NewsAir Canada to take 22 Boeing 787-9s Air Canada will split its order of 37 Boeing 787 aircraft between the 787-8 and the 787-9, says Michael Rousseau, executive vice-president and chief financial officer of the airline on an earnings call today. "Starting in the first quarter 2014, we expect to take delivery of our first of 37 Boeing 787 aircraft, comprised of 15 787-8s and 22 787-9s," Rousseau tells analysts. "We're excited about the international growth opportunities in front of us and the industry-leading unit cost that this aircraft provides." Rousseau adds that the carrier will now expect six 787 aircraft deliveries in 2014 instead of seven as previously indicated. One aircraft delivery has been moved from December 2014 to January 2015.
LinkAirbus loses dispute over 747-8 advertisement Airbus has failed to convince advertising monitors to castigate Boeing for publishing claims that its 747-8 achieves better fuel burn per seat than the A380. Two specific Airbus complaints about the advertisement - which appeared in Flightglobal publication Flight International - have been dismissed by the UK's Advertising Standards Authority. Boeing had claimed that the 747-8 was 8% more efficient than the A380 and had a 26% trip-cost advantage. Airbus had objected to the efficiency claim on the grounds that Boeing was using a 467-seat configuration for the 747-8 against a 555-seat layout for the A380. The European airframer argued that, to achieve the same comfort standard as the A380, the rival 747-8 would have to be fitted with only 405 seats - and that this would increase the per-seat fuel burn.
LinkFire Engulfs Kenya's Nairobi AirportA fire engulfed Kenya's main Nairobi airport on Wednesday forcing the closure of a vital travel and trade gateway to east Africa. Flames from the inferno lit up the early morning sky, and the intense heat repeatedly drove back firefighters. A huge plume of black smoke billowed from the airport buildings, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or injuries. Hundreds of passengers were stranded outside Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in the capital Nairobi, which was cordoned off to keep the public out after the fire started early in the morning in the arrivals and immigration area, officials said. The cause of the worst fire in record at east Africa's busiest airport was not yet known.
LinkDelta Flight Lands Safely After Flap MalfunctionA Detroit-bound Delta Air Lines Airbus A330 made an emergency landing in Amsterdam on Wednesday afternoon after experiencing technical difficulties following take-off from Paris, the airline said. "Delta Flight 99 was unable to retract its flaps after take off," Delta said in a statement. "As a precaution, the crew diverted the aircraft to Schiphol Amsterdam Airport, landed uneventfully and taxied to the gate."
LinkSouthwest Pilots Switched Control - NTSBFederal investigators said on Tuesday that the two pilots of a Southwest Airlines jet that crash-landed at New York's LaGuardia Airport in July exchanged control of the plane shortly before landing. The Boeing 737 was less than 400 feet (122 meters) off the ground when the pilots switched duties, with the captain taking the controls and the first officer monitoring the instruments, the National Transportation Safety Board said in an update on the July 22 crash. It was the captain's first landing at LaGuardia, the NTSB said. The plane touched down on its front landing gear which is not designed to take such weight. The gear collapsed and the plane slid on its belly for 19 seconds. Nine people received minor injuries. NTSB spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said the agency would investigate why the pilots changed roles so close to the ground. She said it was too soon to tell if the change was a factor in the crash.
LinkEtihad Planning More PartnershipsEtihad Airways, which has aggressively expanded its global reach through codeshares and minority stake investments, expects to build alliances in China and the Americas as the Abu Dhabi-based carrier targets more double-digit growth in the years ahead. "We will continue to work with other airlines to broaden our network," said Etihad chief executive James Hogan on the sidelines of the Australia Pacific Aviation Summit in Sydney on Wednesday. "With China, we need to build (a partnership). South America and America, we need to build (a partnership)."
LinkAIG Extends Deadline On ILFC SaleUS insurer American International Group has extended the deadline for the sale of its USD$4.8 billion ILFC aircraft leasing unit to a Chinese consortium to August 31, Thomson Reuters' Basis Point, reported on Wednesday, citing sources. AIG chief executive Bob Benmosche said last week on a post-earnings conference call that the company was open to an initial public offering of the unit if a deal does not go through.
LinkBoeing to Launch 777X by End of the YearCurrently, the airframe manufacturer is discussing more details on offering the 777X to potential customers. Boeing officials spent a considerable amount of time during the Paris Air Show negotiating preliminary deals for the new aircraft, which are needed to win the executive board's approval for launching the program. The company expects the 777X to enter into service by 2020. Right now our focus is engaging in the marketplace, discussing more details in offering the airplane to customers, conditioned upon final approval to launch the program. The business case is maturing as planned as we gain further insights from our customers and develop our design and production system strategies," said Scott Lefeber, a spokesman for Boeing.
LinkNTSB: Civil Aviation Accidents Down in 2012 Civil aviation accidents in the Unites States fell from 1,550 in 2011 to 1,539 in 2012, according to a report released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Tuesday. NTSB's statistics show that across all segments of aviation, excluding general aviation (GA), there were fewer accidents and fatalities in 2012 than the previous year. Last year was the third year in a row that commercial air carriers experienced no fatal accidents, a stat that will change this year due to the recent Asiana Airlines crash in San Francisco.
LinkGogo Reports Bigger Net Loss in Quarterly Earnings In-flight connectivity provider Gogo on Wednesday issued its first quarterly earnings report as a publicly traded company, reporting a net loss of $72.6 million for the second quarter, five times the net loss of $13.1 million seen in the same period last year.
LinkBristow Rolls Out AW189 to Oil & Gas OperatorsAgustaWestland’s AW189 is featured prominently in the future plans of Bristow Helicopters in regards to offshore oil and gas industry, which makes sense as the launch customer for the variant. AgustaWestland flew a pre-production model to Bristow’s UK facility at Norwich International Airport (NWI) for a July 30 visit with prospective offshore operators.
LinkRockwell Collins Developing Avionics Systems Analysis Tool for NASA Rockwell Collins has secured a one-year contract to begin developing new software analysis tools for verifying the safety of avionics systems on future commercial aircraft. NASA is looking to evaluate the safety of the increasing complexity of avionics systems, as airspace users prepare for equipping their aircraft to comply with FAA's NextGen requirements. “Complex avionics systems can literally have billions of modes and states,” said John Borghese, vice president of the Rockwell Collins Advanced Technology Center. “By incorporating formal mathematical verification – also known as Formal Methods - we can detect and remove software bugs and security vulnerabilities early in the development process when it’s less costly to correct errors.”
LinkTravel Service Firms Boeing MAX OrderBoeing on Wednesday announced the completion of a $301.5 million order from Czech Republic-based charter carrier Travel Service for three 737 MAX 8s. Roman Vik, general director for Travel Service, said the carrier is looking to grow its fleet of passenger aircraft based on newer 737 variants.
LinkAmerican plans to hire 80 work-at-home reservation agents American Airlines plans to hire 80 reservation agents to work from home in South Florida. The full-time positions will require seven weeks of training. Candidates must be located within 75 miles of the Miami International Airport.
LinkSouthwest revenue metric climbed in July Southwest Airlines reported a 4% to 5% increase in passenger revenue per available seat mile in July, as compared to the same month last year. The carrier also boosted capacity by 0.6% for the month on a year-over-year basis.
LinkVirgin America reports Q2 profit Virgin America reported net income of $8.8 million for the second quarter, compared to a loss of $31.8 million in the same quarter of last year. Virgin America, founded in 2007, has not yet posted a profit for the full year
LinkLaser system can detect clear air turbulence, researchers say European researchers are developing a laser system to detect clear air turbulence that is invisible to the naked eye -- and current aircraft sensors. "In future, pilots might then be able to put out a message in the aircraft cabin asking passengers to return to their seats and fasten their seat belts, or even fly around the affected region," said a spokesman for the DLR German Aerospace Centre.
LinkOpinion: TSA should focus resources on risk-management strategy Kip Hawley, a former administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, urges the TSA to move to a risk-management approach for security. "A clear risk management strategy ... would energize checkpoint activity, bring the public more on board, drive out the few bad apples, and improve security," he writes
LinkU.S., EU continue ATC modernization efforts The U.S. and the European Union are continuing work on air-traffic control modernization. The Federal Aviation Administration is developing NextGen, while the EU is developing Sesar. The U.S. and the EU had agreed to use common underlying standards and a similar timetable. A FAA spokeswoman said that while the two sides continue to "agree on overall program goals," they are "in discussions about timing on near-term standards." She added that the FAA's approach will save "valuable time and money" for users.
LinkNTSB reports on Southwest flight 345 The pilots of Southwest Airlines Flight 345 swapped controls when the plane was less than 400 feet off the ground, before touching down nose first and collapsing the landing gear at New York's LaGuardia Airport, federal investigators said Tuesday. The co-pilot had been flying the plane, with the captain monitoring, and the captain reclaimed control just before touching down July 22, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. "At this point in the investigation, no mechanical anomalies or malfunctions have been found," the NTSB said in an update about the crash. "A preliminary examination of the nose gear indicated that it failed due to stress overload." Investigators had earlier said that the Boeing 737-700's nose touched down first and the gear punched up into the jet's electronics bay. Investigators said the plane's nose was still pitched upward slightly — 2 degrees — four seconds before landing, but then touched down while pitched downward 3 degrees. Ten people were injured when Flight 345 skidded 2,175 feet along the runway before coming to rest in a grassy area. The accident temporarily closed the airport and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights.
LinkGaming could be next stop for inflight entertainment Some airlines are handing out iPads or other tablets to passengers instead of installing seatback screens for in-flight entertainment. Online gaming could be the next entertainment offering for airline passengers, along with movies and television shows. "You can have a chat room where people can come together and agree to play a game, then you simply log on with your seat number," said Olivier Krüger, senior vice president at Lufthansa Systems.
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