Indonesia faces looming staffing problems, from flight crews to technical oversight, as a result of the country’s dramatic aviation growth, and at least one top aviation official hints at import limits to try to cope. Herry Bakti, the head of Indonesia’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (Direktorat Jenderal Perhubungan Udara or DJPU), shared with Aviation Week that he was prepared to limit the number of aircraft imported into Indonesia by local carriers—despite large orders having being placed to support planned expansion.
Rolls-Royce is considering a model where it would lease engines directly to aircraft operators, although the idea is still in its infancy. Over the past 20-30 years, Rolls-Royce has shifted from simply supplying engines to providing a full support package under its TotalCare service range. Taking this idea one step further, Rolls-Royce president-civil large engines Eric Schulz said the engine manufacturer is examining the idea of retaining ownership of the engines and simply leasing them to operators.
Malaysia appears to be giving up more control over the search and rescue mission for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. While Acting Transport Minister Hishammudin Hussein says overall coordination of the efforts is still in the hands of his country, “our partners have taken on an increasing role within the search sectors.” The search has not resulted in any findings yet.
Aviation Week & Space Technology is your one powerful source of information with an even greater focus on technology, and expanded coverage that now includes Defense Technology and MRO Editions. To Subscribe: Contact us at 1-800-525-5003 (in the U.S.) or at +1-515-237-3682 (outside the U.S.) or via Email at: [email protected]/awstdigital All paid subscribers will receive expanded content sections in digital format.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce faces another grilling from Australian lawmakers this week, as politicians and unions spar over whether to repeal the law that restricts foreign ownership of the carrier.
The White House is projecting that the balance of the user-funded Airport and Airway Trust Fund will grow steadily over the next decade even as the Obama administration pushes to have it pay for nearly all of FAA’s activities.
All of the 42 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft ordered by Indian low-cost carrier SpiceJet on March 12 will be powered by Leap-1B engines, made by CFM. The engine order is valued at $1.1 billion at list price. “We are pleased that SpiceJet has continued to place its trust in CFM,” says Gael Meheust, vice president of sales for CFM. “We have built a great relationship with this airline over the years and really look forward to introducing the Leap engine into their new fleet.”
International Airlines Group (IAG) has seen a slight improvement in its freight volumes, although it continues to project a weak cargo outlook for 2014-15. “There is maybe some volume recovery, signalling the end of the cargo downturn, but it is too early to ring any bells,” said IAG CFO Enrique Dupuy at the release of IAG’s full-year results.
Thales Group’s acquisition of LiveTV expands the French company’s already extensive inflight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) offerings with complementary technologies, and could jump-start LiveTV’s efforts to expand its reach from the cabin to airline operations. The $400 million all-cash deal, announced March 13, ends JetBlue’s multi-year effort to shed a valuable, but non-core, asset. It also expands Thales’ already-formidable IFEC presence, which began in 1999 with the purchase of B/E Aerospace’s IFE business.
Indonesia-based Lion Group has signed a training services agreement with Airbus that will see the manufacturer develop training programs to help move it towards international compliance. “This agreement with Airbus will help us towards getting our EASA certification,” said Lion Group President Director of Lion Group, Rusdi Kirana. The group includes Lion Air, Wings Air, and Batik Air carriers.
Introducing the Aero 100 Airfare Benchmark Index Designed for anyone with risk on the future level of airfares – for example Airlines, Banks/Credit Card Companies, Corporate Travel Managers, etc. The Aero 100 Airfare Benchmark Index tracks daily airfares within the domestic airline market. The Aero 100 delivers financial risk mitigation and protection against constant fluctuation of airline ticket prices by providing the price settling mechanism for Commodity Futures Contracts.
At least 38 Democratic and Republican senators, a sizable portion of the Senate, are joining Airlines 4 America and the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Dept.’s calls for the Transportation Department to demur on Norwegian Air International’s application for a foreign air carrier permit. The senators last week signed on to a letter to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx claiming NAI’s application violates the spirit, at least, of the E.U.-U.S. “Open Skies” agreement.
Hawaiian Airlines’ recent route cuts don’t signal any wider problems with its international network or the carrier’s overseas growth strategy, says CEO Mark Dunkerley. Expanding to new international destinations has been one of the cornerstones of the carrier’s strategy, and it has added a slew of new routes since 2010. However, in the past few weeks it has announced the suspension of flights from Honolulu to Taipei and to the Japanese city of Fukuoka.
Russia is taking lessons from NASA’s aeronautics and Europe’s Clean Sky programs in structuring its new civil aviation research effort, to begin in 2016. With $6 billion in government funding over 10 years to 2025, the National Aeronautical R&D Plan will be similar in scale to NASA’s aeronautics program, which runs at around $550 million a year. An overview of the plan was provided by Sergey Chernyshev, executive director of the TsAGI aero-hydrodynamic research institute, at the Greener Aviation 2014 conference in Brussels on Mar. 11.
