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Commercial

Azul acquires A350s and A330s for international flights
Brazilian low-cost carrier Azul will acquire 11 Airbus widebodies and plans to launch its first international flights to the USA by early 2015. The airline will lease five Airbus A350-900s and six Airbus A330-200s from ILFC. Deliveries of the A350s will begin in early 2017, while the A330s will be used to launch the international service in early 2015, says Azul. Azul's A330s will be powered by the Rolls-Royce Trent 700, while the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB is the sole engine choice for the A350-900.
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Australia Says Beach Debris Not From MH370
Debris picked up on a beach in Western Australia this week is unlikely to have come from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Australian authorities said on Thursday. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has assessed the material that washed up on the coast 10 km (six miles) east of the town of Augusta, near the south-western tip of Australia, the bureau's spokesman said. "It's considered highly unlikely to be from MH370," spokesman Tony Simes said. ATSB commissioner Martin Dolan earlier told ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) radio that the bureau had examined detailed photographs of the debris and was satisfied it was not a lead in the hunt for the plane. "We're not seeing anything in this that would lead us to believe that it is from a Boeing aircraft," he told ABC Radio.
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Rising Production, Cash Take Boosts Boeing
Rising aircraft production helped Boeing generate substantial cash in the latest quarter, with the rewards used to buy back shares and pay dividends. The unexpectedly strong cash flow soothed fears that production snags could hamper the outlook for buy-backs and dividends, and suggested instead that there is scope for those rewards to rise. Boeing's report "gives much more confidence about the ability to return cash," said Ken Herbert, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity. Boeing spent nearly USD$3 billion in the first quarter to buy back some 19 million shares and pay dividends, most of the expected amount for the year, according to analysts. And yet the company sees scope for more this year, chief financial officer Greg Smith suggested in a conference call. The company has allocated USD$8.3 billion to return over the next two or three years and has flexibility on the timing.
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Union Offers To Enter Etihad-Alitalia Talks
An Italian union is willing to enter negotiations to help to meet conditions set by Etihad Airways for investing in Alitalia after talks between the airlines stalled over debt and job cuts. Loss-making Alitalia was kept afloat by a government-engineered EUR€500 million (USD$691 million) rescue package last year but needs to find a cash-rich partner quickly to revamp its flight network or risk having to ground its planes. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad has been looking at Alitalia's books for a possible investment since early this year, but the prospect of heavy job cuts at Alitalia and its debt of at least EUR€800 million have been major hurdles in the talks and Etihad's stance appears to have hardened in recent weeks. "At the moment, there is a bit of a stalemate," a source close to the matter said on Wednesday. "Beyond debt, there are issues around job cuts, legal aspects and problems related to infrastructure, and Etihad wants all points resolved. They want to invest in an Alitalia that carries no dead weight."
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Delta Air Lines Q1 results beat Wall Street expectations
Delta Air Lines this week reported strong first quarter earnings despite severe winter weather events in January and February. The carrier reported earnings per share of $0.33 for the first quarter, exceeding analyst estimates of $0.29 per share. The carrier also reported quarterly revenue of $8.92 billion.
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Hawaiian Airlines reports Q1 results
Hawaiian Holdings, the parent company of Hawaiian Airlines, has reported first quarter financial results, showing significant improvement year-over-year. "Our first-quarter results were markedly improved in this seasonally weak period," said Mark Dunkerley, the carrier's president and CEO.
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Delta installs flat-bed seats for all overseas flights
Delta Air Lines has finished installing flat-bed seats for its BusinessElite cabin on international flights. Delta installed the seats on both Airbus and Boeing aircraft. According to Delta, it is the only carrier to offer flat-bed seats on all overseas flights.
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Analysis: Southwest targets business flyers
Southwest Airlines is attracting more business travelers thanks to programs such as Business Select and EarlyBird. "Our corporate business is growing faster than our base business," said Robert Jordan, the carrier's chief operating officer. CEO Gary Kelly said that the carrier does "6% or 7% of [its] boardings by Business Select, [and] probably more than double that by EarlyBird."
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Boeing reports Q1 profit of $965 million
Boeing has reported a profit of $965 million for the first quarter, a 12.7% drop from the same quarter last year. The aircraft manufacturer also reported revenue of $20.5 billion for the quarter, a 8.3% increase from the same quarter last year. "Disciplined execution across our production and development programs produced strong first quarter results," said Jim McNerney, chairman and CEO, in a statement.
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Atlanta airport waives landing fees to carriers offering new international routes
Starting this summer, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia will waive landing fees for a year for airlines providing service to international destinations currently unavailable at the airport. Airport officials are offering two-year waivers to carriers starting service in Brazil, China, India, Russia or South Africa.
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Airlines race to upgrade inflight Wi-Fi
Travelers are paying attention to which commercial flights feature in-flight Wi-Fi, and airlines are racing to supply the much-sought-after perk on their planes.
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Detroit airport opens restroom for dogs
Service dogs at Detroit Metro Airport have a place now to do their business with the opening of the Service Animal Relief Area -- nicknamed "Central Bark" -- near gate A-34. The area is decorated with real and artificial grass and a nonworking fire hydrant.
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Military

Grounding A-10s will save $4.2 billion, decision ‘clear’: USAF general
For months, US Air Force officials have used the adjective “hard” to describe their decision to ground entire fleets of aircraft in response to budget cuts. But on 23 April, USAF chief of staff Gen Mark Welsh says a review of the service’s options showed “very clearly” that grounding its Fairchild Republic A-10s is the right choice. Speaking at a National Press Club event in Washington, DC, Welsh says the service evaluated a number of cost-cutting options against a “very detailed operational analyses” before making decisions.
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Dutch air force scraps DC-10 transport
A Royal Netherlands Air Force-owned McDonnell Douglas DC-10 transport/freighter has been flown to the UK for scrapping, less than three years after entering use with the service. Aircraft T-255 departed Eindhoven air base for the last time on 11 April, and was flown to Newquay airport in the UK for dismantling.
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Aviation Quote

The Air Force comes in every morning and says, "Bomb, bomb, bomb." And then the State Department comes in and says, "Not now, or not there, or too much, or not at all."

— President Lyndon B. Johnson

On This Date

---In 1909... Wilbur Wright makes five flights in Centocelle, Italy with King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy present. During one flight, a Universal News Agency cameraman accompanies him and takes the first motion pictures from an airplane in flight.

---In 1911... Lts. M. Longmore and C. R. Samson are the first British Royal Navy officers to qualify as pilots, after just two month’s training.

---In 1913…O. Gilbert flies a TK 825 km from Villacoublay, France to Vitoria, Spain in 8 hours and 23 minutes.

---In 1917... Lt. Col. William “Billy” Mitchell becomes the first U.S. Army officer to fly over German lines.

---In 1929…Royal Air Force Squadron Leader A G Jones-Williams and Flight Lieutenant N H Jenkins take off in a Fairey Long-range Monoplane from RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire, England on the first nonstop flight between Britain and India. Strong headwinds impede forward progress and the crew decide to land in Karachi, Pakistan 50 hours later.

---In 1944…The first B-29 Superfortress arrives in China, beginning the build-up by the United States Army Air Forces' 20th Air Force for a strategic bombing offensive against Japan.

---In 1946... First flights of the first Soviet designed and built jet aircrafts, MiG-9 and Yak-15, are made. A member of the company test team for the Yak-15, Olga Yamschikova, is probably the first woman to fly a turbojet-powered aircraft when she flies in 1947.

---In 1946... Winged Cargo Inc. opens an unusual freight service in which goods are carried in a Waco CG-4A glider towed by a DC-3.
---In 1957…Heli-logging pioneer Columbia Helicopters is founded in Portland, Oregon.
---In 1962…1962/April/24 - First A-12 (924) engine test runs completed, high speed taxi tests. Pilot Lou Schalk. Accidental lifts off for a few seconds (first actual flight but not considered official). (Q)

---In 1967…Cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov suffers history’s first in-flight spaceflight fatality as the parachutes on the Soyuz 1 spacecraft fail during its return to earth. The crash was the culmination of many technical failures that forced the flight control director to abort the mission after 18 orbits.

In 1970…China launches its first space satellite, Dong Fang Hong I using a Long March I rocket. The satellite’s weight exceeds that of the first four satellites launched by Russia, the United States, France and Japan combined

---In 1971…Soyuz 10 spacecraft docks with the world’s first space station, Salyut 1. The cosmonauts on board are forced to return to earth without entering the station, however, due to a faulty hatch.

---In 1980…Operation Eagle Claw, an attempt by the U.S. Navy to rescue the 52 hostages being held in the U.S. Embassy in Teheran, fails miserably. Eight servicemen are killed as one of the eight Sikorsky RH-53Ds used in the operation crashes in a sand cloud, while another crashes into a C-130 Hercules on the ground in Iran.

---In 1984…First flight of the Dornier SeaStar D-ICDS.

---In 1990…Space Shuttle Discovery launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida on mission STS-31 carrying the Hubble Space Telescope.

---In 1992…A US Air Force C-130 Hercules transport aircraft on an anti-narcotics mission over Peru is attacked by Peruvian Air Force Sukhoi Su-22s.

---In 2001…A Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV takes off from Edwards Air Force Base for a nonstop flight to Australia in 23 hours, the longest ever flight by an unmanned aircraft and the first UAV to cross the Pacific.

Daily Video

Editor’s Choice

Humor

Which Service Has The Dumbest Officers

1. Well, in the Coast Guard the officers stay nice and dry on land, while the enlisted people head out to sea in all sorts of weather.

2. In the Army, the officers stand behind the troops and shout, "Attack!"

3. In the Navy, the officers stand on the bridge and steer the ship into action.

4. In the Marine Corps, the officers stand in front of the troops and shout, "Attack!"

5. And in the Air Force? Well, the officers go off to battle in their pretty flight suits, flying their expensive toys, while the enlisted people head for the club for a long one.

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