Current crisis 'worse than 9/11' as IATA boosts loss forecast to $11 billion Declaring that the situation facing the world's airlines "has never been more difficult," IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said yesterday in Washington that the airline industry now is expected to lose $11 billion this year, a deterioration from the association's forecast of a $9 billion loss issued at its AGM in early June. Link
Southwest targets Europe, South America with long-haul low-cost model Southwest Airlines plans to open international routes to Europe and South America, although so far there is "no timetable" for the move, Director-Network Strategic Planning Lee Lipton said at the World Route Development Forum in Beijing. Link
JAL to cut workforce by 14%, aims to choose investor in October Japan Airlines said it plans to cut 14% of its workforce, or nearly 7,000 jobs, over the next three years, part of an ongoing restructuring that it indicated will include a tie-up with a foreign investor it hopes to identify next month. Link
Ryanair to open two new Italian bases Ryanair will open bases at Bari and Brindisi early next year, its 35th and 36th, with a combined three aircraft and an investment of $210 million. Link
Pentagon IG Looking At CSAR-X Contracting The Pentagon Inspector General (IG) is still investigating whether contracting procedures were followed in the now-canceled $15 billion U.S. Air Force program to replace its combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) fleet. Link
BAe 146 overrun at City pinned on slack spoiler lever Investigators are recommending mandating modification of British Aerospace 146s to prevent accidental spoiler retraction, after a CityJet aircraft overran while landing at London City Airport. Link
Macquarie Airports sells Bristol airport, ups Copenhagen stake Macquarie Airports (MAp) has done a deal with the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan to sell its stake in Bristol Airport and buy an additional 3.9% stake in Copenhagen Airports. Link
Other News
Niki plans on ramping up its expansion plans following the bankruptcy of SkyEurope Airlines and Austrian Airlines' network reduction, with President Niki Lauda telling ATWOnline, "We will increase our fleet from the current 12 to 16 aircraft next year." The LCC will add a third daily Vienna-Frankfurt frequency in November and a third daily frequency to Paris Charles de Gaulle by summer 2010. New daily flights from VIE to Bucharest Otopeni, Sofia and Belgrade will start next February and capacity on existing routes will be increased by adding larger aircraft. Niki also is looking at expanding its leisure network, with destinations like Olbia, Jerez de la Frontera and Cagliari under consideration. It expects 60% growth in its charter business next year thanks to the reductions at Austrian.
Niki next year will add two E-190s and one new A320 and will lease two A320s from Air Berlin. One A320 will be returned to the German airline. "Also, in our Embraers we will increase seat capacity from 104 to 112 thanks to newly designed seats," Lauda said, adding that capacity expansion will be tied to cash flow. Niki now holds a 10% share of VIE traffic, increasing to 16% in partnership with AB. Its relationship with S7 Airlines has yet to bear fruit, however, as it has been unable to secure more traffic rights to Russia. It expects a 25% rise in passenger numbers this year to 2.6 million and revenue of €275 million ($400.6 million), Lauda said. In 2010 it will transport around 3.2 million passengers and realize €400 million in revenue.
Bombardier Aerospace yesterday broke ground on the first CSeries building at Mirabel, the Complete Integrated Aircraft Systems Test Area that will house a virtual test aircraft. The CIASTA will test systems for reliability and functionality one year before the prototype's first flight, the company said. The entire CSeries complex eventually will span 860,000 sq. ft.
BAE Systems has teamed up with Quest International UK to offer AirManager, "a radical new active air management system" for aircraft. BAE said it has engineered and certificated the installation of AirManager on its own BAe 146/Avro RJ and has designed and certificated an STC for installation on the 757, "with a trial unit being evaluated." Under the agreement with Quest, it will act as an authorized distributor for sales to airlines of the system for an initial five-year period.
BAE said the system uses "CCFT (Close Coupled Field Technology)--a contained and safe electrical field that eliminates smells and breaks down and destroys airborne pathogens, contaminants and toxins." It initially was developed to serve the health sector in the late 1990s. According to Quest International Director David Hallam, inventor of the technology, AirManager "achieves a single-pass kill rate of 99.999% of bio-hazards and removing particles down to below 0.1 micron. . .equivalent to a single particle of cigarette smoke."
AirAsia raised MYR505.4 million ($144 million) through the sale of 380 million new shares representing 16% of its existing share capital, Reuters reported.
American Airlines yesterday rolled out the US Transportation Security Administration's Secure Flight program, which requires passengers to provide their full legal name, birth date and gender when purchasing tickets. TSA said it "determined that mandating the provision of the additional data elements. . .would greatly reduce the number of passengers misidentified as a match to the watch list." Other airlines will be required to phase in the program over time.
Oman Air took delivery of the first of seven A330-200s ordered in 2007. Aircraft is powered by Trent 700s and is configured with 20 seats in business class and 196 in economy. It was acquired under a lease agreement with Dublin-based AWAS and will be deployed on long-haul routes from Muscat to London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt as well as destinations in Asia. Five of the seven aircraft were ordered directly from Airbus.
Amerijet International and pilots represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced a four-year contract yesterday, ending five years of negotiations and a strike that began Aug. 27. The union said "a revised sick-leave policy and the addition of onboard toilet facilities" were part of the deal, along with improved wages and benefits. Amerijet operates 727 and 767 freighters out of Miami.
Turkish Airlines will launch daily flights from Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen to Moscow Domodedovo, London Stansted, Amsterdam, Cologne, Stuttgart and Adana on Nov. 9. Four-times-weekly service to Berlin Schoenefeld and thrice-weekly flights to Hannover will start the same day, in addition to third daily flights to Ankara and Izmir and a second daily frequency to Antalya.
Aeroflot Airlines increased its twice-daily Moscow Sheremetyevo-Kaliningrad service to five-times-daily.
Separately, SU said it completed the IATA Safety Audit for Ground Operations, claiming it is the first Russian and third European carrier to do so.
Air Dolomiti will launch daily Perugia-Milan Malpensa service in November aboard an ATR 42-500.
Kenya Airways launched thrice-weekly Nairobi-Gaborone service.
American Airlines will extend its daily Boston-London Heathrow 767-300 service to Brussels beginning Nov. 19.
Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair flew 7.89 billion RPKs in August, a 1.9% rise from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 5% to 9.39 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 5.7 points to 84.1%.
Iberia flew 4.56 billion RPKs in August, down 6.5% year-over-year, against a 4.4% cut in capacity to 5.53 billion ASKs. Load factor fell 1.8 points to 82.4%.
LAN Airlines flew 2.51 billion RPKs in August, a 4.4% increase year-over-year. Capacity rose 7.4% to 3.28 billion ASKs and load factor slipped 2.2 points to 76.5%.
Germanwings transported 732,851 passengers in August, down 6.9% year-over-year. Load factor rose 0.4 point to 87.3%.
SESAR Joint Undertaking signed contracts with several airlines and airline associations to engage their technical experts in developing Europe's new and long-overdue Air Traffic Management system. "It is essential or even vital for the success of SESAR that the expertise of the airlines is integrated as from day one of the development phase," Executive Director Patrick Ky said. "They will participate and analyze the outcomes of the SESAR projects from a technical and cost perspective which will reinforce the user-driven approach of the future SESAR technologies and procedures." The new operating procedures developed under the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research Program will be implemented gradually from 2012 until 2020.
Embraer announced the delivery of its 600th E-Jet, an E-175, to LOT Polish Airlines. The first E-Jet was delivered in March 2004. LOT's aircraft seats 82 passengers. It currently flies 10 E-170s, six E-175s and six ERJ-145s. It ordered an additional 12 E-175s, plus two options and 10 purchase rights, in January 2008.
ARINC said Air China, Air Macau, Asiana Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, China Southern Airlines, Dragonair and Korean Air signed up to use its AviNet Airport wide-area network service, which is available to carriers using its Muse common-use passenger systems.
AVIATION QUOTE
They say any landing you can walk away from is a good one.
Alan Shepard
AEROSPACE TERM
Globbular Clusters
Spherically symmetric star clusters, containing over 100,000 individual stars, which are in a roughly spherical distribution about the main hub of a galaxy. They form more or less a spherical halo around the main body of the galaxy.
DAILY VIDEO
HUMOR
The Difference Between Airplanes and Women:
An airplane will kill you quick . . .
A woman takes her time.
Airplanes like to do it inverted.
Airplanes can be turned on by a flick of a switch.
An airplane does not get mad if you 'touch and go.'
An airplane does not object to a preflight inspection.
Airplanes come with manuals.
Airplanes have strict weight and balance limits.
You can fly an airplane any time of the month.
Airplanes don't have parents.
Airplanes don't whine unless something is really wrong.
Airplanes don't care about how many other airplanes you have flown.
When flying, you and your airplane both arrive at the same time.
Airplanes don't mind if you look at other airplanes, or if you buy airplane magazines.
If your airplane is too loose, you can tighten it.
It's always OK to use tie downs on your airplane.
TRIVIA
3D ID
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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
I think ShyFlyer got them all right EXCEPT #4 is not a Piper J-3 Cub. It can't be a Cub because there are no bungees on the landing gear, the lift strut attach point is at the front MLG mount instead of the rear as is the case on Cubs (trust me, I have cursed it enough times getting into and out of one), the shape of the rudder and elevator are not correct for a Cub (very classic) and the shape of the rear of the window is not correct, although that has been modified on some examples. Most J-3's had generators on the engine, although J-2's had the external generator seen in the 3-view. If we had a view of the right side rather than the left side we would see the indicative split door if it were a Cub, but we have enough other clues.
I'm thinking it's an Aeronca L-3 Grasshopper. But I'm not sure if that's correct.
1. Beechcraft 1900C 2. McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 3. IAI Kfir C.7 4. Aeronca Champ 5. Agusta A109 6. General Dynamics F-16A and -B 7. Boeing 727-100/-200 8. Falcon 20 9. Grumman X-29 10. Fairchild/Republic A-10A Thunderbolt II
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
