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Lufthansa Cargo’s transatlantic yields could improve after rival Air Cargo Germany (ACG) on Friday said it has temporarily suspended operations. In an message posted on ACG’s website CEO Michael Schaecher says the “interruption is beyond our control and was neither expected nor foreseen in any way.” Schaecher adds that he remains confident the carrier will resume regular flight operations in the next few days. However, Germany’s aviation authority LBA has suspended ACG’s air operator’s certificate, which may hinder such a quick return to service.
Lufthansa says a planned one-day strike on April 22 by Verdi is excessive and unjustified considering the progress made in negotiation held since the union’s strike last month. The strike action will affect the airline’s hubs in Frankfurt and Munich as well as operations in Berlin, Cologne, Duesseldorf, Hamburg, Hanover, Norderstedt, Nuremberg and Stuttgart. “It is high time that policymakers address the need for new rules with regard to industrial conflict in those areas which are essential for the industry infrastructure,” says Lufthansa.
Many of the airlines most likely to lease equipment lack the expertise and infrastructure needed to avoid unexpected costs and work when it comes time to return the aircraft, a problem likely to grow more acute as leased aircraft account for more of the world’s in-service fleet. “Keeping lease-return costs down requires planning before the asset even hits your books,” says attorney Morris Little of Taylor/English, who was an aircraft mechanic for 12 years before turning to aviation law and specializing in lease transactions.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) says it will cut 1,500-1,700 engineering and technical jobs this year, because non-recurring development work on the 747-8, 787-9 and KC-46 Tanker programs is slowing down and the 787-10X and 777X projects that might have taken up the slack are not yet approved.
The FAA has approved Boeing’s design modifications to the 787 battery system, a move that will allow the aircraft to reenter service once the changes are made to the fleet and verified by the FAA. The approval, which will be official next week upon publication of a final directive and “instructions to operators for making the changes,” ends a three-month grounding of the widebody resulting from two incidents of smoke and fire from the 787’s lithium-ion battery systems.
Air traffic controller furloughs scheduled to begin April 21 could cause an average flight delay of 50 min. at Chicago O’Hare International Airport and delays as long as 210 min. at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International, FAA and U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) officials say.
The civil aviation MRO market will be worth about $56 billion this year, with engine maintenance expenditures representing about 40%, say analysts who presented forecasts at Aviation Week’s MRO Americas Conference in Atlanta. The civil aviation fleet will grow at a 3.1% rate over the next decade despite the fact that 6,400 jets and turboprops will leave the market through 2022, according to an ICF SH&E MRO market forecast.
Click here to view the pdf Fuel Watch: Global Jet Fuel Prices (midpoint) As of April 17, 2013, compared with previous week and previous year cts/gal prev. week prev.
Kenya Airways is reassessing its fleet growth plans beyond 2015 and could consider adding Airbus aircraft to a fleet currently dominated by Boeing narrow- and widebodies, CEO Titus Naikuni told Aviation Week in an interview in Nairobi. The airline is contemplating orders for about 50 new aircraft as part of a 10-year strategic plan that increases the number of destinations served to more than 115 from the 59 Kenya Airways currently flies to.
A recently opened facility in Moses Lake, Wash., is helping Aviation Technical Services (ATS) meet increasing demand for heavy airframe maintenance and modifications just a few years after a dip in the market forced the company to cut capacity. Following the 2008 recession, U.S. airlines saw system available seat miles (ASMs) fall 7.7% in the next two years, according to FAA data.
FAA’s Aviation Safety branch is in a sequestration-driven staffing “free fall” and expects to continue shrinking into next year, FAA Deputy Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety John Hickey told MRO Americas attendees in Atlanta April 18. According to Hickey, the “significant” impact will be felt most in non-safety sensitive areas, like achieving new certifications.
Small airports would see a decline in their Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grant money in fiscal 2014 under the Obama administration’s budget proposal, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta acknowledged in testimony before Congress April 18. But Huerta says he is confident that those airports would get enough discretionary funding to make up the difference.
Norwegian Air Shuttle expects to increase system-wide capacity by more than 25% in 2013, based on the planned launch of its first long-haul routes later this spring and the move to longer stage lengths in the carrier’s European network. The airline will commence services to New York John F. Kennedy International Airport on May 30, followed by a new flight to Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok.
FAA Administrator Michael Huerta maintains that closing contract air traffic control towers will not jeopardize safety, but warns that efficiency will be sacrificed as a result. “We’re not doing anything that isn’t safe,” he told the Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee on April 18.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is requiring inspections of Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines powering the Boeing 787. EASA issued an airworthiness directive after rear seal fins were found missing on some intermediate-pressure turbine (IPT) blades during on-wing inspections and overhaul. The agency says that “release of an IPT blade rear seal fin may result in downstream, secondary damage, potentially accompanied with engine power loss.” The AD becomes effective May 2.
