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France aviation news

France stuck between export and import selections

France’s DGA defence procurement agency predicts that the nation’s military exports will have nearly doubled in 2015, thanks in no small part to its first international orders for the Dassault Rafale. Although exact figures for export sales will not be confirmed until May, the DGA estimates that some €16 billion ($17.8 billion) will have been made in 2015, which would almost do...

ATR performs Clean Sky’s ‘All Electrical Aircraft’ flight test campaign

An ATR 72 prototype has taken to the skies to launch the second flying demonstration campaign as part of the EU’s Clean Sky Joint Undertaking (CS JU) program. The aim of this flight trial is to test an all electrical energymanagement system, optimizing the electrical power distributi...

BEA: Pilot's Skill Saved Falcon 7X with Runaway Trim

France's aviation accident investigation bureau BEA released its final report this week on the May 2011 pitch trim runaway incident involving a Falcon 7X in Malaysia, which caused Dassault to temporarily ground the 7X fleet. The report reveals how the crew recovered from an unusual and dangerous attitude. The pilot flying used his military experience and applied a procedure he had learned f...

Safran Takes Writedown for Snecma Silvercrest Delay

Safran will take a €654 million ($720 million) one-off, non-cash charge to cover what it called “the depreciation of program-related tangible and intangible assets” associated with its delayed Silvercrest engine. Announcing otherwise very positive 2015 financial results in Paris today, the French engine maker confirmed that it has agreed to a revised schedule for certifying the en...

Airbus Helicopters focuses on customers and presents products and services at Heli Expo 2016

 Industry stakeholders will be invited to see the world of Airbus Helicopters’ from a new perspective at the Heli Expo trade show from March 1-3 at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, KY. Airbus Helicopters will be highlighting its wide range of products and services with a strong lineup of five aircraft, including the H125 in law enforcement configuration; the H130 in utility...

Airbus Raises Plane Production, Boosted by Low Oil Prices and Iran

Its struggling A380 superjumbo finally got a new customer too. Airbus Group performed a partial U-turn on plans to cut production of its profitable A330 aircraft on Wednesday, easing the delicate transition to a newer model as it posted 2015 profits in line with expectations on Wednesday. The European planemaker said it now planned to build seven A330 wide-body jets per month from 2017, part...

Airbus has "solid" results with a record order book

Airbus has said it will increase production of its new A350 aircraft as it reveals a 15% increase in net profits for 2015 and a record order book. The firm, which employs around 15,000 in the UK, said it would boost production of its long-range widebody A330 to seven a month. This is in line with growing air traffic forecasts this year. It said its A380 superjumbo had broken even for the...

Airbus Helicopters and CAAS team for university UAV trial

The National University of Singapore will soon be seeing unmanned air vehicles flying over its campus, as Airbus Helicopters and the nation’s aviation authority team up to trial parcel delivery at the site. A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the aircraft manufacturer and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), which will result in trials under the Skyways...

Air France-KLM and GOL celebrate a two-year partnership

More than 300,000 passengers carried Two years have passed since the signing of the partnership agreement between Air France-KLM and GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes. This agreement has enabled both airlines to optimize and expand their networks to new destinations between Brazil and Europe, with more than 300,000 passengers carried. With more than 215,000 flights operated since the...

Transformation continues at Airbus Helicopters

Airbus Helicopters, says chief executive Guillaume Faury, is on a “journey” of transformation, as it attempts to go from being the “biggest to the best” rotorcraft manufacturer in the world. Faury, who in 2013 was handed the reins of what was then Eurocopter, has wrought impressive change since kicking off its transformation early the following year, but clearly that pro...

Marseille expects North African growth

Volumes at Marseille Provence Airport remained the same in 2015 but cargo manager, Jean-Marc Boutigny is expecting strong growth for 2016, helped by increased services to North Africa. Boutigny tells Air Cargo Week that in 2015, airfreight fell two per cent to 52,000 tonnes, mail remained the same at 3,900 tonnes and road feeder service increased by four per cent to 20,000 tonnes. For 2016,...

Why Air France’s Positive Profits Are Bad News Right Now

After a year in which France was shaken by terrorist attacks and Air-France KLM executives had their shirts torn from their backs by employees protesting job cuts, the airline’s first annual net profit since 2010 should be cause for celebration. But being back in the black just makes CEO Alexandre de Juniac’s mission to transform the airline’s competitiveness more difficult....