EADS has completed the purchase of Toronto, Ontario-based Vector Aerospace to strengthen the services portfolio of Eurocopter. The deal is one of the few successful deals EADS has managed to pull off as the cash-rich company continues to scour opportunities for deals, particularly in the U.S., to boost its services and securities portfolio.
The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee is taking the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to task for two recent security breakdowns. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) says he is “gravely concerned” about an incident in which a Nigerian national flew from New York John F. Kennedy International Airport to Los Angeles on an expired boarding pass, and another in which a passenger boarded a flight without having his boarding pass checked. Both incidents occurred on Virgin America flights.
The U.S. airline lawsuit challenging the inclusion of non-European carriers in the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) gets its day in court Tuesday in Luxembourg in what is shaping up as a showdown over international law and perhaps the extent of a region’s right to regulate pollution in its skies.
Japanese media are reporting that Japan Airlines and Australia’s Jetstar have agreed to establish a low-cost carrier joint venture, although the two airlines are not confirming the reports. According to Nikkei and Reuters, the two carriers will announce a joint venture this month. Each company would have a 30% stake, with other investors being sought, the reports say. The carrier would initially fly domestic routes, and launch next year.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Ingrid Lee at [email protected] (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) July 3-8—University of Graz/Austrian Aviation Psychology’s Fifth Annual International Summer School on Aviation Psychology, Graz, Austria, +43 (316) 380-5129, www.uni-graz.at/isap11 July 5—Canadian Business Aviation Association’s Aviation Human Factors’ Seminar, Westin Calgary (Alberta) Hotel, 613-236-5611, fax 613-236-2361, www.cbaa-acaa.ca/convention/cbaa-2011-1/aviation-human-factors-course
American Airlines’ pilots union, the Allied Pilots Association, clarified that its current contract pay rates are based on aircraft type and not on seat count, as Aviation Week was erroneously informed for a July 1 article.
In observance of U.S. Independence Day, Aviation Daily will not publish an issue dated Tuesday July 5. The next issue will be dated Wednesday July 6. For customers with access to the Aviation Week Intelligence Network, coverage will continue at aviationweek.com/awin.
Vietnam Airlines has notified the Vietnamese government that it plans to acquire Bombardier CSeries aircraft. A report in Du Tau, a newspaper run by the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning & Investment, says the national carrier’s 10-year plan, now before the government for approval, calls for a fleet of 110 aircraft by 2015 and 170 by 2020.
Qantas says it will have to delay or cancel some flights on July 5 due to strike action by its engineers' union. The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) plans rolling two-hour strikes this week, and these will affect Perth Airport on July 5. This means the airline will ground Boeing 737s in its mainline operation during the work stoppage, causing “a small number” of domestic flights to be canceled and delays of up to 90 min. on others.
UPS is retrofitting the cockpits of its entire air fleet with full-face oxygen masks on the recommendation of a safety task force established in 2010 by the cargo operator and its pilots union. Installation is scheduled in the next 24 months, starting with the operator’s Boeing 747-400 and MD-11 fleets. The company’s 767s and 757s will follow, thereafter. Cockpits on UPS’s Airbus A300 fleet are already equipped with the integrated masks.
Mexican carrier Interjet at the 11th hour canceled its initial public offering, citing weak conditions in the financial sector. The carrier, which was planning to go public this week (Aviation Daily, June 20), now says it will fund its planned expansion through its shareholders and own revenue growth.
LightSquared has formally presented a revised plan for its nationwide wireless broadband network as the final report of interference testing shows that its original deployment plan is “incompatible with aviation GPS operations.” Without significant mitigation, the report says LightSquared’s plans to deploy 40,000 high-power terrestrial transmitters across the U.S. “would result in a complete loss of GPS operations below 2,000 ft. above ground level over a large radius” from metropolitan areas.
Nordic Aviation Group (NAC) has bought China Southern Airlines’ fleet of ATR turboprops. NAC’s Singapore-based VP-sales and acquisitions, Mats Ericson, says in a short message to Aviation Week that the aircraft leasing firm has secured the deal with China Southern to purchase the ATR 72-500s. China Southern has five ATR 72-500s and these have an average age of 13 years, according to Ascend data. The Chinese carrier announced last year that it would be replacing its ATR 72-500s, which are all based in northwest China, with new Embraer 190s.
Vision Airlines will begin service to Grand Bahama Island from five U.S. locations on Boeing 737 aircraft in November after reaching an agreement with the Grand Bahama Island Tourism Board on assistance with marketing and airport startup costs.
September 12, 2011 Landmark London Hotel, London, UK How will the A&D industry’s top companies capitalize on commercial growth opportunities and offset declining defense spending in mature markets? Find out as CEOs position their companies in front of major investors, securities analysts and industry suppliers. -- Profile your company amongst the world’s leading organizations andsecure maximum exposure -- Examine alternative options for aircraft finance
American Airlines is steadfastly refusing to comment on its fleet plans despite growing evidence it is in talks with manufacturers for a sizeable narrowbody order. The carrier is close to ending a narrowbody upgrade program that started in 2000 with the addition of 24 Boeing 737-800s to its fleet. Now, 11 years later, the Dallas-Fort Worth-based company operates 152 of the type and expects to take delivery of 43 of the 54 737s remaining on its order backlog by the end of 2012.
Peterborough Municipal Airport this month plans to open its expanded 7,000 ft.-runway, part of a $30 million renovation aimed at accommodating narrowbody aircraft. "We went from being a DC-9 runway to a Boeing 737 runway," says Jay Amer, who heads up direct marketing for the Canadian airport. Peterborough now boasts the longest runway between Toronto and Montreal, he adds, along with significantly lower costs. "We're really a runway with a business park," says Amer. That's okay with Peterborough because "our key goal is not to land passenger service ...
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued an emergency airworthiness directive (AD) that reduces the main landing gear bogie beam life limits on certain Airbus A330 and A340 models, and requires bogie beams that have surpassed those new limits to be replaced within six months. The AD, which was released June 29, becomes effective Friday, July 1, and applies to A330-300s and A340-200s and -300s.
Canada is investing CA$20.9 million in 2011 for 27 projects at 23 mostly small airports as part of its Airports Capital Assistance Program. Funds are going for rehabilitating runways and purchasing de-icing and fire-fighting equipment, snow blowers and runway sweepers. The assistance program has spent $556 million for 678 projects at 171 airports. The largest projects this year are runway rehabilitation at Waterloo, Ontario, and Tofino, British Columbia, and taxiway and apron work at Powell River, B.C.
