Due to the Thanksgiving Day holiday in the U.S., the next issue of Aviation Daily will be dated Dec. 2. For continuing coverage, please visit awin.aviationweek.com.
Qantas says it will cut some Bombardier Q300s and reorganize the rest of its turboprop fleet as part of a significant overhaul of its regional operation. The carrier says it will phase out four Q300s, thereby leaving nine of this type in the QantasLink fleet. Its other turboprops consist of 31 Bombardier Q400s and three Q200s. QantasLink has 18 Boeing 717s in its jet fleet, along with 12 Fokker 100s operated by the Network Aviation subsidiary.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] . Dec. 4-5 —ACI-NA 2014 International Aviation Issues Seminar, Washington, DC, http://www.aci-na.org/event/3222 Dec. 8-10—MEBA, Middle East Business Aviation, Dubai World Central, Dubai, UAE, www.meba.aero
For a complete list of Aviation Week’s upcoming events, and to register, visit www.aviationweek.com/events Jan 13-14, 2015—MRO Latin America, Buenos Aires, Argentina Feb. 2-3, 2015—MRO Middle East, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai, UAE Mar. 5, 2015—Laureate Awards, Washington, D.C.
FAA is now allowing three parallel “optimized profile descents” into the three major airports that serve the Washington, D.C. area, initiating an airspace modification the agency said should save airlines 2.5 million gal. of fuel per year.
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) may not restrict Stage 3 aircraft from departing to the east, or over the city, during overnight hours, FAA ruled. The vast majority of LAX departures depart over the ocean, but occasionally pilots of heavy aircraft—mostly bound for Asia—ask instead to depart to the east. Nearby residents have complained, and Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) sought FAA’s permission in 2013 to ban over-city departures between midnight and 6:30 a.m.
Air Greenland is rolling out multiple safety upgrades for its crews following a runway excursion at Ilulissat, Greenland, which destroyed a Dash 8-200 this past January.
While troubled Japanese niche carrier Skymark Airlines and the much larger Japan Airlines have started cooperation discussions, a deal appears far from certain. Skymark revealed that it has been talking with JAL about code sharing on certain domestic routes. However, JAL has downplayed the negotiations. “JAL has received a request from Skymark regarding a possible business cooperation,” a spokesman says. “At present, there have been no decisions made, and talks have been limited.”
FAA, pledging to reduce air traffic control outage-contingency response times from “days to hours,” created a three-phase plan that includes making better use of current options and leveraging NextGen capabilities for more rapid reactions.
The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) filed for mediation with the National Mediation Board (NMB), after more than two years of contract negotiations with the carrier. At issue are the “airline’s flat fleet growth, stagnant career advancement and compensation,” the union says. Filing for mediation is “certainly not a typical step in the pilot and management relationship at Southwest Airlines,” SWAPA President Mark Richardson said. “But times have certainly changed.”
ABU DHABI—TAP Portugal’s privatization is no longer a strategic goal for Avianca, says its chairman, who doubts whether the Portuguese government truly wants to sell off its flag carrier.
The new bilateral air services agreement between the U.S and Mexico, initialed last week with little fanfare, opens up passenger and cargo markets between the two countries but stops short of a full open skies agreement.
ZHUHAI, China—Establishing a reputation in the global aerospace sector is an early task for Aviage, a joint avionics company of Avic and General Electric aimed at developing its initial project, systems for the Comac C919, into higher standards for later programs. A key step in achieving the reputation will be good performance on the 158-seat C919, the development program for which prompted creation of the Shanghai-based company.
BEIJING—The latest Hainan Airlines subsidiary created with local-government backing, Fuzhou Airlines, aims at an initial fleet of five aircraft, with 40 to be in service by 2020. The carrier began flying on Oct. 30 from the east coast city after which it is named. The local government is a shareholder.
FAA is maintaining the minimum percentages for random drug and alcohol testing in 2015, after the industry once again remained well-below its positive-rate thresholds for 2013. Federal law requires randomly testing a minimum of 25% of employees in safety-sensitive roles for drugs, and 10% for alcohol. But to be able to test to those minimum percentages, the prior year’s positive rate must remain below 1% for drug testing, and below .50% for alcohol.
TOKYO—-Air New Zealand and Air China intend to establish a strategic partnership, with Air China launching service to Auckland as part of the proposal. The two carriers have signed a statement of intent and will begin detailed discussions aimed at reaching an agreement early next year, which can then be submitted for regulatory approval. While their statement of intent is non-binding, the airlines have committed resources to further partnership talks, an Air New Zealand spokeswoman says. New Service
Frontier Airlines has placed an order for nine Airbus A321 current engine option (ceo) aircraft with deliveries starting in late 2015, a move that will help the carrier lower its unit costs on heavily-trafficked routes and should help it compete better with rival Spirit Airlines.
Louis Chenevert, the architect of the biggest aerospace and defense (A&D) acquisition ever and a driving force behind Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbofan (GTF) engine, has stepped down as chairman and CEO of United Technologies Corp. (UTC). Gregory J. Hayes, UTC’s chief financial officer, is replacing him as CEO. Edward A. Kangas, a member of UTC’s board, will become non-executive chairman.
San Antonio International is the latest airport to install Airus Media’s virtual in-terminal assistant, and the first to use the avatar specifically for TSA Pre-Check. Each of the airport’s two avatars—one in the regular checkpoint area and one in Pre-Check—are located where passengers begin to stand during peak times. Motion sensors activate the avatar—named Ava—triggering a 90-sec. message in either English or Spanish.
Dubai Airports is seeking to implement dynamic minimum-connecting times (MCT) at Dubai World Central (DWC) to reflect actual aircraft gate information in passenger itineraries. The airport operator tries to stay within the 75-min. minimum connecting time in place at Dubai International Airport (DXB), but would like to move away from applying one MCT across the entire airport, Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths says, potentially allowing more city pairs to be offered at competitive travel times.
Citing a pilot shortage, American Airlines will transfer at least 50 Embraer E145s from Envoy Air to other regional carriers beginning in the first quarter of 2015. Trans States Airlines and the other unnamed airline will each receive 15 aircraft, at a rate of one to two per month, beginning in the first quarter. Piedmont Airlines will take “at least” 20 aircraft beginning in 2016.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] . (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Dec. 4-5—ACI-NA 2014 International Aviation Issues Seminar, Washington, DC, http://www.aci-na.org/event/3222 Dec. 8-10—MEBA, Middle East Business Aviation, Dubai World Central, Dubai, UAE, www.meba.aero
