NewsCommercial
New Boeing executive calls for bold judgment calls
In his first public appearance, Boeing’s newly-appointed head of commercial aircraft development challenged his staff to take a bold approach to designing new products, emphasising the value engineering judgment calls over strictly adhering to bureaucratic processes and a slavish devotion to the data. Boeing’s rigid processes are necessary for the company to deliver more than 700 commercial aircraft a year, but are sometimes an obstacle when developing new products, says Mike Delaney, who succeeded Scott Fancher in March as vice-president and general of aircraft development for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
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FAA proposes $350,000 hazmat fine against Amazon
FAA has proposed a $350,000 fine against Seattle-based online retail giant Amazon for allegedly violating US hazardous materials regulations pertaining to air cargo shipments. The agency also accused Amazon of having “a history of violating the hazardous materials regulations.”
LinkAirlines
Air Canada Cargo starts service to Peru and Colombia
Air Canada Cargo started cargo service to Lima, Peru, and Bogota, Colombia. The service is through an arrangement with Cargojet Airways.
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Air France pilot strike continues
Air France is expecting to cancel around 21% of its flight schedule on June 13 as pilots continue a four-day walkout. In a statement, Air France said around 27% of pilots are involved in the action, which started June 11 and is set to continue until June 14.
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Air Mauritius Swings To Full-Year Profit
Air Mauritius swung to a pretax profit of EUR€16.62 million in the year ended March 31 from a loss of EUR€23.57 million a year earlier helped by lower oil prices and higher passenger numbers. "The results for the year under review have been positively impacted by lower oil prices and an increase in passengers but tempered by the depreciation of the euro, hedge payouts and a decrease in yield," the airline said in a statement.
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Alaska Airlines to overhaul cargo business with full freighters
Seattle-based Alaska Airlines is in the process of revamping its cargo business, and sees new business opportunities as it moves away from its signature “combi” aircraft to embrace full freighters. In February, the airline sent the first of three Boeing 737-700s to Tel Aviv for testing ahead of passenger-to-freighter conversion work, according to Alaska’s director of cargo revenue, planning and postal affairs Adam Drouhard.
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American Airlines’ regionals offer $15,000 signing bonus to new pilots
American Airlines’ three wholly owned regional affiliates—Envoy Air, Piedmont Airlines and PSA Airlines—simultaneously announced they will pay a $15,000 bonus to all newly hired pilots, effective immediately. The move comes amid the backdrop of US regional airlines having increasing difficulty hiring new pilots. Citing FAA’s requirement that pilots accumulate 1,500 flight hours before becoming a commercial airline pilot and other factors, Regional Airline Association (RAA) president Faye Malarkey Black said US regionals sought to hire 5,000 new pilots in 2015, but actually were able hire fewer than 3,000 because of a “considerable decline in the quality of eligible pilot candidates.”
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Azerbaijan to firm MC-21 lease once flight-tests start
The aircraft would be delivered over the course of 2019-20, the leasing company states. Azerbaijan Airlines would take the MC-21s in a 159-seat configuration including 20 in the business-class cabin. It has not specified an engine selection but the type will initially be tested with Aviadvigatel PD-14s.
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easyJet Weighing Options In Case Of Brexit
easyJet has explored setting up a separate European business if Britain votes to leave the European Union, a newspaper reported. With less than two weeks to go, polls show Britons are still evenly split on how to vote. easyJet, which supports Britain staying in the bloc, has looked at establishing a holding company in order to get an air operator's certificate in an EU country, the Sunday Telegraph reported, without citing sources.
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JetBlue reported 10.7% more traffic in May
JetBlue Airways reported a 10.7% increase in revenue passenger miles in May on a year-over-year basis. The carrier boosted capacity by 12.1% for the month.
LinkAirports
Explosion at Shanghai airport check-in causes passenger injuries
At least three passengers at Shanghai Pudong International Airport were injured when a man exploded two apparently homemade bombs on June 12. “An unidentified man removed a beer bottle or bottles with explosive materials from a backpack before throwing [them] near a check-in counter at Terminal Two,” according to an official Shanghai government statement.
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St. Helena airport opening delayed by wind shear problems
The opening of a new airport on the remote British island outpost of St. Helena has been delayed for an indefinite period following the discovery of wind shear problems on the approach path. The new airport on St. Helena, which lies around 1,150 miles off the coast of Angola in the South Atlantic, was scheduled to launch its first commercial flights in May.
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Dubai Airport Passenger Traffic Climbs 7.2 Pct
Passenger traffic through Dubai International Airport in April climbed 7.2 percent from a year earlier to 6.98 million people. Double-digit growth in traffic to and from Eastern Europe and Asia underpinned the rise. Traffic increased 6.9 percent to 27.93 million people in the first four months of this year.
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Military
US Army seeks rotorcraft renaissance through FVL
Anyone who has strolled around an army or civil helicopter show in the USA lately cannot help but have noticed some strange rotary-wing birds that promise to morph between troop-carrying assault machines and armed gunships, bristling with cannons and Hellfire missiles. Full-scale mock-ups of the Bell Helicopter V-280 Valor and the Sikorsky S-97 Raider, and models of some other radical concepts, are – their creators hope – the future of rotary-wing aviation for the US military. That future is the pending Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program, and Bell and Sikorsky are taking very different approaches to the Pentagon’s challenge: to achieve greater speed, range, payload and maneuverability than today’s inventory of military helicopters, all of which were designed in the last century.
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Aviation Quote
"Nobody ever thought about having to protect the passengers from the pilots."
— David Neeleman, 19 March 2014. Yes, the date is right. 2014. Over a year before the Germanwings 9525. Article in Popular Mechanics magazine.
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