The U.K. Airports Commission says each of the bidders underestimated project costs, which is particularly important for the two proposals at Heathrow, where per-passenger charges are among the highest for major international airports in the U.K. and Europe.
Virgin America reiterated in an updated prospectus filed this month with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it will focus much of its attention in the near future on five airports—Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York LaGuardia, Washington National and Dallas Love Field—but it is not clear that this strategy will pay immediate dividends.
Customer deferrals, trade sanctions and a deteriorating economic outlook have forced Rolls to accelerate a planned restructuring, which will mainly affect its U.K. civil aero-engine workforce, even though many of the issues are afflicting the company’s Land & Sea division, which produces nuclear energy and power systems.
The future of A&D is looking good judging by the accomplishments and drive of the young innovators—the lifeblood of the next generation—in this Aviation Week-Raytheon feature.
“Risk adversity has crept into airline boards” since the early 2000s, says Emirates Airline President Tim Clark. And that has led many airlines to worry about their ability to fill A380 seats, causing them to shy away from the superjumbo.
While the SpaceShipTwo crash investigation continues, the full impact on the vehicle’s design and operations, as well as the effect on Virgin Galactic’s schedule, remains unclear.
Virgin America has begun replacing navAero electronic flight bags in 53 Airbus A319s and A320s with an Astronautics-built system that will pave the way for Nextgen fuel and time-saving applications.
“We carried nearly a quarter more [long-haul] passengers compared to last year while increasing our load factor and revenue per seat,” CEO Christoph Mueller says. “We target further profitable growth of our long-haul business into 2015.” Aer Lingus’s long-haul revenues rose 34% in the three months through September compared to the same period last year, while short-haul revenue rose 5.5%.
Three words best describe a suite of new software tools Honeywell is building for its Primus Epic integrated flight decks: seamless situational awareness.
Six years after its reorganization into specialist subsidiaries, Avic is handling a wide range of civil aircraft programs, with a remarkable number of mostly secretive engine developments also coming into view. It still has challenges, however, beginning with its sheer size: it has 400,000 employees, many working in fields unrelated to building aircraft.
The impact of EU Regulation 261/2004 covers care and assistance, and sometimes compensation as well, in cases of denied boarding, flight delays and cancellations. This legislation is not limited to EU airlines only as it also extends to all airlines of any country that operates from the EU.
The nine largest publicly traded U.S. carriers made money in the quarter ended Sept. 30, with several reporting record or near-record earnings thanks to full cabins and lower fuel prices. But the industry is still largely very cautious about adding capacity to capitalize on the improved environment, even as lower fuel prices make once marginal routes more profitable. “We can’t count on $80 [per barrel] crude prices going forward,” warns Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly.
CEO Alan Joyce says Qantas is already meeting profitability targets just a few months after reporting massive annual losses. Virgin Australia, meanwhile, is completing its takeover of struggling Tigerair Australia.
Senior Editor for Avionics and Safety John Croft visits Honeywell's Flight Deck of the Future (FD-X) Lab to see some of the advanced technologies being developed there, including eye-tracking, gesture- and voice-control modalities for next-gen cockpits.
