A coalition of aviation and travel groups is pressing the U.S. government to do all it can to reduce arrival wait times at international airports and is developing new technology to help combat the problem.
Qatar Airways and Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific will sell seats on each other’s flights beginning this month, following the entry of the Middle Eastern carrier into Oneworld in October and Cathay’s starting of twice-daily services to Doha on March 30. In general, the new codeshare agreement gives Cathay more connections in Europe, Africa and the Persian Gulf, while increasing Qatar Airways’ reach in Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan.
AirBaltic is showing that smaller airlines on the periphery of Europe can return to profit, but now it will have to prove it has a sustainable future and find private investors to take over all or part of the Latvian state’s holding. Revenue remained stable at €325 million (US$449 million) in 2013 despite capacity reductions. The 5% increase of average ticket prices compared with the prior year compensated for the 5% fall in passenger numbers to 2.95 million. Revenue per available seat kilometer (RASK) inched up 1%.
Interjet CEO Jose Luis Garza says the Mexican carrier’s fleet plans center around the Sukhoi Superjet 100, which it began operating last year. The carrier has six Superjets in service and is expecting to take one per month for the next 14 months, for a total of 20, Garza tells Aviation Week in an interview. Interjet has yet to decide if it will exercise its options for a further 10 of the type.
A long-running dispute between Europe and Russia over the use of Russian airspace has flared up again, with French airline Aigle Azur claiming it was refused the right to use the southern corridor for its planned scheduled service between Paris and Beijing.
The National Business Aviation Association and the Shanghai Airport Authority ( SAA ) are extending their partnership for five more years , firmly planting the Aviation Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition at Shanghai’s Hongqiao International Airport through 2021. NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen and SAA Vice President Wang Jijie formally signed the extension during ABACE2014 , following up on the first five-year agreement signed in June 2011.
Two new composite fan blade manufacturing plants coming online this month for Safran, representing hundreds of millions of dollars in investments, is just the latest bullish sign of the Paris-based company’s confidence in the CFM Leap-1 engine and in the U.S. market. And at least one U.S. supplier is betting its business on it, too.
16-20 June 2014 Atlanta, GA Orlanda Carvalho Executive Vice President Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Allan McArtor Chairman and CEO Airbus Americas, Inc. Peter Cerda Senior Vice President, The Americas International Air Transport Association Larry Lawson President and CEO Spirit AeroSystems www.aiaa-aviation.org/programAVD
Embraer is offering a pair of new safety tools for business jets as the company addresses problematic safety issues troubling both the business aviation and airline sector. Upon entry into service this summer, the Legacy 500 business jet will have an option for high-definition airport moving maps as well as takeoff and landing runway excursion preventatives built into the twinjet’s Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion integrated avionics flight deck.
Creditors of one-time Indian high-flyer Kingfisher Airlines have opted to put the carrier’s brand name up for sale in the face of dwindling hard assets to liquidate. The company’s hard assets—including property, aircraft and other tangible goods—are also being put up for sale, but estimates indicate these may only fetch some 15% or so of the money owed to banks, including the State Bank of India. The total being sought is estimated to be at least 7,000 crore Indian rupees ($1.5 billion).
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Lufthansa have joined Airlines For America (A4A) in petitioning the FAA for more time to provide input on a potential foreign repair station drug and alcohol (DA) testing rule. Both IATA and Lufthansa requested an additional 120 days beyond the May 16 deadline that FAA established in its request for information, released last month (DAILY, March 17).
Air India is selling three long-haul Boeing 777 aircraft to help raise money to pay off its outstanding debt. The proposal to sell the aircraft comes less than four months after the airline sold five such long-range models to Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways. Currently, the state-run airline intends to offer three widebody Boeing 777-200s, powered with General Electric GE90-110 engines, for complete sale “through competitive global bidding,” an airline official says. Bidding is expected to begin next month.
Southwest Airlines argues that its proposal to serve 12 new markets from Dallas Love Field brings more benefit to the city of Dallas than other proposals for the two gates at the facility, which the Justice Department (DOJ) ordered American Airlines to divest as a condition of its merger with US Airways. The city needs to answer what is in its best economic interest, Bob Montgomery, Southwest vice president-airport affairs, tells Aviation Week.
The FAA says the decision by a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) judge overturning the agency’s first fine against an unmanned aircraft operator risks causing confusion about what type of aircraft are covered by FAA safety regulations. Administrative law judge Patrick Geraghty on March 6 dismissed the $10,000 fine imposed by the FAA on Raphael Pirker for operating a Ritewing Zephyr over the University of Virginia, arguing the agency has no regulations governing the use of UAS.
Maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) providers are reporting a strong start to the year, with 70% telling Canaccord Genuity that their first-quarter metrics either met or exceeded their 2014 business objectives.
16-20 June 2014 Atlanta, GA Orlanda Carvalho Executive Vice President Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Allan McArtor Chairman and CEO Airbus Americas, Inc. Peter Cerda Senior Vice President, The Americas International Air Transport Association Larry Lawson President and CEO Spirit AeroSystems www.aiaa-aviation.org/programAVD
NASA plans to work with Canada and Germany on joint flight tests to study the atmospheric effects of emissions from aircraft burning alternative fuels. The research is a follow-on to flights conducted in 2013 to measure emissions from biofuel blends. The latest series of flights is set to begin May 7 under NASA’s Alternative Fuel Effects on Contrails and Emissions (Access-II) program. The agency’s McDonnell Douglas DC-8 will burn different mixes of fuels while other aircraft make inflight measurements.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has transferred the right wing of the first MRJ regional jet to the program’s Komaki South final assembly plant, with completion of the aircraft due this year.
