While FAA continues working to revise its policy calling for mandatory testing for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a coalition of 10 aviation associations is appealing to the Senate to quickly act on a bill that would force the agency to undertake a formal rulemaking process before it could implement the policy .
Air France has outlined plans for a further 1,100 voluntary layoffs, comprising 350 flight deck and 750 cabin crew positions, adding to 8,031 staff who have already left the company. The French carrier’s management met with unions on March 6 to discuss the cuts, which form part of Air France’s Transform 2015 plan. An Air France spokeswoman confirmed the numbers and said crew members will have until the end of the summer season to apply for redundancy. The cuts will be implemented between now and March 2015.
Cathay Pacific subsidiary Dragonair will launch a twice-weekly service from Hong Kong to Denpasar (Bali), Indonesia. The service, due to start April 27, will use Airbus A330-300s to complement parent company Cathay’s existing daily Boeing 777 service between the two airports. Denpasar will be Dragonair’s first destination in Indonesia, and its fifteenth new destination within the last 12 months.
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Airline participation in the U.S. trial of air-ground data communications is increasing steadily, and airlines are already signing up for the subsequent operational deployment phase of the program. Harris Corp., the prime contractor for the FAA’s Data Comm initiative, is conducting the trial at Newark Liberty International Airport and Memphis International Airport. This involves departure clearances sent to pilots via digital text rather than by voice, which is an initial capability of controller-pilot data-link communications technology.
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FAA and Transport Canada have codified requirements for operators of Boeing 737s with older LiveTV in-flight entertainment (IFE) radomes to inspect the units for cracks, mandating a program that the vendor and operators have had in place for several years.
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The Council of the European Union (EU)—which represents the block’s 28 member states—endorsed a compromise package Friday to extend the “stop the clock” scope of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) for commercial aviation for another four years. The vote follows the informal agreement reached March 4 by negotiators from the European Parliament (EP), the Council and the European Commission to limit the scope of the aviation ETS to flights within the European Economic Area (EEA), which covers the EU’s 28 members plus Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein.
Temporary capacity restrictions at its Dubai hub will force Emirates to park 20 aircraft for 80 days this summer, a move which will curb the airline’s expansion to a significant extent. One of the airport’s two parallel runway will be out of service for much needed resurfacing work that limits the amount of movements possible during the period. Emirates Chief Commercial Officer Thierry Antinori says the airline will ground mainly Airbus A330s and A340s as well as some Boeing 777s, but not A380s.
Japanese engineers have ground tested a turbojet in conditions equivalent to Mach 4, which they believe is the highest simulated speed at which a turbine engine has operated. The February round of tests was a step toward building an engine that, unlike ramjets, has the thrust and efficiency advantages of mechanical compression and the ability to propel an aircraft from takeoff to Mach 5.
Mar. 11-13—8th World Cargo Symposium, Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, Los Angeles, Calif., www.iata.org/events/wcs/Pages/index.aspx Mar. 12-15—AEA 57th Annual International Convention & Trade Show, Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, Nashville, Tenn., www.aea.net/convention/2014/ Mar. 12-15—Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA) Convention & Trade Show, Nashville, Tenn., Nev., www.aea.net/events.asp Mar. 20-25—ILA Berlin Air Show, “The Focal Point of Aerospace,” Berlin ExpoCenter Airport, Berlin, www.ila-berlin.com
International Airlines Group (IAG) subsidiary Iberia has “an opportunity to grow in the East” so long as it can complete the transformation of its cost structure, IAG Chief Executive Willie Walsh believes. “Iberia could be connecting Asia traffic through Madrid to Latin America,” he said on the sidelines of an Aviation Week event in Washington D.C.
Codeshare partners Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Turkish Airlines (TA) will extend their links in what could be the first of new SIA partnerships. Singapore Airlines will offer SQ-coded flights on Turkish-operated flights into regional Turkey, as well as the carrier’s established destinations across Africa, Europe, the Middle East and North America. TK-coded flights will reciprocally be offered on SIA routes to non-specific “southeast Asia and the southwest Pacific” destinations, the airline said in a statement.
Despite substantial opposition from Capitol Hill and industry alike, the White House is continuing its push for the $100 per flight air traffic control user fee. Widely expected, the proposal is one of two significant tax changes directed at business aircraft operations that the administration included in the fiscal 2015 budget request. The second, also widely expected, was a change in depreciation on “general aviation passenger aircraft.”
SINGAPORE — PT Garuda Indonesia, Indonesia’s national airline, has become part of the SkyTeam alliance. As a member, Garuda will join an extensive group of airlines from northern Asia – including China Airlines, China Eastern, China Southern, and Xiamen – as well as regional carriers like Vietnam Airlines and Korean Air. This association will help solidify Garuda’s position as a significant player in the growing Asian regional market, company sources say, as well as in one of the largest alliance groups in Asia.
Saab Sensis has been awarded a contract to help San Francisco International Airport (SFO) cope with delays related to a major runway closure, following the success of a similar project at New York Kennedy International Airport (JFK).
