News
Airbus Looking At Future Output Increase
Airbus has begun studying the feasibility of increasing production later this decade to keep up with anticipated demand, even as it keeps a check on short-term output plans due to worries over its suppliers, a senior company executive said.
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US House OKs Bill To Shield Airlines From ETS
The US House of Representatives has voted to bar airlines from complying with a European Union law that would force them to pay for their carbon emissions. The bill, which was the first piece of legislation to be debated on the House floor after a pre-election recess, directs the transportation secretary to decide to shield US airlines from Europe's carbon emissions trading system if he deems it necessary.
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SilkAir finalizes order for 54 737s, MAXs
Singapore Airlines regional affiliate SilkAir (MI) has finalized an order for 54 737s and 737 MAX 8s worth $4.9 billion at list prices. The previously announced letter of intent, comprising 23 737-800s and 31 737 MAX 8s, begins the carrier’s fleet transition to Boeing aircraft.
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Thai Airways in talks for up to 12 A350-900s
Thai Airways (TG) is in talks to acquire up to 12 leased and purchased Airbus A350-900 XWBs for delivery between April 2016 and November 2017.
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Comac eyes half of China’s narrowbody market
Comac is aiming to capture half of China's demand for narrowbody aircraft over the next 15 years. The Chinese airframer is targeting to secure at least 2,000 orders for its C919 twinjet over the next 10 to 15 years, the programme's chief designer Wu Guanghui told Flightglobal Pro at Airshow China in Zhuhai. A majority of these orders will come from China.
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Qatar drops A350-800 for larger -900
Qatar Airways has shifted its order for 20 Airbus A350-800s to the larger -900 variant further weakening the backlog for the smallest member of the airframer's new widebody family.
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Lufthansa sells half its Amadeus stake
Lufthansa Group (LH) has raised €307 million ($389.7 million) from the sale of a 3.61% stake in IT firm Amadeus, reducing its total shareholding from 7.61% to 4%.
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Diageo Deal Could Pull Kingfisher Out Of Nosedive
Indian drinks tycoon Vijay Mallya's USD$2.1 billion deal to sell a stake in United Spirits could throw a lifeline to his grounded Kingfisher Airlines, although pulling the carrier back from the brink will not be easy.
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Azerbaijan Airlines to acquire six E-Jets
Azerbaijan Airlines (J2) has placed a firm order for four Embraer E-190s, valued at $181 million, and has purchased two used Embraer E-170s from ECC Leasing. J2 will use the aircraft to increase frequencies between Baku and Nakhchivan and introduce new routes to cities including Odessa, Volgograd, Sochi and Donetsk, Embraer said in a statement.
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Cargo-carrying super airship
A pilot model for an 800-ft cargo-carrying super airship is under construction in a purpose-built hangar in California, USA. The project, called Aeroscraft, is being developed to provide a new way of moving heavy and oversized cargo, especially to areas with limited or no infrastructure, a cover story in the latest Freighters World reveals.
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Liege suffers after carriers leave
Liege reveals the loss of American carrier Kalitta Air’s business has contributed greatly to freight volumes declining further in October 2012. Cargo at Belgium’s largest cargo airport fell by 24 per cent in October 2012. It handled 44,114 tonnes of freight compared with 58,489 during the same period last year.
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Other News
Alaska Airlines will operate 4x-weekly Portland, OR-Kauai service Nov. 5-April 7; 4x-weekly Bellingham-Maui Nov. 8-April 14; and Anchorage-Kona Nov. 10-April 7. It will also launch 2x-daily Seattle-Salt Lake City April 4.
Southwest Airlines took over former AirTran Key West (EYW) service to Orlando (2x-daily) and Tampa Bay (2x-daily). It will also launch daily EYW-New Orleans service March 9.
Tiger Airways (TR) and Scoot added 13 more TR destinations to their joint agreement, comprising the Indian cities of Bangalore, Kochi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, and Tiruchirappalli, plus Phnom Penh, Hanoi, Dhaka, Penang, Colombo, Kuching and Jakarta. The cities bring the total number of destinations served under the partnership to 16.
TAM Airlines launched daily Rio de Janeiro-Orlando Airbus A330-200 service.
Kenya Airways will add four extra weekly flights on Nairobi-Johannesburg service Dec. 1, with a new Embraer E-190 aircraft.
Mexico’s Interjet (4O) has signed a purchase agreement for 40 Airbus A320neo aircraft.
The Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (COMAC) has won 50 orders for the 150-seat C919 at the Zhuhai Air Show. The orders comprise 20 from Hebei Airlines, 20 from Joy Air and 10 from GECAS.
Tianjin-based Okay Airways (BK) has inked an agreement with the Aviation Corp. of China’s (AVIC) subsidiary Xi’an Aircraft International Corp. for three MA60s. The order was announced at the Zhuhai Air Show.
Turkish Technic signed a C check maintenance services agreement with Airblue Limited covering one Airbus A319.
MTU Maintenance Berlin-Brandenburg has completed the overhaul of 5,000 engines since its founding in 1991.
Boeing Shanghai Aviation Services won a contract from Kenya Airways to convert two passenger Boeing 737-300 aircraft to freighters with Aeronautical Engineers. It will be Boeing Shanghai’s first PTF conversion.
FL Technics signed a three-year engineering support agreement with Ariana Afghan Airlines to provide aircraft and component inspections, interim engineering and maintenance management, continuous airworthiness management as well as non-destructive testing, data management, and other services for the carrier’s four Boeing 737s.
Aviation Quote
The ordinary air fighter is an extraordinary man and the extraordinary air fighter stands as one in a million among his fellows.
— Theodore Roosevelt
On This Date
In 1942... The Heinkel He 219 made its first flight.
In 1948... El Al becomes operational and the official flag carrier of Israel.
In 1965... The 1st flight around the world over flying both Poles is made by U.S. airline Flying Tiger Line Captain J.L. Martin.
In 1966... Gemini 12 completes the Gemini program's final mission, when it splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1966... A Boeing 727 carrying Pan Am Flight 708 crashes near Berlin, Germany, killing all three people on board.
In 1967... The only fatality of the X-15 program occurs during the 191st flight when Air Force test pilot Michael J. Adams loses control of his aircraft which is destroyed mid-air over the Mojave Desert.
In 1978... A chartered Douglas DC-8 crashes near Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 183.
In 1979... A package from the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski begins smoking in the cargo hold of a flight from Chicago to Washington, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing.
In 1987... Continental Airlines Flight 1713, a Douglas DC-9-14 jetliner, crashes in a snowstorm at Denver, Colorado Stapleton International Airport, killing 28 occupants, while 54 survive the crash.
In 1988... In the Soviet Union, the unmanned Shuttle Buran makes its only space flight.
In 1990... Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis launches with flight STS-38.
In 2000... A chartered Antonov An-24 crashes after takeoff from Luanda, Angola killing more than 40 people.
In 2005... Boeing formally launches the stretched Boeing 747-8 variant with orders from Cargolux and Nippon Cargo Airlines.
In 2006... Mango, the South African airline commences flight operations.
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Rules Of The Air
1. Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory.
2. If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull the stick back, they get smaller. That is, unless you keep pulling the stick all the way back, then they get bigger again.
3. Flying isn't dangerous. Crashing is what's dangerous.
4. It's always better to be down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were down here.
5. The ONLY time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.
6. The propeller is just a big fan in front of the plane used to keep the pilot cool. When it stops, you can actually watch the pilot start sweating.
7. When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No-one has ever collided with the sky.
8. A 'good' landing is one from which you can walk away. A 'great' landing is one after which they can use the plane again.
9. Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.
10. You know you've landed with the wheels up if it takes full power to taxi to the ramp.
11. The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of arrival. Large angle of arrival, small probability of survival and vice versa.
12. Never let an aircraft take you somewhere your brain didn't get to five minutes earlier.
13. Stay out of clouds. The silver lining everyone keeps talking about
might be another airplane going in the opposite direction. Reliable sources also report that mountains have been known to hide out in clouds.
14. Always try to keep the number of landings you make equal to the number of take offs you've made.
15. There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.
16. You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.
17. Helicopters can't fly; they're just so ugly the earth repels them.
18. If all you can see out of the window is ground that's going round and round and all you can hear is commotion coming from the passenger compartment, things are not at all as they should be.
19. In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminum going hundreds of miles per hour and the ground going zero miles per hour, the ground has yet to lose.
20. Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately, the experience usually comes from bad judgment.
21. It's always a good idea to keep the pointy end going forward as much as possible.
22. Keep looking around. There's always something you've missed.
23. Remember, gravity is not just a good idea. It's the law. And it's not subject to repeal.
24. The three most useless things to a pilot are the altitude above you, runway behind you, and a tenth of a second ago.
25. There are old pilots and there are bold pilots. There are, however, no old bold pilots.
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GQfluffy wrote:I win.
