Italy and the Philippines have initialed a new air services agreement (ASA) that awards Philippine operators up to 14 weekly services. The new deal will replace an agreement from 1969 that allowed only one flight a week to Rome Fiumicino Airport. This updated ASA, when formally approved, will grant Philippine carriers direct access to Rome and Milan and Italian airlines access to several points in the Philippines including Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Mactan-Cebu International Airport and Clark International Airport.
Two more Hong-Kong based airlines reportedly have filed objections against the establishment of the Jetstar Hong Kong low-cost carrier. Hong Kong Airlines and Hong Kong Express, which are affiliated airlines part-owned by China’s Hainan Airlines, said they will formally oppose Jetstar Hong Kong during the public comment period of Jetstar’s application, according to media reports. Jetstar Hong Kong is a joint venture between Jetstar Group, China Eastern Airlines and local company Shun Tak Holdings.
Tata Consultancy Services has been selected by Scandinavia’s SAS to overhaul its IT processes, applications and infrastructure. “TCS will implement its proprietary cloud-based solutions to simplify and standardize the SAS IT landscape. The initiative is a part of the SAS “4 Excellence Next Generation” strategy, aimed at improving the competitiveness of the SAS Group,” says Hans-Petter Aanby, SAS’s chief information officer.
JetBlue Airways Chief Operating Officer Rob Maruster says the FAA has a “credibility” problem implementing the satellite-based NextGen air traffic control (ATC) system, leading many U.S. airlines to worry that expensive investments in equipment deemed critical to NextGen’s success will not “pay off.”
A team including Aurora Flight Sciences is proposing unmanned flights of the company’s Centaur optionally piloted aircraft (OPA) over the Alaskan tundra in 2014, following the completion of manned flights to measure greenhouse-gas released from thawing permafrost. On Aug. 30, the company-operated aircraft completed a month-long campaign led by Harvard University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Div.
Oneworld has cleared Qatar Airways to join the alliance on Oct. 30, about 12 months after it extended the airline an invitation to become a member. The membership, when completed, will make Qatar the only big Gulf operator to join an alliance. Qatar’s regional rivals, Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways, while remaining independent of the alliances, are, however, becoming increasingly connected with other carriers through bilateral deals.
Thai Airways is blaming landing gear failure for a Sept. 8 accident in which an Airbus A330-300 skidded off the runway on landing. Thirteen of the aircraft’s 288 passengers suffered minor injuries during the emergency night evacuation at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport after a flight from Guangzhou, China, says Thai Airways President Sorajak Kasemsuvan. There also was a cabin crew of 14 aboard.
AirAsia says it will fight fines imposed by Malaysia’s competition regulator over a failed linkup between AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines (MAS), and the low-cost carrier also has urged the regulator to apply the same scrutiny to airports. The Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) issued a proposed decision stating that both airlines infringed competition laws during their short-lived collaboration agreement. The MyCC says it will fine each carrier RM10 million ($3 million). The airlines have 30 days to submit counter-arguments.
By Thomas Cauthen, Vice President, Travel Intelligence Sales, Amadeus Big data has changed many industries and is fundamentally changing the way we live. It also has the potential to significantly transform the travel industry, including airlines, as outlined in a recent Amadeus report authored by Tom Davenport, visiting professor at Harvard Business School. A look back to the beginning
Click here to view the pdf Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way: Dubai - New York Kennedy Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way: Dubai - New York Kennedy Emirates Delta Others
As Airbus’s first A350 prototype accumulates flight test hours, the other four aircraft scheduled to join the test campaign are progressing through various stages of final assembly. MSN003, the second A350 to fly—most likely in October—has completed ground tests including fuel systems and pressurization, and has its Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines fitted. One of the primary tasks for MSN003 will be hot and cold weather trials, which are due to take place at the end of this year or early in 2014.
Click here to view the pdf Aircraft Operating Statistics, 12 Months Ended March 2013, Widebody Aircraft (Sorted By Seats Per Departure) Aircraft Stage Seats/ Aircraft Carrier In Fleet
Installation of JetBlue Airways’ long-awaited Wi-Fi service is set to begin in the coming weeks following the FAA’s approval of the system for Airbus A320s. The airline has selected Aviation Technical Services (ATS) to retrofit up to 130 Airbus A320s with the Internet system, which JetBlue calls Fly-Fi. The first aircraft is set to be modified in November or “possibly sooner,” ATS CEO Matt Yerbic tells Aviation Week. JetBlue says the fleet will be completed by 2015, with some work being handled by its LiveTV subsidiary in Orlando, Fla.
Tony Tyler, the International Air Transport Association’s chief executive, said recently that “too often governments see aviation as a luxury and milk it as a cash cow.” Giovanni Bisignani, Tyler’s provocative predecessor, also has in the past several years repeatedly accused governments of implementing a narrow-minded cash-cow policy toward airlines.
With visibility down to 1,800 ft. due to fog, see-and-avoid tactics are of no use in checking for traffic as we prepare to cross Runway 36C from taxiway Papa at the Memphis International Airport in Tennessee. A loud call-out annunciation blares out, alerting us to stop on the taxiway just as the landing traffic, a regional jet, zooms by. Though the encounter was virtual, the visual of the high-speed near-miss was realistic enough to make the aural warning and associated safety information on an electronic flight bag all the more relevant.
The Netherlands and Lufthansa Cargo are embroiled in a legal challenge over the German operator’s freighter flights between Quito International Airport in Ecuador and Amsterdam Schiphol Airport via Aguadilla Airport in Puerto Rico.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Sept. 11-12—Aircraft Electronics Association Regional Meeting, Brisbane, Australia, www.aea.net/events.asp Sept. 11-13—9th Maintenance Cost Conference (MCC), Hilton Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, www.iata.org/events/Pages/maintenance-cost.aspx Sept. 12—National Business Aviation Association Business Aviation Regional Forum, Chicago/Waukegan, Ill., 703-783-9000, www.nbaa.org
Bombardier on Sept. 6 completed initial high-speed taxi tests of the first CSeries, and was expected to follow that with a first flight either yesterday or today. Eyewitnesses say flight test vehicle FTV1, a CS100, completed several high-speed runs at Mirabel, near Montreal, before tests were halted because of rising winds. FTV1 never lifted its nose gear, a fact confirmed by video released by Bombardier.
CFM International last week started up the first version of its new generation Leap engine at General Electric’s test site in Peebles, Ohio. The Leap-1A is in development for the Airbus A320NEO, and is the first all-new centerline CFM engine to enter testing since the original CFM56 was developed by the GE Aviation-Snecma joint venture in the 1970s. The NEO engine is set to begin flight tests on GE’s Boeing 747 flying testbed in September 2014, with FAR33 engine certification expected the following summer.
The FAA’s push to enable future airport operations in practically zero visibility is spurring a great deal of technology work not only for the airborne segment but the ground portion of a flight as well. The concept is to use sensors and displays to give pilots a clear view of their path from the gate to the runway and vice versa. Ideally, that presentation will also include alerts for situations where there is threat of an incursion from another aircraft or vehicle.
Demand for Chinese domestic air travel is looking sickly. China Southern Airlines, reporting a surprisingly large 10% drop in passenger yield for the first half of 2013, complains that competition has become all the more fierce because of slowing demand, “rapidly increasing capacity of the airline industry” and expansion of the national high-speed rail network.
