Air France is seeking an increased subsidy from Wuhan in central China to continue the city’s direct connection to Paris, demand for which has been disappointing, although that city and other secondary Chinese destinations are gaining or planning more intercontinental services. The city of Wuhan is willing to consider a higher subsidy but wants more frequencies in return, says a government source. The subsidy is €30,000 ($40,000) a flight, adds the source.
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Aircraft lessor BOC Aviation is aiming at a steadily slowing growth rate after tripling in size since its acquisition by the Bank of China in 2006. The Singapore-based company’s assets have grown from about $3 billion then to $10 billion now. BOC was largely unaffected by the global financial crisis because a year before the 2008 credit crunch its new owner allocated it capital for growth. The bank, as a Chinese state financial institution, did not need to pull back on its plans while U.S. and European financial companies struggled.
Canadian low-cost carrier WestJet, in a surprising move, late last week announced plans to add a transatlantic route to its network. Pending government approvals, starting June 15, 2014, the carrier will launch seasonal Boeing 737-700 nonstop service between St. John’s International Airport in Newfoundland and Dublin Airport in Ireland. The service, which will originate and end in Toronto to connect with WestJet’s network, will be operated until Oct. 5, the airline says.
Airbus sees “huge growth potential” for more long-haul operations by Latin American airlines, the manufacturer’s Executive Vice President-Latin America and Caribbean Rafael Alonso said on the sidelines of the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association Leaders Forum in Cancun, Mexico. The company also expects that growth in air travel inside the region will be even faster. The six biggest airlines in the region only carry 19% of the long-haul traffic into and out of Latin America, Alonso pointed out.
Air Berlin plans to sell even more aircraft before the end of the year to bolster its balance sheet, after the airline was forced to scale back its targets for profit and debt reduction. The company owned only 25 of the 145 aircraft it was operating at the end of the third quarter, and CFO Ulf Huettmeyer says that number may be reduced to 10 or 15.
Boeing says the Nov. 13 decision by the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM) to reject a long-term contract extension deal gives it “no choice” but to look at alternate sites away from the Seattle area to assemble the 777X and its composite wing.
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Alitalia’s future looks even more uncertain now that its largest shareholder, Air France-KLM, has decided not to take part in the proposed €300 million ($402 million) capital increase at the embattled Italian airline.
Airbus plans to deliver 620 aircraft in 2013, slight more than the 600-610 deliveries previously forecast. Parent company EADS also has increased its full-year order target to 1,200 aircraft, but the airframer already had exceeded that total at the end of October. By the end of the third quarter, Airbus had collected a total of 1,265 gross orders, and it is very likely to finalize more orders at next week’s Dubai air show.
A full-scale 757 tail, equipped with active flow control, has demonstrated increased rudder effectiveness in wind-tunnel tests by Boeing and NASA that could lead to smaller, lower-drag vertical tails. The four weeks of tests in the National Full-Scale Aerodynamic Facility at NASA Ames Research Center, Calif., evaluated the use of active flow control (AFC) to increase rudder sideforce on demand by delaying airflow separation over the deflected control surface.
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Delta Air Lines continues to press its case for access to slots and gates being divested by AMR Corp. and US Airways under the recently agreed merger concession package with the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) by announcing plans for 18 daily nonstop flights to five cities from Southwest Airlines’ base at Dallas Love Field starting in October 2014, but only if it is assigned new rights at the Texas airport. Delta currently leases two gates at Love Field from AMR, but the DOJ is requiring these to be assigned to a low-cost operator under the merger concessions deal.
Consolidation in the Latin American airline sector is “likely to continue and could see investment by U.S. carriers in their partners in the region,” Roberto Kriete, President of the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA), said ahead of the opening of the group’s Leaders Forum in Cancun, Mexico. “Delta could buy a Latin American airline, Aeromexico or Gol [Linhas Aereas Inteligentes],” Kriete said. “For us it would only be natural.”
Boeing is providing more detail about its plans to improve the in-service reliability of the 787-8, some of which involves evaluations of revised software during ongoing flight tests of the stretched 787-9. Although the company acknowledges it still has much work in front of it to combat the “teething troubles” early in the 787’s service life with the electrical system, batteries, hydraulics, brakes, oxygen system and others, it says the chief focus is now on rationalizing the aircraft’s very sophisticated software.
Pilots of a Swiftair MD-83 that dragged its right wing over the runway threshold during an early morning landing in Kandahar, Afghanistan in January 2012 had flown an unstable visual approach leading up to the accident. None of the 91 passengers or five crew members on the flight from Dubai were injured, but the aircraft was significantly damaged, says the Spanish civil aviation accident investigation commission.
Bombardier CRJ200 operators are being urged to inspect emergency manual landing gear release systems to ensure they are operating correctly, following an in-service report of a latent failure potentially caused by unrelated maintenance.
A potential strike has prompted Finnair to cut its full-year guidance, and the airline now expects to report an operating loss in 2013 and revenue below 2012’s level. The Finnish Flight Attendants’ Association and the Finnish Aviation Union, which had already issued a strike warning earlier this month for Nov. 15-23, have called for an additional four days of industrial action Nov. 28-30, to protest measures to implement structural changes and cost reductions.
How pilots decide when and where to abandon a faulty approach or landing is the topic of intense research and study in the aviation community as accidents in that phase of flight continue to dominate all others. While new procedures and better training and monitoring are high on the list of near-term interventions, there is a growing consensus that a technology solution that removes much of the sometimes-murky decision process should be part of the long-term fix.
