Lufthansa Cargo is close to converting options for five more Boeing 777Fs after the airline has seen a significant improvement in demand in some of its key markets. “We plan to replace our MD-11s with Boeing 777s and not only with five or 10,” Executive Vice President Sales Andreas Otto said at a Lufthansa Cargo event near Frankfurt.
India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is adding inspectors and other technical personnel to address year-old and still-unresolved audit findings that led the FAA to downgrade the country’s International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) rating to Category 2. The downgrade, announced Jan. 31, means that Air India and Jet Airways cannot expand service to the U.S., nor can they add U.S. code-share deals to existing flights. The carriers currently combine for 28 weekly flights between the two countries, including 21 by Air India.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers: Cape Town - Johannesburg, January 15-21, 2014, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Top Carriers: Cape Town - Johannesburg, January 15-21, 2014, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Daily Each
Feb. 5-6—Aircraft Interiors Middle East (AIME), Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai, UAE, www.aime.aero/ Feb. 5-7, 2014—National Business Aviation Association Business Aircraft, Finance, Registration and Legal Conference, St. Pete Beach, Fla. www.nbaa.org Feb. 11-16—Singapore Airshow 2014, Changi Exhibition Center, Singapore, www.singaporeairshow.com.sg/#&panel1-3 Feb. 14-15—14th Annual Great Lakes Aviatio Conference, The Lansing Center, Lansing, Mich., www.greatlakesaviationconference.com/
French air accident authority BEA has launched an investigation after a Saab 2000 operated by Swiss regional Darwin Airline lost its nose wheel on landing at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. Darwin Airline, which recently rebranded as Etihad Regional, confirmed that the aircraft’s nose wheel “detached from the main nose wheel strut upon landing on runway 27” at around 0740 on Jan. 28.
French investigators say inadequate flight monitoring and management of automatic systems by the crew of an Air France Boeing 777-200 were key elements in the “momentary loss of control of the flight path,” as the aircraft attempted to abort a Category 3 landing in Paris in November 2011. The incident is an example of the growing problem that the French civil aviation safety agency, BEA, says flight crews are experiencing with go-around maneuvers, in part due to unfamiliarity with the maneuver and a lack of training.
FRANKFURT — CityJet's future owner Intro has concrete fleet replacement plans for the Irish regional airline, even though the takeover has not yet been completed. Intro Managing Director Peter Oncken tells Aviation Week that CityJet will replace its fleet of Avro RJ85s with Embraer 190s. That process is to be completed by 2016.
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Baltic Post has acquired 0.8% of Vilnius-based start-up Air Lituanica, taking the airline’s total capital to LTL11.3 million ($4.5 million). Air Lituanica, which recently split with partner Estonian Air over a debts dispute, launched operations in June. It operates scheduled flights from Vilnius to Brussels, Berlin Tegel, Prague and Munich and will begin flights to Paris on Feb. 14.
Southwest Airlines reached a deal to buy 27 of the 52 slot pairs at Washington National Airport (DCA) being sold as part of the American-US Airways merger. The move, subject to government approval, could see Southwest boost daily DCA departures from 17 to 44. Routes will be announced by April 1 and service will start in the third quarter, Southwest says. JetBlue will buy 20 pairs; the fate of the other five hasn't been made public.
Despite a seemingly benign 2014 fleet plan—adding nine units to an existing fleet and parking nothing—JetBlue Airways has plenty of significant aircraft-related changes on tap for the next 12 months. JetBlue began the year with 194 aircraft—130 Airbus A320s, four A321s, and 60 Embraer 190s. It will take delivery of nine more—all A321s—in 2014, including its first aircraft configured with the carrier’s new Mint cabin that includes 16 lie-flat seats, four of them behind closed-door suites, up front.
Click here to view the pdf Fuel Watch: Global Jet Fuel Prices (midpoint) As of January 29, 2014, compared with previous week and previous year cts/gal prev. week prev.
FRANKFURT — Lufthansa’s supervisory board plans to select a new CEO for the group at its next regular board meeting in mid-March at the very latest, but it is still unclear whether it will pick an internal or external candidate.
LOS ANGELES — Boeing remains outwardly unconcerned about the challenges of “bridging” the three-year order gap between the projected end of the current-model 777s in 2017 and the start of 777X deliveries in 2020. “There are fewer stronger customer franchises than the 777 franchise and there are customers who invested heavily in this aircraft,” Boeing Chairman and CEO Jim McNerney says.
BEIJING — The Comac ARJ21 regional jet project has been delayed again, with the aircraft now due to enter service in April or May 2015, eight years later than scheduled early in the program and 13 years after development began. The first operator, Comac subsidiary Chengdu Airlines, will receive its initial unit from the manufacturer late this year or early next year, says Luo Ning, the carrier’s deputy general manager. After that, further preparations will be made before operations begin in April or May, Luo tells local media.
LOS ANGELES — While the cliff-hanger Boeing machinists vote that cleared the way for 777X production in Washington state took place in early 2014, the company views it as the capstone achievement of a highly successful 2013.
JetBlue Airways could boost capacity by as much at 7% in 2014, but the figure is deceiving—most of the carrier’s growth will come in Latin American/Caribbean markets and its blossoming Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) hub, carrier executives say. The airline, fresh off its most profitable year ever, sees significant opportunity in historically high-fare markets that connect the U.S. with points south.
FAA has combined two divisions—Aircraft Engineering and Production and Airworthiness—to create the Design, Manufacturing, and Airworthiness Division within its Office of Aviation Safety. The new group, which will assume the old engineering division’s AIR-100 designation, has five branches: Certification and Procedures, Technical and Administrative Support, Systems and Equipment Standards, Operational Oversight and Policy, and Systems Performance and Development. The reorganization, announced formally in a Jan.
RIO DE JANEIRO — Azul Linhas Aereas Brasileiras and Trip Linhas Aereas could complete the final step of their merger by the end of February, with March 31 being “the worst case” date, according to Evandro Braga de Oliveira, Azul’s technical director.
