NewsCommercial
Demand holds steady for 737 Max
Demand remains "very strong" for the fuel-efficient 737 Max, despite a recent drop in fuel prices, said John Wojick, senior vice president for global sales and marketing at Boeing. He also said that a drop in fuel will give customers more spending money to book flights.
Link
Pilot Strike Hits Air Traffic In Brazil
Pilots and flight crews in Brazil stopped airline operations for an hour on Thursday morning to demand higher wages, triggering flight delays and cancellations while underscoring tensions in a stagnant economy. State airport operator Infraero said 19 percent of domestic flights had been delayed and 8 percent had been cancelled by 9 am local time. Its report did not include the two biggest airports in the state of Sao Paulo, which are run under private concessions.
Link
Mitsubishi releases pictures of MRJ flight test fleet
Mitsubishi Aircraft has released pictures of its flight test fleet in various stages of final assembly, as its MRJ regional jet programme draws near to its scheduled first flight in 2Q 2015. The pictures show a fully painted second flight test jet (MSN10002), without the radome and engines. Mitsubishi says the aircraft has completed its wing to body join, and that the landing gear has also been attached.
LinkAirlines
Air France Reveals Job Cut Plans To Staff
Air France on Thursday met worker representatives to reveal a plan to cut about 800 jobs over three years, according to Reuters. Frederic Gagey, chief executive of Air France, also presented a "salary moderation" plan, the sources said. The job cuts will involve 500 ground staff and 300 air stewards and stewardesses, the sources said. Air France is set to present details of its cost-cutting measures to its unions at a special session of its works council on February 5. A report in Le Figaro newspaper earlier this month said the company planned about 5,000 job cuts.
Link
Alaska Air reports Q4 earnings, announces dividend
Alaska Air Group reported earnings of 94 cents per share for the fourth quarter, surpassing analyst estimates of 88 cents per share. Alaska also declared a quarterly dividend of 20 cents per share for shareholders.
Link
Ryanair Eyes Feeder Role For Long-Haul Airlines
Legacy airlines such as British Airways, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa could soon start using low-cost carriers like Ryanair and easyJet to feed people onto their long-haul routes, say Ryanair executives. Michael O'Leary, chief executive of Europe's biggest low-cost airline Ryanair, said that the days are numbered for how much longer national flag-carriers can operate intra-European flights because it was too expensive for them to compete on these point-to-point routes. "If you go forward in Europe in the next five or 10 years, I think the low-cost carriers, mostly ourselves and easyJet will do a lot more feeding of major airlines," O'Leary said at a news conference in London on Wednesday.
Link
Southwest Q4 earnings beat estimates
Southwest Airlines reported adjusted earnings per share of 59 cents for the fourth quarter, exceeding analyst estimates of 55 cents per share. The carrier also posted $4.63 billion in operating revenue for the quarter, compared to $4.43 billion in the same quarter of 2013.
Link
Southwest dispatches flights at largest NOC in U.S.
The Network Operations Center for Southwest Airlines dispatches all flights for the carrier. The 50,000-square-foot building is the largest airline operations center in the U.S. Southwest employs 450 people at the center, and plans to hire 20 more employees in 2015.
Link
United coy on potential 777-300ER order
United Airlines continues to hedge its bets regarding a potential conversion of some of its existing Boeing 787 orders to the Boeing 777-300ER. “That is an aircraft that interests us,” say executives responding to analyst questions on the possible order during an earnings call today. Though they only refer to the order as “rumoured”, they say that the Chicago-based carrier has the “ability to negotiate substitution rights” with its manufacturers. United is referring to Boeing, with whom it holds firm widebody orders for 24 787-9s and 27 787-10s, as well as options for another 10 787-8s and a letter of intent for 36 787s, the Ascend Fleets database shows.
Link
United Continental reports Q4 profit
United Continental posted a profit of $28 million, or 7 cents per share for the fourth quarter. The carrier reported a profit of $140 million for the same quarter in 2013. Meanwhile, the carrier predicted a rosy outlook for 2015. "We're starting 2015 as a better airline, and we expect to generate far better results," said Jeff Smisek, United CEO, in a statement.
Link
United expands food options for mid-haul flights
United Airlines has announced three-meal availability for flights up to 5 hours and 19 minutes and multi-course meals on transcontinental flights. This is the latest improvement to meal services for U.S. carriers, as both Delta and American have expanded in-flight menus.
Link
Airlines revise policies on employee flight perks
Delta Air Lines, United Continental Holdings and American Airlines Group have all tightened restrictions on popular programs that allow current and former employees, their families and friends to fly for free or at a very low cost. Many airline employees and retirees still value the arrangements.
Link
Industry expert expects more international airline mergers
Aviation industry veteran Bill Franke of Indigo Partners said that there is still room for consolidation among international airlines. "If you want to see how the international aviation landscape is going to evolve, just look to the United States, where consolidation has left just four major legacy carriers to compete with the low-cost airlines that serve the rest of the market," he said.
LinkAirports
Chicago O'Hare is world's busiest airport
Chicago O'Hare International Airport is now the world's busiest airport for passenger and cargo traffic. Since 2005, the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has held the top spot, but traffic dropped 4.7% in 2014 at the Atlanta airport. O'Hare handled 881,933 arrivals and departures in 2014.
LinkMilitary
Afghan air force to add armed MD 530F to helicopter fleet
The Afghan air force is to receive approximately 20 armed variants of the MD Helicopters MD530F utility helicopter, an official close to the force has confirmed. It was previously understood that the aircraft on order would be delivered for training, to operate alongside five training variants already in service. However, the aircraft yet to be delivered will now be weaponised for close air support, the official confirmed at the International Military Helicopter conference in London.
Link
Malaysia to upgrade and arm S-61 "Nuri" fleet
Malaysia is to boost its ability to combat future militant incursions by arming its AgustaWestland AW109s and transferring upgraded Sikorsky S-61 “Nuri” utility helicopters to army aviation control. Prompted by an incursion made by Sulu rebels in Sabah in 2013, Kuala Lumpur has already outfitted three of the Royal Malaysian Air Force’s S-61s with 12.7mm door guns, to provide armed support for ground troops.
Link
Aviation Quote
I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things.../i]
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
[i]On This Date
---In 1909... The first flight of the French Ble´riot XI, one of the most successful monoplanes designed and built before World War I, is made.
---In 1930…Clyde Tombaugh photographs Pluto.
---In 1941…Ground breaking for NACA (now NASA) Lewis Research Center.
---In 1982…World Airways Flight 30, a DC-10 (reg N113WA) flying from Newark, New Jersey (EWR) to Boston Logan (BOS), crashes on landing. The aircraft landed late on the runway, and due to “poor to nil” braking action, the pilots decided to steer the plane off the runway to avoid the approach lights. This sent the aircraft and its 212 souls into the harbor, where it broke apart. A row of seats separated from the plane and two of the passengers were never found and presumed dead.
---In 1927… John (Richard) Boyd born in Erie Pennsylvania.
---In 1949…First flight of the Dassault Ouragan.
---In 1961…Final test flight of USAF Atlas D traveled 5,000 miles to target down Atlantic Missile Range, representing 35 successes, 8 partials, and 6 failures in 49 test launchings for D model.
---In 1970…Australia's 1st amateur radio satellite (Oscar 5) launched (Calif).
---In 1970…U.S. launches 2nd generation weather satellite, ITOS 1.
---In 1982…World Airways Flight 30, landed long at Boston, Massachusetts, two missing presumed dead.
---In 1983…Russian radioactive satellite falls into Indian Ocean.
---In 1986…Columbia returns to Kennedy Space Center via Davis-Monthan AFB.
---In 2003…The final communication is made between Earth and Pioneer 10, a spacecraft intended to fly past Jupiter. It was launched in 1972, and its last trajectory would have the craft the first artificial object to leave the solar system.
Daily Video
Editor’s Choice
Trivia
Google Airports
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
