Air Canada’s low-cost Rouge subsidiary is beefing up its intra-North America operations and expanding west, adding five U.S. cities and doubling its Canadian stations by launching service in Calgary and Vancouver. The expansion will see Rouge take over current Air Canada service between Vancouver and Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Anchorage, as well as between Calgary and Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The changes will be made by July 1.
The chairman of the U.S. House aviation subcommittee, tasked with leading the lower chamber of Congress in crafting its version of the next FAA reauthorization bill, said today that his panel’s priorities are the streamlined NextGen ATM overhaul and forthcoming domestic-flying UAS regulations, particularly how they manage safety and personal privacy concerns.
GE Aviation will provide technical support to air navigation service provider Airports Authority of India (AAI) to speed deployment of Required Navigation Performance (RNP) flight paths throughout India. “India has more than 50 mid-sized airports which could benefit immediately with track-mile and fuel savings from RNP,” says Giovanni Spitale, general manager of GE Aviation’s Flight Efficiency Services.
An Australian Senate committee has approved the government’s proposal to remove foreign ownership restrictions on Qantas, although the dissenting opinions from opposition lawmakers on this panel highlight that it will be very tough to pass. The governing Liberal-National Coalition government is introducing a bill to repeal certain ownership rules that apply only to Qantas and not to its competitors. It would also remove a requirement that vital services – including maintenance – be mainly based in Australia.
The growing airborne search for the lost Malaysia Airlines aircraft in the so-called southern corridor is not disrupting regular air traffic operations, says Airservices Australia.
Singapore-based Tiger Airways Holdings, parent company for the Tigerair group of LCCs in southeast Asia and Taiwan, has ordered 37 Airbus A320neos—but bumped an existing order for nine conventional-engine A320s. The move will save money and help position the carrier for route and service expansion. Explaining the decision, Tiger Air Chief Executive Officer Koay Peng Yen noted in a statement that Tiger has “...re-calibrated its strategy and taken the necessary steps to re-position Tigerair for a brighter future.”
Air Berlin is expected to be de-listed and its major shareholder, Etihad, is understood to be planning to increase its stake in what could be the beginning of a new phase in its partnership strategy, industry sources tell Aviation Week. The companies did not comment.
Inmarsat analyzed satellite data from routine flights to learn patterns that helped investigators conclude that data received from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) shows the aircraft's last known position after hours of flying was over a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean. The new analysis, done by Inmarsat and the U.K. Air Accidents Investigations Branch (AAIB) with contributions from Boeing and others, convinced Malaysian officials that the Boeing 777 flew south after it disappeared from radar and it did not land safely.
General Electric’s share of the total Boeing 787 announced orderbook has officially broken the 50% barrier with the selection by Air France-KLM of the GEnx-1B engine to power its mixed fleet of 37 owned and leased 787-8s and 9s.
China Eastern will build up air services in the Chinese northwestern province Gansu on behalf of the local government, according to a framework agreement signed by the airline and the province. The move extends two current trends in Chinese aviation: airlines’ strengthening of operations in the west of the country, and the setting up or enlargement of services thanks to subsidies from local governments that see commercial air services as an aid to economic growth.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is urging air-navigation service providers (ANSPs) and their regulators to follow published missed-approach procedures so pilot distraction is minimized during these high-workload scenarios. In a safety information bulletin (SIB) published March 20, EASA calls on ANSPs and civil aviation authorities to heed specific recommendations in a 2013 study by France’s BEA accident investigation agency.
Click here to view the pdf Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way: London Heathrow - Los Angeles Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way: London Heathrow - Los Angeles British Airways American Others
Mishandled Baggage Reports: January 2014 Total Baggage Enplaned Reports Per 1,000 Passengers Rank Airline Reports Passengers Current Last Year % Change 1 Virgin America 574
AirAsia India, the country’s new no-frills carrier, received its first Airbus A320, inching closer to launching its operation in the domestic sector to help connect smaller Indian cities. A joint venture between Malaysia’s low-cost carrier AirAsia Group Bhd and local investors the Tata Group and Arun Bhatia’s Telestra Tradeplace, the airline got permission from the Indian government late last year to import 10 aircraft.
Jetstar Airways’ decision to end its service between Singapore and Auckland appears to be influenced at least partly by a proposed Air New Zealand-Singapore Airlines (SIA) partnership on this busy route.
An industry-led working group collecting best practices for helping pilots improve their situational awareness has narrowed its focus to monitoring the flight path, two group members tell Aviation Week. “We realized that that’s where the action is,” says NTSB Member Robert Sumwalt, whose challenge to industry at a 2012 human factors meeting led to the working group’s formation (Aviation DAILY, July 19, 2013).
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Hainan Airlines subsidiary Lucky Air has set up a base at Chengdu, extending the group’s westward push and challenging Air China, the biggest major operator at the large western Chinese city. Following approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China last month for Lucky Air to establish a branch company in the city, the carrier has begun began flying the short route between the Chengdu Shuangliu and Jiuzhai Huanglong Airports. Jiuzhai is a major tourism destination.
Early CSeries flight-test results are supporting performance predictions, giving Bombardier confidence in its projections for the all-new narrowbody airliner, says Guy Hachey, president of the company’s aerospace business. “We are seeing in flight test that we will be able to back up our numbers,” he said today at Bombardier’s investor day in New York. “We feel good about our projections.”
