Archive for February 2015
American to Fly 787s to Beijing and Buenos Aires
American Airlines will debut its new Boeing 787-8 aircraft on flights to Beijing and Buenos Aires from its Dallas/Fort Worth hub in June. The Dreamliner will enter service on flights between Dallas/Fort Worth International and Chicago O’Hare International airports on 7 May before shifting to the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier’s new Dallas/Fort Worth-Beijing flight on…
Read MoreAsiana Airlines to order 25 A321neo aircraft
South Korea’s Asiana Airlines has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Airbus for the purchase of 25 A321neo single aisle aircraft as part of its ongoing fleet modernisation programme. Seating 180 passengers in a two class layout, the new aircraft will be operated on the carrier’s regional services, as well as on selected domestic…
Read MoreAirlines cancel flights as another snowstorm hits Northeast
Another Monday and another winter storm is causing problems for air travelers. A massive storm is dumping snow and ice throughout the Northeast region and, according to Weather.com, may leave behind up to 2 feet of new snow in and around Albany, N.Y., and central and eastern Massachusetts. As of 10:40 a.m. ET, flight-tracking service…
Read MoreEthiopian Airlines considers Airbus A350-1000, Boeing 777X: CEO
Ethiopian Airlines is evaluating the Airbus A350-1000 and the Boeing 777X as it considers further widebody order plans, CEO Tewolde Gebremariam has confirmed to ATW. “We are evaluating both the Airbus 350-1000 and the Boeing 777X. We have not yet determined the numbers, but we may need up to 20 airplanes,” Gebremariam told ATW Monday.…
Read MoreBombardier Announces American Airlines Firm Order for 24 CRJ900 NextGen Aircraft
Bombardier Commercial Aircraft announced today that American Airlines, Inc. (“American”), a wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines Group Inc., has signed a firm order for 24 CRJ900 NextGen regional jets. This order was announced on December 30, 2014 and followed American exercising 24 of 40 previously booked CRJ900 NextGen aircraft options. The options were originally…
Read MoreAirbus Gains Head Start in 2015 on Orders, Boeing Beats on Deliveries
Airbus reported a roughly $11 billion (7 billion pounds) preliminary order from Colombian airline group Avianca Holdings on Thursday, gaining a head start in its 2015 order race with U.S. rival Boeing subject to a final confirmation of the deal. The memorandum of understanding for 100 A320neo-family jets is worth $10.6 billion at list prices…
Read MoreCommentary: An Airbus A380neo Makes No Sense
Commentary by Hamlin, President of Hamlin Transportation Consulting I enjoyed Kevin Michaels’s well-done “Up Front” column in the Jan. 12 issue on why an Airbus A380neo will probably happen. The cynic in me says there is a good chance that what he is predicting will occur. However, European/Airbus company politics aside, a re-engined and updated…
Read MoreStormy skies: Bombardier flies a risky flight path
Bombardier Inc. employees have a phrase for the kind of personal feel-it-in-your-gut commitment to the company that goes well beyond normal work duty. They call it “avoir le sang jaune.” Literally, it means to have yellow blood, a reference to the color of the first snowmobiles cranked out by company founder Joseph Armand Bombardier in…
Read MoreEast Asia’s Airlines No More Dangerous Than American Counterparts – TIME
There’s a .0001% difference between safety records of East Asia’s Airlines and their American Counterparts. The world map below breaks down accident rates for each region’s carriers for 2014 (dark blue numbers) and across five years (light blue numbers): A horrific string of recent plane accidents has rocked airlines across Southeast Asia. Since 2014, the…
Read MoreBig U.S. Airlines Lobby Against Persian Gulf Carriers
Chief executives of the three largest U.S. airlines said they are pressing the U.S. government to modify or kill air treaties with two Persian Gulf nations because of what they say are subsidies and government industrial policies for three fast-growing carriers from the region that are distorting global air transportation. The heads of American Airlines…
Read MoreAvianca commits to 100 Airbus A320neos
Avianca Holdings, the Latin American airline power that has been studying the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX in advance of a much-anticipated large narrowbody order, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Airbus to order 100 A320neo family aircraft. Avianca chairman Germán Efromovich told ATW last November that the company was going through…
Read MoreTransAsia plane crash: wreckage hoisted from Taiwan river
The wreck of a TransAsia plane was hoisted from a shallow river in Taipei as night fell on Wednesday as rescuers continued their search for 18 people missing in a crash that killed at least 25. During the day, rescue workers in rubber rafts pulled 15 people from the partially submerged fueslage of the ATR-72…
Read MoreFlying the Embraer Legacy 500
What’s the coolest airplane in the world, at least that a civilian could buy? There are some impressive contenders for that unofficial title, including a couple I’ve had the chance to fly in the past year, such as the Gulfstream G650 and the Cessna Citation X+. We recently got the chance to fly yet another…
Read MoreUnited Airlines considers shrinking width of seats, report says
Think your airplane seat has grown slimmer? You might be right. Over the past few years, more and more airplanes have been adding an extra seat to economy class rows by skimming as much as an inch and half from other seats. The latest airline considering a trim is United, Aviation Daily reported on Monday.…
Read MoreAir Canada partner Chorus orders up to 23 Bombardier Q400s
Chorus Aviation has placed an order for new planes after finalizing a contract with Air Canada that cuts costs and strengthens the partners’ ability to compete with WestJet Encore. The Halifax parent company of Jazz Aviation placed a firm order for 13 Bombardier Q400 turboprop planes valued at US$424-million at list prices. Options for 10…
Read MoreProfits Elusive For Asia’s Long-Haul LCCs
airasia The Asia-Pacific region has become the epicenter of the long-haul, low-cost airline trend. But despite the rapid growth of these carriers—and with much more pending—it is still yet to be proven that the model can be successful. In many ways Asia has been the perfect petri dish for the long-haul low-cost carrier (LCC) experiment.…
Read MoreTransAsia Airways GE235 Plane Crash
An ATR 72-600 plane operated by TransAsia Airways, a private Taiwanese airline, turned on its side in midair, clipped a bridge, hit a taxi and careened into a river Wednesday with 58 people on board. Rescuers pulled out people and bodies from the mostly sunken fuselage. At least 26 people were killed and more than…
Read MoreICAO to Address Universal Airliner Tracking Efforts
Ten months after industry leaders pledged to swiftly institute universal tracking of airliners, international aviation officials are set to discuss why voluntary efforts have stalled and what mandatory standards are needed. But participants in this week’s International Civil Aviation Organization safety conference in Montreal won’t be endorsing any speedy fixes. Proposals calling for routine satellite…
Read MoreMore Than 4,560 Airline Flights Cancelled by Storm
Air travelers faced a new round of headaches Sunday from a major winter storm, the second to disrupt air travel in a week. More than 4,560 airline flights had been canceled through Monday. Additionally, most big airlines had issued weather waivers that allowed passengers flying to airports in the storm’s path to change their flight…
Read MoreDelta Airlines computer outage has passengers frustrated
Passengers on Delta Air Lines Monday afternoon were unable to check in for their flights because of a malfunction with the airline’s website, mobile app and airport kiosks. Travelers from different parts of the country complained about the problem on Twitter. Delta spokesman Paul Skrbec did not have a number for passengers affected by the…
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