A new FAA rule is easing restrictions on pilot flight review and recency requirements for both flight instructors and pilots of commuter and on-demand operators. The FAA issued the rule at the request of several parties seeking to overturn of a legal interpretation limiting exemptions to the 24-month flight review requirements. But it also comes as the agency and industry look at areas of flight instructor and pilot requirements to help boost the pilot population and improve safety.
The Harbin Hafei Airbus Composite Manufacturing Center (HMC) is planned to become the sole supplier for Airbus A350 elevators and rudders by 2017. HMC, a joint venture between Airbus (which holds a 20% stake) and several Chinese partners including the local Avic branch, delivered the first A350 elevator early this week at an official ceremony in Harbin. The company is specializing in composite components and currently employs around 360 staff, most of them local. That is going to increase to around 600 once production has been fully ramped up.
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Boeing’s latest 20-year pilot and technician hiring forecast estimates that the largest share of airline hiring will occur in the Asia-Pacific region, reflecting the expected fleet growth.
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Lufthansa CEO Christoph Franz is leaving the airline when his current contract expires on May 31, 2014. Franz in a statement says he is leaving for “professional reasons” without stating that he is joining Swiss pharmaceutical group Roche as chairman.
Airbus, the Tianjin Free Trade Zone and Chinese manufacturer Avic are in “quite advanced negotiations” to extend an agreement covering Airbus’s final assembly line in Tianjin, says Airbus China Chief Operating Officer Rafael Gonzalez-Ripoll. According to Gonzalez-Ripoll, he is “pretty sure” that a deal can be signed over the next few weeks or couple of months, he told journalists on the sidelines of an Airbus event in Harbin.
The FAA has established a university-led center of excellence (COE) for alternative jet fuel and the environment, as the aviation community continues its push to get low-carbon biofuels to commercial scale. With $40 million in funding over 10 years, the COE will be led by Washington State University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and tasked with exploring ways to meet the environmental and energy goals of the FAA’s NextGen program.
Following first flight of the CSeries airliner, Bombardier is to review its test plans to see if it can still achieve certification and entry-into-service (EIS) in 12 months, as scheduled. Although initial results from the Sept. 16 first flight are “in line with expectations,” CSeries vice president and general manager Rob Dewar acknowledges that ground tests took longer than planned when the program was laid out in 2008.
Boeing late yesterday completed initial taxi tests of the 787-9 in preparation for a first flight, which could happen today. “We have successfully completed a number of key lead-up milestones in recent weeks. We’re on track for first flight in the coming days, as early as Tuesday, Sept. 17,” the manufacturer says. Test engineers this weekend were evaluating the avionics, primary flight control system, engines and other systems on ZB001, the first aircraft, in preparation of high-speed taxi tests. The initial gauntlet tests began around Sept. 10.
Even as commercial jet travel continues to grow marginally safer, the industry is struggling to reduce fatal accidents during takeoff and landings, the most dangerous phases of flight, Boeing’s latest safety data analysis shows. Boeing’s data reveals that the 22,000-aircraft, Western-built commercial jet fleet between 2003 and 2012 had a fatal accident rate of 0.35 accidents per million departures and 0.31 for scheduled passenger operations. These compare to 0.39 and 0.34, respectively, for the 10-year period to 2011.
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A surge in orders for commercial “E-Jets” is fueling a rebound in Embraer’s backlog after a painful downturn, but the top executive at the Brazilian aircraft builder says there are no plans to raise production levels anytime soon. President and CEO Frederico Curado says the company expects to deliver 90-95 E-Jets this year and a similar number in 2014. “It’s going to be pretty much stable for the next year,” Curado said in an interview following a Sept. 13 ceremony at the company’s headquarters to mark the delivery of the 1,000th E-Jet.
Pakistan’s government has announced plans to sell a stake in Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). Under the plan, potential buyers will be offered 26% of PIA’s shares along with the transfer of management control, a government spokesman says. “The sale is likely to draw international buyers, and might turn into a milestone for the country’s privatization plan,” the spokesman adds.
Ryanair will expand its operation at London Stansted Airport by about 50% in the next 10 years after the airport’s owner guaranteed an unspecified “package of lower costs and more efficient facilities.” The deal with Manchester Airport Group will have an almost immediate effect, with Ryanair increasing “traffic” to 14.5 million passengers in the first year of the 10-year accord. About 13.2 million Ryanair passengers are expected to travel through Stansted this year.
Several years ago, something jarring and potentially dangerous was happening to airliners on the way into Oakland, Calif. Pilots letting down through the mountains en route to Oakland International Airport were receiving terrain awareness and warning system (TAWS) alerts in an area where there were no actual terrain hazards. The FAA learned of the “nuisance alerts” at an InfoShare meeting, a twice-annual closed-door gathering of more than 600 pilots, airline executives, government and industry officials.
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Alternative aviation fuels provide the best opportunity—as compared to technological and air traffic management solutions—to decrease airlines’ CO2 emissions, says Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative Executive Director Steve Csonka. Speaking last week at Air Transport World’s Sixth Annual Eco-Aviation Conference in Washington, Csonka acknowledged challenges to producing alternative jet fuels on a commercial scale.
