LONDON — Iberia parent International Airlines Group (IAG) is hoping to cement Iberia’s future by striking a new ground staff deal and finalizing tentative agreements with its pilots and cabin crew. Over the past few weeks, Iberia has reached agreements in principle with its pilots and cabin crew as part of a radical restructuring that has seen the loss of 2,507 jobs, or 12% of its total workforce, since December 2012. These comprise 1,857 ground staff, 458 cabin crew and 192 pilots.
Boeing is on a path to begin offering forward-fit automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) “in” capability to its fleet, starting with the 787 next year.
BRUSSELS — Etihad Airways’ unique partnership strategy, based on wide-ranging codeshares and minority equity investments in a number of airlines in different parts of the world, is growing the carrier’s network, passenger numbers and revenue, but also lowering unit costs, according to President and CEO James Hogan.
BEIJING — China’s Juneyao Airlines has agreed to order 90 Boeing and Airbus narrowbody aircraft for itself and for its proposed low-cost subsidiary, industry officials say. The contracts are part of a great wave of aircraft orders that the Chinese government, its airlines and private carriers will announce this year as the country finalizes arrangements for the 2016-20 planning period.
The price of carbon dioxide allowances (EUAs) under the EU Emissions Trading System rallied to a 14-month high in February as the European Commission's short-term market intervention proposal gained final agreement and became law.
Eight months after the end of the highly publicized grounding of its EC225 heavy helicopter, Airbus has renewed its faith in the Super Puma design. The company hopes that the EC225e—e for enhanced—due to fly in 2015 will finally put the type's troubles to bed after the nine-month-long grounding caused by the failure of the bevel gear vertical shaft on two North Sea-based aircraft during 2012.
FAA will order upgrades to Boeing 737NG autothrottle computers to correct what Dutch investigators concluded is a design anomaly that played a significant role in the February 2009 crash of a Turkish Airlines 737-800. FAA’s proposed mandate, set for publication March 3, would give operators 36 months to modify or replace certain 737NG autothrottle computers. A final directive would apply to 497 U.S.-registered aircraft, but is a sure bet to be adopted globally.
SINGAPORE — With continuing political unrest in Thailand adversely affecting the tourism and aviation industries, and poor results released earlier this week, AirAsia is likely to push back delivery of new Airbus aircraft for its Thai AirAsiaX (TAX) operation.
As more European airlines add Boeing 787s and more foreign carriers deploy them to European airports, small- and medium-sized maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) companies are seeking to profit by expanding their capabilities to include Dreamliner services.
As composite structures become larger, more integrated and more critical, guaranteeing the integrity of a major repair when the aircraft returns to service is a growing imperative. Research into methods of checking repairs in situ could pave the way for wider structural health monitoring.
A European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) draft rule tackles several ambiguities around aircraft technical records, including how long certain records should be kept, and how new technology—such as digitized records—should be accommodated.
The pilots of UPS Flight 1354 set up for a non-precision “profile” instrument approach that is rarely used in practice as their Airbus A300-600 freighter approached Birmingham, Ala., in the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 13, 2013. For reasons that are still not clear, the captain later switched to a more rudimentary “vertical speed” non-precision approach, used even more infrequently in operations, before the aircraft struck trees and then a hill less than 1 mi. short of the airport's Runway 18.
Flying the Piaggio P180 Avanti twin-turboprop pusher from the front seat is a unique experience, but taking control of the same Avanti using a sidestick and a virtual windscreen from a side-facing seat in the rear of the cabin is a rare treat indeed.
Aerospace and defense companies feature prominently as partners in two public-private advanced manufacturing institutes launched by the Obama administration. Led by EWI and headquartered in Detriot, the American Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute (ALMMII) is a 60-member consortium that includes Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Electric and United Technologies Research Center.
FRANKFURT — British Airways (BA) has started using its Airbus A380s as a tool to reduce frequencies on trunk routes without cutting capacity and is pleased with the initial results, according to Willie Walsh, chief executive of BA parent International Airlines Group (IAG).
Textron’s proposed $1.4 billion acquisition of Beechcraft could help propel the bottom line of Textron’s Cessna Aircraft unit from a $48 million loss in 2013 to a $480 million profit by 2016, analyst Jeffries believes. Textron announced on Dec. 26 plans to buy Beechcraft by midyear and has since been lining up financing for the deal with the issuance of $600 million in notes in late January and the securing of a $500 million, five-year term loan, also in late January.
Washington Considering that some form of new mandate was unavoidable, the vast majority of those affected by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) long-awaited repair station security rule couldn't be more pleased.
Airbus is raising the production rate of its narrowbody line. The company plans to increase output from the current 42 aircraft per month to 46 by the second quarter of 2016. That move is to be preceded by an interim step up to 44 from 42 in the first quarter of 2016. Boeing plans to raise 737 production to 47 from 42 aircraft per month in 2017 and is weighing going to 52 units by 2018-19.
Asiana Airlines has agreed to pay a $500,000 fine for its lackluster response following the crash of one of its Boeing 777s at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) last July — a response that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) determined was also illegal. DOT charged Asiana with failing to implement its post-accident family response plan required by the Foreign Air Carrier Family Support Act of 1997. DOT’s charges and the fine are the first under the statute.
Signature Flight Support is adding a fourth London-area fixed-base operation (FBO) with the acquisition of the FBO assets of the JETS facility at London Biggin Hill. Signature announced that acquisition as it was preparing to break ground in San Jose, Calif., Feb. 28 on what will become one of its largest FBO complexes.
