NewsCommercial
US lawmakers: Boeing testimony raises ‘new questions’ on MAX development
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg’s testimony last week before a US House panel raised “a litany of new questions” about the development of the 737 MAX, two top committee members said in a letter to House lawmakers. Vowing to press on with their investigation and hold more hearings into accidents that killed a combined 346 people, Transportation Committee chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) and Aviation Subcommittee chairman Rick Larson (D-Washington) said Nov. 4 that ...
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Airbus revises A320 logic after touch-and-go accident
Airbus is developing a retrofit to reduce the risk of system logic weaknesses that played a role in the SmartLynx A320 touch-and-go accident at Tallinn last year.
While performing touch-and-go circuits for student pilots, the aircraft lost elevator control just after landing, a situation which the crew only discovered as the jet accelerated towards rotation again.
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PICTURE: Windtunnel beckons for An-124 successor
Russian researchers have constructed a scale model of the proposed 'Slon' outsize freight transporter, put forward as a potential successor to the Antonov An-124.
Moscow's Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute has shown off the model ahead of windtunnel testing.
LinkAirlines
Lufthansa cabin crews call for two-day strike
Lufthansa cabin crews, represented by the UFO union, said they will strike Nov. 7 and 8 after labor negotiations with the airline broke down.
“After the clear results of our ballots, the successful warning strikes of Oct. 20 and the continuing refusal of Lufthansa to negotiate our demands, we announce a two-day strike at the parent company Lufthansa,” UFO said Nov. 4.
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Air France-KLM outlines fleet strategy overhaul
Air France-KLM has detailed plans to simplify its fleet and hopes to decide between Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s to replace its A380s in the coming weeks as the company sets out a new long-term strategy to better compete in a tough European operating environment. “It’s obvious that Air France-KLM needs to reinvent in order to be successful,” Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith told investors Nov. 5 as he unveiled a route map to improving financial performance, ...
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Vietnam Airlines’ 9-month profit nears full-year target
The Vietnam Airlines group announced a net profit before tax (PBT) of VND3.3 trillion ($142 million) for the first nine months of 2019, up 35.7% year-on-year (YOY), which accounts for 97.9% of the carrier’s annual target.
The group—consisting of parent airline Vietnam Airlines, Jetstar Pacific and VASCO—earned a combined revenue of VND76.7 trillion.
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Six months after launch, FlyArystan eyes further growth
Air Astana’s LCC FlyArystan carried more than 455,000 passengers during its first six months of commercial operations and is setting its sights on continued growth.
Since its May 1 launch, the airline has made more than 2,500 flights, of which 93% were completed on time, the carrier said, with a load factor of 94%.
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Garuda Indonesia returns to profit on hedging, cost reductions
Garuda Indonesia returned to profit for the first nine-months of 2019 with a $122.8 million net profit, reversing the $110.2 million loss over the same period last year.
The Indonesian flag carrier earned $3.5 billion in operating income, boosted by a $51.7 million earning on hedge transactions.
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United Airlines, Uplift offer fly now, pay later option
United Airlines customers now have the option to pay over time for flights through the carrier’s partnership with point-of-sale financing company Uplift.
Travelers can use Uplift Pay Monthly to pay over 11 months when booking flights from the US to any United destination.
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American and Qantas implement joint venture
American Airlines and Qantas have implemented their joint venture, designed to streamline transpacific travel and open the opportunity for new routes between North America and Oceania.
The airlines announced the joint venture’s launch, which was approved and given antitrust protection by the US Department of Transportation in July, in a document submitted to the DOT on 1 November.
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Icelandic start-up budget carrier Play plans A321 fleet
Icelandic investors have unveiled a new low-cost airline, branded Play, which intends to use a fleet of Airbus A321s.
Play is aiming to operate services initially to Europe, it says.
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Tarom seeks US service renewal but no sign of own flights
Romanian flag carrier Tarom has sought an extension to transatlantic operation authorisation, although it has not indicated plans to operate its own aircraft on North American routes.
Tarom says it originally obtained this authorisation in preparation for codeshare services with SkyTeam partners Air France and Air Europa.
LinkAirports
KAC to construct new Chinchero-Cuso international airport
Korea Airports Corporation (KAC) will undertake construction of a new international airport Chincero, Peru, in a government-to-government deal valued at $500 million.
The project is expected to run from 2019 to 2024.
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New contract award for Hong Kong's 3Rs expansion project
Hong Kong International Airport has awarded one of the world's leading geo-data specialist companies a land site investigation contract as part of its $18 billion (HK$141.5bn) Three-Runway System (3RS) expansion project.
Fugro will perform geotechnical drilling and cone penetration tests on newly reclaimed land, and provide laboratory testing to acquire geotechnical data for the new passenger building and related infrastructure.
LinkMilitary
DARPA looking for anti-laser defences for US aircraft
Rapid improvements in high-energy laser weapons has the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) concerned that US aircraft could be targeted and attacked by adversaries in the future.
In response, the Pentagon’s leading weapons research and development arm is looking for high-energy laser counter measures, the agency posted online in an industry request for information on 18 October.
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PICTURES: Airbus reveals classified LOUT stealth testbed
Airbus Defence & Space has revealed a more than decade-long research and demonstration effort into very low observable (LO) technologies, conducted as a classified effort for the German defence ministry.
Showing its LO UAV testbed – or LOUT – platform at Manching on 4 November, Airbus future combat air system (FCAS) programme manager Mario Hertzog said the company began initial concept work in 2007.
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Aviation Quote
Often as a boy I had thought of the pleasure of being one's own master in one's own boat; but the reality far exceeded the imagination of it, and it was not a transient pleasure.
- John MacGregor, The Voyage Alone in the Yawl Rob Roy, 1867.
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Trivia
General Trivia
1. A pilot is number two for takeoff behind a McDonnell Douglas MD–80 and notices that the right elevator of the jetliner is up while the left elevator is down. To whom should he report this?
2. On June 1, 2009, an Air France Airbus A330-200 operating between Rio de Janeiro and Paris crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in the vicinity of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. What is the ITCZ and what causes it to develop?
3. What is the maximum amount of lift that the wings of a typical, 2,000-pound general aviation airplane are allowed to develop?
4. How many aircraft carriers did Germany have during World War II, and what were (was) their (its) name(s)?
5. What well-known aircraft accident was the impetus for establishing the Federal Aviation Agency (later named the Federal Aviation Administration) in 1958?
6. What is unique about the Boeing 737-700IGW?
