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The best new airplane designs from the Crystal Cabin Awards

When it comes to airplane cabins, many airlines and manufacturers have been rolling out designs that seem to perpetually squeeze passengers into oblivion. But not all aircraft designers want flyers to feel like a canned sardine. At the Crystal Cabin Awards, an annual showcase of airplane interior designs presented by the Hamburg Aviation Cluster at the Aircraft Interiors Expo, inventors pres...

GE Aviation creates Digital business

GE Aviation announced the creation of a digital organization that brings all of the digital expertise from across Aviation into one business. This new Digital business will be led by Jim Daily as president and chief digital officer, Engineering and Technology for GE Aviation. “Over the past two years, we have shown the significant benefit that GE Aviation can provide customers by combinin...

IATA: Air Freight Makes Solid Start to 2016

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for global air freight markets in January showing a rise in freight tonne kilometers (FTK) of 2.7% compared to January 2015. This continues the improving trend witnessed toward the end of 2015, and is the fastest pace since April of last year. The freight load factor (FLF) fell 1.8 percentage points, however, indicating that yields a...

Iberia Takes Delivery of the “Buenos Aires”, its Second A330-200

Iberia has taken delivery of its second new Airbus A330-200, called “Buenos Aires” in honour of the first destination reached by Iberia when it first launched Spain-Latin America services just 70 years ago. Flying to Latin America since 1946 In 1946, Iberia became the first European airline to link Europe and Latin America with a flight from Madrid to the Argentine capital, stopp...

OPINION: Rotorcraft sector must go back to basics

"There doesn’t seem to be a strategy to expand the industry. We’ve been suckling too long on the oil and gas teat.” However provocative, that stray comment from one of the organising team at the HAI Heli-Expo show neatly captures the state of the rotorcraft sector. Hamstrung by a plunging oil price and allied to global economic uncertainty and shrinking government budgets...

UAE to finalise space laws soon

The UAE is finalising what is likely to become one of the world’s first space laws, the head of the national Space Agency said. A space law covering both human space exploration and commercial activities such as mining is currently being drafted, said the UAE Space Agency director general Mohammed Al Ahbabi. Speaking at the Global Aerospace Summit in Abu Dhabi, Mr Ahbabi said that the...

Double-digit growth in flight traffic and record number of passengers in 2015

VistaJet, the global leader in business aviation, today announced its flight and passenger statistics for 2015. In the 2015 calendar year, both the number of passengers flying with VistaJet and its overall flight traffic increased in all of its core markets, making 2015 the company’s strongest year to date. Worldwide flight traffic increased more than 21 per cent year-on-year when compared t...

Jet Aviation St. Louis completes cabin upgrades

Jet Aviation St. Louis has completed 22 Global and Challenger cabin-management upgrades with the Rockwell Collins Venue system. “We developed this installation with Rockwell Collins and installed the first Venue system upgrade in a Global XRS to replace the Cabin Electronics System (CES) in 2014.” said Blake Hogge, senior manager, Avionics Sales at Jet Aviation St. Louis. “Sin...

Boeing and Paramount join forces for multi-role aircraft

US plane maker Boeing and the South African defence company Paramount said they would collaborate on light multi-role aircraft. Boeing will provide advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities and weapons systems for Paramount’s Mwari military aircraft, the companies said on Monday. “The multi-role aircraft will become a significant player in the global aer...

Airbus touts its ‘Make In India’ credentials

The Airbus Group produced over $500 million worth of aero-structures, components, materials, and services in India during 2015. In the five years up to 2020, the company hopes to achieve a cumulative $2 billion in procurement from India, says Airbus Group in a statement. “Indian suppliers are a cornerstone of our globalisation strategy,” said Airbus chief procurement officer Klau...

Analysts Continue Panicking About the Boeing 777

In the past year or so, a growing contingent of aerospace analysts have made dire predictions about demand for Boeing's 777 widebody jet. They found some support for their bearish viewpoint earlier this year, when Boeing announced plans to cut the 777 production rate from 8.3 per month to seven per month for 2017. Weak demand for the current-generation 777 could potentially be exp...

Albania offers collectors: Military’s rusting fighter jets up for auction

If you want to buy a secondhand fighter jet, Albania’s the place to go right now. The 40 obsolete Soviet and Chinese-made aircraft up for sale once roared over what was Europe’s most exclusive airspace. The Albanian pilots were members of an exalted military elite that had its own food-tasters and was tasked by Communist Albania’s paranoid regime with deterring countless enemi...

Kiwi Regional Airlines plans to crowdfund $2 million for new plane

Kiwi Regional Airlines plans to raise up to $2 million through crowdfunding to buy a second aircraft. The new aircraft would be a Saab 340 QC used for passenger and freight charters and as a backup for maintenance of its existing aircraft Saab 340A. Last month the Hamilton airline cancelled flights after grounding the 34-seater...

Semi-private planes are the new first class

First class isn’t high enough for some flyers. “So many passengers get upgraded to first class [now] and usually you are sitting next to somebody horrible,” says Oren Alexander, 28, a Soho resident who works in real estate. Alexander is one of a growing number of wealthy — but not wealthy enough to own their own jet — New Yorkers booking seats on semiprivate pla...

Blast from the Past: Soviet-Era Tu-160M2 Is More Lethal Than Ever

Russia’s upgraded Tupolev Tu-160M2 Blackjack supersonic bomber is expected to make its first flight in 2019. Moscow currently has sixteen of the original version of the Mach 2.0-capable bomber, which are the last surviving examples of the thirty-five aircraft built by the Soviet Union before its demise. Moscow hopes to build fifty new Tu-160M2 aircraft to upgrade its aging strategic bombe...

Man ‘with 1kg of cocaine wrapped around his waist’ arrested in Dubai airport

A 30-year-old transit passenger was arrested with more than a kilogram of cocaine wrapped around his waist, Dubai Criminal Court heard on Sunday. Nigerian E P was arrested in Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport on December 19 last year. He was charged with attempting to carry 50 capsules of cocaine through Dubai to Nigeria. E P confessed to the charge in court. Prosecu...

Union report: Allegiant Air planes suffer high number of mechanical problems

The latest round in Allegiant Air's public relations battle with its pilots' union opens this week with the union's release of its third report in the last year tallying maintenance issues on aircraft that interrupted flights or departures. The report by the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition, which is working with the Teamster local representing pilots, said the Las Vegas airli...

Deniliquin Council links up with Wellcamp

Deniliquin Council hopes to upgrade its local airport to establish a regional freight hub in the NSW Riverina and begin sending goods the world via Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport in Toowoomba. The council is looking for government funding to support construction of a 2,000m runway at Deniliquin Airport, which currently has a 1,200m asphalt runway and a 1,500m dirt/grass runway. There are no reg...

United upbeat on Australian routes

United’s improved on-board offering and the use of Boeing 787-9s on all Australian and New Zealand services will ensure the airline remains competitive amid new carriers and new services in the market, a senior executive from the airline says. The Australia-US market is currently in a period of expansion, with American Airlines commencing its own flights from Sydney to Los Angeles in...

First RAAF female fast jet pilots on track to fly the JSF

The RAAF is on track to have as many as half a dozen female fast jet fighter pilots in time to fly the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter when it enters service early next decade, Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Leo Davies has said. Currently there is one woman training to become a fast jet pilot in the RAAF on the Hawk lead-in fighter jet trainer with 76 Squadron, with a second due to begin fast jet tra...

U.S. Army Reconnaissance Aircraft Crashes In Iraq

An advanced U.S. Army reconnaissance aircraft crash-landed in a field outside of Irbil in Iraqi Kurdistan on Saturday morning. A statement from the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq confirmed the crash as an “off-airport emergency landing in a field northwest of Irbil.” None of the four passengers were injured, and the aircraft has been secured by U.S. and Kurdish...