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Canada Developing Child-safety Measures for Aircraft

Transport Canada has responded to two recommendations from the country’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB) to improve the safety of children traveling on commercial aircraft, including on-demand and air-taxi operations using business aircraft. The first recommendation requires operators to report on a routine basis the number of infants (under two years old) and young children (two to 1...

Fraport To Sign Greek Airports Deal Within 10 Days

German airport operator Fraport will sign a EUR€1.2 billion (USD$1.3 billion) deal to lease and manage 14 provincial Greek airports this month. "We will proceed with signing the agreement with Fraport within the coming 10 days," the head of privatisation agency HRADF, Stergios Pitsiorlas, told a news conference. The deal, under negotiation before the Syriza party won a general...

Solomon Airlines signs new Melanesian Codeshare Partnership

Hard on the heels of commencing a significant codeshare agreement with Qantas Airways, Solomon Airlines has now officially validated a tripartite codeshare agreement with fellow Melanesian carriers Air Niugini and Air Vanuatu. Initially announced in principle last February, the watershed agreement confirming the codeshare was officially signed by the heads of all three carriers at the bi-annual...

Expansion of Airbus A350 logistics Lufthansa Technik Logistik Services GmbH

Lufthansa Technik AG is stepping up its capacities for the support of the Airbus A350: a symbolic groundbreaking marked the beginning of the expansion of a highly modern warehouse for the spare parts supply at the Munich location. The ceremony took place on December 8, 2015, in the presence of Dr. Thomas Stüger, member of the executive board of Lufthansa Technik, D...

ATR receives EASA certification for high-density cabin layout

The high-density seating configuration option for the ATR 72-600 aircraft has received its certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Using the existing airframe, the new high density configuration option is achieved by optimizing the pitch and adjusting forward cargo compartment, bringing the aircraft maximum capacity from 74 to 78 seats. ATR’s greater passe...

Burst tyre and hydraulic problem blamed for emergency landing of Morgan Freeman’s SJ30

A SyberJet SJ30-2 owned by actor and pilot Morgan Freeman was forced to make an emergency landing at Tunica Municipal airport in Mississippi on 5 December while en route to Sugar Land regional airport in Houston. According to a US Federal Aviation Administration accident and incident notification the light business jet – registration N30GZ – diverted to Tunica at 17:15 local tim...

Carpatair ATR crash probe highlights pilots' experience gap

Investigators have disclosed that a Carpatair ATR 72-500 captain breached operating procedures while attempting an approach to Rome in strong gusting crosswinds, before a bounced landing which badly damaged the aircraft. It had been operating a service to Rome Fiumicino on behalf of Alitalia on 2 February 2013. The crew had been informed of 22kt winds gusting to 37...

Boeing delivers 14th MK6 Chinook for the United Kingdom

Boeing  has delivered its 14th Mk6 Chinook, completing the United Kingdom’s most recent order and growing the RAF Chinook fleet to 60 aircraft. The order completion coincided with the 35th anniversary of Chinook operations for the U.K. “Since they were introduced into service in 1980, our Chinook fleet has played an integral supporting role for British forces and have been...

Bringing maintenance to the clients – a promising direction for helicopter MROs

The Dubai Air last month proved a true fiasco for airplane manufacturers, as both Airbus and Boeing saw only one notable commercial deal of 30 aircraft placed by Vietnam carrier. On the vertical side of the industry, however, rotorcraft producers can for now rest assured about the immediate future simply because of the stable demand largely driven by the emerging markets. Nevertheless...

NATO Jets to Police Skies Over Baltics Near Russian Border

Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets of the German Air Force currently deployed to the Amari Air Base will conduct daily training flight at low altitudes over Estonia during this week, the General Staff of the Defense Forces reported. "Training flight will carried out at an altitude of less than 152 meters, far from populated areas over the Gulf of Riga and middle...

AirBridgeCargo renews IOSA operational safety certification

AirBridgeCargo Airlines (ABC) has successfully passed the audit procedures for compliance with the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Operational Safety Audit (IOSA), renewing its certification for a further two years. The carrier says the extension of the IOSA certificate acknowledged its conformance with the highest global air safety requirements and follows a five-day ins...

Qatar Airways becomes first carrier to fly A350 to the US

Qatar Airways has today become the first airline to fly the Airbus A350 to the US from Hamad International Airport to New York’s JFK International Airport. The carrier operates seven A350s and an eighth will join the fleet before the end of the year and is scheduled to fly daily to Philadelphia from 1 January 1, 2016. Qatar Airways’ fleet of seven A350s fly twice a day to Fr...

Paris attacks cost Air France-KLM €50m in lost revenue

Air France-KLM has said that the Paris attacks, in which 130 people were killed, led to a €50m ($54m; £36m) drop in revenues as trips were cancelled. However, the airline group said it expected the effect to have largely worn off by the end of December. The group said the attacks "significantly impacted" traffic to and from Paris. Before the attacks passenger numbers...

Unattended Bag Leads to Aberdeen S.D. Airport Evacuation

An unattended bag led to the evacuation of the Aberdeen Regional Airport and delayed arrival of passengers to the terminal Thursday night. Police responded to the security threat at the airport shortly after 10 p.m., according to a news release from the Aberdeen Police Department. Earlier in the evening, a male arrived at the airport, stowed a suitcase in a corner of the terminal and immediatel...

Hainan Airlines Cuts Fundraising Plan

Hainan Airlines (HU) announced Monday night to adjust its private placement released earlier in April, cutting the upper limit of the total funds from 24 billion yuan to 16.6 billion yuan. The Haikou-based carrier now plans to sell as many as 4.62 billion shares to raise 16.55 billion yuan in a private placement, down from the 24 billion yuan previously announced, the company said in a fil...

Etihad Airways in new partnership with Victor

Etihad Airways has announced a new partnership with Victor to complement and promote its exclusive The Residence and First Apartment cabins, both available on the airline's Airbus A380 fleet. The partnership also allows customers the ultimate convenience of chartering a seamless private aircraft connection to or from their international A380 flights.  Etihad Airways is the first sch...

Nobody wins when premium economy isn’t Premium Economy

“In the 1980s,” Canada’s Financial Post newspaper predicted in late 1978, “business travelers will look back at air travel in this decade with a certain amount of trauma.” The logic, essentially, was that passengers paying full economy fares (usually, those on business) were frustrated by how full economy cabins were getting. How times don’t ch...

China’s Low-Cost Carriers Are Remaking the Country’s Aviation Market

Xia Lili, marketing chief at a privately-owned Shanghai software firm switched to flying with Spring Airlines after China’s first low-cost carrier took off in 2010. Her company has since made it mandatory for staff to use budget airlines when available, and has cut its travel costs by a fifth. Xia and her colleagues are among an increasing number of Chinese who are fuelling fast growth in...

USN moves to modify Super Hornet for Blue Angels role

The US Navy has started a process to replace the Blue Angels demonstration team’s aircraft with a squadron of Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornets. Boeing will receive a contract to draw up the engineering plans needed to convert the single-seat Super Hornet into a configuration specific to the Blue Angels role, the navy said in a 3 December acquisition notice. The engineering work will suppor...

Bangladesh Air Force gets Yak-130 combat trainer aircraft, AW 139 rescue helicopters

Russian-made Yak-130 combat trainer aircraft and Italian AW 139 helicopters have been inducted into the Bangladesh Air Force (BAF). Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina handed them over to the Air Force on Sunday at the BAF Bangabandhu Base in Dhaka. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also ruling Awami League president, on Sunday said self-confidence would take the nation forward though Banglades...

Flight tests of Russia’s 5th-generation fighter jet "practically completed"

The tests confirming the flight characteristics of Russia’s fifth-generation PAK FA (Prospective Airborne Complex of Frontline Aviation) fighter jet have been actually completed, Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV Channel on Monday. "Several planes are now primarily testing airborne avionics. The tests proving the aircraft’s flight char...