Eyeing difficult budget negotiations and the prospect of more sequestration cuts, a dozen aviation organizations are urging lawmakers to ensure that the contract tower program receives adequate funding and is shielded from potential dismantling. The organizations, representing airports, local communities, business aviation, airlines and other interests, wrote the House of Representatives and Senate Appropriations Committees endorsing language that dedicates $140 million in funding to the contract tower program.
BAE Systems, making quick inroads into commercial aircraft maintenance, will support certain electronics on Japan Airlines Boeing 737-800s, 767s, and 777s. The three-year deal—the second commercial aftermarket win in a month for the defense- and security-focused company—includes repairs, spares and modifications. On Oct. 1, BAE Systems started a base maintenance support deal for Tigerair Australia. BAE is supporting the carrier’s Airbus A320 fleet from its Melbourne International Airport hangar.
Rolls-Royce (R-R) expects its engine production in Singapore to equal that in the U.K. by 2015. Its U.K. factory produces about 250 engines per year, and the Singapore facility at Seletar should assemble 150 in 2014 before it reaches the same number the following year. The Singapore facility currently assembles Trent 900s but will add the Trent 1000, which powers the Airbus A350, in the first half of 2014.
The surging surplus parts market caught Rockwell Collins off-guard in 2013 and held down the company’s airline aftermarket revenue growth, which still increased 6% on the strength of mandate-related avionics retrofits.
Europe’s plans to flight-test an open-rotor engine have taken a step forward, with confirmation by Airbus of the technical feasibility of an aircraft powered by the fuel-saving engines. The milestone has been announced by the European Clean Sky civil aviation research program, which says the planned counter-rotating open-rotor engine (Cror) demonstrator has passed its technology readiness level 3 decision gate.
Airline passenger traffic in France rose 2.2% in the first nine months of the year, but foreign carriers are growing markedly faster than French operators, even on domestic routes. French airlines—including Air France—increased passenger numbers just 0.7% year-over-year, comprising a 0.3% increase on domestic routes and 1% growth on international routes, according to data from the French Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC).
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers - Sao Paulo, Oct. 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Outbound ASMs Top Carriers - Sao Paulo, Oct. 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Outbound ASMs Departures Airport Share ASMs (mil) Airport Share Seats/Dept.
Lufthansa Technik (LHT) has purchased a 15% stake in AeroTurbine, giving the European company a major link in the surplus parts supply chain and providing AeroTurbine owner International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC) with a partner well-positioned to help it manage its huge fleet.
Al Maktoum Airport—which is part of the Dubai World Central complex—on Oct. 27 welcomed its first passenger flight, a Wizz Air service from Budapest. The low-cost carrier is one of three airlines which have signed up to use the airport, located 40 km (25 mi.) southwest of Dubai. The facility has been open for freight traffic since June 2010, and was licensed to begin passenger operations by the United Arab Emirates’ General Civil Aviation Authority on Sept. 17.
The main unions representing Alitalia cabin crew and pilots have called a four-hour strike today to protest management’s failure to provide details on its strategy to avoid bankruptcy, and are threatening to stage another three work stoppages if the airline fails to develop a credible restructuring plan.
In late December 2011, a U.S. Marine Corps mechanic conducting a routine phase inspection of a UH-1Y Huey discovered that the helicopter’s transmission pylon beam and the main beam joint were disintegrating. Left unchecked, the problem would have resulted in disaster. The mechanic’s finding led to a Corps-wide inspection and, ultimately, the release of an engineering advisory report.
An article in the Oct. 28 issue of Aviation Daily on an FAA directive ordering checks of Boeing 747-8 power control actuators (PCAs) for missing bushings should have stated that only one instance of missing PCA bushings has been reported.
French investigators say faulty maintenance, combined with a lack of “clear and detailed” instructions by Airbus led to the runway excursion of an Air Contractors Airbus A300—operating as a DHL freighter—at Bratislava Airport in Slovakia on Nov. 16, 2012. After landing on Runway 22 in good weather after a flight from Leipzig, the pilots noted “strong vibrations” six seconds after the nose gear touched down.
The FAA on Oct. 25 ordered Boeing 747-8 operators to check elevator power control actuators (PCA) for missing bushings after two reports of missing bushings on in-service aircraft. The directive, effective Nov. 12, was adopted without prior public comment due to the risk presented. It requires operators to follow the recommended detailed inspection procedure and timeline detailed in a Boeing Alert Service Bulletin issued Aug. 23. The order does not provide additional compliance details.
18th Annual Regional & Business Aviation Industry Suppliers Conference Montelucia, Paradise Valley (Scottsdale), AZ November 6-8, 2013 Preliminary Program Available at www.speednews.com Who should attend?
In a letter to the general secretariat of the Council of EU, which was obtained by Aviation Week, Cyprus admits it mistakenly voted against the European Union’s proposal at the International Civil Aviation Organization assembly in Montreal on a framework for national and regional market-based measures to reduce aviation-related carbon emissions, and instead supported a counter-proposal drawn up by a group of countries led by Russia.
Boeing, which has struggled to cash in on the massive aftermarket support market its aircraft generate, is designing the 737 MAX and soon-to-be-launched 777X with an eye on grabbing a greater share of the maintenance work the models will need, the company’s top executive says. “We are mindful of the lifecycle costs and revenues associated with decisions we make on these programs,” Boeing President and CEO James McNerney said last week during an earnings call. “We are thinking harder about that issue, and leaning forward more than perhaps we did on the 787.”
Among the innovations hidden beneath the skin of Dassault’s Falcon 5X is a Thales-developed unit that will both electrically start the aircraft’s Snecma Silvercrest engines and generate power from them to supply aircraft systems. Believed to be the first time such devices have featured on a general aviation aircraft, the Thales TopStar suite on the new Falcon will include two starter-generators for the main engines, one for the auxiliary power unit (APU), three electronic regulators, three transformer rectifiers and a single electronic starter converter.
Air India has issued a fresh global tender for the lease of 19 new Airbus A320 aircraft, after the financially troubled airline’s first bid in August failed to attract any lessors. “As part of its effort to reduce costs and optimize revenue, Air India intends to procure new A320s with Sharklet fuel-saving wing-tip devices, powered by CFM56-5B4/3 PIP engines, on dry lease for a lease period of maximum up to 12 years, up from the six-year lease period it planned in August,” an airline spokesman tells Aviation Week. The airline will accept bids until Nov. 19.
Miami International Airport will be the third U.S. airport to begin using the FAA’s revised wake turbulence separation criteria, already in place in Memphis International Airport in Tennessee and Louisville International Airport in Kentucky. Beginning Dec. 1, controllers at Miami will allow most aircraft to fly closer together on arrivals and departures without eroding safety margins for wake-induced upsets.
GE Honda Aero Engines expects to achieve its long-awaited FAA certification for the HF120 turbofan by year-end, paving the way for the start of initial production in coming months.
Harris Corp. has agreements in place with five major carriers, including United Airlines, to equip more than 1,500 aircraft over the next six years with digital communications gear that will accelerate ground operations at 57 airports by mid-2019 and remove most voice communications with air traffic control in the en route environment beyond 2019.
