U.S. Aviation Industry Financial Market Performance March 2014 Two Year Market Value Index (1 = March 2012) Network Manufacturers Network Value Extenders Cargo Suppliers
Textron has formed a company focused on the simulation and training market after last year’s acquisitions of two manufacturers of flight training devices. TRU Simulation + Training will serve the commercial and military flight and maintenance training markets, says CEO Jim Takats, and is already working with newly formed Textron Aviation to support Cessna, Beechcraft and Bell Helicopter products as well as the Textron AirLand Scorpion light attack aircraft.
FAA is asking aviation medical examiners (AMEs) during the next two weeks to review new draft guidance that would require pilots at risk for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) to undergo testing and treatment if necessary. The guidance is revised from FAA’s earlier plans to require all pilots with a BMI of 40 or more to undergo testing and potential treatment for OSA and, significantly, pilots won't be disqualified on the basis of BMI alone.
SkyWest has taken delivery of its first of 40 Embraer 175s (E175), keeping the airline on track for putting the type into service in United Express colors in May. The regional carrier plans to put 21 E175s into service this year—part of a 40-aircraft order placed in 2014 to support United Airlines. SkyWest E175s are scheduled to debut on United’s Chicago-O’Hare-Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport route on May 17 and, O’Hare-Boston two days later.
Delivering on reassurances that the Q400 regional turboprop’s depleted orderbook would begin to refill, Bombardier has sold nine aircraft to new and existing customers in the past month. The company has also booked orders for six CRJ700/900 regional jets. These are reasonable numbers for one month’s order intake given that Bombardier booked net orders of only 17 Q400s last year, down from 50 in 2012, and 30 CRJs, down from 73 a year earlier. The company delivered 29 Q400s in 2013, reducing the order backlog by year-end to just 26 aircraft.
Japan Airlines (JAL) says there will be little disruption for the staff of JAL Express (JEX) when the subsidiary is fully merged into the parent carrier’s mainline operation. JAL recently announced that it has decided to absorb JEX effective Oct. 1, which will give it more flexibility in matching capacity to demand. JEX primarily operates narrowbody aircraft on regional routes for JAL.
Hawaiian carrier Island Air says it plans to use the Bombardier Q400 aircraft it has ordered for fleet expansion rather than replacement. The airline – owned by Oracle founder Larry Ellison – has placed orders for two Q400s with options for another four (see previous story page ). These will add to its existing fleet of five ATR 72s, Island Air CEO Paul Casey says in a statement supplied to Aviation Week.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA), stressing the need for a global, coordinated approach, will convene a task force to examine aircraft tracking in the wake of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370’s disappearance and deliver a report by year end.
Boeing says no changes to the Boeing 777 automation systems are required as a result of the Asiana Flight 214 crash into the sea wall short of Runway 28L at San Francisco in July 2013. In a submission to the NTSB made public yesterday, the airframer lays the blame for the incident, which killed three passengers, on the Asiana pilots who failed “to monitor and control airspeed, thrust level and glide path on short final approach” to Runway 28L on a hand-flown approach in good weather.
Some major suppliers are wary about planned narrowbody production increases at Airbus and Boeing, but their concern isn’t keeping pace with the new rates—it’s whether the market will support them, Canaccord Genuity analysts report. “The supply chain is expected to be prepared to support the rate increases but there is increasing worry that the expected narrowbody rate increases may not happen, or may be for just a 12-24 month period,” says the report.
The admission of TAM Brazil, the US Airways part of American and Sri Lankan will conclude a two-year expansion of the Oneworld alliance, the group’s Chairman of the board of governors, Willie Walsh says. Oneworld has added ten new airlines (including member affiliates) over the past two years and managed to retain Japan Airlines in its restructuring, which was courted by the other two groups, Star Alliance and Skyteam.
Norwegian Air Shuttle CEO Bjorn Kjos is confident that the airline’s newly established Irish subsidiary Norwegian Air International (NAI) will be granted a foreign air carrier permit by the U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) despite the sizeable objections against the application. Kjos maintains there is “no need for a Plan B. I’m positive we will receive a foreign air carrier permit from the U.S. authorities in the coming weeks.”
LONDON – Transport for London (TfL), the body responsible for the U.K. capital ’s transport needs, has outlined plans for the site of Heathrow airport if the facility was replaced with a new hub airport. Documents published by TfL on March 31 outline redevelopment options for the site of the airport in West London . They suggest that the 1,200-hectare (2,965-acre) airport could be transformed into a new “city quarter” home to as many as 200,000 people after 2030.
Lufthansa has moved to essentially ground the airline for three days this week, after talks over the weekend failed to get it and pilot union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) nearer to a resolution of a long standing conflict over the financing of the early retirement scheme. The company has cancelled 3,800 flights for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and only a total of 500 shorthaul and longhaul services are to be operated. VC announced a full three-day strike last Friday.
The captain of a First Air Boeing 737-200 did not abandon an instrument approach into Resolute Bay, Nunavut, in August 2011 despite concerns by the first officer and the aircraft’s landing guidance system showing it to be far right of course, an indication requiring a go-around per First Air’s standard operating procedures. The aircraft hit a hill about 1 nm. east of the airport, killing all four crew members and eight of the 11 passengers.
The FAA in 2011 had “strongly encouraged” Boeing to make changes to the 787 flight management computer system to provide autothrottle “wake up” capability in all modes.
