You are at netAirspace : Forum : Air and Space Forums : netAirspace Daily News

News

Commercial

Airbus delivers 200th aircraft from Tianjin line
Airbus has marked the 200th Airbus A320 family aircraft assembled at the Final Assembly Line China (FALC) in Tianjin, handing over an A319 to China Eastern Airlines. “The 200th Airbus A320 family aircraft assembled in Tianjin marks an important milestone of the Airbus partnership with China,” says Eric Chen, Airbus China president and chief executive.
Link

Airbus to take back A340s as Finnair firms more A350s
Finnair has converted options on eight more Airbus A350s to firm orders, with deliveries of the jets to begin in 2018. The agreement raises to 19 the number of A350s due to the Oneworld carrier. Finnair says it is intending to withdraw its Airbus A340s, of which it has seven, by the end of 2017 as the A350s enter the fleet. As part of the agreement, it says, Airbus has agreed to acquire four of its A340-300s in 2016-17. Finnair was one of the first operators to order the A350, initially agreeing to take the type in 2006. All A350s are available only with Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines.
Link

Air Freight Demand Back At 2010 Levels
International demand for air freight is back at levels not seen since 2010 and grew 5.4 percent in October, IATA said. However, Europe continues to perform weakly compared to other regions, with demand rising only 1.4 percent, reflecting economic uncertainty and the impact of sanctions as a result of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
Link

Boeing says on track to meet Dreamliner delivery forecast
Boeing Co Chief Operating Officer Dennis Muilenburg said on Wednesday that the world's largest plane maker is on track to deliver the 110 787 Dreamliners it forecast for this year, despite signs that deliveries fell below target last month. "We'll meet that," Muilenburg said at a Credit Suisse conference in New York. Some analysts estimate Boeing delivered seven Dreamliners in November, below its target pace of nearly 10 a month.
Link

CIT Confirms USD$5 Bln Airbus Jet Order
Leasing company CIT Aerospace has confirmed an order for the recently launched Airbus A330-900neo, an upgraded version of the popular jet. CIT Aerospace firmed up an order for 15 A330-900neos and five current-generation A321s, Airbus said in a statement.
Link

Airlines

Air France Pilots Back Low-Cost Unit Deal
A majority of Air France pilots have backed a deal reached in October to develop the company's low-cost operations in France. 53 percent of Air France pilots approved the agreement, reaching 60 percent for members of the majority union SNPL, Air France said in a statement. The agreement followed a two week strike that the airline has said is likely to cost EUR£500 million (USD$616 million).
Link

Alaska Air Group reports Nov. growth in passenger traffic
Alaska Air Group reported 9.4% growth in passenger traffic for November on a year-over-year basis. Alaska Airlines posted a 9.8% increase in traffic, while Horizon Air posted a 1.4% increase in traffic.
Link

American Airlines gives sneak peek of uniform prototypes
American Airlines has unveiled prototypes of its new uniforms, the first such effort in two decades. Kaufman Franco, a fashion design team, said the new uniforms "will help our people be functional and fashionable, and are just another way you'll see us transforming into a more modern airline."
Link

Delta posts 5.9% increase in passenger traffic for Nov.
Delta Air Lines reported a 5.9% increase in passenger traffic for November, compared to the same month last year. Delta transported 13,271,993 passengers during November.
Link

Delta to debut seasonal flights from Minn. to Hawaii
Delta Air Lines will launch daily seasonal service from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to Honolulu International Airport next fall. The flights are expected to give passengers direct access to the popular vacation destination. "Delta looks forward to offering the Minneapolis-St. Paul community nonstop service to one of the most popular vacation destinations we serve," said Glen Hauenstein, Delta's executive vice president and chief revenue officer.
Link

JetBlue to expand service to Caribbean from NYC
JetBlue Airways announced the launch of new service between New York and Curaçao, an island in the south Caribbean. The airline operates the service two times a week, using Airbus A320 aircraft. Flights depart New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and arrive at Curaçao International Airport at 2:34 p.m. Flights from Curaçao depart at 3:45 p.m. and arrive in New York at 7:30 p.m., also on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
Link

Spirit, JetBlue to move work to new maintenance facility
Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways have inked an agreement for Airbus A320 maintenance work to be performed in Puerto Rico next year. The two carriers signed a deal with Lufthansa Technik Puerto Rico, which is slated to open in July 2015.
Link

Ryanair, Boeing finalize order for 737 MAX aircraft
Irish low-cost airline Ryanair has finalized an order with Boeing for 100 737 MAX 200s, which Boeing says were designed to respond to the needs of low-cost carriers. The 100 airplanes are valued at $11 billion at current list prices, but buyers often get steep discounts off list prices for multiple passenger jets.
Link

United Airlines to shift flight attendant base to San Francisco
United Airlines is moving with plans to shift its flight attendant base to San Francisco from Seattle, in line with the carriers' announcement in October. "We are focusing on our strengths," said Megan McCarthy, a spokeswoman for United. "It made sense to move those flight-attendant positions."
Link

United ends Atlantic City flights(ACY)
United Airlines has ended flights to Atlantic City International Airport eight months after heralding them as a way to boost the gambling resort's economy. The South Jersey Transportation Authority tells The Press of Atlantic City 16 passengers were aboard the 50-seat plane that was United's final flight from Chicago on Tuesday. The airline canceled a late-evening flight from Houston so the plane did not have to stay overnight in Atlantic City.
Link

Airports

Port Authority holds contest for new airport designs
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is holding a contest seeking new designs for the metropolitan New York-area's John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport. Submissions should consider the needs of passengers through 2050 and beyond, taking into account transit access, baggage handling, cargo operations and more.
Link

Allegiant, Spirit add flights to Las Vegas
Travelers in Indianapolis, Cleveland and Pittsburgh will have new direct flight options to Las Vegas starting in 2015. Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air will begin offering three round-trip flights weekly between Las Vegas and Indianapolis in February. The route will operate Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays beginning February 27 with 10:00 a.m. departures from Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport and 5:30 p.m. flights from Indianapolis International Airport.
Link

Rain, heavy winds affect operations at SFO
Wet and windy weather hitting the Bay Area is creating delays for local airports Tuesday morning. San Francisco International Airport issued a ground delay program starting at 8 a.m. until midnight with average delays estimated in the 15-30 minute range. Those delay times will likely go up as the day progresses, according to a SFO spokesperson. About 80 flights have been canceled as of 9 a.m.
Link

TSA explains Sunday's long line at Midway airport
The Transportation Security Administration admitted it made a mistake on Sunday by opening security checkpoints at Chicago Midway International Airport at 4 a.m. -- half an hour later than ticket counters opened at the facility. Some travelers stood in line for as long as 50 minutes before reaching the checkpoint.
Link

Military

Boeing fixes KC-46 wiring issues, sets first flight for spring 2015
The first prototype of Boeing’s KC-46 aerial refueling tanker has been rewired to meet US Air Force standards and is being prepared for its first flight sometime in late spring 2015, the companies chief operating officer says. “We’re doing final prep for first flight on tanker,” Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s president and COO, says on 3 December at the Credit Suisse Global Industrials Conference in Chicago. “We are feeling very good about where that program is at now that we’ve got some of those technical issues behind us. Now we’ll focus on executing the flight test program under development and then getting the program into production.” Boeing earlier this year alerted the air force to “anomalies” in the aircraft’s wiring, which is required to be triple redundant to meet military and US Federal Aviation Administration specifications.
Link

Iran believed to have joined air battle against ISIS
Iran has reportedly joined the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq, targeting insurgents in the eastern part of the country with McDonnell Douglas Phantom F-4s. News reports state that operations began in recent days, following Iranian ground operations in Iraq. Until now, air strikes had only been carried out by the US-led coalition. Washington has been quick to reject any suggestion that the coalition is associated with or co-ordinating with the Iranian effort. “I've seen the reports,” Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm John Kirby said on 2 December. “We have no indication that the reports are not true – that Iranian aircraft have conducted airstrikes in the last several days against ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and Levant] targets in eastern Iraq.
Link

Sikorsky CH-53K first flight pushed at earliest to March
The US Marine Corps will have to wait until at least March for its new heavy lift helicopter, the Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion, to make its maiden flight. Originally planned for summer 2014, the King Stallion’s first flight was pushed to the end of the year when a crack was found in one of the four gear boxes of a ground test article. US Naval Air Systems Command now says the aircraft will enter flight testing “sometime between March and May next year.” “First flight is driven by the current ground test vehicle (GTV) test events,” says Kelly Burdick, a spokesman for the navy’s programme executive office for aviation. “The GTV is currently undergoing powered ground tests to measure and verify the ability of the drive system, transmissions and engines and flight control system to safely fly the CH-53K helicopter across multiple flight scenarios.”
Link

Regulatory

UK To Scrap Air Travel Tax For Children
UK finance minister George Osborne said he would make it cheaper for families to travel by scrapping the air travel tax charged for children, prompting airlines to call on him to go further and abolish the levy in its entirety. Britain's air passenger duty (APD) is a tax of between GBP£13 and GBP£194 depending on flight distance and class of travel charged on each passenger leaving the country, and which the airline industry says has a negative impact on the economy. Presenting his half-yearly budget statement to parliament on Wednesday, Osborne said that from May 1 next year APD would not be charged on children under 12 and from 2016, it would be abolished for all under-16s.
Link

Aviation Quote

Somebody said that carrier pilots were the best in the world, and they must be or there wouldn't be any of them left alive.

— Ernie Pyle

On This Date

--- In 1908... The Englishman J.T.C. Moore-Brabazon (later Lord Tara of Brabazon) makes a flight of 1,350 ft. in a Voisin biplane at Issy-les-Moulineaux in France. He becomes one of the guiding lights of early British aviation and is issued the first British pilot’s license, then called an aviator’s certificate.

---In 1945…A Mk5 Sea Vampire became the first jet aircraft to intentionally take off and land from an aircraft carrier, HMS Ocean.

---In 1952…First flight of the Grumman XS2F-1 Tracker.

---In 1955…Glenn L. Martin, founder of the Glenn L. Martin Company, dies at age 69.

---In 1961... The National Air and Space Museum receives the Douglas C-54 transport Sacred Cow used by Presidents Roosevelt and Truman.

---In 1967…The A-7A Corsair II strike aircraft enters combat for the first time, operating from the aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CVA-61) over Vietnam.

---In 1969… An Air France Boeing 707-328B (registration F-BHSZ) operating the Caracas-Point-à-Pitre sector of flight AF212 crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff from Simon Bolivar International Airport with the loss of all 62 on board.

---In 1974… Martinair Flight 138, a Douglas DC-8 flew into the side of a mountain while on landing approach in Colombo, Sri Lanka. All 191 passengers and crew on board were killed.

---In 1991... Pan Am World Airways goes out of business after 64 years of service. The sudden shutdown of this aviation pioneer strands many passengers and leaves about 9,000 employees out of work.

Daily Video

Editor’s Choice

Humor

The Pearly Gates

It seems a 727 crew had a bad day out and the poor buggers slogged into a paddy and bit the big one. The Captain F/O and S/O were, subsequent to the crash, walking up to the pearly gates to discuss their fate with the Guardian At the Gate.

The Captain, being from the old school and not well versed in CRM told his mates to wait where they were for a blink while he sorted things out with the angel at the gate. The captain, discusses the situation for a while and comes back to the two and tells them that he's got a little good news and a little bad news. The F/O and S/O both insist on the bad news first.

"Well" he says, "the bad news is that any extra marital affairs we have had bar our entry into paradise." The F/O and the S/O start to walk away quite upset and wondering what an eternity in Hades is going to be like. The captain says "wait a minute mates don't you want to hear the good news?"

"Layovers, don't count."

Trivia

Nose ID

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


8.