Singapore Technologies Aerospace (ST Aero) has expanded further into asset management by establishing ST Aero Rotables (STAR), which will primarily manage the lease of rotable spare parts. STAR will be headquartered in Singapore with marketing offices dotted around the world. ST Aero in recent years has added asset management divisions to its airframe and engine heavy maintenance functions. Last year, it established Total Engine Asset Management, an engine leasing joint venture with Japanese trading house Marubeni.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is recommending changes that could make it more difficult for U.S. airlines to hold onto their time-specific takeoff and landing rights at slot-controlled airports if they are not meeting usage requirements.
Boeing is close to completing tests of a range of advanced technologies addressing fuel burn, noise and efficiency using its 737 EcoDemonstrator, the company’s first such dedicated flying testbed. The demonstrator is based on a 737-800 on loan from American Airlines, which partnered with Boeing on the effort along with the FAA. The agency provided $25 million in funding toward the EcoDemonstrator under its Cleen (continuous lower energy, emissions and noise) environmental program.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers: Los Angeles - San Francisco, September 15-21, 2012, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Top Carriers: Los Angeles - San Francisco, September 15-21, 2012, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Daily Each Way Depts. Share ASKs (000) Share
The FAA is taking steps to begin a transition to unleaded aviation gasoline—including the creation of a new Fuels Program Office—but FAA acting Administrator Michael Huerta warns resources are limited and industry support will be needed. Huerta in a letter to industry leaders said the agency has taken “some organizational steps to prepare for the initiation of a transition program to unleaded fuel.” This includes engaging the services of a transition consultant as well as the new office to coordinate aviation fuels activities.
A new airline, Dalmatian.hr, is planning to compete with Croatia Airlines for domestic traffic. CEO Zeljko Romic, speaking at the World Low-Cost Airlines Congress in London, said he is awaiting regulatory approval to launch operations, although he did not reveal a firm start date.
The successful incorporation of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the national airspace system will require regular assessments and a clear approach to addressing privacy concerns, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds in a new report. The investigative arm of the U.S. Congress says the FAA, in particular, should frequently monitor its efforts to fulfill UAS requirements and deadlines signed into law in February as part of a four-year agency reauthorization.
Air China from next year will double capacity to John F. Kennedy International Airport by adding another daily Beijing flight and is in talks with several U.S. carriers, including Virgin America, to increase its access to the U.S. domestic market, Air China VP-North America told the Boyd Group International Aviation Forecast Summit in Dallas. Chi also noted that the carrier’s growth into Latin America is constrained, in part, by a U.S. policies requiring Chinese nationals to obtain a visa to connect through U.S. airports.
Should merger talks between US Airways and American Airlines fail to produce a combined entity, the Tempe, Ariz.-based carrier will continue to focus on international expansion in Europe until Airbus starts delivering A350s in 2017, when growth in Asia will become a priority.
African budget carrier FastJet has picked Tanzania as its launch base, and plans to inaugurate services from Dar-es-Salaam’s Julius Nyerere International Airport in November. The start-up, which is being built on Fly540’s operations, has signed a lease agreement with BBAM on a single Airbus A319, and says it is in the advanced stage of hiring flight and ground crew.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers: Atlanta - Orlando - September 15-21, 2012, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Top Carriers: Atlanta - Orlando - September 15-21, 2012, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Daily Each Way
Russia’s Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC) has completed the assembly of the first Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional jet intended for delivery to Mexican air carrier Interjet. Flight trials have already started at SCAC’s Komsomolsk-on-Amur assembly facility, and the aircraft is scheduled to arrive in Venice at the end of September to be outfitted with an interior developed by Italian design company Pininfarina and painted in Interjet’s livery.
Two years after it announced an intention to acquire AirTran Airways, Southwest Airlines remains on track to integrate the smaller carrier into its system by 2015. Dallas-headquartered Southwest closed on the AirTran purchase in May 2011 and was granted a single operating certificate for the two airlines in March.
Kazakhstan’s government is banning two Soviet-era aircraft in an effort to overcome safety concerns the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has raised against the Central Asian republic. The chairman of Kazakhstan’s civil aviation committee of the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Beken Seidakhmetov, says the country will remove Antonov An-24s and Yakovlev Yak-40s from a commercial aircraft registry that currently includes 60 western-built and 52 Soviet-built aircraft.
A headline on Sept. 14 incorrectly indicated that General Electric is investigating a second GEnx-2B failure. As the story details, it was the first such incident for the powerplant, and a second for the family of GEnx engines.
AerCap, the Amsterdam-based aircraft lessor, says it still sees a “significant growth opportunity” in the so-called BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China, because of aircraft “under-penetration” in those countries. The lessor cites Airbus’s Global Market Forecast statistics for this conclusion, noting the report’s data on aircraft per 1 million people, which showed rates of 1.6 for Latin America, 1.2 for China and 1.1 for Asia-Pacific countries. That compares with 11.5 for the U.S. and Canada, 5.2 for Europe and 3.5 for the Middle East.
International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC) has parted out nine aircraft in-house so far this year, and expects to increase the number of aircraft it breaks down for spares in the next year. The parting-out strategy, to some degree, grew out of the October 2011 acquisition of a company that provides aircraft dismantling services. But it also reflects financial pressures on Europe’s airline industry, which resulted in unforeseen liquidations and bankruptcies for a number of ILFC customers.
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Tony Tyler, president and director general of the International Air Transport Association, is calling the EU’s ban on foreign carriers a “misguided approach that does little if anything to improve safety.” Speaking at a forum in Astana, Kazakhstan, Tyler said, “There is no transparency, no clarity on why some carriers are put on the list and no clear indication of what is required to get off the list.”
The pilots union for Pinnacle Airlines is objecting to the regional carrier’s decision to file a sealed Section 1113 motion to reject the union’s collective bargaining agreement. A letter Pinnacle filed in conjunction with the Section 1113 motion reiterates the need to save $76 million annually–including about $60 million from pilot concessions, according to the union—as it restructures under Chapter 11 with financing provided by Delta Air Lines.
A large portion of the FAA budget will be exempt from mandatory sequestration cuts, set to take effect on Jan. 3, according to data released late Friday by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
