A new U.S. National Research Council (NRC) report warns that scaling up production of biofuels from algae to meet just 5% of U.S. transportation fuel needs would place unsustainable demands on energy, water and nutrients. But algal biofuel supporters have welcomed the report, which also concludes that sustainability concerns “are not a definitive barrier for future production” and that further research and development “could help realize algal biofuels’ full potential.”
TAC Air added Bob Schick as director-safety and risk management, Tristiene Pickett as director-administrative services and Joel Miller as director-properties.
Introducing the Aero 100 Airfare Benchmark Index Designed for anyone with risk on the future level of airfares – for example Airlines, Banks/Credit Card Companies, Corporate Travel Managers, etc. The Aero 100 Airfare Benchmark Index tracks daily airfares within the domestic airline market. The Aero 100 delivers financial risk mitigation and protection against constant fluctuation of airline ticket prices by providing the price settling mechanism for Commodity Futures Contracts.
Air traffic control providers from Iceland and Denmark are reporting new progress in deploying automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) networks that will provide coverage across large areas of the North Atlantic. Isavia has successfully completed key tests on a new ADS-B system in Iceland, while Denmark’s Naviair is close to awarding a contract for networks in Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
Pratt & Whitney (P&W) next month expects to start the first test runs of the PW1100G for the Airbus A320NEO following the engine’s official completion Friday in Florida. The event marks a major milestone for P&W’s two decades-long campaign to develop geared turbofan technology for the mainstream single-aisle market. The engine is due to be certified early in the third quarter of 2014 and should power the A320NEO for the first time on its initial test flight a few weeks after that.
The internal target for certification of Comac’s 90-seat ARJ21 regional jet has been delayed again, to 2014 from the previously scheduled mid-2013, says a program official. Development therefore is now likely to last 12 years, with six years of flight testing. A key reason for the latest delay is slow progress in flight testing. Engineers also are attending to avionics bugs and modifying the landing gear, one of many issues arising from changes elsewhere in the design.
Latam Airlines Group’s Brazilian unit TAM next week will launch a new daily flight between Rio de Janeiro and Orlando, Fla., in direct response to rival GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes’ plan to launch its first scheduled flights to the U.S. TAM had the regulatory approval to operate the U.S. flight, but had not exercised it until last week, a spokeswoman tells Aviation Week. TAM will deploy an Airbus A330 on the flight, she adds.
Virgin Atlantic President Richard Branson, announcing the resumption of London-Mumbai flights after a three-year hiatus, says he is open to investment opportunities in Indian carriers. “Now foreign companies have been allowed to pick up 49%, so we are keeping our eyes open. It’s a brave battle going on in the Indian aviation space now. Everybody is bleeding. There will be a right time, and we will watch,” Branson says.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Oct. 30–Nov. 1—National Business Aviation Association 65th Annual Meeting & Convention, Orange County Convention Center, Orlando Executive Airport, Orlando, Fla., 202-783-9000, www.nbaa.org Nov. 5-8 19th Annual Global Airport Development (GAD)Conference, Pullman Paris Bercy, Paris, France, www.fisherinstitute.org.il/Eng/
The bankruptcy judge overseeing Mexicana de Aviacion’s restructuring has formally allowed Grupo Fides to make a bid for the grounded carrier. Grupo Fides earlier this year had attempted to join with the Spanish consortium Med Atlantica to take control of the Mexican airline. However, after negotiations failed to reach a deal, the court awarded the bid to Med Atlantica.
JetBlue Airways is leaving itself open to two possibilities it has formerly dismissed: two-class service—albeit only on a certain type of route—and two-way code-sharing. The New York-based low-cost carrier still does not like the idea of providing two-class service. “As we look at most of our network, I think it really wouldn’t make very much sense for us to do that,” Chief Commercial Officer Robin Hayes said in answer to an analysts’ question during the airline’s third-quarter earnings conference call.
EU lawmakers are becoming increasingly concerned that European states will not fully implement cross-border airspace consolidation before a December deadline. The European Parliament has passed a resolution calling for the acceleration of efforts to form functional airspace blocks (FABs), which are a crucial element of the broader Single European Sky program. The FABs are intended to replace the complicated web of airspace boundaries with a small number of much larger blocks.
