ATR delivered a seventh ATR 72-500 aircraft to Italian regional carrier Air Dolomiti, a Lufthansa Regional carrier. Along with seven ATR 72-500s, the operator flies nine ATR 42-500 regional turboprops. The most recent aircraft was delivered with a 64-seat configuration.
FAA Administraton Marion Blakey appointed Ramesh Punwani as the agency's chief financial officer. Punwani will steer the agency's $14 billion budget and the development and implementation of cost accounting systems. He formerly was senior vice president for global strategy for Cendant Corp. and has more than three decades of aviation and travel industry experience, including financial and executive positions with Pan American World Airways, Tower Air and Trans World Airlines. He also was executive vice president and chief financial officer for Travelocity.com.
Cessna delivered its 5,000th single-engine piston aircraft since the restart of production in Independence, Kan. in 1997. The 5,000th aircraft, a Skylane, was delivered to Karl Fillip of Alliance Equipment Leasing. Hill Aircraft and Leasing Corporation, a Cessna Sales Team Authorized Representative in Atlanta, facilitated the sale.
Hundreds Of Rolls-Royce Tay turbofan engines installed on Gulfstream IV business jets and Fokker F-28s must be inspected and modified if necessary under the provisions of an airworthiness directive issued this month by FAA. The action, which is addressed in a series of service bulletins from the engine manufacturer, resulted from an incident early this year in which a Fokker lost power in flight after encountering severe ice buildup.
ARINC Direct was named a distributor and factory service representative for Swiss manufacturer Thommen. ARINC will sell and service the full line of Thommen aircraft instruments, including the AD-32 system designed to bring aircraft into compliance with reduced vertical separation minimum standards. The AD-32 includes a Thommen digital air data computer and air data display unit. FAA recently awarded the RVSM equipment technical standard order approval.
Part 135 operators urged the Federal Aviation Administration to further extend the comment period on its proposed 180-minute threshold for extended operations (ETOPS), saying they have no way to judge how the proposed regulations would affect them until they get more information from the agency on certain requirements and more specific data from the manufacturers on aircraft performance.
AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGIES of Australia Models N22B, N22S, and N24A airplanes (Docket No. 2003-CE-37-AD; Amendment 39-13494; AD 2004-05-02) - requires repetitively inspecting wing fittings for fatigue defects, replacing or correcting defective wing fittings, and replacing the stub wing front spar assembly and wing fitting when fatigue life limits are reached. This AD is the result of mandatory continuing airworthiness information issued by the airworthiness authority for Australia.
NTSB: GA, AIR TAXI RATES CLIMB IN 2003 - The National Transportation Safety Board last week reported slight increases in the accident rates for general aviation and air taxi operators, but the agency noted it questions the air taxi rates "due to a lack of precision in the flight activity estimates provided by the FAA." U.S. GA aircraft were involved in 1,732 accidents in 2003, 19 more than in 2002. The number of fatal accidents increased by six in 2003 to 351.
Jet Aviation Singapore won approval from the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC) to maintain and repair Gulfstream aircraft registered in China. With CAAC approval, Jet Aviation received an Air China maintenance contract to provide scheduled and unscheduled maintenance on the charter's G-IV aircraft. Established in 1995, Jet Aviation Singapore has more than 50,000 square feet of hangar, office, workshop and office space. The facility is authorized to service Gulfstream, Cessna and Bombardier aircraft.
Groundbreakings for new production facilities are becoming the norm for participants in the US 101 team that is competing to win the VXX presidential helicopter contract from the Naval Air Systems Command and trying to emphasize the U.S. content of its offering. Early this month AgustaWestland held a ceremony in Philadelphia, Pa. to mark the beginning of construction of an expansion of its facility there, and last week Lockheed Martin executives, along with New York Gov.
FlightSafety International earned FAA Level D approval for a Bombardier Global Express full flight simulator stationed at the company's learning center in the Philadelphia/Wilmington area. The simulator, which includes a panoramic VITAL 9 visual system surrounding the cockpit, is equipped with a head-up display and EVAS. It also has an interactive SimVu debriefing system.
Title V -- AVIATION SAFETY Section 501. Directs the Federal Aviation Administration to deny a certificate to a person whose certificate was previously revoked for counterfeit or fraudulent aviation part activities Section 502. Runway Safety Standards * Ensures that owners/operators of airports in Alaska will not be required to reduce the length of a runway or declare the length to be less than the length of the actual pavement to meet FAA runway safety area standards
Naples, Fla. Municipal Airport Executive Director Theodore Soliday last week defended the airport's anti-noise efforts including its controversial ban on Stage 2 aircraft, saying the ban is necessary to save the airport. Soliday said airports must remember they are serving the community, and Naples lies within a "noise-sensitive" community. The airport was once endangered, he said, and lost its commercial service. Certain community members had used political channels to bar the airport from hiring marketing staff to attract service to it.
NetJets has begun a five-year program to retire and replace some of the aircraft in its fleet as they reach 10 years of age, a development "that will be a dynamic in the marketplace," NetJets President Bill Boisture told Friday's general aviation panel at the Forecast Conference.
Avfuel Corporation added DeGol Jet Center of Williamsport, Pa., to its network of fuel dealers. The DeGol facility includes WSI weather, an FAA computerized testing center, an on-field flight service station, an executive conference room, passenger lounge with satellite TV, a pilot lounge and kitchen facilities.
Dassault Falcon Jet President John Rosanvallon told a general aviation panel at last week's FAA Forecast Conference in Washington, D.C. that 2003 "was really a tough year for business aviation," noting that his company delivered only 49 new business jets.
CAE received an order from China Southern Airlines for an Embraer ERJ 145 simulator. The simulator is slated for delivery in the spring under a contract valued at about $17 million (Canadian). China Southern recently bought six ERJ 145s. With the China Southern deal, CAE has received contracts for 15 full flight simulators this fiscal year.
CESSNA'S MEYER WARNS OF LOSS OF BONUS DEPRECIATION CONSEQUENCES - Cessna Aircraft Chairman Russ Meyer warned last week that the business aircraft manufacturing industry in 2005 "will be right back where we were a year ago" unless Congress agrees to extend accelerated depreciation benefits to buyers who take delivery of their aircraft after the end of this year.
NAVY DELAYS VXX AWARD TO PERFORM MORE RISK REDUCTION - The U.S. Navy announced March 23 that it is delaying the award of the prime contract for the VXX presidential helicopter program to allow competing contractors Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin-AgustaWestland to perform additional risk reduction work.
Honeywell won a contract from AirAsia to provide wheels, brakes and maintenance for the carrier's fleet of Boeing 737-300 aircraft. The contract, which extends through 2012, includes Honeywell's CERMETALIX steel brakes, maintenance and overhaul support beginning this month. AirAsia has a fleet of nearly 20 737-300 aircraft and expects that fleet to grow to 50 aircraft over the next three years.
AC-U-KWIK publisher Primedia Business Directories & Books division launched a service, AC-U-KWIK Aircraft Appraisals. AC-U-KWIK aviation services specialist Carl Janssens will provide the aircraft appraisals service.
The Part 125/135 Aviation Rulemaking Committee, which began meeting last June, will turn its attention next to flight and duty time requirements, one of the stickiest issues the group will tackle. A working group tasked to delve into the issue will meet next month in Dallas. The issue then will be brought to the full committee, which likely will convene again in late spring. Sources say that the ARC is moving along and is expected to present its findings on schedule.
TRANSPORT CANADA ISSUES TC FOR GLOBAL 5000 - Transport Canada this month issued a type certificate for the Bombardier Global 5000, a shortened-fuselage model of the very-long-range Global Express business jet that is designed to compete against aircraft like the Dassault Falcon 900EX and the Gulfstream 450.
