Aviation Report

Washington: The growing number of aircraft near-misses in US skies is making civilian aviation authorities increasingly concerned and has prompted them to reexamine air traffic control procedures. “Over the last weeks there have been a number of instances where separation was lost between aircraft and in some cases there was a bit of a delay of notification that obviously caused some concern,” Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said. He said that all these incidents, the latest of which occurred just on May 21, remain under investigation. “Anytime you lose the required separation between aircraft, it’s unacceptable, and we work to figure out what happen and what we can do to prevent similar ones,” Lunsford pointed out. More than half a dozen extreme near-misses have been reported by the FAA over the past two months, prompting the National Transportation Safety Board to launch an inquiry. On Friday, the NTSB reported that an Airbus A319 passenger jet and a

Paris - In light of massive financial losses from its freight division, Air France is expected to give up its freight division, French daily Figaro reported Saturday. The company is expected to tell its employees on Monday about the division's closure, reported the paper. That would mean freight would only be shipped in available space on passenger planes. Air France has lost 660 million euros (809.9 million dollars) on its freight division in the last two years. The division has also shrunk from 47 per cent to 26 per cent of goods transported by the company, with the freighter fleet declining from 11 to five planes. Source :  http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/326163,report-air-france-plans-to-jettison-freight-business.html

Boeing, PetroChina and Chinese energy and aviation industry representatives Thursday announced an agreement to evaluate establishing a sustainable aviation biofuels industry in China. The assessment, set to start in June, will look at all phases of biofuel development and supports a broader sustainable aviation biofuel agreement between China's National Energy Administration and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, Boeing said. "Boeing is actively pursuing biofuel research around the world," Boeing China President David Wang said in a news release. "Sustainable biofuels can help reduce carbon emissions while offering the potential to lessen aviation's dependence on fossil fuels. Through these agreements China, its aviation sector and its leadership are demonstrating tremendous drive in the quest to develop a clean, sustainable aviation fuel supply." Also, Boeing Research & Technology and the Chinese Academy of Science's Qingdao Institute of B

A report "Capacity and Frequency Analysis for Intra-European Operations" by UK-based RDC Aviation makes some interesting points about capacity distribution in Europe. The top ten airlines in terms of seat capacity in Apr-2010 were headed by Ryanair with 7.3 million, a 13.3% increase, followed by Lufthansa (5.7 million +2.8%) and Air France (3.8 million -8.4%). Immediately after these two legacy giants came the other two largest European LCCs, easyJet and Air Berlin, the former with 4.4 million seats (+10.1%) and the latter with 3.0 million (+22%), having streamlined its fleet in 2009 and having moved back into an operating profit during the year. Those airlines continuing to languish in the month (the data not being affected by the volcanic ash cloud or industrial action though it may have been skewed by the Easter period falling in April this year) included BA (2.4 million -2.0%) and its putative partner Iberia (2.3 million -13.8%), which is still suffering from the redu

Canada's Star Navigation Systems Group Ltd. has created TerraStar, a real-time in-flight safety monitoring system that could make the post-crash search for cockpit voice and flight data recorders -- as well as some crashes -- obsolete. TerraStar tracks, and can continuously encrypt and transmit to ground-based monitoring systems, up to 18,000-plus aircraft parameters per minute. The system filters "out of spec" indications as "alert notifications," which are prioritized in remote aircraft monitoring data feeds that can be accessed in real time, online. In practice, that means that operators on the ground could know about problems with an aircraft before the plane's pilots, or (in the case of distracted or incapacitated pilots) air traffic controllers observe any symptoms. The company believes that capability could not only vastly improve scheduling and maintenance, but also provide operators with the necessary data to break some accident chains before the cr

MUMBAI, India — An Air India flight that crashed after landing in southern India on Saturday killed 158 people and raised questions about India’s oversight of a rapidly growing aviation industry. The immediate cause of the accident appeared to be pilot error: the Boeing 737 overshot the hilltop runway in Mangalore, one of India’s trickiest airports, on the southwestern coast. But pilots and safety experts said the error may have been compounded by weaknesses in India’s safety inspection regime, inadequate training and an airport that critics said should never have been built in such a difficult spot. “This incident should not have happened,” said Kapil Kaul, who heads the Indian and Middle East arm of the Center for Asian Pacific Aviation, a consulting firm. Aviation officials said the pilot missed the landing threshold, a critical section of the runway at airports where runways are short because of hilly terrain. The plane, arriving from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, then veere

How likely are you to find a "free" seat with your miles when and where you want to go? That depends, says a recent study, on the airline you fly. Among the 22 programs in the study, the range of success rates runs from "almost every time" to "hardly ever." Researchers from IdeaWorks tried to book frequent flyer award seats on more than 6,000 flights in summer through fall 2010, and they found a wide disparity in success rate among the 22 programs compared: Southwest, 99 percent; Air Berlin, 99 percent; Air Canada, 94 percent, Virgin Blue, 90 percent; Lufthansa, 86 percent; Singapore, 77 percent; Iberia, 76 percent; Alaska, 75 percent; Jet Airways, 73 percent; Qantas, 73 percent; Continental, 71 percent; United, 69 percent; AirTran, 68 percent; Cathay Pacific, 67 percent; British Airways, 65 percent; SAS, 64 percent; American, 58 percent; Air France/KLM, 56 percent; Emirates, 36 percent; Turkish, 35 percent; Delta, 13 percent, and US Airways, 11 percent.

 Airbus likely didn't envision its super-long-range flagship A380 being used as a shuttle but Air France apparently thinks it can make money hopping across the English Channel with the giant airliner. The airline will begin summer weekend A380 service between London's Heathrow and Paris's Charles de Gaulle airports June 12. There will be one flight a day each way from Saturday to Monday for most of the summer and Friday flights will be added for July. Air France is launching the service with a seat sale and one-way tickets are about $275 on the reservations Web site. The gate-to-gate flight time is about 75 minutes, most of it spent in climb and descent. Obviously the flight will increase capacity on the already-busy route but Air France also has some internal reasons for the move. The airline currently operates three A380s on traditional long-haul routes like Paris-Johannesburg and Paris-New York and it has nine more super jumbos on order. The London-Paris hop is a good

European gasoline prices fell to a 10-week low, after crude oil dropped for a fifth day on global economic concerns. Air France-KLM Group’s KLM unit sold jet fuel on speculation ash cloud will affect air travel. Gasoline barges in Europe’s oil-trading hub of Amsterdam- Rotterdam-Antwerp traded between $712 and $716 a metric ton, according to a Bloomberg survey of brokers and traders today. That is the lowest since March 3 and compares with deals between $730 and $744 on May 14. Royal Dutch Shell sold 6,000 tons to Gunvor at $712 and 1,000 tons each to Trafigura and BP Plc, respectively. The deals were for Eurobob grade, to which ethanol is added to make finished automotive fuel. Brent crude for July delivery, Europe’s benchmark, fell as low as $76.23 a barrel, down 2.18 percent from Friday on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange. Prices were at $78.10 at 11:14 a.m. Jet fuel barges prices in the ARA region dropped as ash from a volcano in Iceland continued to disrupt European travel

Fiscal 2009/2010 results due Wednesday expected to show deepening losses Air France-KLM's cargo business is set to report an annual $614 million operating loss this week, according to French newspaper Le Figaro. The cargo unit, Europe's largest, will account for more than a third of the Franco-Dutch carrier's projected annual loss of around $1.6 billion, Le Figaro said. Air France-KLM declined to comment on the report ahead of the release of its fiscal 2009/2010 results on Wednesday. Air France-KLM's cargo unit lost $459 million in the nine months to December 31 compared with a year earlier loss of $70 million while revenue shrunk 26 percent to $766 million from $1.07 billion. Air France-KLM is downsizing its freighter operations following heavy loss in the past 18 months. The airline is transferring some of its 29 cargo aircraft to its Amsterdam-based Martinair subsidiary, and maximizing the use of cargo capacity on its passenger aircraft and "combi" pa

The world's largest passenger aircraft may soon be flying on one of the world's shortest routes between two major cities. Air France is reportedly considering deploying one of its 538-seat Airbus A380 jets on the 215-mile route between London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle. Why would Air France use the A380 – designed with long-haul flights in mind – on the short hop across the English Channel? To more efficiently train its staff, according to a report in the French Le Figaro newspaper. "On a long haul flight we can train two staff in 24 hours but on a short haul flight we can do several a day," an Air France source tells paper, according to The Connexion, a French English-language publication. Elsewhere, an Air France spokeswoman gives another possible reason to Air Transport Intelligence. That publication writes: "She adds that Paris-London is a busy route and other carriers have shown that they can justify large-capacity aircraft on relatively shor

TRIPOLI, Libya, May 12 (UPI) -- One child survived and more than 100 people died when a passenger airplane crashed at Tripoli International Airport, Libyan officials said. The Afriqiyah Airways flight from Johannesburg, South Africa, crashed as it was attempting to land, the BBC reported. The flight was to continue to London Gatwick Airport. Officials said the Airbus 330 carried 93 passengers of various nationalities and 11 crew members. The survivor was a Dutch child, a Libyan minister said. The British Foreign Office said it was looking into whether British nationals were on board the flight. "We are urgently investigating. A consular team from the British Embassy are on their way to the airport. Consular staff in Tripoli are urgently seeking further details," the Foreign Office said. Workers with surgical masks combed through the wreckage spread over a large area, CNN reported. Officials said they recovered the plane's flight data recorder, which investigators

source : Le Monde ( http://www.lemonde.fr/ ) du 7/05/2010

Aéroports de Paris is organising an invitation to tender to find a partner with which it will set up a joint venture company ("Operating Company") whose purpose will be the operating and marketing of the group's advertising spaces as its principal activity and, to a lesser extent, providing a closed-circuit silent audiovisual communication service on the sites managed by Aéroports de Paris in the Ile de France region. To this end, Aéroports de Paris is issuing a call for bidders in order to shortlist the companies that will be authorised to submit a tender. Call for bidder : (click on it to enlarge) source : International Herald Tribune ( http://global.nytimes.com/?iht )  7/05/2010

source : les échos ( http://www.lesechos.fr/ ) mai 2010

An ash cloud from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano caused further disruption to airline operations in Europe, mainly affecting flights to and from Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Austria, Scotland and Ireland over the weekend. Transatlantic flights were subject to "significant rerouting" that resulted in delays, Eurocontrol said. There were 22,424 flights within the parameters of Eurocontrol's Central Flow Management Unit on Saturday, about 200 below normal traffic levels, and on Sunday there were 23,491 flights, about 1,500 below normal traffic levels. By yesterday morning the areas of high ash concentration had dispersed and no airports were closed in Europe. But forecasts warned of the possibility of areas of higher ash concentration moving into the Iberian Peninsula by late yesterday. An area of ash cloud in the middle of the North Atlantic continued to impact transatlantic flights Monday, leading to major reroutings. Eurocontrol expected approximately 28,500 f

Google, the world's most popular search engine, is expanding its reach in the lucrative online travel business. In March, Google added hotel links to its Maps application, listing hotels with room rates available to some users. Google also is reportedly in talks to pay $1 billion to acquire ITA Software, which develops fare-shopping software for online travel agencies, airlines and fare-search-only sites, such as Bing Travel and Kayak. Incorporating fares into Google search results would keep customers more engaged in its applications while they plan for travel, a prospect that could unnerve other fare sites. Users would be able to type in their destination and travel dates, and see flights and prices. Now, Google users can plug in dates and cities, but only get links to other booking sites, such as Orbitz, Expedia and Hotwire. Google declined to comment about the acquisition talks. But, says Google spokeswoman Victoria Katsarou, "We always have travel in mind. We'

Aer Lingus says the group's financial performance for the next three months will be 'significantly impacted' by recent airspace disruption caused by the volcanic eruption in Iceland, but the company is still upbeat in its outlook for the rest of 2010. In its interim management statement released today, which deals with Aer Lingus' performance for the first three months of 2010, it said its initial estimate of the cost of the airspace disruption will approximately €20m. Aer Lingus said that total revenues for the first three months of 2010 were down 1.8% to €230m from €234m. The airline said it made an operating loss of €37.8m for the three month period, an improvement from losses of €74.8m the same time last year. The airline said that total operating expenses were down 13.3% due to lower staff and fuel costs as well as lower volume related costs such as airport charges. Average fare per passenger from short haul and long haul operations increased by 3% and 12.4%

Bombardier The Canadian aircraft maker has gone challenging the current duopole of Airbus and Boeing with its CS300. Embraer The Brazilian aircraft maker has imposed itself as a world leader in smaller airliners with its E-Jet series. It was jesting with Bombardier in a duopole for some time until the Canadian company decided to enter another field. Sukhoi The Russian company renown for its military aircraft has launched a development program for a commercial airliner, the Superjet-100, with Putin's blessing as the Russian market is up for grabs. The older, prouder soviet era companies (Tupolev, Antonov, Yakolev) have been plagued by failures. Mitsubishi The announcement by a Japanese manufacturer was surprising. The MRJ (Mitsubishi Regional Jet) has nevertheless the chance of taking a share of the market, with Boeing backing it. COMAC China will take the time it needs. It can send man into space. It can build its own airplane, the C919, with the know how tha

Ryanair is under investigation for allegedly evading up to €4.5m (£3.9m) in payroll taxes in France. The airline, which is already involved in tit-for-tat lawsuits with Air France about public subsidies, is suspected of employing 120 people in France on Irish contracts. Under EU law, this is permitted only for short periods or if the employee genuinely works in more than one country. French officials, who recently raided Ryanair's offices at Marseilles airport, suspect that the Dublin-based airline employs 120 people full-time in France, including 30 pilots, but pays their social charges in Ireland. French social security and other payroll taxes are up to three times higher than in Ireland and fall especially hard on the employer. By employing French-based staff on Irish contracts, Ryanair is accused of gaining an unfair competitive advantage and, in effect, cheating the French government. British cut-price airline, easyJet, was found guilty early this month of travail dissimulé —

AFP  - United Airlines and Continental Airlines announced Monday they had agreed to merge, creating the world's biggest carrier in an all-stock transaction approved by the boards of both companies. The transaction, which has been approved unanimously by the boards of directors of both companies, still needs to be approved by the shareholders. But the companies said they expected to complete the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2010. The new merged giant, which will keep the United name and maintain its headquarters in Chicago, will account for seven percent of global airline capacity, ahead of US rival Delta, which currently leads with six percent, US media reported. It will also have a 21 percent share of the huge US air market.

The French defence group Thales confirmed Monday that it has been court-ordered to pay damages and interest on unauthorised commissions relating to the sale of six frigates to Taiwan in 1991. The amount comes to a total of 630 million euros. By  News Wires  (text) AFP  - Arbitrators ordered French defence group Thales on Monday to compensate Taiwan in a dispute over a warship sale in 1991, the company said, with reports putting the figure at hundreds of millions of dollars (euros). "Thales has been ordered to pay damages and interest," a spokesman for the company told AFP, adding that the company would later announce the full amount of the payments ordered. The newspaper Le Figaro reported that the amount was around a billion dollars (750 million euros). It said the arbitrators ordered the payments to Taiwan to make up for unauthorised commissions that were paid to help Thomson-CSF, the company that later became Thales, win a deal to sell six frigates to Taiwan in 1991.