Sensis said its Multistatic Dependent Surveillance was selected by UK NATS for ground surveillance at London Stansted. MDS will provide full coverage of runway, taxiway and stand areas "to enhance the safe and efficient movement of aircraft on the ground." System already is deployed at Heathrow and Gatwick, Sensis said.
Aeroflot officially dismissed CEO Valery Okulov last week and replaced him with Vitaly Savelyev, a VP at Russian conglomerate Sistema who reportedly has no previous aviation experience. The Moscow Times reported that SU minority investor Alexander Lebedev (through his National Reserve Corp.) withdrew his support of Okulov, paving the way for his ouster ( ATWOnline, March 24).
UAE flag carrier Etihad Airways has finished its phased move into Terminal 3 at Abu Dhabi International airport this week as it moved the final four long haul services over from Terminal 1.
Ryanair will launch thrice-weekly flights from Nottingham East Midlands to Reus and Palma in July. It will cease serving Paris Beauvais from EMA. It also said all Beauvais service will be suspended June 3-10 as the airport closes to upgrade its landing systems.
A FedEx MD-11 en route from Guangzhou to Tokyo Narita crashed yesterday on landing in high winds, cartwheeling on the runway and catching fire, killing the two pilots. Video of the crash shows the aircraft landing hard, lifting back into the air briefly and then bouncing on its front and then rear ends. The left wing hit the runway, starting a fire as the MD-11 rolled. The crash occurred at 6:50 a.m. and closed the longer of NRT's two runways, forcing Japan Airlines and ANA to cancel at least 40 flights combined.
Baltia Air Lines, a New York JFK-based startup, was allocated one weekly frequency to St. Petersburg from JFK by the US Dept. of Transportation for service to begin by Sept. 30. AirTran Airways will operate twice-daily Atlanta-Atlantic City flights beginning June 11. S7 Airlines will launch weekly Moscow Domodedovo-Madrid service on June 6 aboard an A319 and weekly Novosibirsk-Alma Ata flights on April 3 aboard an A320-200.
US Airways was granted tentative route authority by the US Dept. of Transportation to operate a daily Charlotte-Rio de Janeiro Galeao service. US will use a two-class, 204-seat 767 on the route and plans to launch in the fall. Jetstar Airways plans to operate four-times-weekly Cairns-Osaka Kansai service beginning in December aboard an A330. The airline said launch is subject to completing negotiations with KIX and that it has "alternative international capacity options" from Cairns.
Air India said it plans to maintain its policy of introducing 2-3 new aircraft to its fleet per month during the fiscal year beginning April 1, claiming that the global slump in demand "will be short-lived" and that traffic to and from India will rise "considering [the] improved business environment and the enormous potential" of India as a tourist destination. AI added 45 aircraft in the past 18 months and now operates more than 150. Thirty are scheduled to arrive during the upcoming fiscal year, including three 777-200LRs during the June-August period.
Air France will introduce a new premium economy cabin called Premium Voyageur that will be phased in gradually on all long-haul flights operated by 777s, A340s and A330s. First routes to offer the new configuration will be Paris Charles de Gaulle to New York JFK, Tokyo Narita and Osaka Kansai. Premium Voyageur will feature a new seat especially designed for AF and equipped with a fixed shell. Seats will be 48 cm. wide, have 97-cm. pitch and offer 123-deg. back recline.
An Emirates Airlines Airbus A340 was involved in a tail scrape during take-off from Melbourne airport yesterday (March 21) damaging the aircraft and runway lighting. The aircraft managed to return after a fuel dump.
