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NEWS

Airbus posts mixed 2009 performance
Airbus yesterday announced a full-year delivery record of 498 aircraft in 2009 (up from 483 in 2008) including 402 from the A320 family, and a gross order intake of 310 aircraft, while admitting that its "biggest disappointment" in the past year was a slowdown in the A380 delivery schedule.
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American, oneworld offer incentives to keep JAL in alliance
American Airlines yesterday confirmed that its offer to invest in Japan Airlines in conjunction with TPG Capital has been raised by $300 million to $1.4 billion and said it and oneworld partner British Airways will enhance cooperation with the troubled Tokyo-based carrier to enable it to generate an additional $500 million in revenue over the next three years.
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Embraer's commercial deliveries fall
Embraer delivered 122 commercial aircraft in 2009 compared to 162 in 2008, comprising seven ERJ-145s, 22 E-170s, 11 E-175s, 62 E-190s and 20 E-195s.
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C919 engine plans take shape
AVIC's Commercial Aircraft Engine Co. yesterday began construction of its CNY3.23 billion ($472.5 million) Shanghai research and development facility, which is scheduled to be completed in 2013 and will include and R&D center and an airworthiness testing center as well as engineering, liaison and customer service facilities.
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Call To Preserve Industrial Base: Boeing
The Pentagon and its aerospace contractors need to work more closely to form a plan to foster a healthy contractor industrial base amid flattening defense procurement budgets, according to Dennis Muilenburg, president of the recently renamed Boeing Defense, Space and Security.
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Boeing outlines 747-8F certification plan

Boeing has outlined details of the 747-8F flight test campaign that is due to start early this year after a long delay.
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Virgin cancels remaining A340-600s after firming A330s

Airbus' latest order and delivery figures show that Virgin Atlantic has cancelled six of the A340-600 aircraft it had on order.
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Other News

Delta Air Lines and Continental Airlines raised their fees for first and second checked bags on North American flights to $25 and $35 respectively, matching US Airways' fee levels imposed in the second half of last year. United Airlines and American Airlines currently charge $20 and $30 respectively. DL said it now is charging $23 for a first checked bag and $32 for a second checked bag if the passenger checks in online, believed to be the highest fees among US carriers for online check-in. Premium passengers and military personnel are exempt from the new DL and CO charges.

Bmi will reduce its London Heathrow-Dublin service from seven-times-daily to four at the start of the summer schedule, ending the necessity to base an A319 at DUB and putting 33 cabin staff "at risk of redundancy," it said in a statement cited by Irish media. The aircraft will be transferred to bmi's LHR operation and the DUB crew base will be closed. "Currently, bmi flight operations between Dublin and London Heathrow requires one aircraft to be based at Dublin and one at Heathrow, with the additional cost of retaining aircraft and crew at both bases," the airline said, adding that the move was part of a "further restructuring to its mainline operations" aimed at returning the company to profitability.

Qatar Airways, Qatar Science & Technology Park and Qatar Petroleum announced establishment of the Qatar Advanced Biofuel Platform, which, with the support of Airbus, will carry out engineering and economic analysis into the development of a sustainable biofuel and "will also look into ways for production and supply," QR said. QABP will focus on creating a detailed engineering/implementation plan for sustainable production, a biofuel investments strategy, an advanced technology development program and market and strategic analyses. QR said it will be a "dedicated end-user" and that specific feedstocks have been identified "which could be developed and processed with the aim of providing access to [biomass-to-liquid] jet fuel for use by Qatar Airways." The airline operated the first gas-to-liquid fuel blend-powered commercial flight with an A340-600 in October and conducted a feasibility study on sustainable BTL jet fuel with QSTP and US-based Verno Systems. The consortium announced its intent to explore the feasibility of GTL fuel at the 2007 Dubai Air Show. It said that while it is moving to the "next phase" of alternative fuels, it will continue "to develop GTL further."

United Airlines announced the pricing of two debt offerings worth a combined $700 million, comprising $500 million in aggregate principal amount of 9.875% senior secured notes due 2013 and $200 million of 12% senior second lien notes due 2013. Offerings are expected to close Friday and proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.

Tiger Airways brought forward the delivery of five A320s to 2010-11 from 2016, it said in a statement cited by press reports from Singapore. It currently operates 17 A320 family aircraft.

Lufthansa said it plans to launch flights to Baghdad and Erbil from both Frankfurt and Munich during the summer schedule. It said demand for Iraq service is "growing" and traffic rights and "further infrastructure improvements" are required. Subsidiary Austrian Airlines currently serves Erbil from Vienna.

Air France will launch five-times-weekly Paris Charles de Gaulle-Abu Dhabi service on May 3 aboard an A330-200.

Iceland Express will launch twice-weekly Keflavik-Winnipeg service in June.

Air France KLM said December unit revenues "continued their recovery thanks to a more marked improvement in long-haul premium traffic" but still were down from year-ago levels. The group flew 16.07 billion RPKs last month, a 4.6% decrease year-over-year, against a 5.5% cut in capacity to 20.16 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 0.8 point to 79.7%.

British Airways flew 8.81 billion RPKs in December, a 4% decrease from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 4.2% to 11.48 billion ASKs and load factor rose 0.1 point to 76.8%.

Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair flew 8.11 billion RPKs in December, a 4% lift year-over-year, against a 2% cut in capacity to 9.67 billion ASKs. Load factor climbed 4.9 points to 83.9%.

Air Canada and Jazz Air flew 3.86 billion RPMs in December, up 3.4% year-over-year. Capacity rose 4% to 4.75 bilion ASMs, lowering load factor 0.5 point to 81.2%.

Ameco Beijing announced the start of a C check on a LOT Polish Airlines 767-300, its first airframe overhaul for the carrier.

PASSUR Aerospace announced that US Airways contracted for its RightETA arrival management system.

Kale Consultants said Jet Airways selected Zero Octa, Kale's audit subsidiary, to audit passenger accounting results.

Mobiqa announced that Olympic Air is offering its mobile barcoded boarding pass delivery system for flights departing Athens. Mobiqa also is providing its mobile boarding pass solution to Malaysia Airlines as part of MAS's flymas.mobi suite of applications developed by SITA.

Navtech signed with Norwegian to provide aircraft performance software products supporting the EFB Class 1 and 2 environment on DY's 737s. Suite includes Aircraft Performance, Mass & Balance, eCharts, Seamless ENC and FMS Navigation Data products.



AVIATION QUOTE

Our A320 behaved even better than expected — it is both delightfully responsive and reassuringly stable to fly, qualities which fly-by-wire brings together for the first time in an airliner. Never before have we enjoyed a first flight so much, and we are confident that airline pilots well feel the same way.

— Pierre Baud, first flight of a fully fly-by-wire airliner.



AEROSPACE TERM

Hail

Precipitation in the form of spheroidal layered ice pellets that usually fall from cumulonimbus clouds during thunderstorms. The layered structure of hail is produced by successive accretians of clear and frothy ice.



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EDITOR’S CHOICE


Photograph by Mr. Chips



HUMOR

GPWS Flow Chart




TRIVIA

Google Airports

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10 would be St Bart's. The rest, I don't have a clue.

Ah, today's special, "10 tropical places I'd rather be in than this cold hell called Hamburg"
1. STT H.S. Truman Airport, St. Thomas
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4. AXA Wallblake Airport, Anguilla
5. EIS Beef Island
6. FDF Lamenting (or similar), Fort-De-France
7. ANU V.C. Bird Int'l, Antigua
8. PTP Pointe-a-Pitre
9. STX Alexander Hamilton, St. Croix
10. SBH St. Barths