LE BOURGET, France—Airbus is advancing its plan for more-radical enhancements to boost and sustain the A320neo from 2020 onwards. The manufacturer is moving into the next phase of its A320neo incremental development (ID) plan, which, if sanctioned, will build on the interim A320neo Plus cabin and flight-deck upgrade now in planning for introduction around 2017.
The airline—established as a company but not yet flying—has acquired three Boeing 737-300F freighters from lessors: Two are from Aviation Capital Group and one is from Yangtze River International Leasing.
LE BOURGET, France—Qatar Airways has topped up its Boeing 777 commitment with a firm order for 10 777-8Xs and four 777 Freighters. The Doha-based airline will start taking delivery of the newly ordered 777-8Xs in 2020. These aircraft, which are in addition to the 50 777-9Xs Qatar has already on order, take Boeing’s total orders and commitments for the type to 320. Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said he “hopes” his airline will be the first operator of the aircraft.
As of early June, the carrier had one Boeing 767 equipped for the trial, but planned to have all nine of the aircraft type completed and participating by year-end.
A long-time staffer and former manager of FAA’s Engine and Propeller Directorate (EPD), Pardee is perhaps best known for his efforts to establish the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing program, which is helping FAA transition to a proactive, data-driven safety oversight approach.
Airbus is confident it no longer needs a large Airbus A330 order from China to be able to sustain the new rate of six per month, according to Executive Vice President Procurement Klaus Richter.
Bombardier presented a CS100 in Swiss livery and with a passenger cabin and a CS300 at the Paris air show on June 14 in what it hopes will be a turning point for the program after years of slow sales and development issues.
Alaska Airlines is expected to conduct a biofuel-demonstration flight next year using alcohol-to-jet fuel produced from forest residues, through a project to use waste left over from logging and reduce the risk of wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. Gevo will convert cellulosic sugars from waste wood into renewable isobutanol using its fermentation process. The isobutanol will then be converted into alcohol-to-jet synthetic paraffinic kerosene (ATJ-SPK).
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/
Virgin America said this week it is upgrading its in-flight entertainment system with higher-resolution touch screens. Passengers will be able to watch high-definition video on Panasonic EcoV2 monitors, and the product can hold three times as much content as the current version. The system will run on Android-based software, and will be installed on 15 aircraft by the end of 2015. The airline will continue retrofits in 2016.
For a complete list of Aviation Week’s upcoming events, and to register, visit www.awin.aviationweek.com/events Jun. 17—Commercial Aerospace Manufacturing Briefing C0-located with the International Paris Air Show, Auditorium, (Conference Centre - Hall 2C), 9:00am-11:15am Oct. 13-15—MRO Europe, ExCel London Exhibition and Convention Center, London, U.K. Nov. 4-6—MRO Asia, SingEx Exhibition and Convention Center, Singapore.
All Nippon Airways (ANA) confirms that it has no plans to take over Skymark Airlines’ unwanted Airbus A330 leases. ANA told Aviation Daily it has had discussions on this topic with lessor Intrepid Aviation—which owns the A330s—but does not intend to introduce A330s into its fleet at this time. ANA will become a part-owner of Skymark under a proposed restructuring plan, but Intrepid is offering an alternative restructuring plan for Skymark that would include a different airline sponsor, instead of ANA.
“The whole process could take up to year,” Pinto told Aviation Daily. “The new owners might want to start making changes while the company will be still owned by the Portuguese state until all approvals are obtained and documents signed.”
The carrier, which already has North American connections from Beijing and Shanghai, has applied to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to fly daily between New York John F. Kennedy International Airport and Tianjin Binhai International, with an extension to Shanghai Pudong International. Flights are intended to begin in June 2016, using Boeing 787s.
The move is not the only sign that the two airlines are deepening their partnership, which began when Delta bought a 49% equity share in the London-based carrier in 2012. They plan to move Virgin Atlantic to Delta’s passenger-service technology system.
The ICAO ruling, based on a Universal Safety Oversight Audit Program (USOAP) audit, is expected on June 18, following a review of actions taken by the Thai Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) to address safety concerns raised by ICAO.
Association of Asia Pacific Airlines Director General Andrew Herdman said 2014 had been “very tough” for the region, with the majors and LCCs both struggling.
