In the April 2016 issue of Airways, Andreas Spaeth wrote about Dutch carrier KLM’s (Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij or Royal Dutch Airlines) introduction of the Boeing 787-9 into its fleet. Initial destinations served by the new aircraft included Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Rio de Janeiro, Osaka, Delhi, Hangzhou, Xiamen and Chengdu. And on May 4, San Francisco (SFO) was added...
A Ryanair passenger was arrested Thursday night after he shouted a bomb threat while his plane was landing. The man was aggravated that flight crew refused him a beer, and decided to exact revenge by claiming there was a bomb onboard, according to local reports. The flight from Tenerife landed in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, at 9:28 p.m. local time. As the plane was preparing to land, t...
A start-up company hosted in an ESA business incubator is developing the world’s first vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for personal use. The electric two-seater will open the door to a new class of simpler, quieter and environmentally friendly planes available from 2018. “Our goal is to develop an aircraft for use in everyday life,” explains Daniel Wiegand, CEO and one o...
Pilots at a South Korean airline are suing their chairman after he claimed that “flying is easier than driving a car”. The union at Korean Air, South Korea's flag carrier, has filed a lawsuit to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office against Cho Yang-Ho, who is also the president of the Olympic organising committee for PyeongChang's 2018 Winter Games, for conte...
On 14 October 1947, US test pilot Chuck Yeager did what many thought was impossible. Strapped into the seat of the Bell X1 rocket plane – painfully so, having broken two ribs a few days before in a horse-riding accident – Yeager became the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound. While Yeager’s name may be the one celebrated in the record books, there were other pilots...
The municipality of Kaunas decided on May 3rd to provide 500,000 euros to the low-cost airline Wizz Air to help it operate more flights from Lithuania's second-biggest city, reports LETA/BNS. The city expects that this will help attract more tourists. Wizz Air asked the city to co-fund four new flights from Kaunas Airport, with plans to fly to the Dutch city of Eindhoven and the Nor...
Norway’s SHT air accident investigation board is to resume its search for missing components from the Airbus Helicopters H225 which crashed near Bergen on 29 April. In a statement, SHT says the main focus of its search will be “for parts connected to the main gearbox”, and that this will “continue as long as required”. Preliminary information contained in an eme...
This year has seen Starspeed operate in its 60thcountry: Something that 40 years ago would have seemed impossible. When Starspeed started in the VIP helicopter management and charter business in 1978, the privately owned aircraft were mainly small, single-engined helicopters. They were used only in good weather, within a locally defined area of operations, for short hops as an alternative...
GainJet Aviation has added a new long range executive jet to its fleet, adding a third Bombardier Challenger aircraft, a CL605. The aircraft, registration SX-SHC, was delivered on 15 April 2016, and it is available for charter based between Amman, Jordan and Athens, Greece. The CL605 can carry 12 passengers. The cabin features four individual VIP seats, a club-four dining seating area, and a fo...
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has completed the first deployment of the AeroVironment RQ-20A Puma AE unmanned air vehicle to the Antarctic, where it supported a US Coast Guard resupply mission. It operated onboard the US Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star in support of the annual operation Deep Freeze deployment, taking on the role of manned helicopters in providing...
Air Serbia will build on Belgrade’s position as a strategic gateway to the United States as it expands its route network across the Balkans and the Atlantic this year. The airline, part-owned by Etihad Airways, on Wednesday reported a 44 per cent jump in its net profit for 2015 to €3.9 million (Dh16.4m) compared with €2.7m a year earlier. “Last year, we c...
VistaJet, the global leader in business aviation, today reached an important milestone in its history when it welcomed its 100th ever aircraft to its fleet. The company has invested billions in jets in the past decade, growing its fleet from just 5 jets in 2006 to over 60 today, with a market value of more than $1.8bn. The company has come a long way in the past decade. In 2006, VistaJet travel...
The Chinese government is setting up a plan that will open up further low-level airspace for business and general aviation. The move follows a meeting of the State Council of The People’s Republic of China that was presided over by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on May 4. In a statement issued on the Council’s English website, the government agreed to open up more low-altitude airspa...
The first European LPV-200 IFR approach was implemented at Charles de Gaulle Airport’s Runway 26L on Tuesday, following publication of the procedure on April 28. The new approach mirrors Cat I ILS approach minimums, including a 200-foot decision height, and it is supported by the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (Egnos), Europe’s satellite-base...
Comlux America, the Comlux Group’s completion and service center in Indianapolis, christened its newly enlarged completion hangar late last week. The project expanded the hangar size to 157,000 sq ft from 128,000 sq ft, allowing the building to house one widebody and up to four single-aisle bizliners simultaneously. Comlux America’s first widebody completion, an&...
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced global passenger traffic results for March showing that demand (measured in revenue passenger kilometers, or RPKs) rose 5.3%, compared to the same month last year, with African airlines continuing to enjoy strong demand, with traffic up 11.2%. Capacity grew slightly faster at 5.9% which pushed the average load factor down by half...
Offshore helicopter operator CHC Group has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to allow it time to restructure its financial assets. The company said it expects day-to-day operations to continue without interruption during a court-supervised process. The company filed “voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankrupt...
Triumph Group subsidiary Triumph Gear Systems has received the 2015 Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training Supplier of the Year from helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky. Thomas Holzthum, executive vice-president for integrated systems, said: “We are very pleased to receive this distinguished award, which is a testament to the manufacturing expertise, valued-added solutions and exceptio...
Bombardier Aerospace announced late last week that Delta Air Lines agreed to order 75 of the company's C Series airliners in a deal worth up to $5.6 billion. Shortly after the deal's announcement, Bombardier flew one of its C Series demonstrators down to Delta's Atlanta headquarters for journalists and the airline's staff to get a closer look. Although Bombardier has been a glob...
Out of 20 major airlines, Finnair was the least polluting of the world’s largest airlines in 2014, according to a new study. The study was conducted by the U.K.’s University of Warwick in Coventry. They examined data from the annual reports of 20 large airlines as well as from the Carbon Disclosure Project, a voluntary carbon data reporting organization based in London. They looked...
Bell Helicopter has joined the fuselage to the tilting wings and fixed nacelles of the V-280 Valor more than a year in advanced of a scheduled fly-off for the US Army. “This is a major milestone,” says Lisa Atherton, Bell’s executive vice-president for military business development. For the next year, Bell’s development will concentrate on the fly-by-wire flight contr...
