airBaltic plans to build a new aircraft hangar at Riga Airport to maintain its fleet, thus reducing future maintenance costs and becoming more efficient. airBaltic has signed a building rights agreement with the Riga Airport in 2020. It is planned to launch the construction of the new hangar at the beginning of 2022 and to finish it by the end of 2023. Martin Gauss, Chief Exe...
Airbus Helicopters started in-flight tests on board its Flightlab, a platform-agnostic flying laboratory exclusively dedicated to maturing new technologies. Airbus Helicopters’ Flightlab provides an agile and efficient test bed to quickly test technologies that could later equip Airbus’ current helicopter range, and even more disruptive ones for future fixed-wing aircraft or (e)VTOL pl...
Volotea published its results for the full year 2020, drawing up balanced figures. Last year, the airline’s strategy has been to quickly redefine its network by shifting predominantly to a domestic offer (86% of its network), in all the countries where it operates. This flexible stategy, combined with the best operational standards, allowed Volotea to achieve very satisfactory results i...
Norwegian announced that the government of Norway has decided to support and contribute to the airline’s funding of new capital, pending certain conditions. This move significantly increases Norwegian’s chances of working through the crisis caused by the pandemic and to position itself as a key player within Norwegian and European aviation. “On behalf of everyone at Norwegian,...
Airbus is updating its production rate planning for its A320 Family aircraft in response to the market environment. The new average production rates for the A320 Family will now lead to a gradual increase in production from the current rate of 40 per month to 43 in Q3 and 45 in Q4 2021. This latest production plan represents a slower ramp up than the previously anticipated 47 aircraft pe...
Daher announced the delivery of a Kodiak 100 turboprop utility aircraft to the Héli-Béarn company. This aerial work operator based at Pau-Pyrénées airport (Pyrénées Atlantique) thus becomes the first French customer for this aircraft. Built in Sandpoint (Idaho, USA), the Kodiak is renowned for its robustness, high payload, and short take-off and l...
In terms of private travel, Bell 505 owners have found that the helicopter is a versatile and reliable way to help private aircraft operators stay on the move. It offers a swift and safe means to reach essential business meetings in comfort. The outstanding visibility of the technology-laden cockpit is ideal for leisure activities away from crowds. Typically, UK operators use their aircraft f...
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Global Show for General Aviation will be unable to start as planned on April 21, 2021 on the exhibition grounds in Friedrichshafen. "Following the cancellation of the event last year, the uncertainties surrounding the pandemic coupled with the renewed lockdown extension unfortunately mean that AERO Friedrichshafen will have to be postponed. With the aim...
Skyports, partners with Australian drone-powered health logistics company, Swoop Aero, to provide UK-wide drone delivery service. In a UK-first, Skyports has chosen to leverage Swoop Aero’s comprehensive aviation platform and 3D-printed electric drones to deliver a wide range of services including delivering essential medical supplies for the National Health Service (NHS) to remote area...
Orolia recently organized a series of flight tests to demonstrate and qualify capabilities of the GADSS global aircraft safety program’s end-to-end Emergency Locator Transmitter Distress Tracking (ELT-DT) system, including Orolia’s Ultima-DT solution. With these successful flight test results and the exceptional performance of its Ultima-DT system, Orolia is now the world&rsqu...
Curtiss-Wright Corporation and Honeywell announced that their 25-hour Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) developed for the air transport market has received EASA Technical Standard Order certification. Based on Curtiss-Wright’s compact, lightweight Fortress CVR technology, the new Honeywell Connected Recorder-25 (HCR-25) surpasses the requirements of the upcoming 2021 EASA mini...
Throughout the course of 2020, a total of 3,665,871 passengers passed through the gates of Václav Havel Airport Prague. The operation of the airport was unprecedented due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular the related restrictions on travel and the worldwide decline in demand for flying. As a result, 79% fewer passengers were handled in Prague compared to 2019. In January and February...