Royal Brunei Airlines (RBA) is adding Airbus A320s to its fleet next year and has confirmed that its new business strategy is to focus on short-haul rather than long-haul operations. The carrier “is planning to add at least one extra A320 to the short-haul fleet in March-May 2012 to ensure the airline can offer a more consistent schedule and level of service on the regional network,” it says. RBA has no A320s on order, which means it is likely to be in the market to lease the aircraft.
Alaska Airlines reached a tentative agreement on a five-year contract with the union representing its mechanics, and did so more than a week before the current contract even becomes amendable.
If China needs it, China wants to make it. That rule applies to nuclear power plants, high-speed trains, aero-engines and commercial aircraft. Now the rule applies to business jets, too. As heavy Chinese demand for such aircraft becomes ever more likely, the country’s fighter builder, Avic Aviation Techniques (AAT), is aiming at catapulting itself into the industry by building two bizjets with a foreign partner—one based current design and one to be newly developed.
Bahrain’s Gulf Air has chosen Goodrich to upgrade the inflight entertainment system on its fleet of Airbus A330s. Goodrich by next year will replace the current Hi-8 film-driven video system with high-density video reproducer units made at the supplier’s Sensors and Integrated Systems division in Monterrey Park, Calif. The new system provides up to 40 hr. of content. According to Ascend’s fleet database, Gulf Air currently operates 10 A330-200s and has a further 20 A330-300s on order.
The Export-Import Bank of the United States is providing an $80 million loan guarantee for Somon Air’s purchase of its first Boeing 737-900ER. This deal is also a first for Ex-Im Bank, which has never before issued financial support to a Tajikistan-based company. It is also the first 737-900ER to be delivered to Central Asia.
Airbus has a commanding lead over Boeing when it comes to order intake for the year, but the two airframers are nearly even on deliveries. Through the first nine months, Airbus booked 1,179 gross orders, with 141 cancellations. Counting firm orders and deals announced but not yet signed, Airbus is on a pace to beat its 2007 record order year of 1,458 units. Boeing has 531 gross orders and 105 cancellations, well below the 1,244 orders it signed in 2007.
Sacramento International Airport’s $1.03 billion, environmentally friendly Terminal B project celebrated its first departures yesterday. At 740,000 sq. ft., the new facility, which includes a 424,000-sq.-ft. landside terminal and a 316,000-sq.-ft. airside concourse with 19 gates, is three times larger than the old Terminal B it will replace. The old facility will be torn down.
Building an aircraft that is light enough to be powered solely by an electric motor is challenge enough that most teams keep things simple with a two-place design, but carrying two extra passengers was an advantage for the Pipistrel-USA.com team that won a $1.35 million first place award in the CAFÉ Green Flight Challenge.
Frontier Airlines says it and parent company Republic Airways have “satisfied or amended” a contractual promise to execute a firm order for 80 AirbusNEO aircraft by Sept. 30, 2011, but will not elaborate. The commitment to execute the firm order is (or was) in a commercial agreement Republic and Frontier signed with FAPAInvest, a limited liability corporation created to represent Frontier pilots employed by the airline as of June 24.
Japan Airlines will place its “JL” designator code on LAN Airlines service between Chile and the U.S., while the South American operator will add its “LN’ code to JAL’s transpacific services between Japan and the U.S. The move indicates that LAN will continue its membership with Oneworld and end Grupo TAM’s Star Alliance affiliation once the carriers merge under the Latam Airlines banner, as demanded by Chile’s antitrust court.
The problem with the FAA is not that it doesn't know what its priorities are, it is that it has trouble communicating them, says Matt Hampton, deputy assistant inspector general for aviation & special programs at the U.S. Transportation Department. The FAA must more clearly articulate to appropriators what its three or four top priorities are in this tough funding environment, he said this week at the Air Traffic Control Association's 56th Annual Conference. The FAA has not seen a new reauthorization bill passed since 2007.
Airlines and aircraft makers in Asia continue to face the challenge of persuading governments and regulators to invest in the ground infrastructure needed to support performance-based navigation (PBN).
Boeing is already speaking to potential customers about a future program for Boeing 777 passenger-to-freighter conversions, but when this program will be launched depends on 777 residual values coming down.
The European Union has won a critical battle in its efforts to include aviation in its emissions trading system (ETS), with a judge advocate opinion roundly rejecting a challenge brought by the Air Transport Association (ATA) and backed by others. Judge Juliane Kokott, in the non-binding ruling the court generally follows, argues that “the inclusion of international aviation in the EU emissions trading scheme is compatible with the provisions and principles of international law invoked.”
The aviation industry has successfully—at least for now—pushed back on new flight taxes. In a jobs bill introduced Oct. 5, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) removed provisions floated by President Barack Obama in his bill to stimulate employment growth, including a $100-per-flight fee and fees on general aviation.
Tiger Airways Holdings, the publicly listed entity that owns Tiger Airways in Singapore and Australia, has warned it expects to post a loss for the three months ending Sept. 30, and in a separate development it faces a regulatory fight in the Philippines.
The Department of Defense, a major stakeholder in NextGen, is as worried about aircraft equipage to further automation as its civil counterpart. Steve Pennington, acting executive director for the DOD Policy Board on Federal Aviation, says of the 14,000 aircraft it controls in U.S. airspace “we’ll have mixed equipage for a long time” because it is cost-prohibitive to retrofit older aircraft.
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