Finnair is consolidating its fleet with a plan to phase out 10 MD-80s by the end of 2006. The airline plans to retain six MD-11s for long-haul service and is adding a seventh under lease for increased flights to Asian destinations. As for domestic and European routes, the carrier will rely on 29 Airbus A320s and 12 Embraer 170s, the first of which is scheduled to enter service this autumn. Finnair also extended its lease on a Boeing 757 that is used for tourist flights to southern European locations.
Like one of the tornados that rage across Oklahoma every spring, hard times landed on The Nordam Group with a fury that pushed one of the world's largest privately owned aircraft repair companies to the edge of survival. In short order, an airplane crash, a debilitating illness and a family feud decimated Nordam's senior management team--just as the company was waylaid by the most severe downturn the commercial aviation industry had ever seen.
U.S. and Indian air forces will hold air exercises in November over the recently refurbished Kalaikunda AB in East India. While F-15s were brought in by USAF last February, word is that with the F-16s being offered to India as part of its procurement for 126 combat fighters, 12 F-16s will participate. Two KC-135s for mid-flight refueling are also planned. India will use Su-30MKIs, Mirage 2000Hs, MiG-21 Bisons and MiG-27Ms. India, it is said, wants to participate in the 2006 Red Flag combined air exercises organized by USAF's Nevada-based Air Warfare Center.
Japan Airlines says it is assigning three safety officers at the vice presidential level to oversee an internal pledge to boost safety in the wake of an embarrassing warning about its safety procedures from the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has won the full attention of the Air Force. Service officials are snapping to and changing their contracting strategy on the controversial C-130J program--fallout from the senator's statement earlier this month that he would be willing to subpoena Lockheed Martin officials if necessary to get more insight on pricing data for the airlifter. McCain's hackles were raised after the unit cost jumped from $33 million to $67 million.
AIR NAVIGATION SERVICE PROVIDER Croatia Control Ltd. has completed acceptance testing of its new air traffic management system. Thales' Eurocat gives Croatia a state-of-the-art ATM capability for en route, terminal and tower operations. And it should help Croatia comply with Eurocontrol's Single Sky modernization effort, which is about to shift into high gear. Eurocat's features include an interactive man-machine interface that eliminates the traditional paper strips used by controllers.
A year after its launch, Boeing is surging past the 200 orders-and-commitment mark for the 787 with a signed agreement from Korean Air for 10 aircraft and a pending order by Northwest Airlines for 18 of the mid-size, long-range jets.
Sensor Unlimited has introduced Visible-InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide), the world's smallest dual wavelength-range camera that simultaneously images in the visible and short-wave infrared spectrum. The SU320Mvis 1.7RT minicamera is built around the company's proprietary InGaAs focal plane arrays that feature an expanded wavelength range and higher sensitivity than has ever been available, according to the company. The array is built in the minicamera platform which weighs less than 11 oz. without the lens.
Boeing has chosen EMS Techno- logies, a Canadian contractor, to supply the new P-8A Multi-Mission Aircraft with the eNfusion Broadband HSD-400 high-speed data terminal as part of the U.S. Navy's program to replace its aging P-3s. The P-8A is a derivative of the 737 Next-Generation aircraft.
Air France Industries has become a member of Airbus' newly established maintenance, repair and overhaul network. Because of the size of the Air France MRO operation, bringing it into the network took longer than it did for the 11 launch members. The network is supposed to give airlines easier access to MRO services. Airbus vows it will provide non-network MROs full support to work on its aircraft.
Clogged airspace, bad weather and system outages will create massive delays and backups in the U.S. air traffic system this summer and may become routine in the future, according to Rep. John L. Mica, chairman of the House aviation subcommittee. And now for the bad news.
Israel has accepted its first three AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopters from Boeing as part of a sweeping program to either modernize existing Apaches or purchase new models. The Israelis have assigned an AH-64D-I designation to the helicopters, which were purchased under a combination U.S. Army foreign military sales agreement and direct commercial purchase contract with Boeing. That process allows Boeing to make "several undefined changes" directly with the Israel Air Force.
RAYTHEON HAS "GONE HOLLYWOOD" by teaming with Treadle & Loam, Provisioners, a computer display company. Treadle & Loam developed some of the concepts for devices used by characters in Steven Spielberg's 2002 science-fiction film, Minority Report. Now life is imitating art. During the 21st National Space Symposium, the two companies unveiled a new technology called the Integrated Gestural Environment Tool. It allows a glove-wearing user standing within sensor range to point in order to sort through visual displays of data.
Comair's new contract with its 1,000 flight attendants contains planned wage increases and provides economic relief to the airline by creating a B-scale wage for 350 new hires, starting June 1. The agreement with Local 513 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters positions the wages of current attendants at the top of the regional airline salary ladder. After the 2006 increase, veteran attendants will be earning $45 an hour, while pay for rookies will be 20% lower during the five-year contract period.
The French defense ministry has formed a team to study ways of reducing costs and lead times for military hardware maintenance. In recent months, the defense ministry has identified ways, such as outsourcing, to improve the operational readiness of defense units, which, despite considerable effort, remain unsatisfactory (AW&ST Nov. 1, 2004, p. 19). The team, headed by former Rafale manager Alain Roche, will submit an action plan this summer with the aim of obtaining sharply improved cost/delivery performance by 2008.
ROCKWELL COLLINS IS WORKING on an enhanced vision system for the Boeing Business Jet, and Boeing is studying whether to develop its own, so there could be two EVS options for the BBJ. The infrared imagery would be displayed on Rockwell Collins Flight Dynamics head-up displays, which are already flying on BBJ versions of the 737. Although the 737 next-generation series aircraft are also equipped with the Flight Dynamics HUD, there's no plan yet to offer enhanced vision on the commercial version of the jet.
Mike Romito (see photos) has been appointed group vice president-marketing for Parker Aerospace, Irvine, Calif. He also will continue as vice president-customer support. Bob Dickie has been named vice president-business development and government logistics for worldwide military customer support and Rich Gucciardo account executive for Embraer programs. Ed Feick and Mark Flohr have become commercial business development team leaders for fuel, powerplant and distribution, and hydraulics and flight controls, respectively, for Customer Support Operations.
Southwest Airlines increased its operating revenue 12.1% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2005 while holding its operating cost increase to 8.3%. It increased its fleet by seven aircraft and capacity by 10.1%, even as it reduced the number of employees by 1.7%. Southwest's load factor rose by 1.2 percentage points, and its average fare grew 2.1%. But the carrrier would have lost money if it weren't for its fuel-hedging program, the most successful in the industry.
The signing of the U.S.-India open skies aviation agreement will provide more flights, lower fares and a ray of hope for ailing U.S. carriers looking at lucrative international routes to cover losses on their domestic service. At least that's the hope expressed by U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta at the signing here last week. "This agreement will stimulate new passenger and cargo services [and] new partnerships . . . to the benefit of our . . . citizens," he said.
Long-sought goals in robotics, improved launchers, high-speed-aircraft research and planetary exploration remain at the center of a 20-year vision statement for JAXA, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency.
A Boeing team has concluded 1,300 hr. of high-speed wind tunnel tests at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., of the U.S. Navy P-8A Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA).
Arcane legal issues at one of Moscow's airports may have far-reaching ramifications for the entire industry unless adequately addressed. Domodedovo is likely to become the largest of the city's airports this year, but an agreement governing a critical element of its operation is in limbo following a February ruling. At issue is a Russian court decision to void an infrastructure lease between private airport operator East Line Group and the Russian government.
Thales International India (TII) is moving ahead with maintenance and after-sales services for spares to support all Thales equipment inducted in the military in the past 50 years through local sourcing. Radars, inflight cameras and thermal imagers, installation of vehicles and shelters (for radars), and software production in cooperation with private companies will all be achieved in-country.
Regarding your editorial on the relative positions of the U.S. and EU on selling arms to China (AW&ST Mar. 7, p. 62), the position taken by the EU to lift the embargo, and its attempt to justify its position, demonstrate that the EU ignores obvious risks to make temporary commercial sales.
You can now register ONLINE for Aviation Week Events. Go to www.AviationNow.com/conferences or call Lydia Janow at +1 (212) 904-3225/+1 (800) 240-7645 ext. 5 (U.S. and Canada Only) May 10-11--Net-Centric Operations Conference 2005. Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington. May 24-25--Homeland Security Summit & Exposition, Washington. Oct. 18-20--MRO Europe. Estrel Hotel & Convention Center, Berlin. Nov. 8-10--MRO Asia, Suntec City, Singapore.
