Year-over-year premium international traffic was up 4.9% in April, bettering March 4.6%, IATA notes. But bigger-picture trends continue to suggest the relative stagnation since mid-2014 is not going away anytime soon.
The carrier’s previous CEO, Stefan Pichler, departed to lead Air Berlin in February, although he remained as a board member with Fiji Airways. The carrier confirmed it was interviewing three candidates in April, and Viljoen was believed to be one of them.
The two-year research project, funded by the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority, focused on methods of gauging the fatigue levels of individual pilots rather than taking a generic approach of controlling duty hours, a practice used in fatigue-risk-management systems.
Aerospace must embrace the technology sector or risk its business being disrupted by the fast pace of development in other industries, says Airbus Group CEO Tom Enders, speaking at the AIAA Aviation 2015 forum here June 22.
American Airlines is bolstering its schedule for ski season, adding two new winter routes from Los Angeles and three from Chicago. From Los Angeles, American will fly an Airbus A319 to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and an Embraer 175 to Montrose, Colorado. From Chicago, American will fly A319s to Jackson Hole, E175s to Montrose, and Bombardier CRJ-700s to Aspen, Colorado. All services will operate daily from Dec. 17, 2015-Jan. 4, 2016, and on Saturdays through April 4.
Delta says the two gates were “abandoned” by United Airlines, and Southwest has been operating flights from the gates, giving it effective control of 18 of the 20 gates at Love Field. Virgin America operates the other two gates.
Safe Air works extensively with military customers, but also performs some MRO work for Air New Zealand as well as for airlines in Australia and elsewhere.
In a strongly worded response, VU Kumar, chairman of AirAsia’s audit committee, said the carrier is “somewhat distressed and peeved to have been accused of corporate-governance abuses and condoning accounting gimmicks.” He was referring to an analyst report by Hong Kong-based GMT Research earlier this month that caused a significant slide in the airline’s share prices.
“We are discussing with airlines whether they really need 40 more seats,” Airbus Chief Operating Officer Customers John Leahy said at the Paris Air Show.
Flight attendant union UFO said on June 22 that it had no choice but to stage strikes beginning July 1, unless Lufthansa comes forward with a “material offer” and reconfirms an understanding on basic principles reached last fall. UFO said it will announce strike dates on July 1, and that industrial action will be taken between the beginning of July and September 16.
The carrier will establish Virgin Australia Cargo on July 1, meaning it will “actively compete in the domestic and short-haul international cargo market for the first time.” Virgin’s exclusive cargo contract with Toll Group expires on June 30, and Toll has instead signed a contract with Qantas.
“We have become aware of cases of inverted installation [upside-down] of the pitch trim switches in the control yoke,” ANAC explained in a special airworthiness bulletin, citing Embraer service bulletins sent out in late February and early March.
The carrier plans to invest significantly in a new fleet including new narrowbodies and additional long-haul aircraft, but needs additional equity to finance the move.
If they win the bid, the two companies plan to build a new facility in Wichita spanning one million square feet, according to Frank Molina, Machinists Union District Lodge 70 president and directing business representative.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] . (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Jun. 22-25—SAE 2015 International Conference on Icing of Aircraft, Engines, and Structures, Hotel International Prague, Prague, Czech Republic, www.sae.org/events/icing Jun. 22-26—Aviation Forum 2015, Dallas, Texas, www.aiaa-aviation.org/
LE BOURGET, France—Eduardo Munhos de Campos, former Embraer vice president-sales, is heading efforts to establish a unified worldwide commercial structure for the Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ100). Plans to bundle the commercial and marketing activities of Superjet Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC) and its Italy-based affiliate, Superjet International (SJI), more than a year ago, are progressing.
Delta’s move means American Airlines—the carrier DOT designated as the backup for the slots—will begin operating flights between Los Angeles and Haneda this autumn. The exact date has not been determined, but flight times will be announced soon, an American spokesman told Aviation Daily.
The performance boost is the result of integrating a wide-area augmentation system (WAAS) receiver into the SLS-4000 to better predict changes in the ionosphere, a large factor in the accuracy of an aircraft’s derived position from GPS.
Airbus is forecasting demand for more than 600 narrowbody freighter conversions over the next 20 years. Most of these conversions will be in Asia—specifically China—and the U.S.
The carrier already flies narrowbody jets between main centers in New Zealand, but it now intends to open routes to some smaller cities with a fleet of Bombardier Q300s.
The carrier will be called Ningbo Airlines, and have 16-20 aircraft by 2020, municipal media report, citing the agreement between HNA and city administration.
The company—which developed the system initially for the 787-9—says the drag benefits do not justify its inclusion on the 777X, which is due to achieve firm configuration later this summer.
