NewsCommercial
New "space bins" on Boeing 737s hold 50% more carry-on luggage
Boeing is adding new "space bins" to the 737 which will hold 50% more carry-on luggage. The key, according to Boeing engineers, was to make a bin to hold bags on their sides instead of their backs, allowing more bags to be stored. However, the space bins will reduce passenger headroom by 2 inches.
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Boeing expounds cabin philosophy
Boeing is continuing the evolution of its passenger cabins as it looks to roll out its "overall interiors philosophy" across its entire range of airliners. The process began with the development of the 787, says Kent Craver, regional director cabin experience and revenue analysis, and has since been applied to the Sky Interior on the 737 and updates to the 777.
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Embraer delivers 20 E175s in first quarter
Embraer delivered 20 E175 regional jets in the first three months of 2014, the company announced on 16 April. The 75-seat-class E175 was the only version of Embraer’s four regional jet designs now in production to be delivered to a customer in the first quarter. The 20 deliveries were slightly outpaced by new two orders for a combined 22 E-Jets signed during the first quarter.
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MRJ first flight delay not due to 'major trouble'
Mitsubishi Aircraft says the latest slip in the first flight schedule of its MRJ regional jet does not represent “major trouble” in the program. In response to queries, the Japanese manufacturer explains that in ground tests conducted thus far, “a bug” has occurred in a portion of its software. Design changes also had to be made to some system parts.
LinkAirlines
Atlas Air Worldwide to Report First-Quarter 2015 Results
Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. will release results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015, prior to the opening of stock market trading on Thursday, April 30. William J. Flynn, Atlas Air Worldwide's President and Chief Executive Officer, and Spencer Schwartz, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will host a conference call to discuss the company's results at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time on April 30.
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Delta triples 1Q net income over last year
First-quarter net income for Delta Airlines was $746 million, more than triple the net $213 million the company brought in during the same period last year. The company also reported revenue of $9.39 billion, a 5.3% year-over-year increase.
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Delta adjusts its international capacity
Delta Air Lines’ move to cut seats on international routes later this year may herald similar moves by American Airlines and United, helping the U.S. carriers pare costs and maintain pricing power. The reduction announced Wednesday amounts to 3 percent of overseas capacity for Delta’s winter schedule. Delta is paring service from Japan and to Brazil, Africa, India and the Middle East. It’s also suspending flights to Moscow, meaning no U.S. passenger carrier will fly there during that period.
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Delta's Pa. refinery posts $86M 1Q profit
Delta Airline's Trainer refinery in Pennsylvania has posted first-quarter profits of $86 million, according to the airline. The refinery has brought in profits of $220 million over the past four quarters.
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MH370 Search Area To Double If Plane Not Found
Government ministers from Australia, China and Malaysia said they would double the search area for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 if wreckage is not found in the current target area. No trace has been found of the Boeing 777, which disappeared in March last year carrying 239 passengers and crew in what has become one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history. Most of the passengers were Chinese.
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MH17 Team Get Access, Hope To Find Last Two Victims
Nine months after Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine, investigators have gained access to the area where the last unexamined wreckage lies and hope to recover remains of the last two victims. Heavy fighting has stopped the Dutch-led team collecting evidence from a field of debris in the north-west of the crash site that was until recently on the front line of the conflict between Moscow-backed rebels and Ukrainian government troops.
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Southwest Airlines backs improvements at Kansas City airport
Southwest Airlines Co. wants to be a partner as Kansas City continues planning the future of its airport. And the company agrees that changes are necessary at Kansas City International Airport. On Wednesday, Southwest CEO Gary Kelly appeared at the Overhaul Base at KCI to reveal "Missouri One," a Boeing 737-700 painted with Missouri's flag, to commemorate the company's more than 30 years in the Show Me State
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United Airlines begins its final integration of Continental operations
United Airlines is doing “dress rehearsals” for migrating its technical-operations data into the Sceptre IT system, according to Mark Miner, United’s managing director for technical operations applications integration. This big project is one of the last pieces of merging the operations of Continental and United. Airlines frequently save the tech-ops piece as a last step because of the complexity and scope—as well as the process changes that are first required.
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United upgrades meal, beverage service for long-haul passengers
United Airlines passengers on long-haul flights, including those from the U.S. to Europe and Asia, will be offered complimentary meal service and free wine and beer beginning June 1. The move puts the carrier on par with other airlines, such as Delta and Lufthansa, which provide such service to first-class and economy travelers.
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Virgin Atlantic to switch to Delta's reservation system next year
Virgin Atlantic said that it would switch to Delta’s AIR4 passenger services system (PSS) next year. AIR4 provides reservation, ticketing and departure control services. Virgin Atlantic’s system will be “fully distinct” from Delta’s PSS, but aligned with it in order to improve the customer experience, said Joe Thompson, Virgin Atlantic’s director of network and alliances.
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Airlines shift to premium wines for first-class travelers
The U.S. airline industry is getting creative with its first-class cabins, consulting with sommeliers and expanding budgets to offer fine wines.
LinkAirports
Food and retail sales soar at O'Hare's revamped international terminal
Retail and food sales at O'Hare International Airport's international terminal have increased 69 percent since the terminal's renovation began in 2011, according to data from the city of Chicago. Part of the growth can also be attributed to a 3.3 percent increase in passenger traffic through the terminal from 2010 to 2014.
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Military
UK may not oppose Gripen sale to Argentina
The UK government is unlikely to block any request by Argentina to buy Saab Gripen NG fighters, Brazilian defense minister Jacques Wagner told reporters on 15 April. The statement at the Latin American Aviation and Defense exhibition comes nearly six months after Argentinian defence minister Agustin Rossi expressed interest in Brazilian-assembled Gripen NGs, despite a need to import key technologies such as the ejection seat and the radar from a historic rival in the UK.
LinkRegulatory
South Korea Orders Inspection Of Asiana A320 Pilots
South Korean authorities are planning an "urgent competence inspection" of Asiana Airlines pilots flying Airbus A320s, the day after one of the planes skidded off a runway in Japan. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the measures would affect 489 pilots, 370 of them with Asiana and the remainder with its low-cost subsidiary, Air Busan. The two airlines are the only operators of the A320 based in South Korea.
LinkGeneral Aviation
Piper launches M600 single-engined turboprop
Piper has launched a new single-engined turboprop, which sits at the helm of its nine-strong family of business and general aviation aircraft. Simultaneously, the US airframer has revamped and renamed its Mirage piston single, the M350. This introduction mirrors the recent upgrade and rebranding of its Meridian turboprop, which is now called the M500.
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Aviation Quote
Hang onto it. Hang onto it.
— Captain Edward States, last recorded words, American Airlines Flight 587, from New York's JFK to the Dominican Republic. 09:15 Eastern, 12 November 2001.
On This Date
---In 1913... Briton Gustav Hamel lands after a non-stop flight of 4 hours and 18 minutes from Dover, England, to Cologne, Germany in a Blériot XI.
---In 1920…The Venezuelan Air Force is formed.
---In 1926... Western Air Express starts its service between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.
---In 1944…Howard Hughes and TWA president Jack Frye fly a Lockheed Constellation from Burbank to Washington, DC, setting a transcontinental speed record of 6 hours 57 minutes.
--- In 1961…Cuban exiles using B-26 Invaders begin the campaign to free Cuba from Fidel Castro.
---In 1964…Jerrie Mock becomes the first female pilto to successfully circumnavigate the globe, landing her Cessna 280 in Columbus, Ohio, after 29 days of flying covering 22,860 miles.
---In 1967…An SR-71 made the longest Mach 3 flight in history. The flight was over 14,000 miles. Pilot Robert L. Stephens (the Silver Fox), RSO Kenneth D. Hurley.
---In 1967…Surveyor 3 - USA Lunar Soft Lander launched. Landed on the lunar surface.
---In 1970... A Sikorsky CH-53D helicopter flies between London and Paris to demonstrate that modern helicopters can provide reliable inter-city services.
---In 1970…The crippled Apollo 13 spacecraft and its four astronauts returns to earth safely after suffering an explosion enroute to the moon.
---In 1973…Federal Express begins operations, using a fleet of 14 Dassault Falcon 20 jets to ferry parcels from 25 cities to their Memphis hub for the nightly sort and subsequent distribution across the country. The sort has gone on every night since, with the company growing becoming critical to the backbone of the world economy, and the fleet growing to over 700 aircraft flying to about 325 destinations.
---In 2012…A Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, accompanied by a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) T-38 Talon chase plane, carries the retired Space Shuttle Discovery from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, to Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, where Discovery is slated to replace the Space Shuttle Enterprise on display at the Smithsonian Institution's nearby Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, a part of the National Air and Space Museum. The delivery flight includes low-level passes over the Cape Canaveral area as well as flybys at an altitude of 1,500 feet (457 meters) over Washington, D.C.-area landmarks.
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