Archive for May, 2009
The first Airbus plane assembled outside Europe made a successful four-hour maiden flight in China on Monday, EADS said.
Airbus began assembling some A320 jets in Tianjin near Beijing in September from fuselage parts shipped from Europe, increasing its presence in the world’s fastest growing markets for large aircraft.
“This A320 assembled in China unquestionably demonstrated the same quality and performance as those assembled and delivered in Hamburg or Toulouse,” Fernando Alonso, senior vice president at Airbus, said in a statement.
Airbus aims to reach output of four A320s a month in China by the end of 2011. Airbus has estimated that China would need more than 3,000 large aircraft between 2006 and 2025, including 180 super jumbo passenger planes. The first aircraft will be delivered to Dragon Aviation Leasing in June and be operated by China’s Sichuan Airlines.
Chinese firms have ordered more than 700 aircraft from Airbus, the majority of which are from the A320 family of planes, it said. Airbus and US rival Boeing have been turning to Asian markets, led by China, for growth as demand weakens at home. But Airbus faces criticism from European unions who say the move adds to outsourcing fears amid the recession and could result in the loss of European technology to a potential jet-making rival.
Beijing may need an estimated USD$30 billion to realise an ambitious goal to manufacture passenger jets with more than 150 seats and freighters capable of handling more than 100 tonnes of cargo to take on Boeing and Airbus by 2014. (Reuters)
Budget UK airline easyJet has announced its intention to hold marriage ceremonies mid-flight in a unique revenue-raising idea.
EasyJet is investigating whether its pilots could become authorised to carry out weddings during flights. The plan would see the captain hand over to the co-pilot once airborne in order to officiate the wedding at the front of the plane. Read the rest of this entry »
Several U.S. airlines, including Delta Air Lines Inc., Virgin America, AMR Corp.’s American Airlines, Southwest Airlines Co., Alaska Air Group Inc. and UAL Corp.’s United Airlines, are rolling out technology to bring wireless Internet service to hundreds of aircraft — a move that promises to allow passengers almost continuous access to the Web and email while flying. The nascent services are particularly attractive to frenetic business-class travelers who can’t stand being off the email grid for even an hour or two in-flight. Read the rest of this entry »
Airlines hit by the economic slowdown will gain new flexibility in how they use take-off and landing slots after the European Union assembly agreed on Thursday to loosen “use-or-lose rules”.
The decision was the last step in a process that protects traditional carriers such as Air France-KLM but has angered airports and budget airlines such as Britain’s easyJet. Read the rest of this entry »
UK Secretary of State for Transport Geoff Hoon yesterday urged President Barack Obama’s administration to commit to completing a Stage 2 open skies agreement by June 2010 “with the headline objective of liberalizing all foreign ownership in airlines to give European and American carriers a bigger home market and the ability to operate like any other competitive international company.” Read the rest of this entry »
Airlines could be alerted to potential problems in aircraft before they can jeopardise safety on a future flight, thanks to a new computer program which uses artificial intelligence (AI).
The capability is being developed at the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Industrial Research (IIR) where specialists use artificial intelligence techniques for industrial applications. Read the rest of this entry »
Canada and the European Union signed an “open skies” agreement on Wednesday under which Canadian and EU airlines will be able to fly freely between any airport in the 27-country EU and any Canadian airport, officials said.
The deal will replace an existing patchwork of bilateral agreements between Canada and European states, which include restrictions on routes, prices and the number of weekly flights.
The agreement will also ease restrictions on control and ownership of airlines.
(Reuters)
News from Travel Technology Update: Continental chief Larry Kellner hinted that the carrier may migrate to the Star Alliance Common IT Platform at some point after it joins the alliance in October.
In a conference call to discuss first-quarter earnings, Kellner said, “I and other members of the Continental management team meet regularly with Glenn Tilton [United chairman, president and chief executive officer] and his team at United as we develop plans to co-locate at airports, deliver mutual cost savings, share airport lounges, bring benefits to each other’s elite customers and ultimately move to a single IT platform so that we can provide excellent service to each other’s customers.” Read the rest of this entry »
First-quarter 2009 global airline industry losses in aggregate have totaled $1 billion so far, in line with expected full-year losses of $4.7 billion, IATA said in a “Financial Monitor” released Friday, noting that “airfreight appears to have bottomed out but passenger travel continues to shrink, particularly premium.”
Results released to date reveal “varied” performance, the organization said, commenting that US airlines benefited from “early capacity cuts” while carriers outside the US are reporting “larger Q1 losses.” Excluding Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines, ATWOnline calculated that the eight largest US carriers lost $1.07 billion in the 2009 first quarter, improved from a $1.26 billion loss in the 2008 first quarter. DL/NWA results are skewed in both periods by merger-related expenses and goodwill charges that make comparison difficult. Read the rest of this entry »
The troubled economy doesn’t seem to faze American, which is going about its business.
As the economy ground to a crawl in October, the carrier announced what could become the biggest aircraft order in its history, saying it wants 42 Boeing 787s with options for 58 more. Last month, as global travel slowed and Boeing faced deferrals and cancellations from various customers, American took delivery of two new 737s, the first of 79 aircraft it will take over three years. Read the rest of this entry »