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Commercial

Airbus: A380 can now seat 544 passengers
The Airbus A380 superjumbo plane has just gotten bigger—at least on paper. Airbus Group NV has upped the advertised average seat count on its flagship plane in a bid to convince airlines the double-decker jetliner is a money maker. Until recently promoted as a plane carrying on average 525 passengers, Airbus now markets the plane as seating 544 passengers. More seats mean lower unit costs, a key measure for airlines when they decide what jets to buy.
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Airlines

American Airlines shares rise as oil prices drop
American Airlines Group shares rose in trading on Thursday as oil prices dropped.
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Delta Air Lines shares rated a "buy"
TheStreet Ratings team gave Delta Air Lines a rating of "buy" recently. "The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth and solid stock price performance," the team wrote.
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Hawaiian taps Delta TechOps for MRO on A330s
Hawaiian Airlines has extended its contract with Delta TechOps for maintenance, repair and overhaul services. The five-year contract will cover the carrier's fleet of Airbus A330s.
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JetBlue, Southwest earn high marks for customer service
JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines were rated highly by passengers on customer service, according to the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings. The survey polled 10,000 U.S. consumers on their experiences with companies in many industries.
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Lufthansa Long-Haul To Be Hit By Saturday Strike
Lufthansa cancelled almost half of its long-haul flights scheduled for Saturday as pilots planned a fourth day of walkouts in a protracted row over early retirement benefits and cost cuts. Lufthansa cancelled 74 of a total 160 long-haul connections scheduled for Saturday, affecting about 20,000 passengers. It also said it was scrapping almost 60 percent of cargo flights. On Friday, it cancelled 700 short and medium-distance flights, about half its scheduled services. It scrapped another 90 flights because of a separate strike by air traffic controllers in Italy.
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Malaysia Airlines Brings Forward New CEO Start Date
Malaysia Airlines will bring forward the appointment of Christoph Mueller as its managing director and group chief executive to May 1 from July. The move will allow Mueller to lead the company's restructuring efforts and allow appropriate time for the transition to the new company which will contain the airline's operations from July 2015. The current chief executive, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, will step down on April 30 and resume his duties as a non-executive director on the board, said MAS.
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Airports

Nursing stations installed at Milwaukee airport
Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport in Wisconsin has installed three breastfeeding and pumping stations for nursing mothers. "While we're a very family-friendly airport, we saw an increasing need to accommodate traveling moms who are nursing or who need to pump to keep on a schedule," said MKE spokeswoman Pat Rowe.
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Military

Brazilian tanker deal with IAI nears take off
After long delays, the Brazilian government has allocated the required budget for the purchase of three converted Boeing 767-300s that will serve as aerial tankers. The conversions will be performed by Israel Aerospace Industries. IAI was selected for the contract in 2013, but the elections in Brazil last October had frozen the process, which remained slow even after the formation of a new government. According to sources in Brazil, the air force increased its pressure, by claiming that the capability to refuel aircraft in the air and to also transport forces and equipment is its top priority.
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First Philippine air force C295 heads for service
Airbus Defence & Space has delivered the first of three C295 medium transports to the Philippine air force. The aircraft – which has left the company's final assembly site in Seville, Spain – will be used to perform military airlift and humanitarian relief tasks. It is one of a trio of C295s ordered for the service last year.
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RAAF’s first F-35A pilot takes to the skies
The Royal Australian Air Force’s first pilot of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has completed his first flight. On 17 March Sqn Ldr Andrew Jackson conducted a flight in a USAF F-35A aircraft at Florida’s Eglin Air AFB, says Lockheed Martin in a statement. Australia received its first pair of F-35As in 2014, with both examples going to USAF’s F-35 training school at Luke AFB. They are designated AU-1 and AU-2.
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Aviation Quote

As a young boy dreaming of becoming an airman, if I had a choice between becoming chief of staff of the Air force or becoming a fighter ace, I would have chosen to become a fighter ace.

— General Thomas White, USAF Chief of Staff, 1973.

On This Date

---In 1066...18th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.

---In 1903... The Wright brothers file a patent request for a powered flying machine based on the second (modified) version of their 1902 glider successfully tested at Kill Devil Hill.

---In 1908... French industrialist Lazare Weiller signs a contract with the Wrights establishing a Wright airplane company in France, on condition that the brothers make two demonstration flights covering 50 km (31.1 miles) within a hour’s flying time. They will receive FF500, 000 and half the founders’ share.

---In 1921... Lieutenant Arthur Hamilton sets a new world record when he jumps by parachute from 24,400 feet.

---In 1932... Flying a Bleriot 110, French aviators Lucien Bossoutrot and Maurice Rossi take off for a record closed-circuit distance of 6,587.442 miles at Oran, Algeria.

---In 1948... Test pilot Gp. Capt. John Cunningham sets a new Federal Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) ratified world altitude record of 18,118 m (59446 ft.) during tests with the third production D. H. 100 Vampire (serial no. TG278).

---In 1965… Gemini 3 launched, 1st U.S. 2-man space flight (Grissom and Young).

---In 1994… A RAL-Russian Airlines Airbus A310-304, operating Aeroflot Flight 593 from Moscow-Hong Kong crashed with 75 passengers in Mezhdurechensk, Kemerovo Oblast, Russia after the auto-pilot partially shut off while the captain's 15-year-old son was allowed to sit in the pilot seat and handle the controls. There were no survivors.

---In 2001… Russian Mir space station is crashed into the Pacific during a controlled re-entry.

---In 2009…FedEx Express Flight 80, a McDonnell-Douglas MD-11F, registration N562FE, crashes on landing at Narita International Airport, Tokyo, killing both crew members.

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