper
Airbus subsidies.[31]
Bristow Helicopters parent Bristow Group enters
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, affecting North America operations, but leaving overseas operations unchanged.[41]
Avianca Brazil operations, under bankruptcy protection since December 2018, are suspended by Brazil's civil aviation authority ANAC.[44]
29 May
Airbus celebrates the 50th anniversary of its original partnership agreement launching the
A300, with a flypast over
Toulouse of its aircraft including the A220, A320, A330neo, A350 XWB, A380 and BelugaXL, along with the
Patrouille de France.[45]
United Technologies and
Raytheon announce their proposed merge to form a $74 billion per year aerospace and defense company, providing aircraft engines, parts, avionics, interiors, missiles and technology; the deal could close in the first half of 2020.[47]
13 June
Mitsubishi Aircraft re-brands its Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) as the
SpaceJet: the MRJ90 becomes the SpaceJet M90; the SpaceJet M100 is a 1.3 m (4 ft 3 in) shorter derivative seating 76 to meet US
scope clauses, 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) longer than the cancelled MRJ70.[48]
Daher, the manufacturer of the
SOCATA TBM high-speed single turboprop, is to buy US
Quest Aircraft, builder of the
Quest Kodiak utility single turboprop, from Japanese
Setouchi Holdings, its owner since 2015: the acquisition should close by the end of the year.[49]
The
Airbus A321XLR is launched at the Paris Air Show, with deliveries expected from 2023. It will offer 4,700 nmi (8,700 km) of range and feature a new permanent Rear Centre Tank (RCT) for more fuel, a strengthened landing gear for a 101 t (223,000 lb) MTOW, and an optimised wing trailing-edge flap to preserve take-off performance.[51]
18 June
Partners on the
E-Fan X demonstrator,
Rolls-Royce plc announces its acquisition of
Siemens' electric propulsion branch, to be completed in late 2019, employing 180 in Germany and Hungary.[52]
The Paris Air Show ends with 866 aircraft commitments totalling $60.9 billion (130 firm orders, 562 LoI/MoU, 119 options and 55 options on LoIs): 388 for
Airbus including 243
A321XLRs and 85
A220s, 232 for
Boeing including 200
737 MAXes for IAG, 145 for
ATR and 78 for
Embraer; 558 narrowbodies, 62 widebodies, 93 regional jets and 153 turboprops.[55]
25 June
Bombardier Aviation sells its remaining airliner programme, the
CRJ series, to
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, in a deal expected to close in the first half of 2020 subject to regulatory approval, and refocuses on its business jet programmes.[56]
28 June
Gulfstream announced its
G600 type and production certificates from the FAA, before first deliveries later in the year.[57]
French carrier
Aigle Azur files for bankruptcy and is placed in receivership.[61] All flights cease on 6 September;[62] the airline's 9,800 annual slots at
Paris–Orly attract numerous takeover bids.[63]
Airbus delivers the 9,000th
A320-family aircraft to Easyjet.[66] Airbus continues to increase production rates and expects to reach the 10,000 milestone early in 2021.[67]
19 September
XL Airways France is placed under legal
receivership due to financial difficulties, ticket sales ceased immediately, and flights are suspended from 23 September.[68]
23 September
The
Thomas Cook Group, including
Thomas Cook Group Airlines, is placed in compulsory liquidation. All flights ceased with immediate effect, triggering the UK's largest peacetime repatriation operation for 150,000 stranded passengers.[69]
Textron Aviation announces the
FAA Type Certification for its
Cessna Citation Longitude, after 6,000 flight hours, 11,000 test points and a 31,000 nmi (57,000 km) world tour.[70]
Adria Airways files for bankruptcy and ceases all operations, after temporarily suspending most flights the previous week.[72]
October
2 October
Peruvian Airlines suspends all operations due to the Peruvian Customs Tax Court seizing their bank accounts after failing to pay fuel costs.
A
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress operated by the
Collings Foundation on a fundraising flight
crashes at
Bradley International Airport, killing seven aboard the aircraft and injuring seven others.[73] In March 2020, the FAA revoked the foundation's permission to carry passengers on fundraising flights, citing serious safety deficiencies discovered during the investigation into the crash.[74]
ATR launches the
STOL variant of its
ATR 42, the -600S, capable of operating from 800 m (2,600 ft) runways with up to 42 passengers, with certification expected for the second half of 2022 before first delivery.[75]
Qantas flies an experimental non-stop
New York–
Sydney service using a
Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner with 49 people on board, covering 16,200 km (8,700 nmi) in 19 hrs 16 min,[76] as part of its
Project Sunrise preparations for regular non-stop flights from London and New York to Sydney from 2022 or 2023.[77]
21 October
Gulfstream announces its
G700 flagship, powered by
Rolls-Royce Pearl 700s, to be delivered from 2022.[78] The $75 million jet is a 10 ft (3.0 m) stretch of the G650, and should make its first flight in the first half of 2020.[79]
IndiGo orders 300
A320neo-family aircraft, including the A320neo, A321neo and the recently launched A321XLR, taking IndiGo's total A320neo-family orders to 730. Indigo is already the largest A320neo operator with 97 aircraft, alongside 128
A320ceos.[80]
November
4 November
Iberia and
Vueling parent
IAG acquires Spanish operator
Air Europa from
Globalia for €1 billion ($1.1 billion). Air Europa operates 66 aircraft and recorded €100 million
operating profit in 2018. The deal is expected to be completed in the first half of 2020.[81]
After more than 200 flight tests over 700 hours, the
Airbus BelugaXL receives its
EASA type certification, before entering service by early 2020.[83]
18 November
Boeing (49%) and
Embraer (51%) announce a joint venture to market the
C-390 Millennium tactical transport aircraft, called
Boeing Embraer – Defense, to operate after the regulatory approvals and closing conditions.[84]
Boeing announces the suspension of
737 MAX production from January, so that delivery of the 400 aircraft in storage can be prioritized when the
grounding is lifted.[87]
The deadliest crash of this year was
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a
Boeing 737 MAX which crashed shortly after takeoff from
Addis Ababa on 10 March, killing all 157 people on board. This accident resulted in the worldwide grounding of the 737 MAX series.
This is a list of aviation-related events in 2019.
Orders and deliveries
Airbus took 768 net orders in 2019 and delivered 863 aircraft up from 800 in 2018: 642 A320s (including 551 A320neos), 112 A350s, 53 A330s (included 41 A330neos), 48 A220s and eight A380s.[1]
A Saha Airlines Boeing 707
crashes at
Fath Air Base in Iran, killing all but one of the 16 people on board.[7] It was the last remaining 707 in civil operation.
16 January
Airbus breaks ground for a new
A220 final assembly line (FAL) in
Mobile, Alabama, a $300 million investment after the $600 million previously committed for the
A320 FAL, to begin deliveries in 2020.[8]
February
On 14 February, Airbus announced the end of
A380 production in 2021
4 February
Germania Fluggesellschaft, its sister maintenance company Germania Technik Brandenburg and Germania Flugdienste files for insolvency and end flight operations.[9]
Airbus announces that it will end production of the
A380 in 2021 after
Emirates decides to replace its last orders for 39 planes by 30
A350s and 40
A330neos.[11]
16 February
British Midland Regional Limited, operating as
Flybmi, ceases operations and files for
administration; Flybmi operated 17
regional jets to 25 European cities, employed 376 employees and carried 522,000 passengers on 29,000 flights in 2018.[12]
19–21 February
The British
Royal Air Force stages flypasts of
Tornado aircraft to mark their withdrawal from its service.[13]
The
Ilyushin Il-112, the first military transport plane designed in post-Soviet Russia and capable of carrying of up to 5 tonnes, performs its first flight.[29]
Six years after its launch, the five-seat
Flaris LAR01 makes its first flight at
Zielona Góra Airport in western
Poland powered by a single
Williams FJ33 turbofan, targeting Polish S-1 experimental aircraft certification by the end of 2019 to start deliveries to local customers and EASA CS-23 certification aimed for the end of 2020.[30]
9 April
The United States Government threatens to place tariffs on European Union products over improper
Airbus subsidies.[31]
Bristow Helicopters parent Bristow Group enters
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, affecting North America operations, but leaving overseas operations unchanged.[41]
Avianca Brazil operations, under bankruptcy protection since December 2018, are suspended by Brazil's civil aviation authority ANAC.[44]
29 May
Airbus celebrates the 50th anniversary of its original partnership agreement launching the
A300, with a flypast over
Toulouse of its aircraft including the A220, A320, A330neo, A350 XWB, A380 and BelugaXL, along with the
Patrouille de France.[45]
United Technologies and
Raytheon announce their proposed merge to form a $74 billion per year aerospace and defense company, providing aircraft engines, parts, avionics, interiors, missiles and technology; the deal could close in the first half of 2020.[47]
13 June
Mitsubishi Aircraft re-brands its Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) as the
SpaceJet: the MRJ90 becomes the SpaceJet M90; the SpaceJet M100 is a 1.3 m (4 ft 3 in) shorter derivative seating 76 to meet US
scope clauses, 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) longer than the cancelled MRJ70.[48]
Daher, the manufacturer of the
SOCATA TBM high-speed single turboprop, is to buy US
Quest Aircraft, builder of the
Quest Kodiak utility single turboprop, from Japanese
Setouchi Holdings, its owner since 2015: the acquisition should close by the end of the year.[49]
The
Airbus A321XLR is launched at the Paris Air Show, with deliveries expected from 2023. It will offer 4,700 nmi (8,700 km) of range and feature a new permanent Rear Centre Tank (RCT) for more fuel, a strengthened landing gear for a 101 t (223,000 lb) MTOW, and an optimised wing trailing-edge flap to preserve take-off performance.[51]
18 June
Partners on the
E-Fan X demonstrator,
Rolls-Royce plc announces its acquisition of
Siemens' electric propulsion branch, to be completed in late 2019, employing 180 in Germany and Hungary.[52]
The Paris Air Show ends with 866 aircraft commitments totalling $60.9 billion (130 firm orders, 562 LoI/MoU, 119 options and 55 options on LoIs): 388 for
Airbus including 243
A321XLRs and 85
A220s, 232 for
Boeing including 200
737 MAXes for IAG, 145 for
ATR and 78 for
Embraer; 558 narrowbodies, 62 widebodies, 93 regional jets and 153 turboprops.[55]
25 June
Bombardier Aviation sells its remaining airliner programme, the
CRJ series, to
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, in a deal expected to close in the first half of 2020 subject to regulatory approval, and refocuses on its business jet programmes.[56]
28 June
Gulfstream announced its
G600 type and production certificates from the FAA, before first deliveries later in the year.[57]
French carrier
Aigle Azur files for bankruptcy and is placed in receivership.[61] All flights cease on 6 September;[62] the airline's 9,800 annual slots at
Paris–Orly attract numerous takeover bids.[63]
Airbus delivers the 9,000th
A320-family aircraft to Easyjet.[66] Airbus continues to increase production rates and expects to reach the 10,000 milestone early in 2021.[67]
19 September
XL Airways France is placed under legal
receivership due to financial difficulties, ticket sales ceased immediately, and flights are suspended from 23 September.[68]
23 September
The
Thomas Cook Group, including
Thomas Cook Group Airlines, is placed in compulsory liquidation. All flights ceased with immediate effect, triggering the UK's largest peacetime repatriation operation for 150,000 stranded passengers.[69]
Textron Aviation announces the
FAA Type Certification for its
Cessna Citation Longitude, after 6,000 flight hours, 11,000 test points and a 31,000 nmi (57,000 km) world tour.[70]
Adria Airways files for bankruptcy and ceases all operations, after temporarily suspending most flights the previous week.[72]
October
2 October
Peruvian Airlines suspends all operations due to the Peruvian Customs Tax Court seizing their bank accounts after failing to pay fuel costs.
A
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress operated by the
Collings Foundation on a fundraising flight
crashes at
Bradley International Airport, killing seven aboard the aircraft and injuring seven others.[73] In March 2020, the FAA revoked the foundation's permission to carry passengers on fundraising flights, citing serious safety deficiencies discovered during the investigation into the crash.[74]
ATR launches the
STOL variant of its
ATR 42, the -600S, capable of operating from 800 m (2,600 ft) runways with up to 42 passengers, with certification expected for the second half of 2022 before first delivery.[75]
Qantas flies an experimental non-stop
New York–
Sydney service using a
Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner with 49 people on board, covering 16,200 km (8,700 nmi) in 19 hrs 16 min,[76] as part of its
Project Sunrise preparations for regular non-stop flights from London and New York to Sydney from 2022 or 2023.[77]
21 October
Gulfstream announces its
G700 flagship, powered by
Rolls-Royce Pearl 700s, to be delivered from 2022.[78] The $75 million jet is a 10 ft (3.0 m) stretch of the G650, and should make its first flight in the first half of 2020.[79]
IndiGo orders 300
A320neo-family aircraft, including the A320neo, A321neo and the recently launched A321XLR, taking IndiGo's total A320neo-family orders to 730. Indigo is already the largest A320neo operator with 97 aircraft, alongside 128
A320ceos.[80]
November
4 November
Iberia and
Vueling parent
IAG acquires Spanish operator
Air Europa from
Globalia for €1 billion ($1.1 billion). Air Europa operates 66 aircraft and recorded €100 million
operating profit in 2018. The deal is expected to be completed in the first half of 2020.[81]
After more than 200 flight tests over 700 hours, the
Airbus BelugaXL receives its
EASA type certification, before entering service by early 2020.[83]
18 November
Boeing (49%) and
Embraer (51%) announce a joint venture to market the
C-390 Millennium tactical transport aircraft, called
Boeing Embraer – Defense, to operate after the regulatory approvals and closing conditions.[84]
Boeing announces the suspension of
737 MAX production from January, so that delivery of the 400 aircraft in storage can be prioritized when the
grounding is lifted.[87]
The deadliest crash of this year was
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a
Boeing 737 MAX which crashed shortly after takeoff from
Addis Ababa on 10 March, killing all 157 people on board. This accident resulted in the worldwide grounding of the 737 MAX series.