Privately-owned Chinese start-up Ruili Airlines will soon announce an order for Airbus A320-family aircraft, possibly next month, says a manufacturing industry source. After six years of refusing to entertain applications from new private airlines, the Civil Aviation Administration of China has given Ruili preliminary approval to begin operations, designating its fleet as six Boeing 737-700 and 737-800 aircraft. The number of A320-family aircraft in the imminent order is unknown.
The U.K.’s air navigation service provider, National Air Traffic Services (NATS), is now offering financial incentives to improve the environmental performance of its service. The company could benefit by up to £2.4 million ($3.1 million) if it manages to achieve the best possible routings for air traffic through U.K. airspace, but may have to pay airlines up to £4.6 million if it performs poorly.
The average age of aircraft in the Southwest Airlines fleet is 11 years, the carrier says. An article in the May 15 issue stated an incorrect average based on a Southwest misstatement of the figure during its annual shareholders meeting.
Heathrow Airport Holdings in a proposal to expand capacity at London Heathrow says that the extra movements provided by mixed-mode operations would significantly impact the local community’s exposure to noise.
African start-up carrier Fastjet has deferred the launch of service in South Africa by up to two months. Earlier this month, the airline detailed plans to wet-lease a Boeing 737-300 to launch a South African joint venture by late May, but it now expects to begin service between OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and Cape Town International Airport in July.
The U.S. opposes the relocation of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) headquarters from Montreal to Doha, Qatar, because it would be too disruptive and would not save much money, says Duane Woerth, the U.S. representative on the ICAO council. “We’re not interesting in moving it anywhere,” the ambassador said in response to questions after a speech at the International Aviation Club in Washington. “It is extremely disruptive,” he added, especially to employees.
If you represent a U.S. public-use airport seeking improvement grants under the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program (AIP), do not wait too much longer to submit new requests because end-of-year discretionary awards will be pinched, according to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) is forecasting a gloomy year ahead due to a slump in cargo traffic and weak passenger demand for long-haul markets in Europe and the U.S. “The global economic outlook remains uncertain, with the ongoing weakness in the euro zone and sluggish recovery in the U.S.,” says SIA in a statement. “Forward bookings for the next few months are almost flat compared to the same period last year.
Allegiant Air is challenging Southwest Airlines on a handful of routes where it believes the low-cost carrier has raised fares too much, an “experiment” for a carrier that normally strives to avoid direct competition.
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on May 22 will hold a hearing on the nomination of Anthony Foxx as U.S. Transportation Secretary. Foxx, who was nominated by President Obama April 29, currently is mayor of Charlotte, N.C., and has been credited for improving the city’s transportation infrastructure.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers: Dubai - Riyadh, May 15-21 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Top Carriers: Dubai - Riyadh, May 15-21 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Daily Each Way Departur
The U.S. Transportation Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) this week will begin an audit of the FAA’s runway safety programs to address a growing number of serious runway incursions. The FAA defines runway incursions as any unauthorized intrusion onto a runway, whether by aircraft or vehicle, and categorizes occurrences into four groups, with Category A representing the most severe incidents and Category D the least important. Causes of incursions are classified as controller actions, pilot deviations or vehicle/pedestrian errors.
The White House has nominated Michael Whitaker, an airline industry veteran, to fill the deputy administrator role left vacant by Michael Huerta’s Jan. 1 appointment as head of the FAA. Whitaker, who currently works for the air transport division of Indian conglomerate InterGlobe Enterprises, has more than 20 years of experience in the airline industry, first with Trans World Airlines and then at United, where he worked for 15 years. Whitaker was senior vice president for alliances, international and regulatory affairs at United before joining InterGlobe in 2009.
In April, the FAA and other U.S. government agencies completed the third and final operational field test in a two-year, $8 million program to study the physical and electromagnetic interference between radar systems and wind turbine farms, and to identify mitigation techniques to address this issue.
Advocates of U.S. airlines on Capitol Hill continue to pressure the Obama administration to stop the creation of a customs preclearance facility at Abu Dhabi International Airport. This week the Republican-controlled House Homeland Security Committee adopted language proposed by Rep. Pat Meehan (R-Pa.) that, if enacted, would force U.S. Customs and Border Protection to provide further justification for a facility at Abu Dhabi, which no U.S. airline serves.
Virgin Atlantic has unveiled a plan to reduce costs by £45 million ($69 million) this fiscal year after posting a £96 million loss for the 12 months ending Feb. 28. The cost savings initiative will target “non-customer-facing back-office operations” such as IT, and “cross-functional working practices,” the airline said May 16 in its earnings statement.
Click here to view the pdf Fuel Watch: Global Jet Fuel Prices (midpoint) As of May 15, 2013, compared with previous week and previous year cts/gal prev. week prev.
The great strides that Africa’s commercial aviation industry has made in recent years—with the emergence of stronger scheduled carriers such as Egypt Air, Ethiopian Airlines and Kenya Airways—has actually been a bad development for Africa’s wet-lessors. “Wet-leasing is not as popular as before,” says Apandi Lakhiyalov, the group CEO of Aerovista, a leasing company based in Dubai that offers wet-leases in Africa and other emerging markets using its Georgian and Tanzanian air operator certificates (AOCs).
A restructuring plan is bringing HNA Group’s Chinese passenger airlines under the control of the biggest and first of them—Hainan Airlines—which in turn is setting out to coordinate operations, align service levels and, in the case of two of the group’s carriers, try out low-cost operations.
A group of airlines operating mostly brand new Boeing 777-300ERs powered by General Electric GE90-115Bs are either replacing entire engines or transfer gearboxes on individual units after GE alerted them to the potential for a gear separation.
