NASA’s plan to extend its Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contracts with Orbital Sciences Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) will give the companies more time to deliver 20,000 kg (44,000 lb.) each to the International Space Station (ISS) under a pair of fixed-price contracts valued at a combined $3.5 billion. Under the terms of CRS agreements awarded in December 2008, Orbital and SpaceX are each on the hook to deliver 20,000 kg of food, supplies and science experiments to the orbiting outpost by Dec. 31, 2015.
Industry should back whatever emerges from an International Air Transport Association-convened task force examining aircraft tracking in the wake of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappearance, FedEx Corp. Chairman and CEO Fred Smith said Thursday. He also added his voice to those calling on operators to embrace space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) to track those aircraft with operating transponders, wherever they may be.
More trouble is brewing for Air India, as its employees have threatened to strike over the airline’s proposal to reduce certain pay allowances, a move likely to strain operations ahead of the busy holiday travel season. The cash-strapped national carrier wants a 15% reduction in allowances for all categories of employees, including pilots, an airline official says.
Canada’s industry ministry has invited a second round of project proposals under a broad new research and development program intended to bridge the gap between laboratory testing and product development in fields spanning civil aerospace, defense, space and security. The initial call under Industry Canada’s Technology Demonstration Program (TDP) was issued with its launch in September. Proposals are due by April 14, and the first projects to qualify for 50% funding support from the federal government will be announced in the fall.
Air France will get its tenth Airbus A380 in mid-June from Hamburg, and will put the aircraft in service immediately after the usual post-delivery maintenance checks, Air France-KLM Head of Fleet Planning Bruno Delile says.
Ryanair has decided to turn Cologne Bonn Airport into its fifth German base, in a move that spells trouble for Lufthansa's struggling Germanwings unit and the country's secondary airports. Even though the base will be small—with only one dedicated aircraft—several aspects of the decision are still significant.
Launching international flights remains on the agenda for U.S. low-cost carrier Allegiant Air, but it will probably not occur until 2015, airline president Andrew Levy says. “We definitely will serve international destinations,” Levy tells Aviation Week. While the carrier has previously discussed beginning overseas service this year, next year is more likely, he says. Vacation destinations in Mexico – particularly Cancun – are the top prospects, with flights to Canada and the Caribbean longer-term possibilities.
A wide range of industry associations are calling on the FAA to expedite regulations governing small unmanned aircraft systems (SUAS), and to allow their limited commercial use before final rulemaking is completed. The organizations are concerned the years-long delay in release of the FAA’s SUAS notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), now not expected until late this year, is holding back U.S. industry and encouraging entrepreneurs to operate in the absence of safety guidelines.
PHOENIX, Ariz. — Shifting fleet dynamics and global economic trends mean that while the world’s largest maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) market isn’t growing anytime soon, opportunistic service providers still have reasons for optimism, the latest MRO forecasts suggest.
LONDON — Japan Airlines (JAL) plans to test a new dual-antenna product from GoGo, named 2Ku, that the supplier claims will give airlines fast, reliable and affordable broadband worldwide.
Delta Air Lines is equipping its 20,000 flight attendants with Nokia Lumia 1250 combination mobile phone-tablet computers beginning in October, in a move to reduce weight on the aircraft and move closer to fleet-wide real-time transaction-processing at the point of sale.
American Airlines is revising its margin guidance for the first quarter down a percentage point due to severe winter weather in the period that affected operations at both it and US Airways. The merged carrier says it now expects its first-quarter margin to be between 5-7%. American cancelled more than 34,000 flights in the first quarter, which could reduce first-quarter revenues by $115 million and operating profit in the quarter by $60 million, the airline says.
The European Commission (EC) is promising tough measures to regulate civil unmanned aircraft operations as it moves to allow their progressive integration into European Union (EU) airspace from 2016. “If ever there was a right time to do this, and to do this at a European level, it is now,” said EC Vice President Siim Kallas, unveiling the proposal to create new standards April 8 in Brussels. “We need a single set of regulations that everyone can work with.”
Slovenia’s Adria Airways is gradually adopting a hybrid business model and moving to a higher seat-density fleet under its highly ambitious “2-220-2020” strategic plan, which targets 2 million passengers and €220 million ($304 million) in revenue by 2020. Management sees that bullish growth despite rising competition from low-cost carriers at Adria Airways’ home base at Ljubljana Joze Pucnik Airport and nearby Treviso Airport in Italy, which is a Ryanair base.
