Thai Airbus A380 Takes to the Skies

Airbus has completed the maiden flight of the first A380 that will enter service with Thai Airways International. The four-hour flight on Tuesday comes after completions of the airframe assembly and system checks at the Airbus facility in Toulouse, France. The aircraft landed in Hamburg, Germany for cabin installation and painting.

Article Source : Aviation Today

Hainan Airlines considers 747-8 order

Hainan Airlines (HU) may order Boeing 747-8s aircraft, citing repeated delivery delays of the  787.

However, HU confirmed to it has no plans to cancel its order for 10 787s. It denied news reports that the carrier may swap out its 787 order for the 747-8s.

“We are indeed considering ordering [the] Boeing 747-8 now as the continuous delivery delays of [the] Boeing 787 have affected our operation. But we won’t cancel our Boeing 787 orders,” the carrier said in a written statement.  

According to the original schedule, the Haikou-based carrier should have taken delivery of its first Dreamliner in December and introduced five more this year.

When asked about the delivery delay, a Boeing spokesperson told , “We are working diligently to deliver these airplanes to our customers.”

Last October, China Eastern Airlines canceled an order for 24 787s, replacing it with an order for 45 737s, citing delivery delays and a weakening economy.

China Southern Airlines (CZ) and Air China, the nation's other two big carriers, still hold Dreamliner orders. CZ is expected to be the first Chinese carrier to receive the 787 but the delivery date has been postponed to July, four years after it was first promised.

The 787 entered service Oct. 26, 2011—more than three years late due to production delays—when launch customer All Nippon Airways flight NH7871 took off from Tokyo Narita bound for Hong Kong.

Article Source : ATW Daily News

Pinnacle CFO Christie to move to Spirit

Pinnacle Airlines Corp. senior VP and CFO Ted Christie will move to Spirit Airlines, where he will hold the same positions, effective April 1.

Christie will succeed David Lancelot, whom Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based Spirit said will leave to explore new opportunities. Memphis-based Pinnacle said it will immediately begin a search for a new CFO.

The move comes at a sensitive time for regional operator Pinnacle, which late last year acknowledged financial difficulties and initiated a "comprehensive program to reduce short- and long-term costs and enhance liquidity". Low-cost carrier Spirit launched an IPO last year.

Article Source : ATW Daily News

Iberia pilots plan 24 more days of strikes

Iberia (IB) is facing a further 24 days of industrial action by its pilots represented by the Spanish airline pilots union SEPLA to protest the launch of Iberia Express, the carrier’s new subsidiary for short- and medium-haul flights . 

“The pilots have decided to increase the number of strike days due to the company’s refusal to negotiate,” SEPLA said in a statement.

IB Express, which is scheduled to launch March 25 with four Airbus A320s, is part of IB’s efforts to bring the company back to profitability.

The new strike dates are in March, April and May and include some of the country’s major holiday breaks such as Easter.

IB pilots have already staged 12 days of strikes since December. Last week IB parent company International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) said each strike day costs the airline €3 million ($3.96 million) \.

One of the unions representing cabin crew, STAVLA, said it would join the pilots in their industrial action.

IB said it considers the strike call by SEPLA “an intolerable challenge to the company and to Spanish society at large,” which threatened “Spain's reputation for credibility and solvency.”

It said it intends to take “all lawful measures to oppose this inappropriate and unjustified action, as well as the unlawful behavior of some pilots” and asked pilots “and particularly those who do not support the union's suicidal position, to abort this strike and return to the table to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement.”

IB will ask the government to implement the decree on minimum services during the next strike days, as it did with past strikes.

Article Source : ATW Daily News

Qantas to consolidate, not outsource, maintenance operations

Qantas (QF) plans to consolidate, not outsource, its maintenance operations.

In a speech on the airline’s half-year results, QF CEO Alan Joyce told investors and journalists the company will reduce its engineering and maintenance expenditures—which is nearly $1.4 billion a year, or at least 30% higher than its competitors—through a consultative review of its heavy maintenance procedures, a consolidation of maintenance tasks and more efficient performance of maintenance tasks.

“With aircraft retirements, there is simply not enough heavy maintenance work to justify the three facilities in Melbourne, Brisbane and Avalon,” QF CEO Alan Joyce said. It will consolidate its Airlines Aircraft Airworthiness Group in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne; maintenance operations centers in Melbourne and Sydney; and Commodities Management Group in Melbourne into its home base in Sydney.

Its engineering staff is now proceeding with what it calls “maintenance on demand,” for new-generation aircraft. Under the new process, engineers will not conduct aircraft checks, which are not required. “This will bring our practice into line with both the manufacturers’ guidelines and Civil Aviation Safety Authority regulations,” Joyce said. “It will allow our engineers to be assigned to aircraft that require attention.”

Over the next two months, QF will consult with unions including AMWU, AWU, and ALAEA on the adjustments. It anticipates that approximately 500 positions will be affected by the immediate changes—with no jobs going offshore.

“Overall our business is strong, we are exerting financial discipline, and we are well placed to handle this complex economic and competitive environment,” Joyce said. “But … the highly competitive markets and tough global economy in which we operate mean that we must change”.

Article Source : ATW Daily News

Transaero launches inflight Internet on 30 aircraft

Transaero Airline (UN) will outfit its first Boeing 777 with inflight Internet and launch flights in April. According to CEO Olga Pleshakova, UN will equip 38 out of its 75 aircraft with the new technology, at a cost of about $30 million. The carrier did not disclose the name of the supplier.

Pleshakova said the carrier will renovate the cabins to increase the number of seats in the economy classes to cope with the increased fuel prices. UN will raise the funds for the renovation on the open market. Earlier this month the airline announced it was issuing a RUB2.5 billion ($85.8 million) bond. UN also issued the bonds in 2006 and 2009.

UN, the second largest Russian carrier, carried 8.4 million passengers in 2011, a 27.2% increase compared to 2010. The carrier operates 19 Boeing 747s, 12 777s, 13 767s, 28 737s and three Tupolev Tu-214s.

Article Source : ATW Daily News

Austrian Airlines CCO Andreas Bierwirth resigns

Austrian Airlines (OS) chief commercial officer Andreas Bierwirth resigned Friday and will be replaced by Karsten Benz, Lufthansa (LH) Passage VP-European sales and services, effective April 1. According to an OS management source, Bierwirth resigned because of a lack of support from the LH management and a difference of opinion on the airline’s restructure.

“Karsten Benz is one of the most experienced top managers we have in the Lufthansa Group in the field of sales and network management. With this recommendation, we are sending a clear signal that we will be continuing to work with everything we have on the long-term perspectives of Austrian,” said Group airline chief officer Stefan Lauer. The supervisory board steering committee will propose the change at its next meeting.

OS is in the middle of a difficult restructuring process. The work program it first presented in January is a package of measures designed to save the company €220 million ($280 million) this year. “But if high fuel prices will increase and the Air Berlin group continues to expand in Vienna, then these measures will be not enough for OS,” the source told.

Article Source : ATW Daily News

Aer Lingus execs caution on sale of government’s 25% stake

Aer Lingus (EI) executives are concerned the planned sale of the Irish government’s 25% stake will put its profitable business model at risk. EI reported a net income of €71.2 million ($95.6 million) for 2011, up 65.7% from a €43 million net profit in 2010.

The Irish government last week announced plans to sell its 25% shareholding in EI as part of a €3 billion disposal program of state assets per a bailout agreement with its main lenders—the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. The country, which received an €85 billion aid package in 2010, said it would dispose of its EI stake when market conditions are more favorable for the airline.

“The sale [of the 25% stake in EI] is a matter for the government, but at Aer Lingus we would like to stress that our success is very much linked to building connectivity and partnerships with multiple airlines,”  EI head of communications Declan Kearney told . “Ireland is an island and we see it as our primary mission to connect Ireland with the world. If the stake is sold in a way that is offensive to any of our partners, that would damage our business model and the connectivity of the country,” Kearney said.

EI left oneworld in 2007 and since has extended its network through codeshares with airlines across all three alliances: Air France KLM/SkyTeam, British Airways/oneworld and United Airlines/Star Alliance. It also has a sales agreement with JetBlue.

Ryanair (FR), which is EI’s largest shareholder with a 29.8% stake, said the government should sell its stake to FR, The Irish Times reported. FR has launched two unsuccessful take-over bids for its smaller competitor in the past.

“If the Irish government had any sense they would sit down and ask what is best for Ireland Inc. going forward. It is clearly to merge the two Irish airlines,” CEO Michael O’Leary said.  “If it is not sold to Ryanair, if it is sold to anybody else, it is inevitable that Aer Lingus will be broken up because everybody else only wants certain bits: the Heathrow slots and maybe the long-haul. Nobody wants the short-haul, because they will have to compete with Ryanair.”

Article Source : ATW Daily News

Brussels Airlines restructures management

Brussels Airlines (SN) is implementing a new management structure, moving away from the co-CEO structure to a single CEO. The co-CEO arrangement has been in place since 2008.

Co-CEO Bernard Gustin will become the company’s only CEO June 1 when co-CEO Michel Meyfroidt steps down to pursue other interests.  

SN said it reorganized its management structure “around three main axes of activity—operations, finance and commercial strategy—to adapt the company’s way of working to the market evolution and to the ever-increasing competition on the level of costs.”

It appointed Peter Kranich as COO. Kranich comes from Eurowings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa (LH), where he was responsible for operations. LH acquired a 45% stake in Brussels Airlines’ parent company SN Airholding in 2008 with an option to acquire the remaining 55%.

SN VP-controlling Jan De Raeymaeker was promoted to CFO and EVP-Strategy and Business Development Erik Follet will become airline’s CCO.

Article Source : ATW Daily News

Airbus A350XWB landing gear test bench ready for service

The A350 XWB’s main and nose landing gear test bench is ready for service at the Airbus site in Filton, UK.

Airbus said this latest step has been achieved more than one year before the aircraft’s first flight and two years before its entry into service .

“Extensive testing campaigns are being carried out for all A350XWBs systems and components well ahead of first flight. This will ensure the aircraft has a high level of performance, reliability and maturity built-in from day one,” the company said in a statement.

Article Source : ATW Daily News

Qantas confronts competitive realities, adjusts route network

Qantas (QF) said it has begun to implement, and in some areas accelerate, its previously announced five-year plan to remain competitive during the “ongoing reshaping of global finances, the painful economic restructuring in Europe … the rebalancing of global economic weight to Asia … and a profound transition in the Australian economy.”

In a speech on the airline’s half-year results, CEO Alan Joyce told investors and journalists the company is facing these competitive realities and learning to adapt “if we are to prosper and enhance long-term shareholder value” .

Joyce said the carrier is facing a strong competitor capacity growth into Australia and a flat inbound market, as well as a softening of demand for travel out of the UK and Europe. As a result, the carrier will terminate Singapore-Mumbai and Auckland (AKL)-Los Angeles service in May as well as service between Bangkok (BKK)/Hong Kong and London in March. It will replace its Boeing 747 Sydney (SYD)-BKK services with Airbus A330s in June, and replace A330 aircraft on the SYD-AKL route with 737-800s. It will also add A330 aircraft to its Melbourne-Perth (PER) routes as well as on certain services between SYD and PER, replacing 747s. It will retire two additional 747s this year, on top of the four scheduled to be retired this April.

QF reported an underlying profit before tax of $202 million for the six months ending Dec. 31, down 51.6% from the prior year's profit before tax of $417 million. During the period, it recorded a financial impact of $194 million due to industrial action, and a $444 million increase in fuel costs. It has cash reserves of $3.3 billion, and said it is one of only two global airlines with an investment grade credit rating with both ratings agencies. It aims to reduce projected capital expenditure from $2.5 to $2.3 billion for full-year 2012, and from a projected $2.8 billion down to $2.3 billion for financial year 2013.

“With our dollar likely to stay at a sustained high value for the foreseeable future, Australia has become a very high-cost economy in which to do business,” Joyce said, adding that QF will continue to invest in the renewal of its 737 fleet.

Article Source : ATW Daily News

FlyDubai opens training center in Dubai

FlyDubai opened a new state-of-the-art training center in Dubai Wednesday. The facility, approved by the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), is the only certified Boeing 737 facility in the United Arab Emirates.

The center is also available to conduct third-party work for other airlines in training cabin and flight deck crews.

The facility, which cost more than AED2 million ($545,000) includes a fire and smoke training simulator plus four large classrooms and a dedicated computer-based training room. It is an expansion of the original training center, which was opened in August 2010, and houses a 737 door trainer, emergency training slide, pilot training seat and four traditional classrooms.

Article Source : ATW Daily News

Gulfstream's G280 achieves certification milestone from FAA

The Gulfstream G280 has received a provisional type certificate (PTC) from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The principal remaining item required before full type certificates are issued by the FAA and CAAI is an update to the software for the aircraft’s state-of-the-art avionics. Gulfstream expects to receive full type certification from both later this year.

“The G280 will be the fastest, largest, most comfortable aircraft in its class, and we are very pleased with its performance throughout the flight-test programme,” said Larry Flynn, president, Gulfstream. “With these certificates in hand, we are now able to move forward in preparation for customer deliveries later this year, as scheduled.”

When delivered, the G280 will exceed the performance specifications outlined when the programme was publicly announced in October 2008. The aircraft’s range is 3,600 nautical miles (6,667 km) at Mach 0.80, an increase of 200 nautical miles over original projections. Its balanced field length is 210 feet less than originally announced, allowing it to take off from runways of 4,750 feet (1,448 m) or less. That’s an improvement of more than 1,300 feet compared to the aircraft it replaces, the G200.

The three G280 aircraft in the flight-test program have flown more than 1,845 hours during more than 685 flights, while the fatigue test article (F1) has completed more than 14,300 of 40,000 cycles.

Additional achievements include the successful completion of wet runway, crosswind and maximum energy brake testing.

Serial Number (S/N) 2003, the third aircraft to join the flight-test program, has finished the tests required of it for type certification. That aircraft will now be transitioned to the testing of optional avionics features, including the Head-Up Display (HUD II) and Enhanced Vision System (EVS II).

Article Source : Arabian Aerospace

Energy boss is the new head of TunisAir group

Rabah Jerad has been named as the new president of the TunisAir group.

The Tunisia national carrier ‘s group has responsibility for ground handling at Tunisia’s airports, for catering and for maintenance of the group’s aircraft as well as for the domestic carrier TunisAir Express.

Jerad was selected by the government – a 75% owner of the group – to succeed Dr Mohammed Thamri who moves to a new post within the ministry of civil aviation.

Jerad is an engineer with a background in the state’s energy sector. He led the. He held the post of the deputy director-general of the Tunisian society of electricity and gas, STEG, from August 2002 until August 2009.

Article Source : Arabian Aerospace

Pentagon sees savings in block buying of V-22 Osprey

WASHINGTON - The Defense Department will realize “substantial savings” from further five-year purchases of weaponry, including the V-22 Osprey from Textron Inc. and Boeing Co., the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer told Congress.

Frank Kendall, the department’s acting undersecretary for acquisition, wrote lawmakers yesterday that additional block contracts for the Marine Corps’ V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, the Navy’s Virginia-class attack submarine and DDG-51 Arleigh Burke destroyer and the Army’s CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopter meet criteria established by law.

Kendall’s letter is a first step required before congressional review and the eventual signing of contracts. Multiyear commitments are seldom canceled because the Pentagon would have to pay substantial termination fees to contractors and would face opposition from congressional champions of the systems being scrapped.

Bulk contracts also let companies buy parts in advance, with savings passed on to the Pentagon, and maintain a stable workforce. Kendall’s letters outlined initial expected savings derived from the Pentagon’s cost-analysis unit.

The biggest savings over annual purchases would be $4.4 billion, or 14 percent, for nine Virgina-class submarines bought between 2014 and 2018 from Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. of Newport News, Va., and General Dynamics Corp.’s Groton, Conn,-based Electric Boat unit. Annual purchases would cost as much as $31 billion in contracts for the vessels, radar and sonar.

Nine Destroyers

Bulk contract purchases of nine new missile-defense capable DDG-51 destroyers built by Huntington and General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works, of Bath, Maine, would save $1.5 billion, or 9 percent, over an estimated $17.7 billion in annual contracts.

The Navy wants to buy 98 additional V-22s from the joint venture of Textron’s Fort Worth, Texas-based Bell Helicopter unit and Boeing’s Philadelphia aircraft unit. Kendall found a block purchase would save at least $852 million, or 12 percent, over $7.35 billion in annual buys.

Kendall certified a savings of at least $373 million, or 10 percent, for bulk purchases of 155 new and upgraded Boeing CH-47F helicopters through 2017.

Article Source : PBN.com