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NEWS

Japanese transport minister: JAL restructuring plan to be announced Tuesday
Japanese Transport Minister Seiji Maehara said Friday that the government-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. of Japan will announce Japan Airlines' restructuring plan on Tuesday, while the troubled carrier tapped into an emergency credit line to allow it to maintain operations in the meantime.
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Boeing completes initial flight test milestone on 787
Boeing on Friday said it had completed "initial airworthiness testing" on the 787, "a milestone [that] will enable more crew members to take part in flights" and allow more Dreamliners to join the flight test program.
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CFTC moves to limit speculation in energy markets
The US Commodities Futures Trading Commission last week proposed to set position limits for futures and option contracts in the major energy markets in a move hailed by the Air Transport Assn.
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MAS Engineering to service SpiceJet's B737s
Malaysia Airlines' maintenance and engineering arm MAS Aerospace Engineering (MAE) has signed a three-year maintenance support agreement with Indian low-cost carrier SpiceJet.
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Other News

Tiger Airways has taken a bold gamble and ignored the less-than-enthusiastic endorsement of its IPO from regional analysts to price it at the maximum S$1.65 ($1.19) per share. The potential S$246.8 million raised from the IPO that closes today will be used to pay down debt and finance new aircraft. The offering comprises 155.6 million new shares and an additional 9.6 million from investor Indigo Partners. The shares are expected to begin trading on Jan. 22. Tiger hopes the IPO will be the catalyst for growth as rivals Jetstar Airways and AirAsia now are many times larger than the Singapore-based LCC. Jetstar and AirAsia signed a joint venture two weeks ago to partner on operations and backroom functions.

US Dept. of Transportation fined United Airlines $30,000 for failing to include the 7.5% federal excise tax in fares published on its website during a 60-hr. period. UA was fined $75,000 last August for failing to provide proper notice of taxes and fees at the first point of publication and for publishing one-way fares without making it clear that those fares were valid only on a roundtrip ticket. DOT suspended half of the August fine and stipulated that it would have to be paid only if UA committed another violation in the ensuing year. As a result of the excise tax violation, UA now will have to pay the additional $37,500.

Aer Lingus pilots represented by the Irish Airline Pilots Assn. accepted annual pay cuts of €30 million ($43.5 million) that were recommended by an Irish Labor Relations Commission arbitrator. The reductions are part of EI's continuing effort to implement a €97 million savings program, which the airline has said is being held up by pilots' reluctance to agree to cuts. EI said Friday that the pay cuts are part of an "integrated package" that includes redundancies, pension changes and other elements "which must be implemented in full along with changes in work rules." It said it has "invited IALPA to immediate talks on the final elements of arbitration with a view to agreement on Jan. 21 as set out in the arbitration document." IALPA said that 65% of pilots accepted the pay reduction and the union "is eager to get into discussions with Aer Lingus management on the detailed implementation of this plan."

Lufthansa's roller-coaster relationship with its pilots hit another snag Friday when the Vereinigung Cockpit union, dissatisfied with the lack of a settlement in long-running talks regarding pay and working conditions covering 4,500 pilots, opened a strike ballot. VC staged a strike in summer 2008 and has a longstanding demand for a 6.4% pay raise for crew flying mainline, Lufthansa Cargo and Germanwings aircraft. The ballot will close Feb. 17 and if a 70% acceptance rate is reached an open-ended strike could begin at any time. German media reported that VC members also are worried that jobs could be shifted to new LH subsidiaries like Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines, whose pilots are paid considerably less.

Jamaican government said last week that Air Jamaica's acquisition by Caribbean Airlines was "expected to be consummated" over the weekend. The deal was expected to include an equity infusion but will require the government to pay JMD27 billion ($298.8 million) toward JM's 2010 capital expense budget, debts and costs required to cover "the redundancy of hundreds of employees." The government appointed a new five-member board chaired by insurance executive Denis Lalor to oversee JM's divestment and transition to Caribbean along with President and CEO Bruce Nobles. The Trinidad & Tobago Express reported that nearly 900 of JM's 1,200 employees could lose their jobs.

Austriair is the name of a new scheduled airline based in Vienna that initially plans to offer flights to Munich, Frankfurt and Stuttgart onboard three leased E-195s in the spring. Austrian business jet, charter and ACMI operator map will operate the aircraft. Local media reported that the E-195s will have only 100 seats and a separate business class cabin, with fares cheaper than Austrian Airlines but more expensive than Air Berlin. No launch timetable was available.

AeroLogic, the joint cargo venture between Lufthansa and DHL Express, added two 777-200Fs in December, doubling its fleet to four of the type. It will launch weekend service from Frankfurt to both Atlanta and Chicago O'Hare during the current winter schedule, as well as daily Leipzig-Hong Kong service (nonstop four-times-weekly). It plans to take delivery of additional 777Fs in June, July, September and December. "Demand for Europe to Asia and Europe to US remains stable, despite the weakened world economy, and is expected to increase in the mid-term," AeroLogic said.

Pinnacle Airlines announced the closure of a $10 million credit facility with Independent Bank of Memphis. The funds will provide Pinnacle with working capital until it receives a federal income tax refund estimated to be worth $38 million. The company said it also modified a $25 million spare parts loan "to reduce certain liquidity requirements."

US Air Transport Assn. reported that its third-quarter airline cost index fell 36% year-over-year to 185.3, a decline that compares to the 1.6% fall in the US Consumer Price Index. The average price paid for fuel slid to $1.94 per gal. from $3.51 in the third quarter of 2008, although the average cost of a fulltime-equivalent worker climbed 7.6%. Fuel and labor accounted for nearly 50% of airline operating expenses, ATA said.

Air Berlin CCO Christoph Debus told Reuters that the carrier plans to launch service to northern Iraq this year. Lufthansa last week said it will begin flying to Erbil (as well as Baghdad) from Frankfurt and Munich this summer.

Cargoitalia began serving Dubai twice-weekly, replacing Almaty as the outbound stop on its Milan Malpensa-Hong Kong service. Almaty will remain the stop on the return flight. From Jan. 21 it will replace Toronto with Chicago O'Hare as a stop on one of its twice-weekly transatlantic routings that also includes New York JFK. Cargoitalia is scheduled to add its third MD-11F in June and expects to operate the aircraft to Shanghai.

Lufthansa Group airlines flew 13.42 billion RPKs in December, up 19.1% from the year-ago month, against an 18% lift in capacity to 17.53 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 0.8 point to 76.6%. Lufthansa Passenger Airlines flew 9.39 billion RPKs, up 4.2%, while ASKs increased 2.7% to 12.22 billion and load factor climbed 1.1 points to 76.8%.

Swiss International Air Lines flew 2.31 billion RPKs in December, a 2.4% increase year-over-year. Capacity fell 3.5% to 2.85 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 4.7 points to 81%.

Austrian Airlines flew 1.19 billion RPKs in December, a 2% fall year-over-year, against a 6.2% cut in capacity to 1.64 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 3.1 points to 72.5%.

Germanwings transported 531,411 passengers in December, up 8.2% year-over-year. Load factor fell 2.1 points to 76%.

Turkish Airlines transported 25.1 million passengers in 2009, up 11% from the prior year. RPKs climbed 17% to 40.1 billion against a 22% lift in capacity to 56.5 billion ASKs, reducing load factor 3.1 points to 70.9%.



AVIATION QUOTE

“Flying without feathers is not easy; my wings have no feathers.”

~Titus Maccius Plautus


AEROSPACE TERM

Hall Effect

The electrical polarization of a horizontal conducting sheet of limited extent, when that sheet moves laterally through a magnetic field having a component vertical to the sheet.
The Hall effect is important in determining the behavior of the electrical currents generated by winds in the lower ionosphere.


DAILY VIDEO





EDITOR’S CHOICE




HUMOR

Farm Kid

Dear Ma and Pa,

I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of the places are filled.

I was restless at first because you got to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m. But I am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing.

Men got to shave but it is not so bad, there's warm water. Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food, plus yours, holds you until noon when you get fed again. It's no wonder these city boys can't walk much.

We go on "route marches," which the platoon sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it's not my place to tell him different. A "route march" is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks.

The sergeant is like a school teacher. He nags a lot. The Captain is like the school board. Majors and colonels just ride around and frown. They don't bother you none.

This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don't know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don't move, and it ain't shooting at you like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don't even load your own cartridges. They come in boxes.

Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain't like fighting with that ole bull at home. I'm about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake . I only beat him once. He joined up the same time as me, but I'm only 5'6" and 130 pounds and he's 6'8" and near 300 pounds dry.

Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.

Your loving daughter,
Alice



TRIVIA

Aircraft ID

Sukhoi

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


8.


9.


10.

1: Su-47
2: Su-7
3: Su-15
4: Su-11
5: Su-17
6: Su-25
7: Su-29
8: Su-27
9: Su-31
10: Su-24

ANSWERS:
1. Su-47
2. Su-7
3. Su-15
4. Su-11
5. Su-17
6. Su-25
7. Su-29
8. Su-27
9. Su-31
10. Su-24