50 SKY SHADES - World aviation news

United States aviation news

A New Idea for Airline Loyalty: Cash Back Rewards for Frequent Flyers

Just in time for Thanksgiving, American Airlines has announced the end of the Frequent Flier Era as we’ve known it. Starting next year, the airline’s customers will earn miles based on how much they spend on a ticket rather than how far they fly. In making the shift, American becomes the last of the big three U.S. airlines to adopt a revenue-based frequent-flier progr...

American Keeps Tokyo Route As Regulators Reject Delta Claim

American Airlines Group Inc. will keep the right to fly between Los Angeles and Tokyo's Haneda airport, after federal regulators rejected claims by Delta Air Lines Inc. that the privilege should be revoked because American failed to begin service quickly enough. American has until March 27 to begin the flights to Haneda airport, the U.S. Transportation Department ruled. The carrier sai...

NBAA Charities Awards 14 Scholarships During Convention 2015

The National Business Aviation Association is about much more than the business of aviation; it is also about the future of the worldwide general aviation industry. In the spirit of the future at last week's event NBAA Charities, the charitable giving arm of the organization, awarded 14 scholarships to people seeking professional training leading to careers in aviation. NBAA&...

Honeywell Aerospace releases upgrades to Primus Epic

Honeywell Aerospace has released new software upgrades for Primus Epic, its integrated cockpit system. One of the new features to be installed during the upgrades is the IntuVue 3-D Weather Radar Hazard 2.0, which detects hail and lightening, whereas the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) coupled autopilot, DynaCharts integrates arrival and departure terminal charts with the navigation...

United Offers Pilots 13% Raise in Bid to Find Labor Peace

United Continental Holdings Inc., seeking labor peace five years after the airline's creation in a merger, is offering pilots a raise in a proposed contract that would put them at or near the top of the U.S. industry's pay scale, two people briefed on the plan said. The tentative deal calls for a 13 percent increase in 2016, followed by annual boosts of 3 percent and 2 percent, said the...

JetBlue Shakes Up Pilot Hiring by Training Them From Scratch

JetBlue Airways Corp., breaking with historical practices at U.S. airlines, plans to recruit potential pilots with no flight experience and provide its own training under a proposal awaiting approval from federal regulators. The program would be the first of its kind in the U.S. and would be similar to those used by some European and Asian carriers. Candidates still would have to meet U.S. requ...

Meridian Adds Gulfstream G200 Maintenance

Teterboro, N.J.-based Meridian Jet Center, an FBO and Part 145 certified repair station, received FAAauthorization for maintaining the Gulfstream G200 (formerly the IAI Galaxy). Gulfstream produced 250 G200s between 1999 and 2011. “Our highly trained technicians now have the ability to support our customers with a wider range of options,” said Jo...

JetBlue Launches Amazon Streaming on All Planes Equipped With Fly-Fi

Just in time for the holidays, JetBlue has announced that it will premiere Amazon Video unlimited streaming entertainment this week on over 150 aircraft equipped with its free Fly-Fi broadband Internet. Through its partnership wth Amazon, JetBlue lets Amazon Prime members access tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes, including exclusive Amazon Original Series at no additional cost. All Je...

Op-Ed: All-male APEX emerging tech panel needs women’s voices

With tech-savvy women worldwide making key travel decisions these days for themselves and their families and Nielsen reporting last fall that women slightly outpaced men in smartphone ownership in the United States – and are projected to control a whopping $28 trillion of consumer spending in the US alone – it was disheartening to see so few women in attendance at the recently con...

KLM’s Boeing 787 offers new cabins, connectivity

As the latest airline to place Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner into service KLM had the opportunity to revisit its inflight product and set a new course for the airline. It has done precisely that, introducing new products for World Business Class, Economy Comfort (premium economy) and economy class. The products were put on display during a series of demo flights this past weekend over Ho...

Historic touchdown for Blue Origin’s New Shepard space vehicle

Commercial spaceflight start-up Blue Origin has achieved a historic first by vertically landing and recovering the launcher stage of the New Shepard suborbital system after delivering a payload to space. The successful recovery mission comes seven months after the maiden flight of the rocket, which led to an unsuccessful recovery of the vertical launcher. Several attempts by Elon Musk’...

A Secret Air Cargo Operation Called "Aerosmith" Could Give Amazon a Major Advantage over Its Rivals

Amazon may be involved in a secretive air cargo operation based in Ohio, furthering the e-commerce company's ambitions to enter the shipping industry, according to an in-depth report by Motherboard. The operation, referred to as "Aerosmith," launched in September by an unknown corporation and is run by the Ohio-based aviation holding company Air Transport Services Group (ATSG...