NewsCommercial
TSB: Aviation accidents in Canada down 16% in 2018
Aviation accidents in Canada declined 16% last year, according to preliminary statistics released March 6 by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB).
There were 201 aviation accidents reported to the TSB in 2018, down from 240 reported the previous year and below the five-year average of 249.
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Al Baker calls Boeing’s NMA an ‘Ill-placed strategy’
Launching the proposed new mid-market airplane (NMA) would be an “ill-placed strategy” by Boeing, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker believes. “There already is a 787,” Al Baker said on the sidelines of the ITB tourism fair in Berlin. Instead of launching a new aircraft for the segment, he said Boeing should instead develop a reduced-weight version of the 787 that would use de-rated engines.
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Boeing NMA 'driving towards two different models': Udvar-Hazy
When it comes to the New Mid-market Airplane (NMA), Air Lease executive chairman Steven Udvar-Hazy says that Boeing could end up building two new aircraft: one for range and another for optimal economics.
"The NMA programme is a huge undertaking," says Udvar-Hazy, often credited with redirecting Airbus's original plans for the A350. He was speaking at the JP Morgan aviation, transportation and industrials conference today.
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Air Lease 'purposefully avoided' Avianca Brazil: Udvar-Hazy
As lessors plead their cases in local bankruptcy court to repossess their aircraft from Brazil's fourth largest carrier Avianca Brazil, Air Lease says the carrier was never a desirable counterparty for the lessor.
"We felt they didn't have the competitive cost position and market penetration to be eligible for our products," executive chairman Steven Udvar-Hazy told investors during the JP Morgan aviation, transportation and industrials conference today. "It was a corporate decision not to do business with them," he adds.
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HAI: Airbus lands launch customers for five-blade H145s
Airbus Helicopters has secured several launch customers - including the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation (NAAF) and New Zealand's Advanced Flight - for its new five-bladed H145 light-twin.
NAAF has ordered a single example for delivery in mid-2020, configured for aero-medical missions. The aircraft replaces the organisation's existing order for an EC145.
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A320neos trickle into Middle East
Middle Eastern carrier Gulf Air has taken delivery of a second Airbus A320neo, but the re-engined type remains relatively sparse in the region.
Gulf Air received its first A320neo, powered by CFM International Leap-1A engines, in August last year.
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PICTURES: Global 7500 sets business jet range record
Bombardier's Global 7500 has completed an 8,152nm (15,100km) non-stop flight, which the manufacturer bills as the world’s “longest mission ever flown by a purpose-built business jet”.
The aircraft (C-FXAI) - the initial production example - departed Singapore at 07:12 local on 4 March carrying three pilots, three passengers and luggage with a combined weight of 360kg (800lb).
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Farnborough air show axing public weekend from 2020
Organisers of the UK’s Farnborough air show are axing the public weekend display, reducing the event from a seven-day to a five-day programme concentrating on the trade aspect.
The show – held every two years, alternating with the Paris air show – has normally capped off its five-day trade and industry focus with two days of flying displays which are open to the public.
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Airbus starts talks on redeploying A380 personnel
Airbus has commenced discussions on personnel restructuring following its decision to terminate the A380 programme.
Some 3,000-3,500 jobs are likely to be affected by the decision over the next three years.
LinkAirlines
Delta’s indecision on Alitalia investment draws union concerns
Alitalia pilot and cabin crew unions are calling for more clarity about a rescue plan intended to ensure the bankrupt airline’s future after the CEO of potential investor Delta Air Lines said the US carrier had not yet made a decision on the proposal. The comments by Delta’s Ed Bastian and the reaction from union members came as Alitalia workers prepare for a March 25 national air transport strike over uncertainty at the Italian flag carrier and in the wider air transport ...
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No-deal for Nok Air, Thai AirAsia consolidation
The anticipated acquisition of Thai LCC Nok Air shares by Thai AirAsia owner Asia Aviation fell through March 6.
“With respect to announcement of Asia Aviation Public Co. Ltd. to the Stock Exchange of Thailand on Feb. 25, 2019 regarding the clarification of news in relation to an acquisition of shares, please be advised the company shall not further proceed on such matter,” Thai AirAsia CFO Santhat Sanguandikul in a stock exchange statement.
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O’Leary eyes another airline to join new holding company
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary sees at least one more airline—ideally an Airbus operator—joining his new holding company within five years, with further large aircraft orders also likely before then. Last month, Ryanair announced plans to transition to a group structure, similar to that of International Airlines Group (IAG). The holding company will start with four airlines—Ryanair DAC, Laudamotion, Ryanair Sun and Ryanair UK—each with their own CEOs and ...
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EasyJet moves flight attendant licenses to Austrian AOC
EasyJet will convert 3,000 flight attendant licenses and aircraft spare parts into its Austrian air operator’s certificate (AOC) as the UK-based LCC prepares for a no-deal Brexit, easyJet CEO Johan Lundgren told ATW on the sidelines of the Airlines 4 Europe (A4E) summit in Brussels.
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AirAsia assesses its own heavy maintenance facility as fleet grows
AirAsia is considering whether to set up its own heavy maintenance operation to accommodate fleet growth plans, and if so, where it would be located. While the LCC is yet to make a decision, it wants to handle some of its own base maintenance needs in the future, AirAsia head of group aircraft engineering Nantha Kumar said during the Aviation Week MRO Southeast Asia conference March 6.
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Cebu Pacific to decide on widebody order by early 2020
Cebu Pacific is likely to make a decision by the end of this year or early 2020 on which widebody aircraft type it will order. The Philippine low-cost airline is also refreshing its narrowbody fleet with several deliveries scheduled for 2019 second half.
The LCC is considering either the Airbus A330neo or Boeing 787 for the widebody requirement Cebu Pacific senior advisor-engineering & fleet management Ian Wolfe said.
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Brussels Airlines A330s get cabin makeovers, new premium economy class
Brussels Airlines is upgrading the cabins and introducing a premium economy class on its newly acquired Airbus A330-330s.
The Lufthansa Group subsidiary is replacing seven leased A330s in its long-haul fleet with second-hand A330-300s and refurbishing the cabins of the new arrivals at a cost of €10 million ($14.1 million) per aircraft.
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WOW Air, Indigo hope to finalize deal by end March
Talks between Icelandic LCC WOW Air and prospective investors Indigo Partners are still ongoing, with a date toward the end of March now being given as the likely time for a deal agreement.
Indigo Partners, the US-based private equity firm, appeared in November 2018 as a potential investor in WOW Air, after an acquisition bid by fellow-Icelandic carrier Icelandair Group fell through.
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IAG would 'never say never' on fresh Norwegian bid
IAG is unlikely to launch a new bid for Norwegian, the pan-European group's chief executive has indicated, but with the caveat that it would "never say never".
Speaking at the A4E Aviation Summit in Brussels today, Walsh suggested that IAG would have retained its Norwegian stake were a fresh bid imminent, and that its focus had shifted to building the Level operation.
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PICTURE: Qatar reveals new economy seat and more destinations
Qatar Airways has launched its new economy-class product, ‘Quisine’, which includes additional leg room, faster broadband and a new in-flight dining experience. Alongside the unveiling at the ITB travel-trade fair in Berlin, the airline also revealed seven new destinations for 2019.
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INTERVIEW: AirAsia's Fernandes on long-haul, low-cost
The long-haul, low-cost segment of the airline industry is going through a period of turbulence, but AirAsia Group chief executive Tony Fernandes remains confident in the business model's viability.
Speaking with FlightGlobal in New York on 4 March, Fernandes said the trick to a sustainable long-haul, low-cost operation was the combination of using the right equipment, squeezing ancillary revenues from customers, and reducing costs via investment in technology.
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A321LR delay forces Aer Lingus to push back Montreal launch
Aer Lingus has blamed "aircraft delivery delays" relating to its incoming Airbus A321LRs for its decision to push back the launch of Dublin-Montreal service.
The Irish carrier is still expecting to take delivery of four A321LRs in 2019, as previously announced, but the Canadian route will now launch in summer 2020, rather than 8 August this year as originally planned.
LinkAirports
ACI reveals the world's best Airports for customer experience
Delhi-Indira Gandhi, Indianapolis, Moscow Sheremetyevo, Mumbai-Chhatrapati Shivaji, Singapore Changi and Seoul–Gimpo were today named as some of the best airports in the world in ACI's annual Airport Service Quality (ASQ) customer experience awards.
Perennial winners Beijing Capital, Toronto Pearson, Roma-Fiumicino and Shanghai Pudong also triumphed in the awards, which recognise the airports around the world that deliver the best customer experience in the opinion of their own passengers.
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Vancouver to be first Canadian airport to meet new biometric requirements
With the help of Innovative Travel Solutions, Vancouver Airport will update its border control solutions to be in line with the Canadian government’s biometric requirements.
Vancouver International Airport’s (YVR) has announced that its industry-leading self-service border control solution, BORDERXPRESS, is the first in Canada to be updated to meet the Government of Canada’s expanded biometric screening requirements, coming into effect on the 31 March 2019.
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Glasgow Airport announces new £200,000 green vehicle fleet
Eight petrol and electric plug-in hybrid Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV 4x4s arrive at Glasgow Airport to make airside operations more sustainable.
Glasgow Airport has invested more than £200,000 to introduce an eight-strong fleet of petrol/electric plug-in hybrid vehicles to its operations.
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Major maintenance will see the runway at Schiphol closed for six weeks
The runway at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol will be closed for works on the taxiways, markings and lighting; flights will redirect to other runways to ensure as little disruption as possible.
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol will see runway 18C-36C closed for scheduled maintenance between 10 March – 21 April 2019. During this maintenance work, runway 18C-36C will be closed to air traffic and aircraft will need to take other flight routes to and from Schiphol.
LinkMilitary
USA funds pair of M28 Skytrucks for Nepal
The USA is providing financial backing of $19 million for a pair of Mielec M28 Block 50 utility transports that will be delivered to Nepal.
“This contract involves foreign military financing to Nepal,” says a recent US Defence Department statement.
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HAI: Airbus eyes foreign military sales of UH-72A Lakota
Though Airbus Helicopters’ deliveries of the UH-72A Lakota to the US Army are scheduled to conclude in 2020, the company believes the programme may still have some foreign military sales life left.
Airbus Helicopters assembles the twin-engine light utility helicopter in a factory in Columbus, Mississippi and expects to deliver 24 examples this year.
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Aviation Quote
Against this pale, duck-egg blue and greyish mauve were silhouetted a number of small black shapes: all of them bombers, and all of them moving the same way. One hundred and thirty-four miles ahead, and directly in their path, stretched a crimson-red glow; cologne was on fire. Already, only twenty-three minutes after the attack had started, Cologne was ablaze from end to end, and the main force of the attack was still to come.
- Group Captain Leonard Cheshire, VC, DSO
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Trivia
787 Trivia
1) What was the 787 Dreamliner originally called?
a) The Dash 87
b) The 7E7
c) The 797
d) The 007
2) The 787 was dubbed Dreamliner by an online "Name the Plane" contest, and the modified 747 freighters that carry sections of the plane around the globe are called Dreamlifters. What is the "Dream Weaver"?
a) The machine that turns carbon-fiber thread into a fabric that will be baked into the 787's composite-plastic skin.
b) The code name for the group that developed the 787 concept while Boeing officially pursued another plane, the Sonic Cruiser.
c) A 1970s hit song.
d) The nickname of a Seattle Mariners pitcher.
3) As Boeing's global partners built factories for this plane of the future, how did the past intrude?
a) Italy's Alenia had to move scores of 300-year-old olive trees from its factory site.
b) Sweden's Saab unearthed a Viking tomb on its proposed location.
c) Traditional Japanese rice farmers refused to vacate Mitsubishi's property.
d) British fox hunters halted Messier-Dowty's plant expansion.
4) What amenity did Boeing cut from the 787 design to reduce the plane's weight?
a) Foot rests
b) The galley
c) Seat-back Magic Fingers
d) Wireless inflight-entertainment system
5) The 787 will have a button that passengers can use to?
a) Signal they don't wish to talk to a chatty neighbor.
b) Darken the window electronically.
c) Order a $8.99 sandwich billed to their credit card.
d) Upgrade the entertainment options to better movies and music.
6) Boeing has put the 787 on a diet to slim it down to the target weight of?
a) 85,000 pounds
b) 222,000 pounds
c) 222,000 tons
d) 1 million nautical pounds
7) Before choosing Everett for the final assembly of the 787, Boeing also considered which of these sites?
a) Harlingen, Texas
b) Tulsa, Okla.
c) Mobile, Ala.
d) Biloxi, Miss.
e) Savannah, Ga.Boeing has taken 642 orders for the 787 as of July 6, selling more planes before rollout than any jet in history. But it has no customers yet on which of these continents?
a) Australia
b) South America
c) Africa
d) Europe
e) Antarctica
9) Seven 787s have been sold by Boeing as VIP jets. The only individual buyer who's been publicly identified is?
a) Hong Kong tycoon Joseph Lau
b) Heavy metal rocker/TV star Ozzy Osbourne
c) Exiled Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky
c) Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal
10) Miles of wiring in the 787?
a) 13
b) 229
c) 61
d) 1,112
11) According to Boeing, how much more fuel-efficient than other comparable airliners will the 787 be?
a) 10 percent
b) 20 percent
c) 50 percent
12) The 787 takes Boeing's outsourcing of major components to a new level. All of these countries supply major components for the 787 airframe except?
a) Germany
b) China
c) Australia
d) South Korea
e) Canada
13) To create holes for windows into the stiff composite plastic that forms the airplane shell, Boeing and its suppliers use?
a) Lasers
b) Diamond-tipped band saws
c) Ultrahigh-pressure water jets
d) Biodegradable industrial acids
14) The 787's windows are?
a) Self-cleaning
b) The size of an 18-inch (square) pizza.
c) One-third larger than the 777, the biggest on any current airliner.
d) b and c
e) a and c
f) a,b and c
