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.
NEXA Capital’s NextGen fund, set up to help U.S. airlines pay for upgrades that will reap benefits from FAA’s satellite-based air traffic management (ATM) system, is in advanced talks with three airlines and expects to announce at least one customer by mid-year, says NEXA Capital Partners Managing Director and CEO Michael Dyment.
The U.S. is one step closer to establishing a preclearance customs facility at Abu Dhabi International. Aviation Week has learned that the U.S. and UAE governments have established operational protocols, authorities and facility requirements for preclearance at the airport. A U.S. government source says the Department of Homeland Security and the UAE are discussing other issues before the facility can open, although no specific details were provided.
Air Tahiti Nui and Air France plan to launch a joint venture between Los Angeles International Airport and Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport, combining the services of the only two carriers that have non-stop flights in this market. The carriers have applied to the U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) for antitrust immunity to share revenue and coordinate schedules on this route, but not to points beyond.
FAA Administrator Michael Huerta warned lawmakers again that across-the-board budget cuts could prompt delays of up to 90 min. at major hub airports as the air traffic control workforce begins to experience furloughs.
Delta TechOps, long acknowledged as a key part of parent Delta Air Lines’ vast revenue-diversification strategy, plays an equally important role in helping the airline keep costs down, airline CEO Richard Anderson emphasizes. Speaking at MRO Americas in the shadow of the carrier’s Atlanta headquarters, Anderson revealed that the airline’s engine MRO prowess means the carrier’s pool of spare engines totals just 5% of its on-wing fleet—about half of what an engine OEM recommends.
Members of the European Parliament (EP) have voted to exempt flights to/from Europe from the European Union’s Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) for a 12-month period. The draft law was adopted by 577 votes to 114, with 21 abstentions. It still needs to be endorsed by the European Council representing the EU’s member states, but this is a formality as the draft law, prepared by the EP’s environmental committee rapporteur Peter Liese, includes an agreement with the Council.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers: Delhi - Mumbai, April 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Top Carriers: Delhi - Mumbai, April 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Daily Each Way Departures Share ASKs (000) Share Seats/Dept.
A new subsidy by the Estonian government to Estonian Air to keep it flying has prompted the European Commission (EC) to extend the scope of its investigation into state aid received by the chronically loss-making carrier.
Following French media group Lagardere, German car manufacturer Daimler has sold its remaining shareholding in EADS. The auto maker sold a 7.5% stake for a total of €2.2 billion ($2.9 billion), or €37 per share, a part of which was picked up by EADS.The move came a day after EADS concluded the buyback of a 1.56% stake from the French government for €480 million and on top of a 1.6% stake acquired from Lagardere for €500 million earlier this month.
U.S. regional Pinnacle Airlines is set to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection May 1 as a division of Delta Air Lines after its plan of reorganization was granted court approval. Under the planned integration with Delta, Pinnacle will move its headquarters from Memphis to Minnesota by the end of May.
Managers of U.S. airports are worried about tax-code changes included in President Obama’s proposed fiscal 2014 budget that would make it costlier to use bonds to pay for infrastructure improvements, eroding a reliable source of relatively inexpensive funding that has contributed nearly $50 billion to such airport projects over the past decade.
Australia’s competition watchdog says it will rule next week on Virgin Australia’s proposed acquisition of a majority stake in low-cost carrier Tiger Airways Australia. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has set April 24 as the deadline for its ruling on the Virgin Australia move. However, this is not the first time the ACCC has set a decision deadline; it previously set target dates of Jan. 31 and March 14, but on both occasions it put the process on hold while it sought additional information from the applicants.
Rockwell Collins is experimenting with a graphical, touchscreen mode control panel designed to simplify autonomous operations and to help air transport and business aviation pilots fly more efficient flight profiles. The mode control panel, located at the top of the control panel, typically contains buttons or knobs for selecting autopilot modes and for setting desire heading, airspeed and altitude inputs for those modes.
Lion Air’s Malaysian joint-venture carrier, Malindo Air, in June plans to launch services to India, its first international destination. According to a schedule loaded onto the Sabre global distribution system, the airline on June 1 will launch daily, nonstop services from its base at Kuala Lumpur International Airport to New Delhi Indira Ghandi International Airport and Tiruchirapalli International Airport in southern India.
Driven largely by wing work for the A320NEO, A350 and A380 programs, Airbus is expanding its airframe design and analysis engineering center in downtown Wichita for a second time to accommodate the nearly 150 staff it has added in the past year. The work is not related to the company’s development of an A320 final assembly line in Mobile, Ala., or to the wing and fuselage fabrication performed in Kinston, N.C., by Airbus’s largest U.S. airframe supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, says the head of engineering for Airbus Americas John O’Leary.
