Brazil picks Dassault for big fighter jet order Brazil announced Tuesday it has chosen French plane maker Dassault Aviation to supply 36 new fighter jets, a deal touted by Brazil's president as the "consolidation of a strategic partnership" between the two countries. The deal was a first for the Dassault Rafale fighter, which has tried for years to attract foreign buyers, and is seen as a setback for both Boeing Co. and Saab, which were also competing for the contract. Link
MRJ final configuration shows roomier cabin; service entry pushed back Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. yesterday announced the final configuration of its MRJ, showing a taller cabin, increased overhead bin space and a wing box made of aluminum rather than composite materials. Link
Air Arabia to launch Egyptian LCC Air Arabia signed a joint venture agreement with Egyptian travel and hospitality conglomerate Travco Group to launch an Egypt-based low-cost carrier that will serve Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Link
Boeing bullish on Asia/Pacific Boeing is forecasting that the Asia/Pacific region will be the world's largest aviation market over the next 20 years, with a need for 8,960 aircraft seating more than 100 passengers worth $1.1 trillion. Link
UK climate change group sets ambitious emissions goals The UK government has to defend a cap on aviation emissions at "no higher, and possibly lower, than 2005 levels in the period to 2050" as part of a wider global agreement to tackle climate change at December's UN summit in Copenhagen, the UK's Committee on Climate Change argued in a letter to Secretary of State for Transport Andrew Adonis and Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Miliband. Link
F-35BTo Restart STOVL Tests Lockheed Martin has restarted the countdown to the first vertical landing by the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter, with aircraft BF-1 returning to flight on Sept. 4 with an hour-long test sortie. Link
Air France to place order for its future short-haul fleet Air France is pushing aircraft-makers to develop a successor to the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 and if the carrier's targets and requirements are met it plans to order around 150 aircraft. Link
MBDA revises Fire Shadow weapon design MBDA has dramatically altered the configuration of its Fire Shadow loitering munition, but plans to have an operationally capable weapon available for user trials from 2010. Link
JAL amends passenger and cargo services from October Japan Airlines (JAL) is cancelling three weekly freighter flights between Tokyo and London via Amsterdam from 25 October. Link
Other News
AeroMexico 737 hijacking ended without further incident yesterday afternoon in Mexico City after the suspect were taken into custody. The Bolivian suspect claimed he was carrying a bomb onboard the flight originating in Cancun and reportedly demanded to speak with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. The 104 passengers and seven crew were freed without injury. There were no explosives onboard and the suspect never entered the cockpit, according to reports.
Qantas is considering selling its 46.3% in Air Pacific, Fiji's national carrier, in order to compete with Virgin Group on routes to the tropical tourist destination. QF applied to Australia's International Air Services Commission, the route regulator, for capacity to Fiji on behalf of its Jetstar Airways subsidiary, but it would need to sell off its stake in Air Pacific. An airline spokesperson confirmed that the Air Pacific stake was under review and it is understood that the Fijian government is amenable to the sale. Qantas apparently has disappointed its partners by vetoing decisions that Fijians say would have helped the airline.
QF wants to launch Jetstar on the route next year, starting with Sydney-Fiji in April. Pacific Blue, Virgin's international arm in the region, started flying to Fiji from Brisbane in 2004 and since has started services from Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Virgin has applied for an additional 1,260 seats for those routes and hopes to introduce its V Australia 777-300ERs. Qantas has applied for 1,500 seats per week and IASC has asked both airlines to justify the extra capacity. QF plans to codeshare with both Jetstar and Air Pacific.
Jet Airways sought court relief yesterday from a continued sickout by nearly half its pilot workforce that has caused about half its flight schedule to be canceled since Monday night. Jet wants the National Aviators Guild, the union representing its 760 pilots, to be held in contempt of court for engaging in what it deems an "illegal action." The union has demanded that two recently fired pilots be reinstated and said it will continue the unofficial work action until the airline agrees to bring the pilots back. According to the Hindustan Times, Jet Chairman Naresh Goyal said the pilots are "behaving like terrorists." He said harsh action against the workers may be necessary, including a possible mass firing. "They cannot hold the country, passengers and airline hostage," he said. Indian Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel reportedly has denied Goyal's plea for government intervention.
Airbus executives remain adamant that reported findings by the World Trade Organization challenging the legality of government loans and launch aid for the A380 program will not affect plans for the A350. Executive VP-Europe and Asia Pacific Christopher Buckley said yesterday at Asian Aerospace in Hong Kong that there are "absolutely no plans to change the funding for the A350 at the moment" and that the company "strongly believe[s], as we've always done, that reimbursable launch aid is a very good way of launching aircraft programs," Reuters reported. Louis Gallois, CEO of Airbus parent EADS, told La Tribune, "Airbus does not plead guilty and will produce arguments in its defense," the Associated Press reported. Boeing VP-China, East and Southeast Asia Rob Laird said, "I think the result of the trade case would determine whether or not that direct subsidies are allowed. I assume it will have implications on any new program that is not yet funded."
Airbus delivered 32 aircraft in August and received orders for seven A330-300s from Turkish Airlines. Deliveries comprised 27 A320 family aircraft, two A330-200s, one A340-600 and one A380 (to Qantas).
Bmibaby yesterday announced a "massive" expansion at Nottingham East Midlands next year in the wake of easyJet's decision to withdraw from the airport. Bmi's LCC subsidiary will base three additional aircraft at EMA and launch new service to Alghero (weekly May 29-Sept. 25, 2010), Barcelona (four-times-weekly March 28-Oct. 30, 2010), Bastia (weekly May 30-Sept. 26, 2010), Cork (four-times-weekly Dec. 18-Oct. 30, 2010), Dubrovnik (twice-weekly May 30-Sept. 26, 2010), Malta (twice-weekly May 29-Oct. 30, 2010), Newquay (thrice-weekly May 28-Sept. 12, 2010) and Venice (four-times-weekly Feb. 12-Oct. 30, 2010), as well as boosting frequencies on other routes. Palma will be added to its winter schedule and flights to Geneva and Prague will become year round. It will operate to 24 destinations from EMA and increase its capacity there by 40% next year.
Wizz Air will increase capacity at Prague by 50% next spring with new frequencies on 13 routes, enabled by a third A320 it will add to the base on March 27.
Kingfisher Airlines will launch daily flights from Mumbai to Hong Kong (Sept. 16) and Singapore (Sept. 17) aboard A330-200s. It will cease its daily service from Bangalore to London Heathrow and Colombo on Sept. 15.
Malaysia Airlines will add a sixth weekly Kuala Lumpur-Incheon frequency and a 13th weekly KUL-Taipei flight on Sept. 17. Senior GM-Network & Revenue Management Amin Khan said, "We believe that this is the beginning of air travel recovery and we are starting to see more leisure travel and we expect business travel to pick up as well." Its cargo subsidiary, MASkargo, launched a weekly Kuala Lumpur-Senai-Tokyo Narita flight aboard a 747-400F.
AirTran Airways will launch four-times-weekly Orlando International-Key West service on Dec. 17 aboard a 737-700.
SriLankan Airlines will launch weekly Colombo-Paris Charles de Gaulle-Milan Malpensa-CMB and weekly CMB-Frankfurt-MXP-CMB service on Dec. 16 aboard A330s and A340s.
Lufthansa Group airlines flew 15.42 billion RPKs in August, up 9% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 7.2% to 18.48 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 1.4 points to 83.5%.
ICAO and IATA will develop two online services that they said will improve and streamline tracking of dangerous goods shipped by air. A website called iShip will be "targeted especially at the shipping community" and aims to integrate information on "dangerous goods shipping tools" with IATA's dangerous goods regulations content. It will be available in the first half of next year. Another website, DGOnline, is targeted at airlines and will display "the latest information from leading dangerous goods regulatory and industry publications, including state and operator variations and updates, in multiple languages." It will be available later this year.
Delta TechOps signed a three-year contract with EVA Air and its UNI Air subsidiary under which it will provide component services for EVA's 747s and UNI's MD-90s in partnership with Evergreen Aviation Technologies.
ARINC was selected by Japan's Tokyo International Air Terminal to deploy more than 200 check-in and departure workstations equipped with its vMUSE common-use technology at Haneda's new international terminal. ARINC also will provide 20 SelfServ common-use self service kiosks. New terminal is scheduled for completion in July 2010, the same year in which HND's fourth runway is expected to become operational.
Naverus said that Air China, with support from CAAC, successfully completed an RNP validation flight to Tibet's Linzhi Airport on Sept. 2 using an A319. Naverus called the 95-mi. RNP approach into the Himalayan airport at 9,760 ft. elevation "one of the longest and most challenging commercial jetliner landing paths." Without RNP, the airport "is accessible by air only 100 days a year, in daylight only, due to weather and terrain challenges."
Aer Lingus named former Bank of Ireland executive Michael Grealy as director-human resources and organizational change, effective Sept. 28.
AVIATION QUOTE
My background is in physics, so I was the mission specialist, who is sort of like the flight engineer on an airplane.
Sally Ride
AEROSPACE TERM
Global Oscillations at Low Frequencies
Helioseismology instrument aboard SOHO which analyzes the vibrational modes of the Sun.
DAILY VIDEO
HUMOR
If Airlines Sold Paint
If you are wondering how our airlines can go bankrupt read this:
Customer: Hi. How much is your paint?
Clerk: Well, sir, that all depends on quite a lot of things.
Customer: Can you give me a guess? Is there an average price?
Clerk: Our lowest price is $12 a gallon, and we have 60 different prices up to $200 a gallon.
Customer: What's the difference in the paint?
Clerk: Oh, there isn't any difference; it's all the same paint.
Customer: Well, then I'd like some of that $12 paint.
Clerk: When do you intend to use the paint?
Customer: I want to paint tomorrow. It's my day off.
Clerk: Sir, the paint for tomorrow is the $200 paint.
Customer: When would I have to paint to get the $12 paint?
Clerk: You would have to start very late at night in about 3 weeks. But you will have to agree to start painting before Friday of that week and continue painting until at least Sunday.
Customer: You've got to be *&%^#@* kidding!
Clerk: I'll check and see if we have any paint available.
Customer: You have shelves FULL of paint! I can see it!
Clerk: But it doesn't mean that we have paint available. We sell only a certain number of gallons on any given weekend. Oh, and by the way, the price per gallon just went to $16. We don't have any more $12 paint.
Customer: The price went up as we were talking?
Clerk: Yes, sir. We change the prices and rules hundreds of times a day, and since you haven't actually walked out of the store with your paint yet, we just decided to change. I suggest you purchase your paint as soon as possible. How many gallons do you want?
Customer: Well, maybe five gallons. Make that six, so I'll have enough.
Clerk: Oh no, sir, you can't do that. If you buy paint and don't use it, there are penalties and possible confiscation of the paint you already have.
Customer: WHAT?
Clerk: We can sell enough paint to do your kitchen, bathroom, hall and > north bedroom, but if you stop painting before you do the bedroom, you will lose your remaining gallons of paint.
Customer: What does it matter whether I use all the paint? I already paid you for it!
Clerk: We make plans based upon the idea that all our paint is used, every drop. If you don't, it causes us all sorts of problems.
Customer: This is crazy!! I suppose something terrible happens if I don't keep painting until after Saturday night!
Clerk: Oh yes! Every gallon you bought automatically becomes the $200 paint.
Customer: But what are all these, "Paint on sale from $10 a liter" signs?
Clerk: Well that's for our budget paint. It only comes in half-gallons. One $5 half-gallon will do half a room. The second half-gallon to complete the room is $20. None of the cans have labels, some are empty and there are no refunds, even on the empty cans.
Customer: To hell with this! I'll buy what I need somewhere else!
Clerk: I don't think so, sir. You may be able to buy paint for your bathroom and bedrooms, and your kitchen and dining room from someone else, but you won't be able to paint your connecting hall and stairway from anyone but us. And I should point out, sir, that if you paint in only one direction, it will be $300 a gallon.
Customer: I thought your most expensive paint was $200!
Clerk: That's if you paint around the room to the point at which you started. A hallway is different.
Customer: And if I buy $200 paint for the hall, but only paint in one direction, you'll confiscate the remaining paint.
Clerk: No, we'll charge you an extra use fee plus the difference on our next gallon of paint. But I believe you're getting it now, sir.
Customer: You're insane!
Clerk: Thanks for painting with United.
TRIVIA
Aircraft Designation and Name
Based on the clue, provide the designation and name if applicable.
1. A porno magazine published by a man in a wheelchair.
2. The capital of a sole country continent.
3. A Colt six-shooter.
4. Portuguese wine in a clay bottle.
5. As Elmer Fudd would say: “Kill the wabbitt, kill the wabbitt…” or the song that was playing when Robert Duvall wanted to surf, Martin Sheen thought he was nuts.
6. If you eat railroad spikes and spit out tacks, then if you eat Habaneros you will spit _____?
7. Rock you like a hurricane.
8. Carolina’s play on turf; Florida’s play on ice.
9. A Reservation system used by AA.
10. A teacher of a sort.
And let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist in love with flight. — E. B. Jeppesen
1. Convair B-58 Hustler 2. Martin B-57 Canberra 3. Consolidated B-36 Peacemaker 4. Rockwell B-1B Lancer 5. North American XB-70 Valkyrie 6. Supermarine Spitfire 7. Northrop F-89 Scorpion 8. Grumman F-9F Panther 9. North American F-86 Saber 10. Beechcraft T-34 Mentor or Canadair Tutor
And let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist in love with flight. — E. B. Jeppesen
