NEWS
Iberia Express takes to the skies
Iberia Express (I2), Iberia's (IB) new subsidiary for short and medium-haul flights, started scheduled flights Sunday with four A320s operating from Madrid (MAD) to four destinations in Spain, despite opposition from IB mainline pilots and unions representing cabin crew. IB pilots so far have staged 12 days of strikes since December protesting the new carrier. They announced a further 24 days of industrial action between March 16 and May 28, but this was called off after they agreed to new talks led by a government-appointed mediator.
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IAG awaiting EU approval of bmi buy
International Airlines Group (IAG) CEO Willie Walsh, speaking to ATW on the sidelines of Air Berlin's oneworld joining ceremony last week, said he is awaiting word from European Union regulators on the status of IAG's acquisition of British Midland International (bmi).
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EU Climate Chief In US To Defend ETS
The European Union climate chief heads to the United States next week to defend the bloc's carbon charge on flights to the EU, while governments, airlines and plane makers warn it could lead to chaos in the skies and a trade war.
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US State views ETS as challenge to ICAO process
Applying the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) carbon tax to the world's airlines is an important challenge to the long-standing process of agreeing aviation rules and regulations through ICAO, the US State Department's transportation chief said Thursday.
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Finnair mulls options for short-haul flights
Finnair (AY) is considering new options for operating its short-haul flights, including creating a joint venture carrier or outsourcing the services. The airline continues its cost-savings initiatives. President and CEO Mika Vehviläinen told ATW on the sidelines of Air Berlin’s oneworld joining event in Berlin last week that AY will “evaluate operating a separate company, a joint venture, for all short-haul flights … Either we [will] have our own fleet or the partner will bring in the fleet … We hope to have something in place by summer.”
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Qantas, China Eastern To Launch HK Budget Airline
Australian carrier Qantas has moved to expand its Asian business and cut costs by entering into an equal joint venture with China Eastern Airlines to set up a Hong Kong-based low-cost carrier.
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Strike To Hit Spanish Air Traffic On Thursday
Train, bus and air traffic will be severely limited in Spain on Thursday during a general strike called by unions to protest at high unemployment and changes to laws that will make it cheaper for companies to lay off employees.
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Lufthansa Weighing Job Cuts In Switzerland
Lufthansa is looking at job cuts in Switzerland as part of group-wide cost-saving measures, its chief executive was quoted as saying in a Swiss newspaper on Sunday.
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EasyJet To Outpace European Market - Report
British low-cost airline easyJet expects to grow faster than a sluggish European market, its chief executive told a German paper.
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FAA shelves icing overhaul
n effort to update commonly used definitions of icing accumulation used by pilots and controllers since 1968 is temporarily on ice after what federal officials are calling a flawed rollout of the new terms in February. The changes had been made partially in response to US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommendations from the icing-related 1994 crash of an ATR 72 near Roselawn, Indiana. The recommendations called on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to make its definition of severe icing compatible with the "published definition" of the term, and working groups later developed quantitative rather than qualitative definitions to be used.
[url=http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/faa-shelves-icing-overhaul-369893/
Qantas finds 'type two' cracks on two A380s
Qantas Airways has discovered "type two" cracks on two of its Airbus A380 aircraft and is now in talks with the airframer the cost implications of repairs. The carrier found "fewer than 10" cracks on the wing-rib feet on the affected aircraft, a spokesman said. The cracks were discovered on aircraft VH-OQA and VH-OQB, in February and March, respectively, after the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) ordered checks on the worldwide fleet of A380s. VH-OQB has since been returned to service while VH-OQA, the same aircraft that suffered an uncontained engine failure near Singapore in November 2010, is still undergoing tests.
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Lufthansa pegs 23 April for 747-8 delivery
Lufthansa plans to take delivery of its first Boeing 747-8 on 23 April, ahead of entering revenue service with the German airline in May. The German carrier has ordered 20 passenger-variant 747-8s to replace its 747-400s, of which the first was delivered in May 1989.
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Design flaw at core of PW4000 turbine directive
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on 23 March proposed that operators of 954 Pratt & Whitney PW4000-series turbofan engines on US-registered widebody aircraft retire the engines' first stage high pressure turbine (HPT) hubs prematurely, costing an estimated $23 million in "lost life value" for the fleet.
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USAF fields first upgraded F-22 Raptors
The US Air Force has begun to deploy Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptors upgraded with enhanced air-to-ground strike capabilities to the operational fleet, starting with the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.
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Other News
Aveos Fleet Performance Inc., the Montreal-based MRO provider, last week ceased operations, terminating the employment of approximately 1,300 workers. “The company had no viable option but to cease operations,” Aveos chairman Eugene Davis said. “We deeply regret the job losses and the impact this decision has on our employees in Canada.” The company said it has been met with “uncertain work volume across its business lines” from principal customer Air Canada (AC) as it “reduced, deferred and cancelled maintenance work,” resulting in approximately $16 million in lost revenue in less than two months. Aveos provided AC with airframe, engine and component work.
KLM and Ukraine International Airlines are increasing capacity between Amsterdam and Kiev and expanding their codeshare agreement, partly in response to an anticipated rise in demand owing to the upcoming 2012 UEFA European Football Championship in Ukraine.
US carriers’ on-time arrival performance in January improved 7.4% over the year-ago period.
US Dept. of Transportation’s (DOT) Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), the 16 carriers reporting on-time performance data posted an overall on-time arrival rate of 83.7% in January, up from 76.3% in January 2011, but down slightly from December’s 84.4%.
EVA Airways (BR) will begin serving two more gateways with its Hello Kitty jets May 23. The airline will use two of its new cartoon character-themed Airbus 330-300s on its Taipei Songshan-Tokyo Haneda (HND) and Songshan-Shanghai Hongqiao routes. The flights (BR192/BR191 and BR 190/191) will be 2X daily.
Aegean Airlines launched 4X-weekly Athens-Budapest Airbus A320 service March 9.
Allegiant Air will launch 2X-weekly Hagerstown, Md.-Orlando Sanford service May 25.
Starflyer will launch 2X-daily Kitakyushsu-Busan A320 service July 12.
Kenya Airways will launch 4X-weekly Nairobi-New Delhi 767-300 service May 15.
Silver Airways will launch 10X-weekly Billings-Helena service May 1.
Etihad Airways signed an MOU with China Eastern Airlines to develop a codeshare agreement.
Boeing Business Jets (BBJ) unveiled the latest BBJ to enter service at the Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition (ABACE) in Shanghai. The airplane, a 737-700 with -800 wings and other modifications for longer range, was delivered earlier this month to a private businessman in the United States. It is the second BBJ for this customer.
US Airways began new service to 11 communities today and improved service to three from Washington, D.C's Reagan National Airport. The airline launched nonstop flights to Birmingham, Ala.; Fayetteville, N.C.; Islip, N.Y.; Little Rock, Ark.; Jacksonville, N.C.; Pensacola, Fla.; Tallahassee, Fla. and Ft. Walton Beach, Fla. US Airways will be the sole carrier to provide service to customers in these communities to Washington's downtown airport.
AVIATION QUOTE
I think there is something exhilarating in flying amongst clouds, and always get a feeling of wanting to pit my aeroplane against them, charge at them, climb over them to show them you have them beat, circle round them, and generally play with them; but clouds can on occasion hold their own against the aviator, and many a pilot has found himself emerging from a cloud not on a level keel.
Cloud-flying requires practice, even if you have every modern instrument, and unless you keep calm and collected you will get into trouble after you have been inside a really thick one for a few minutes. In the very early days of aviation, 1912 to be correct, I emerged from a cloud upside down, much to my discomfort, as I didn't know how to get right way up again. I found out somehow, or I wouldn't be writing this.
— Charles Rumney Samson, ‘A Flight from Cairo to Cape Town and Back,’ 1931.
ON THIS DATE
---In 1859…1st sighting of Vulcan, a planet thought to orbit inside Mercury.
---In 1922... One of the first small commercial transport aircraft built upon experience from passenger flying and the requirements of airline operators, makes its first flight from Edgware, near London. The 10-seat passenger D. H. 34, with a top speed of 128 mph and a cruising speed of 105 mph has a range of 365 miles.
---In 1931…Swissair is formed after a merger between Balair and Ad Astra Aero, and would last for just over 73 years.
---In 1934... Piloted by John Lankester Parker and with three passengers on board, the first landplane derivative of the Short Kent flying boat takes off to the air for the first time. Named Scylla (G-ACJJ), the big biplane is followed by Scyrinx (G-ACJK) for the busy Imperial Airways routes into continental Europe.
---In 1936… 200" telescope lens shipped, Corning Glass Works, New York-Cal Tech.
---In 1938... Arthur Clouston and Victor Ricketts land their D. H. 88 Comet Australian Anniversary at Gravesend in Kent, England to complete a 26,500-mile flight from England to New Zealand and back in a record 10 days 21 hours.
---In 1950…A North American B-25 Mitchell that was converted to an executive transport configuration and being flown around the country to promote possible sales, breaks-up in midair, presumably due to severe weather conditions. All 6 people on the aircraft perish.
---In 1950…First flight of the Douglas XA2D Skyshark.
---In 1955…Pan am Flight 845/26 ditches into Pacific Ocean off of the Oregon coast after its #3 engine failed. The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser (N1032V) experiences the difficulty after departing Portland International, and floats in the water for two hours, until the USS Bayfield arrives for rescue. Of the 19 on-board, 4 die.
---In 1958…The United States launches its third satellite, Explorer III.
---In 1969… Soviet weather satellite Meteor 1 launched.
---In 1971…A JamAir Douglas DC-3 (VT-ATT) collides with terrain after failing to follow the prescribed flight plan, killing all 15 occupants. The crash site is located after 6 days.
---In 1971…First flight of the CASA C.212 Aviocar.
---In 1979…An Interflug Ilyushin IL-18 (DM-STL) overruns the runway in Luanda, Angola, killing all 10 occupants after slamming into the ILS localizer antenna.
---In 1987… NASA launches Fltsatcom-6, it failed to reach orbit.
---In 1989…Binter Canarias commences operations.
---In 1989…Austrian Airlines begins international flights for the first time in almost two decades on a flight from Vienna to New York’s JFK on an Airbus A310 (OE-LAA), aptly named “New York”.
---In 1991…Singapore Airlines Flight 1117, an Airbus A310 (9V-STP), is hijacked by four male passengers, who demand the release of Asif Ali Zardari, who today is the Pakistani President. After 8 hours and saying they are five minutes away from killing a hostage every ten minutes, commandos storm the aircraft and kill all four hijackers with no other fatalities.
---In 1992…First flight of the Saab 2000.
---In 1996…Pace Airlines is founded after approval from the FAA and the US Dept. of Transportation. Their operation would last until they suspend operations on September 11, 2009.
---In 2001…A Merpati Nusantara Airlines Fokker F-27 (PK-MFL) crashes on landing during a training flight after completing 8 touch-and-go’s throughout the day. The aircraft mysteriously banks to the right and struck the ground moments from touching down.
---In 2005…West Caribbean Airways Flight 9955, crashes a few hundred feet from the end of the runway after departure from Providencia-El Embrujo Airport in Colombia, killing 9 of the 14 aboard. The Let 410 Turbolet’s #1 engine failed near V1 speed, and the aircraft impacts the ground at a 40-degree inverted angle after failing to climb.
---In 2006…In Hooters Air (operated by Pace Airlines) ends service to both Orlando and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
---In 2009…An Arrow Air McDonnell Douglas DC-10 loses engine parts while flying over Manaus, Colombia. Twelve houses are damaged and the aircraft safely lands at El Dorado International Airport. No fatalities or injuries are reported.
DAILY VIDEO
EDITOR’S CHOICE
HUMOR
The Vasectomy Procedure
After having one too many children, a SuperCub pilot and his child bride decided that was enough, as they could not afford a Sherpa and besides that were tired of waiting for it anyway, but 11 kids was all that he could fit into his SuperCub without things starting to get tight when they went to town. So the husband went to his doctor and told him that he and his cousin didn't want to have any more children.
The doctor told him that there was a procedure called a vasectomy that could fix the problem but that it was expensive. A less costly alternative, said the doctor, was to go home, get a cherry bomb, light it, put it in a beer can, then hold the can up to his ear and count to 10.
The SuperCub pilot said to the doctor, "I may not be the smartest man in the world, but I don't see how putting a cherry bomb in a beer can next to my ear is going to help me."
"Trust me," said the doctor.
So the man went home, lit a cherry bomb and put it in a beer can. He held the can up to his ear and began to count:"1, 2, 3, 4, 5..."
At which point he paused, placed the beer can between his legs, and resumed counting on his other hand.
TRIVIA
MANUFACTURER SCRAMBLE
1. INAAJMAK
2. IIIBTMSHUS
3. HESETSIRSTMMC
4. UABSRI
5. UERBTEG
6. NNSDATIUH
7. HLDOKECE
8. FTHEERCCBA
9. TODNAISCLDOE
10. TRSIBLO.
