Boeing and General Electric are planning meetings with Iran Air to discuss the airline’s urgent requirement for aircraft and engine spares following approval from the U.S. Treasury Department to export specific parts for commercial aircraft under a temporary sanctions relief deal.
Russia’s largest airline, Aeroflot, has withdrawn the last Soviet-era legacy type—the Ilyushin Il-96 widebody—from its fleet. The first aircraft out of six of this type was retired in October; the last aircraft, #96008, operated its final commercial flight on March 30 from Tashkent to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, the airline’s home base. According to Aeroflot, the type is now being replaced by Boeing 777-300ERs.
Alaska Airlines plans to use a mix of fleet renewal and implementing RNP approaches at its home base at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to meet its goal of cutting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The Seattle-based carrier plans to reduce fuel consumption by 20%, calculated by gallons per RPM, by 2020. Much of the gain will be through fleet renewal, Paul McElroy, a spokesman for Alaska, tells Aviation Week.
Lufthansa chose the CFM Leap-1A engine for the last part of its Airbus A320NEO order, a deal totalling more than €1 billion ($1.37 billion) covering engines for 40 aircraft.
Air New Zealand is preparing for the delivery and operational debut of its first Boeing 787-9, the highlight of a pivotal year in the airline’s widebody fleet renewal program. The carrier will be the first to get the stretched -9 version of the 787. Its initial aircraft is on track for delivery in June, and was rolled out of Boeing’s Everett, Wash., paint hangar with a new black livery on April 5. This is the fifth -9 to be assembled, but unlike the first four it will not be used in the flight-test and certification process.
Persian Gulf hub airports increasingly are becoming the transit points of the world, siphoning off traffic between Europe, North America and Africa and Asia, a study by Amadeus and Oxford Economics shows.
Apr. 8-10—MRO Americas 2014, Phoenix Convention Center, Phoenix, Ariz. Apr. 9—MRO Military 2014, Phoenix Convention Center, Phoenix, Ariz. June 10-11—MRO Eastern Europe, Baltics and Russia, Sheraton Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland July 16-20—Farnborough Commercial Manufacturing Briefings and Farnborough Air Show, U.K.
Boeing suppliers are developing “a sense of acceptance” that the manufacturer’s push for a 15% reduction in supply chain costs won’t ease up even as the economy improves, an informal survey of several major suppliers by Canaccord Genuity finds. Whether the push will succeed remains to be seen.
Eighteen years after Boeing and General Electric teamed up to develop the Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) version of the Next Generation 737, the first corporate derivative of the follow-on 737 MAX has been launched by an undisclosed customer.
European research is amassing an array of technologies that could be applied to a future 90-seat regional turboprop to significantly reduce noise and emissions. An evaluation of technologies being developed under Europe’s Clean Sky public-private research program indicates a 2020-time frame advanced turboprop would have a 48% smaller airport noise footprint and reduce emissions by 23% for carbon dioxide and 43% for nitrogen oxides.
Inadequate regulatory oversight was the most common contributor to fatal air transport accidents from 2009-13, and among the most cited factors in all accidents, an International Air Transport Association (IATA) analysis reveals. IATA examined 432 qualifying accidents in the five-year period, including 94 with fatalities, and broke down the causal factors in each accident sequence. It then categorized the factors into five broad categories: Latent conditions, (external) threats, flight crew errors, undesired aircraft states, and countermeasures.
Delta Air Lines expects its Trainer, Pa., oil refinery to be profitable this year, but the carrier already has realized fuel-price benefits from the amount of jet fuel the facility has kept in the market. The Trainer facility lost $46 million in the fourth quarter and $116 million for the full year 2013, Delta Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said last month. But the refinery had a positive effect on Delta’s fuel bill, at about $0.03 per gallon for the full year.
The firm order backlog for the Airbus A350-800 is shrinking further, after Aircraft Purchase Fleet cancelled a commitment for 12 aircraft, according to Airbus’s latest orders and deliveries statistics. Aircraft Purchase Fleet is a vehicle set up for Alitalia aircraft financing and acquisition. But given the shaky financial state of that airline, the order has looked doubtful for some time. Airbus also has been actively encouraging its customers to switch to larger A350 versions.
AirAsia says it will not move from the existing Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) until the terminal and runway/apron at Malaysia’s new flagship Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) facility are all fully certified as operational, no matter how long that takes.
Following the departure of US Airways and TAM, the Star Alliance is looking at ways to restore its presence in Latin America, specifically in Brazil. “We may need a second carrier in Brazil,” Star CEO Mark Schwab told Aviation Week on the sidelines of the recent Phoenix aviation symposium. Talks with Azul, currently a regional carrier based in Campinas, continue, according to industry sources.
Air France-KLM will decide on replacements for KLM Cityhopper’s 19 Fokker 70s in the fourth quarter of this year from among four competing regional airframers—ATR, Bombardier, Embraer and Mitsubishi Aircraft, says KLM Cityhopper Managing Director Boet Kreiken.
Iberia franchise partner Air Nostrum is nearing the completion of reorganization of its shareholding structure, including a capital increase of €25 million ($34.4 milllion), which will see CEO Carlos Bertomeu becoming the main shareholder and two private investors acquiring a stake in the carrier. The search for new investors started last year, and led to speculation that Etihad Airways was also interested in taking a stake in the Valencia-based regional airline.
