Sizakele Mzimela is the co-founder, CEO and shareholder of South African-based regional airline Fly Blue Crane. She is a veteran aviation and business leader with 20 years of experience in executive leadership roles, including CEO at flag carrier South African Airways (SAA) and regional SA Express. Ms. Mzimela (pictured at top, center) has served as chair of the African Airlines Association (...
If your flight home for the holidays seemed longer or shorter than usual, that probably wasn’t a coincidence. Travelers rely on accurate flight times to ensure they make their business meetings or connecting flights on-time and there’s been fluctuation in recent years regarding how long airlines say a flight will actually last, according to a new report on flight time padding and on...
The union representing Delta Air Lines Inc.’s pilots wants raises of almost 40 percent compounded over three years, attempting to reverse some of the pay and benefit cuts adopted in the early 2000s. The union cites the carrier’s surging profits in saying it had requested a 22 percent raise for 2016, followed by 7 percent raises in the following two years, according to a memo from th...
The Federal Aviation Administration's no drone zone around the nation's capital has grown. The FAA warned this summer that unmanned aircraft, such as drones and model aircraft, were prohibited within 15 miles of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, just south of Washington. But its online guidance now says they're banned from Washington's special flight rules area, a ring...
Days after a deadly plane crash in the heart of Alaska's largest city, there are lingering questions regarding what caused the pilot to fly into two office buildings, including one where his wife works. The FBI is leading the investigation into the Tuesday morning wreck that killed 42-year-old pilot Doug Demarest, but has released little information. It declined to comment on any possible l...
Italian aviation authorities have launched an investigation after an easyJet flight landed on the wrong runway at the airport in Pisa. Flight EZY1847 from Manchester landed on a closed runway that is used for passenger jets taxiing to or from the adjacent airstrip. The Airbus A319-100 was given permission to land on runway 04L but touched down on runway 04R instead. EasyJet said the s...
L-3 Communications will modify an unspecified number of Gulfstream G550 aircraft for Australia under a US$93.6 million foreign military sales deal announced by the US Department of Defense on December 28. “L-3 Communications Mission Integration, Greenville, Texas, has been awarded a $93,632,287 firm fixed-price undefinitised contract action task order (1648) for Australia Government...
The widows of three sailors killed in a Navy helicopter crash two years ago off the coast of Virginia are suing the manufacturer, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., and several other companies that produced components for the MH-53E Sea Dragon. The lawsuit filed in federal court alleges that Sikorsky and the other defendants, including General Electric, designed and manufactured an unsafe helicopter and...
UGICT-CGT, the largest of the two unions, has called for a strike on January 28 to protest the job cuts as well as the legal action taken against five employees involved in an October 5 attack on Air France officials after the airline presented its restructuring plan. The union is also protesting the airline’s plans to spin off some of its operations. “In 2016 we’re lett...
Airbus Group SE managed to beat a company target for deliveries last year by churning out almost twice the average monthly number in December, people familiar with the achievement said. The European plane maker reached a total of about 635 and handed over 79 units in the last month of the year alone, said the people. Airbus shipped 629 planes in 2014. Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath decli...
Flying long distances solo in a bi-plane is daunting enough in modern times; to have done it in the 1930s is bordering on superhuman. PHOTO: English aviation pioneer Amy Johnson, pictured two years before her death in 1941. (Supplied: Rex/Shutterstock) Canada-based British adventurer Tracey Curtis-Taylor has some idea what aviation pioneer Amy Johnson went through to become the first fem...
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently released new regulations governing the use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). Yes that’s right, that drone you just unwrapped is an aircraft! And as a drone owner, you are now faced with the prospect of operating your drone within these new regulations. The unique thing about drones is that the possibilities are endless, with many...
