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Commercial

Air Lease Urges Caution On Raising Jet Output
The president of leasing company Air Lease has urged Boeing and Airbus to be cautious about further increases in the production rates of airliners, saying their plans to do so put suppliers at risk of breakdown. Suppliers already are operating at "absolute capacity" and their ability to keep pace with rate increases being discussed by Boeing and Airbus is a "major concern of ours," Air Lease President John Plueger said. His comments come as Boeing and Airbus have said they are close to deciding on raising production of their most popular single-aisle planes beyond levels already announced for the next few years. Boeing said it is considering lifting the rate of its 737 to 52 a month in 2018. It makes 42 a month currently. Similarly, Airbus is studying making its rival A320 at a rate of 50 a month, compared with 42 at present.
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COMAC Signs Deal For 20 ARJ21s With Chinese Lessor
COMAC, China's biggest domestic aircraft manufacturer, will sell 20 ARJ21 regional jets to Comsys Aviation Leasing, a small Chinese aviation leasing company. The deal, whose price tag has yet to be determined, will be finalized at an air show in Zhuhai later this year, said Lune Wang, vice general manager at Comsys. The ARJ21, China's first locally built regional jet, aims to compete against Embraer and Bombardier. The plane, which seats about 90 passengers, is not yet in commercial service.
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Airlines

Air France Pilots Threaten To Extend Strike
An Air France pilots union has warned that it could vote to extend its strike "indefinitely" if its demands are not met, as the airline was forced to cancel 60 percent of its flights for the fourth day. The pilots are carrying out a strike over Air France's plans to expand the low-cost operations of its Transavia unit by setting up foreign bases as it seeks to fight back against fierce competition from budget carriers. Jean-Louis Barber, head of the Air France section of the SNPL pilots' union, told Le Monde newspaper it may vote to extend the strike beyond September 22.
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Budget Airline Baggage Charges Cleared By EU Court
Budget airlines have been cleared by Europe's Court of Justice to continue with the business model that has helped them flourish by topping up revenue from low fares with additional baggage and seating charges. Additional charges for checked-in luggage, overweight bags, allocated seating and priority boarding contribute a significant and growing proportion of revenue for budget carriers but have been criticized by consumers and rival airlines as hidden fees. However, the EU's Luxembourg-based Court of Justice said that fees levied for checking in luggage were justified, overruling a Spanish ruling that had upheld a complaint against low-cost airline Vueling, part of IAG.
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Delta will be first Airbus customer to debut pivoting overhead bins
Delta Air Lines will be the first carrier to offer the new pivoting overhead bins designed by Airbus for its A320 line. The bins increase overhead luggage space by up to 60%, according to the manufacturer. They will be available on new aircraft in the A320 line and can also be added to existing A320s.
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Delta gives 747 pilots option of early retirement
As Delta Air Lines prepares to ground 25% of its Boeing 747s, the carrier is offering early retirement to up to 50 pilots of the jumbo jets. Earlier this year, more than 1,000 employees accepted the carrier's offer of early retirement.
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EasyJet firms up remaining A320 options
UK budget carrier EasyJet has converted its last remaining 27 options for baseline Airbus A320s. The carrier will take delivery of the aircraft from 2015 to 2018, it states. “This provides EasyJet with the flexibility to continue to execute its proven strategy of disciplined growth and to take advantage of profitable market opportunities,” the airline says.
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JetBlue names Hayes as new CEO
JetBlue Airways president Robin Hayes will succeed Dave Barger as chief executive officer effective 15 February 2015. "Robin is a highly talented and experienced airline executive who understands JetBlue's culture and strategy. During his time as chief commercial officer and president, Robin proved he is the right leader to take JetBlue into the future," says JetBlue chairman Joel Peterson. Barger's contract was due to expire in February 2015 after almost eight years at the helm of the carrier, and industry observers have speculated in recent months that he would likely leave the carrier. Barger was part of the team that founded JetBlue.
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Republic shares soar after Embraer deal
Republic Airways was gaining 10.1% to $11.31 Wednesday after reaching a new agreement with United Airlines and ordering 50 new jets from Embraer. The regional airline placed an order for 50 of Embraer's next-generation E-175 aircraft that will be operated for United under the United Express brand. The order for the new aircraft is valued at $2.1 billion. The 50 new aircraft are part of Republic's expanded Shuttle America E-Jet capacity purchase agreement with United. The duration of each of the new aircrafts under the agreement will be 12 years.
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Southwest CEO aims to trim costs, boost efficiencies
Southwest Airlines is looking to work with labor unions to trim costs. More than 80% of Southwest workers belong to a union. "The nice thing is we have opportunities in our contract negotiations to address waste, to address inefficiencies, to improve productivity," CEO Gary Kelly said.
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Economists comment on the affordability of airfare
Economists surprised by last month's flat consumer prices are looking to airfares, which dropped 5.9% in July, followed by another 4.7% in August.
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Should airlines raise airfares?
Phil LeBeau from CNBC examines how airfares have dropped in the past 15 years, when adjusted for inflation. "You're getting a heck of a deal relative to what you were paying back in 1999," LeBeau says. However, some analysts are calling on airlines to raise airfares.
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Airports

Atlanta airport is world's busiest
Georgia's Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport served 94.4 million passengers last year, a drop of 1.1% from 2012 but still more than any other airport in the world.
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Dallas Love Field debuts new baggage claim wing
Let’s say there were four big parts of the $519 million rebuilding of Dallas Love Field: 1) The 20-gate terminal, 2) The rebuilding of the entrance lobby, 3) A new ticketing wing and 4) A new baggage wing. While there are a number of things left to be done, all four of the big projects are just about completed, with Monday’s opening of the last of the four: the baggage claim wing. The public can now use the new baggage hall, the passenger pickup area and the parking garage tunnel from the baggage claim hall, built on the site of the old baggage claim hall. Workmen are now dismantling the temporary baggage carousels at the corner of the lobby beside the escalators.
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DIA celebrates Oktoberfest with temporary beer garden
You'll fit right in if you're wearing lederhosen or a dirndl at Denver International Airport during the next few weeks. This is Oktoberfest season and DIA is celebrating with a temporary beer garden set up in the center of the main terminal. Opening on Sept. 19 and running through Oct. 4, DIA's "Beer Flights" (get it?) beer garden will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. You'll need to be 21 or older and pay $10 to get in the door, but the admission fee includes a souvenir glass, a bag of pretzels provided by Southwest Airlines and 10 two-ounce samples of beer.
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UAV

NASA teams to develop UAV traffic management system
NASA has partnered with Airware to develop a traffic management system for safe low-altitude operations with unmanned air vehicles. Utilising Airware’s experience in developing hardware, software and cloud services for commercial UAVs, the alliance will allow both parties to test and validate a wide range of scenarios to enable the development of an unmanned air systems traffic management (UTM) system. Airware and NASA will operate and test aircraft and sensors, as well as software for aircraft spacing, collision avoidance and 4D trajectory modelling, using the same interface.
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US Navy's Triton unmanned aircraft markes first cross-country flight
The US Navy’s newest maritime surveillance unmanned air vehicle (UAV) made its maiden cross-country ferry flight and landed safely on 18 September at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. The Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton high-altitude, long-endurance UAV flew 3,290nm in 11 hours from the company’s Palmdale, California, facility to NAS Patuxent River. The flight marks a transition from initial safety flight testing to a process of validating Triton’s ability to perform operational missions over the ocean. The aircraft flew along the southern US border and crossed the Gulf of Mexico and Florida following a pre-approved instrument route. Operators then directed the Triton north along the Atlantic coast and up the Chesapeake Bay at altitudes above 50,000 feet to avoid civilian air traffic, according to US Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR).
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Space

Virgin Galactic 'close to reaching space'
Virgin Galactic has formally backed away from its pledge to put its first fare-paying passengers into suborbital space by the close of 2014 – but has made a very public declaration that suborbital operations from its purpose-built spaceport in New Mexico will begin in early 2015. Billionaire Richard Branson, the serial entrepreneur and Virgin Atlantic airways boss who has spent a decade working to make Virgin Galactic a reality, told US television talk show host David Letterman: “I’ll be on the first flight from New Mexico.” And, he added, that flight – which, as he has long insisted will carry him and his family, will happen “in February or March” 2015.
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Military

Algeria could miss out on C-17, Boeing cautions
Algeria’s “disciplined” acquisition process for a new airlifter threatens to cut the C-17 out of the competition because of a lack of availability, says a top Boeing executive. Algeria is considering the C-17, the Airbus A400M and the upgraded Ilyushin Il-76MD90 for a possible order of between four and six aircraft. Boeing performed flight demonstrations of the C-17 in the country in 2013, expecting a decision to be made in 2014. Boeing, however, is shutting down C-17 production in June 2015, leaving only 10 unsold “white tails” available from which Algeria could make a purchase.
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USAF finalizes Block 30 Global Hawk purchase
The US Air Force has finalised a deal to purchase three more Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned air vehicles, filling its official requirement for the high-altitude, long-endurance type. The deal, which brings the air force’s fleet to 37 Global Hawks, is worth $354 million. The last of the three aircraft will be delivered in 2017. Congress authorised funds to purchase the 11th lot of Global Hawks in fiscal year 2013, but the USAF held off from spending the money while it decided whether to retire the Lockheed Martin U-2 manned reconnaissance aircraft. The air force considered retiring the Cold War-era U-2 during its 2011 budget negotiations, but ultimately balked because the Global Hawk was and remains unable to carry its optical bar camera: a large wet-film system that is used for treaty verification by the US State Department.
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Aviation Quote

“Freddie Laker
May be at peace with his Maker.
But he is persona non grata
With IATA.”

— HRH Duke of Edinburgh

[i]On This Date

---In 1783... In a demonstration for King Louis XVI, a sheep, duck, and rooster fly up to 1,700 feet in a hot air balloon and return to the ground safely.

---In 1907... The 1st piloted helicopter rises at Douai in France. Piloted by Volumard, it rises only about 2 feet and is steadied by men on the ground. It does not constitute free, vertical flight.

--- In 1928... The 1st diesel engine to power a heavier-than-air aircraft is flight tested in Utica, Michigan.

---In 1946…TAP Portugal commences flight operations.

---In 1949…First flight of the Fairey Gannet prototype VR546.

---In1969…First flight of the Mil Mi-24, the most widely exported helicopter gunship.

---In 1976…A Turkish Airlines Boeing 727 (registered TC-JBH) crashes into a mountain while on apprach to Antalya, Turkey. It was later learned that the pilots were referencing the approach charts for a different airport.

---In 1988…Israel launches its first satellite, for secret military reconnaissance.

---In 1989…UTA flight 772, McDonnell Douglas DC-10 aircraft (registered N54629), crashes in the Sahara Desert in Niger after a bomb explodes while enroute to Paris, killing all 170 on board. The bomb would eventually be blamed on Libyan terrorists.

---In 1994… Congress passed the FY95 defense authorization bill and added $100 million to bring three SR-71s out of storage.

Daily Video

Editor’s Choice

Humor

USAF: Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

Air Education and Training Command:
The purpose is to familiarize the chicken with road-crossing procedures. Road-crossing should be performed only between the hours of sunset and sunrise. Solo chickens must have at least three miles of visibility and a safety observer.

Special Ops:
The chicken crossed at a 90 degree angle to avoid prolonged exposure to a line of communication. To achieve maximum surprise, the chicken should have performed this maneuver at night using NVG's, preferably near a road bend in a valley.

Air Combat Command:
The chicken should log this as a GCC sortie only if road-crossing qualified. The crossing updates the chicken's 60-day road-crossing currency only if performed on a Monday or Thursday or during a full moon. Instructor chickens may update currency any time they observe another chicken cross the road.

Tanker Airlift Control Center:
We need the road-crossing time and the time the chicken becomes available for another crossing.

Command Post:
What chicken?

Tower:
The chicken was instructed to hold short of the road. This road-incursion incident was reported in a Hazardous Chicken Road-Crossing Report (HCRCR). Please re-emphasize that chickens are required to read back all hold short instructions.

C-130 crewmember:
Just put it in back and let's go.

C-141 crewmember:
I ordered a no. 4 with Turkey and ham, NOT chicken. Besides, where the heck are my condiments?! We ain't taking off til' I get my condiments!!!

Fighter dude:
Look, dude, that was the frag, OK? I've flown my 1.0 for the day and I ain't got time for anymore questions!

B-1 crew:
Missed the whole show--we had an IFE so we couldn't get out to see it; you'll have to ask the SOF.

Air Force Personnel Center:
Due to the needs of the Air Force, the chicken was involuntarily reassigned to the other side of the road. This will be a 3-year controlled tour and we promise to give the chicken a good-deal assignment afterwards. Every chicken will be required to do one road-crossing during its career, and this will not affect its opportunities for future promotion.

John Warden:
The chicken used its unique ability to operate in 2 dimensions to bypass the less important strategic rings on this side of the road and strike directly into the heart of the enemy, thereby destroying the will of the enemy to fight and thus ending the conflict on terms favorable to the chicken.

Congress:
The chicken will do anything to get the C-17 and the F-22.

Trivia

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miamiair wrote:Air France Pilots Threaten To Extend Strike
An Air France pilots union has warned that it could vote to extend its strike "indefinitely" if its demands are not met, as the airline was forced to cancel 60 percent of its flights for the fourth day. The pilots are carrying out a strike over Air France's plans to expand the low-cost operations of its Transavia unit by setting up foreign bases as it seeks to fight back against fierce competition from budget carriers. Jean-Louis Barber, head of the Air France section of the SNPL pilots' union, told Le Monde newspaper it may vote to extend the strike beyond September 22.
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