The Latvian airline airBaltic on May 28, 2016 launched a new route between Riga and Reykjavik, Iceland. Today on May 30, 2016 airBaltic invites everyone to celebrate the historic launch of the new Riga – Reykjavik route with a special live musical performance by Latvian contemporary musician Shipsea from one of Iceland’s nicest hangouts in Reykjavik KEX hostel on airBaltic Facebo...
The Rio Olympic ambitions of Great Britain’s top decathlete Ashley Bryant could be dashed because his pole vaults failed to arrive in Götzis due to an airline cock-up. The 25-year-old finished the two days of competition in Austria with 8,056 points – an agonising 44 short of the 8,100 required to make it to Rio. The pole vault proved to be the difference as Bryant struggled to...
Asia's largest budget airline AirAsia Bhd has received a $1 billion offer for its aircraft leasing unit, Bloomberg News quoted Chief Executive Tony Fernandes as saying. AirAsia intends to divest the business, Asia Aviation Capital Ltd, at some point, Fernandes told Bloomberg on Monday but added that the offer needs to be discussed further with the board. He was quoted as saying that the...
You can sell damn near anything on eBay these days. Sure, the auction site won't take your magic weed hat, but bidders will happily snap up your discared soda tabs and fucked up t-shirts. eBay will also take your airplane, no matter what condition it's in. The Concord Alliance is proving this odd but true point with its offering of two retiring aircrafts starting at a minimum...
Airbus had "let itself be persuaded by some well-known European leaders into using an engine made by an inexperienced consortium". Airbus chief Tom Enders conceded in a newspaper interview on Sunday that some of the "massive problems" dogging the European airplane manufacturer's new military transporter, the A400M, were of the group's own making. "We un...
German airline Lufthansa has said it plans to suspend flights to Venezuela next month due to the worsening economic situation in the country. The carrier said currency controls in the South American nation had made it impossible for it to convert earnings into dollars and repatriate revenue. Lufthansa added that it hoped to restore services in the near future. The low oil...
FROM the moment you step onto your plane, there are many things that put travellers on edge. Happily, it turns out that a lot of the worries are needless. For starters, don’t worry about somebody opening the door while you’re a mile up in the air. As pilot Patrick Smith explains, even the Hulk can’t open an aeroplane door while the plane is in midflight. “Cabin pres...
A Vueling flight had to be evacuated when an airplane crashed into a tow truck that was guiding it away from the terminal. The Airbus 320 bound for Barcelona was full of passengers when the incident happened on May 28 (local time) at Manchester Airport. It was thought that a pin connecting the tow truck to the plane snapped while the aircraft was still on...
U.S. lender CIT Group Inc has kicked off the sale of its aircraft leasing assets by inviting more than a dozen entities to consider bidding, including China's HNA Group, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's ICBC Leasing, and Japan's Orix Corp, sources familiar with the matter said. The sale of CIT's Commercial Air unit could fetch between $3 billion to $4 billion,...
Investigators into EgyptAir's plane crash need at least 12 days to recover its black boxes as they await a ship that can retrieve them from the bottom of the Mediterranean, investigation sources say. Key points: 'Good chance' black boxes recovered in 12 days Black boxes are at a depth of about 3,000 metres No theory is currently favoured as the official cause of the crash...
The Ministry of Defence is poised to hand another major deal to a US company, with a £2bn contract for new Apache helicopters set to be awarded to Boeing. Leonardo, the Italian aerospace manufacturer until recently known as Finmeccanica, had been battling to land the deal, which would have seen the refitted helicopters produced at its base in Yeovil, Somerset, where 3,700 staff are e...
Nicole Kidman is flying high. The Australian Oscar winner stars in a just-released ad campaign by Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates. The commercial, a five-minute 360-degree virtual reality film, showcases the deluxe service and accommodations of the new Airbus A380. It also raises a couple of burning questions. How do you get a falcon on the UAE’s national...
The new business aircraft market continued to fly into troubled skies in 2015, with piston engine aircraft deliveries dropping 6.5%, turboprops down 7.6% and turbofan aircraft shipments flat at 1.6% growth, compared to 2014, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA). However, billings were up 2.4%. Notably, business aircraft operators are not parking their older equipment....
One of the drone models used by Russia is to be modified to be used as a kamikaze, Russian media said. Such drones can be used to suppress enemy air defenses or to provide tactical-level air support to units in the field. “A drone which would act similar to a fire ship is being developed now. It detonates after hitting a target,” a defense source told TASS. The project is ba...
The silhouette of one of the British Army’s Apache attack helicopters in the skies over Afghanistan is a reassuring sight for coalition forces on the battlefield. Its ungainly shape projects a menacing power that foes are unlikely to stand up to – if they haven’t already fled at the sound of its approaching rotors. But this symbol of British military power won’t be quite...
Airbus Helicopters has acted to allay concerns over the safety of its Super Puma aircraft after Norwegian investigators declined to rule out a repetition of past gearbox problems being the cause of a crash that killed 11 oil workers and two pilots. Norway's accident investigation authority AIBN said in a preliminary report on Friday that it was examining three possible causes for the April...
Hardly anybody goes to Sri Lanka’s Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (HRI) because they have a flight. No, the air transport hub is currently a daily flight or two away from being completely defunct, and the people who do go there tend to be tourists making a side trip from the nearby wildlife parks to see the stunning, fully modern airport in the middle of the jungle for the...
The US Air Force’s Chief of Staff, General Mark Welsh, announced the possibility of adding Lockheed Martin Corporation’s F-22 aircraft to its fleet at an event hosted by the Air Force Association. The announcement comes at a time when the defense contractor is already focused on the F-35 program. When Lockheed Martin discontinued the program five years ago it was subjected to s...
The second world war plane that crashed into the Hudson river on Friday night has been raised, after the body of its pilot was recovered, authorities said. Rescue divers removed the body of 56-year-old William Gordon, of Key West, Florida, from the river late on Friday. The single-seat P-47 Thunderbolt crashed near the George Washington bridge between New York and New Jersey, according to...
The private jet Janine Iannarelli is selling for a Russian client has leather seats, wood paneling, a satellite phone and can fly non-stop from Tokyo to Los Angeles. The price has dropped US$3 million since September and is still falling. Ms Iannarelli is hawking the 10-year-old Bombardier Global 5000 for $14.5m but recommends that her client cut the price further as the market for lar...
Bell Helicoptera announced a signed letter of intent (LOI) with Professional Helicopter Services (PHS) for three Bell 505 Jet Ranger X helicopters while at the Australian Helicopter Industry Association’s Rotortech 2016. PHS will be the first helicopter training school in the region to operate the Bell 505. While at the show, Hawker Pacific, the Independent Representative of Be...
