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Airlines

Alaska adds new Love Field flights, assumes some Virgin routes
Alaska Air Group has announced a major shakeup of its operations at Dallas Love Field, unveiling new routes and a plan to replace much of subsidiary Virgin America's flying with regional aircraft operated by SkyWest Airlines.
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Alitalia's management will be judged on implementation
Bloomberg's 24 March report that the Italian government was considering emergency financing for Alitalia to aid the flag carrier's latest rescue plan was hardly a surprise. There appears to be a distinct lack of interest from external finance providers and existing creditors until there is a new labour agreement in place.
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American Airlines First Quarter Traffic Dips
American Airlines released its March and first quarter traffic results on Tuesday, showing a slight drop in passenger traffic. American carried 17.16 million passengers in March, and 43.38 million for the quarter, falls of 0.5 and 1.2 percent respectively.
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Cathay appoints new chief as part of broad management shake-up
Cathay Pacific chief operating officer Rupert Hogg will take over as chief executive from 1 May, replacing Ivan Chu. The Hong Kong carrier's parent Swire Pacific says Hogg has been tasked with leading Cathay through its three-year transformation programme, intended to make it "more agile and competitive".
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Cathay to replace or upgrade poor quality A350 business seats
Cathay Pacific will replace all the business class seats on some of its Airbus A350s and undertake extensive modifications on others, due to "seat and surface finishing defects."
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New Cyprus Airways to launch operations in June
Startup carrier Cyprus Airways will start operations in June with “scheduled flights to three to four short-haul destinations and charter flights in collaboration with tour operators,” a Cyprus Airways spokesperson told ATW. The schedule will be announced after the Easter holiday.
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Delta chief calls overbooking 'valid' practice
Delta Air Lines chief executive Ed Bastian says overbooking flights is a "valid industry process" that allows it to generate higher financial returns than other carriers, amid a furore over a United Airlines passenger who was forcibly removed from a flight.
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Eurowings Leads Lufthansa Group Higher
Lufthansa Group saw a 14 percent increase in passenger numbers for March as it reported strong monthly and first quarter traffic figures. The group carried 9.59 million passengers in the month and 25.23 million in the quarter to end March. The quarterly total was a 13 percent improvement on the first quarter of 2016.
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IAG LCC LEVEL Has ‘Incredible’ Launch
IAG’s new low cost carrier LEVEL has taken over 100,000 bookings since its March 17 launch, the airline said.
LEVEL launched ticket sales on flights from Barcelona to Los Angeles and Oakland; and Barcelona to Buenos Aires and Punta Cana in Mexico.
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Spirit parked A320neos due to known engine problem
Spirit Airlines has parked three Airbus A320neos due to a known, fleet-wide problem with a carbon air-seal within the PW1100G geared turbofan engines, Pratt & Whitney tells FlightGlobal. Airbus has delivered five A320neos to Spirit, but three are parked temporarily at Dallas/Fort Worth International airport.
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United promises 'thorough review' of policy for oversold flights
United Airlines has committed to a review of its crew management and oversold-cabin policies following an incident in which a passenger was forcibly removed from a flight. In a statement issued on 11 April, the carrier's chief executive Oscar Munoz describes the incident as "truly horrific" and announces "a thorough review of crew movement, our policies for incentivising volunteers in these situations, how we handle oversold situations and... how we partner with airport authorities and local law enforcement".
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United CEO Munoz vows there will be no repeat of bumping incident
United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz said an incident like the one involving a bumped passenger being violently dragged off an aircraft earlier this week “will never happen again on a United Airlines flight” and promised that law enforcement would never again be used in a similar situation.
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Airports

Berlin Tegel ground handling issues prompt airberlin route delay
Airberlin has delayed the planned expansion of US connections because of continued ground handling problems at Berlin-Tegel Airport. According to airberlin, it will postpone the launch of 2X-weekly Berlin-San Francisco services from May 1 to May 29. A third weekly frequency will be added in June. Additionally, airberlin’s 4X-weekly Berlin-Los Angeles services will be moved from May 2 to May 16.
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Military

EDA pushes for more action on tanker capacity
European Defence Agency (EDA) officials have urged the organisation's partner nations to take further steps to optimise their delivery of air-to-air refuelling (AAR) operations. "AAR is one of the four key projects in which the EDA and its member states have identified a capability gap," says Air Cdre Peter Round, the agency's director, capability, armament and technology. "We are working hard to overcome the shortfall in Europe."
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Amid budget uncertainty, USAF weighs F-15 retirement
The US Air Force’s chief of staff is not counting out retiring the F-15C/D fleet, but can’t make any solid plans for the aircraft until the service has funding in place. The air force is examining the cost it would take to retire its fleet of Boeing F-15C/Ds and replace them with Lockheed Martin F-16s, but that’s not unlike the analysis the service executes across all its weapons systems, USAF chief Gen David Goldfein told reporters 12 April. The service has not drawn any conclusions on the cost benefit of retiring the Eagles, he adds.
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Aviation Quote

If the employees come first, then they are happy. A motivated employee treats the customer well. The customer is happy so they keep coming back, which pleases the shareholders. It's not one of the enduring green mysteries of all time, it is just the way it works.

- Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines CEO, in Lee, W. G., 'A Conversation with Herb Kelleher,' Organizational Dynamics, volume 23, issue 2, Autumn 1994.

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Trivia

General Trivia

1. What was the North American T–6 Mosquito?

2. If an airplane flies into an updraft, it most likely will

a) pitch up.
b) pitch down.
c) pitch up or down.
d) not change pitch.

3. What are their first names?

_____ Immelman (a maneuver)

_____ Fahrenheit (measure of temperature)

_____ Kollsman (altimeter setting)

_____ Mercator (map projection)

_____ Jeppesen (IFR charts)

_____ Hobbs (“money” meter)

4. What is the official (ICAO) definition of a broken layer?

5. The missing-man formation is used to pay homage to a person (or persons) who has (have) passed away. What is the origin of this formation?

6. On different occasions, a pilot keys his microphone 3, 5, and 7 times to activate pilot-controlled airport lighting. The runway-edge lights turn on and remain illuminated for _____, _____, and _____ minutes, respectively.

7. From reader John Schmidt: The Rutan Voyager was flown nonstop around the world without refueling by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager in December, 1986. Prior to that historic flight, what was the world distance record for nonstop, unrefueled flight in a piston-powered airplane and in what type of aircraft was that flight made?

8. What World War II pilot with a now-famous name took off from the aircraft carrier Lexington in his Grumman Wildcat and shot down five Japanese bombers in less than five minutes?