JetSuite has introduced services to and from Havana in Cuba. Passengers can charter a six-passenger JetSuite Edition CJ3, or four-passenger Phenom 100, non-stop to Havana from any of the 16 Cuba gateway airports. “Our mission continues to revolve around making private air travel accessible to more people than ever before, and offering an unprecedented level of transparency.” A...
Textron Aviation’s Cessna business jet unit delivered 166 Citation aircraft during 2015, up by seven aircraft from the previous year. The company’s deliveries were boosted by the so called new aircraft effect, with the initial deliveries of the new Cessna Citation Latitude helping boost jet shipments. Cessna delivered 16 Citation Latitudes during the year, which helped offset sma...
Online charter specialist Victor has seen a 336% uptick in charter requests to the Alpine skiing region. The company’s data looks at all private jet requests to European airports that offer transfers to ski resorts. Destinations in France saw the most activity with Chambery, the nearest airport to a number of Europe’s top ski resorts, seeing an increase of over 155% in charter re...
With a set of significant improvements to the process by which transgender pilots can begin or complete a gender transition while still flying, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is finally making it easier for trans pilots to maintain their required medical certification without being needlessly grounded. The changes include simplifying the requirements for all transgender, transexua...
Before arriving at the airport I had taken a look at which Priority Pass lounges are available in Terminal 4, and noticed there was a fairly new Plaza Premium Lounge, which seems to be well regarded. Since this lounge was right across the hallway from the Air India Lounge, I figured I’d check it out. The lounge is open daily from 5AM until 10:30PM. Again, the Plaza Premium Lounge is locat...
An American Airlines jet was forced to land in Brazil after a mystery illness struck for second time in a week, leaving four passengers and crew light-headed. The American Airlines flight was travelling from Brazil to the United States when three members of staff became ill, the Mirror reported. It was the second time this week American Airlines was forced to ground a plane after a mystery i...
Renewing a passport and border checks are not the easiest of tasks for Shona Owen thanks to the unusual location of her birth. About 36,000 feet in the air. To the constant bemusement of immigration officials, her passport reads: "Holder born on an aeroplane." Owen is one of a small community of people who made their entrance into the world in this most dramatic of ways. In 1...
Airbus said on Friday it had accepted the resignation of chief technical officer Jean Botti who will leave the planemaker in April after almost 10 years in the company. The planemaker said that Botti's succession is "subject to the outcome of a comprehensive review on the future set-up and structure for innovation and research and technology at Airbus Group". Botti joined Airbu...
Israel’s Channel 2 news reported that a passenger who was traveling from Eilat to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport today attempted to open the door of the aircraft while it was in the air. According to the news reports, the flight crew stated that the passenger had mistakenly believed that the exit row door was actually the entrance to the bathroom! According to a passenger o...
An EgyptAir mechanic whose cousin joined Islamic State in Syria is suspected of planting a bomb on a Russian passenger plane that was blown out of Egypt's skies in late October, according to sources familiar with the matter. So far Egypt has publicly said it has found no evidence that the MetroJet flight, which crashed in the Sinai Peninsula after takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh airport,...
A passenger on board an Air Canada flight from New Jersey to Vancouver captured the terrifying moment when the plane suddenly dropped in altitude and its oxygen masks were deployed. The emergency was prompted by a loss in pressure. Graphs from online flight monitoring software showed AC549 plummeting from more than 35,000 feet (10,000 meters) to just above 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). Busines...
“Meet Our Eskimo!” What could go wrong? Alaska Airlines didn’t get the reception it expected for its new brand update. Alaska Air Group CEO Brad Tilden reportedly apologized for the company’s invitation to “Meet our Eskimo” in the unveiling of the revamp. The tweaked brand, which was released this week, included a “modernized” Eskimo mascot....
Honeywell International Inc. posted profit that matched analysts’ estimates as aerospace sales increased, bolstered by deliveries of jet engines, and overall margins expanded amid cost cuts. Earnings excluding pension adjustments increased to $1.58 a share, the maker of thermostats and factory-automation software said in a statement Friday. Sales, hurt by lower demand for oil-and-gas equi...
Air Malta is planning an enhanced summer 2016 flight schedule that will see improved flight timings on Manchester, Catania, Vienna, Lyon and Marseille and increased frequency on Berlin. The Maltese airline will continue being the largest operator to London and the UK by offering a selection of 30 weekly flights to seven airports. With this schedule, running from the 27th March till 29th October, A...
Arctic Aviation Assets Ltd (AAA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA(Norwegian), has arranged for pre-delivery payment financing (PDP) of fifty Airbus 320 Neo aircraft scheduled for delivery in 2016 to 2019. The facility that covers PDP financing for deliveries until the end of 2019 is structured as a revolving credit facility. ‘These deliveries in the n...
Air Astana has signed a codeshare agreement with Hong Kong Airlines, making it the Kazakh carrier’s seventh codeshare partner. Air Astana customers now have the opportunity to book tickets of both airlines to reach Hong Kong Airlines’ destinations in China, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam. Air Astana operates services to Hong Kong twice weekly (Tuesdays and Fridays) with a Boei...
After 10 years of presence in Portugal (Aigle Azur’s second most important destination after Algeria), as well as an increasing number of flights to Lisbon and direct services to Porto, Faro and Funchal all year-round from Paris-Orly, the company is now proposing a new airlink between Lyons and Porto on a thrice-weekly basis, every Thursday, Friday and Sunday, from 27 March. The company a...
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 took to the skies for the first time today. The 737 MAX program achieved the milestone on schedule which begins a comprehensive flight-test program leading to certification and delivery. With the latest technology LEAP-1B engines from CFM International and Boeing-designed Advanced Technology winglets, the first member of the efficient 737 MAX family completed a tw...
Civil helicopter deliveries at Bell Helicopter Textron won’t really take off until next year, after the new Bell 505 Jet Ranger X light single enters service late this year and the super-medium 525 Relentless is certified early next year. Thus, shipments this year will be mostly flat, just as they were last year, Textron chairman and CEO Scott Donnelly said yesterday during a...
Textron Aviation has completed an expansion of its certifications to enable each of its U.S. company-owned service centers to support Beechcraft, Cessna and Hawker aircraft. This marks another milestone toward the integration of all three brands under the Textron Aviation umbrella. The company had announced plans for the integrated service center network shortly after Textron acquired Be...
France will decide next year whether to advance the timeline for a wide-ranging procurement that seeks to replace hundreds of light and medium helicopters operated by all three branches of its armed forces. Under the nascent hélicoptère interarmées léger (HIL) programme, Paris intends to begin the acquisition process in 2020. However, with a number of aged types r...