Investigators are examining the actions of the pilots involved in a Lion Air crash on April 13, which was the result of a Boeing 737-800 landing short of the runway at Bali’s Denpasar-Ngurah Rai Bali International Airport. Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) has questioned the pilots and they also have undergone drug and alcohol tests, which they have reportedly passed.
Air India and Caribbean Airlines in the next two months could begin negotiations to establish an interline agreement. The talks follow a visit to India by the Trinidad and Tobago-based airline’s Chairman Rabindra Moonan and CEO Robert Corbie. The two executives in a statement say Air India has agreed to start talks by mid-June to establish the interline accord with the intent to advance the relationship to a full code-share. Caribbean Airlines’ leadership also says the Indian government has committed “to seeing the initiative progress successfully.”
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers: Beijing Capital- Shanghai, April 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Top Carriers: Beijing Capital- Shanghai, April 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Daily Each W
Key U.S. lawmakers with oversight authority of the FAA continue to attack the agency over its sequestration-based decision to close 149 contract control towers on June 15. Leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure and Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committees along with other lawmakers from both political parties on April 12 sent a letter to the FAA and to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood expressing “profound disappointment” with the closures, asserting that authorities still are unsure of the impact on aviation safety.
Qantas believes its first Boeing 787 delivery will be delayed up to two months by the battery issues that have grounded the 787 fleet, a senior airline executive says. The first delivery will occur after August, which was previously the target date for the 787’s arrival, says Simon Hickey, head of Qantas’s international operation. Hickey told reporters in Singapore that the latest delay is not expected to be more than “a couple of months.” A Qantas spokesman confirmed that media reports quoting Hickey’s comments were accurate.
Management at Thai Airways International’s new short-haul operation, Thai Smile, wants to double the operation’s fleet to 40 aircraft. “Twenty aircraft is still not enough capacity to ensure that Thai Smile adequately taps the intra-Asia opportunities,” particularly with Asia Pacific markets liberalizing, Managing Director Woranate Laprabang tells Aviation Week. “It has got to be 40 aircraft,” he continues, noting that a business plan for such a fleet has been sent to Thai Airways board of directors.
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport Bi-County Board for Luzerne and Lackawanna counties is accepting Statements of Qualifications and Proposals from qualified Fixed Base Operators interested in performing Fixed Base Operator Services at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport. Statements of Qualifications and Proposals must be submitted by 1:30 p.m., Friday, May 10, 2013.
Malaysian carrier Malindo Air, which started operations in March and is 49% owned by Indonesia’s Lion Air, plans to operate ATR 72 turboprops out of Malaysia’s Subang Airport, says a source from Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation (DCA). “That is Malindo’s proposal. That’s their business plan. Yes, they want to fly turboprops out of Subang,” the source tells Aviation Week. The DCA however, has yet to grant the approval, the source adds.
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April 16-18—MRO Americas 2013, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Ga. April 17-18—MRO Military 2013, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Ga. May 7-8—Civil Aviation Manufacturing Conference, Charlotte, N.C. May 14-15—MRO Regional - Eastern Europe, Baltics and Russia, Radisson Blu Lletuva Vilnius, Lithuania Sept. 9-11—NEXTGEN AHEAD—Air Transportation Modernization Conference, The Dupont Circle Hotel, Washington, D.C. Sept. 24-26—MRO Europe 2013, ExCel, London, U.K. Oct. 29-31—MRO Asia, Singapore, SingEx
Airlines For America (A4A) is joining general aviation groups in their outcry against the Obama administration’s aviation tax proposals, even as the White House states that its proposed $100-per-flight air traffic control user fee is designed to bring parity to funding the air traffic control (ATC) system. The White House has long charged that business aircraft operators do not pay their fair share to help fund the national airspace system, and that the $100-per-flight user fee was an attempt to spread the costs more evenly.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers: Hong Kong - Taipei, April 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Top Carriers: Hong Kong - Taipei, April 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Daily Each Way
Global inflight entertainment and broadband communications provider Panasonic Avionics has bought the assets and 40-employee workforce of U.S.-based weather provider AirDat for an undisclosed amount.
Click here to view the pdf Mishandled Baggage Reports February 2013 Total Baggage Enplaned Reports Per 1,000 Passengers Rank Airline Reports Passengers
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is reducing the number of its regional structures from seven to five by merging its North and Latin American divisions into a single entity based in Miami and basing its Africa and Middle East offices in Amman, Jordan.
NASA plans to launch a program in fiscal 2014 to accelerate dramatically the development and certification of new composite materials and structures for aircraft, but also will re-evaluate its rotary-wing research with the aim of phasing out lower-priority work. The agency’s aeronautics research budget is planned to stay essentially flat to fiscal 2018, slipping just 0.6% to $565.7 million in the fiscal 2014 request. Funding is planned to stay at that slightly lower level for the rest of the five-year budget plan.
April 16-18—Airline Distribution 2013, Intercontinental Miami, Miami, Fla., www.uatp.com/news-and-events/AD-2013-Home.html April 16-18—World Aviation Training Conference and Tradeshow (WATS) 2013, Rosen Shingle Creek Resort, Orlando, Fla., www.halldale.com/wats-2013/overview April 16-18—ABACE 2013, 2013 Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition, Shanghai Hawker Pacific Business Aviation Service Centre, www.abace.aero/2012/
Kenya Airways has taken delivery of its first Boeing 737-300F painted in Kenya Airways Cargo livery. It is the first of four 737-300 passenger aircraft owned by Kenya Airways and earmarked for conversion into freighters. A second one is due to arrive in Nairobi in July, but the timing of the other two conversions will depend on market conditions and demand.
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport Bi-County Board for Luzerne and Lackawanna counties is accepting Statements of Qualifications and Proposals from qualified Fixed Base Operators interested in performing Fixed Base Operator Services at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport. Statements of Qualifications and Proposals must be submitted by 1:30 p.m., Friday, May 10, 2013.
The Obama administration’s proposed budget for airport grants could have a big impact on small airports, despite assertions to the contrary in the budget documents, because of a “double entitlement” trigger in the funding formula for the Airport Improvement Program (AIP). The funding formula in the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century, also known as AIR21, was enacted in 2000.
