Honda Aircraft Company recently delivered the first HondaJet in Europe. The announcement was made during a ceremonial delivery at AERO 2016, which is taking place in Friedrichshafen, Germany from April 20-23. “Delivering the first HondaJet in Europe is a significant milestone in our journey to bring new value to the light jet market,” said Honda Aircraft Company President and CEO Mi...
Boeing has released two photos of the first Royal Australian Air Force P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft undergoing final assembly at the manufacturer’s Renton facility just outside Seattle. The first photograph, taken on March 11, shows the wings being joined on the aircraft, while the second photograph shows the tail being added. Acquisition of eight P-8As for the...
Ryanair, Europe’s favourite low fares airline, today (20 April) announced its first Serbia flights, with a new route from Nis to Berlin commencing on 4 September, with a twice weekly service which will deliver 30,000 customers p.a. at Nis Airport. Ryanair’s Serbian operations will deliver: 1 new route to Berlin (2 x weekly – Thursday & Sunday) 2 weekly return flights to/...
This week Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand held a conference with the biofuel industry after joining forces to investigate options for locally produced biojet fuel for their domestic and international routes. This striking step signals the two airlines’ intention to aggregate their purchasing power in order to reduce their reliance on a single fuel, while at the same time significantl...
All ground and on-board navigation, landing and communications systems functioned as normal on the Flydubai passenger jet, which crashed in Rostov-on-Don this March, the Russian aviation watchdog said. "At the time of the accident, the ILS, outer and inner markers, the lighting system and PAPI lights were operative and operated as per design. The aircraft flight recorders did not record an...
Shares of Turkey’s national airline sank the most in five months as Morgan Stanley recommended selling the stock and a U.S. carrier said it planned to suspend service to Istanbul. Turk Hava Yollari AO plunged 6.8 percent to 6.99 liras, with 145 million shares changing hands, the most since July 2009. Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to underweight from overweight and cut the share...
Airbus Group and Siemens have launched a joint project to explore the electrification of aviation. The goal is to demonstrate the technical feasibility of various hybrid/electric aircraft propulsion systems by 2020. The two giant companies plan to develop prototypes for propulsion systems with power classes ranging from a few hundred kilowatts up to 10 or more megawatts, for small-to-medium-siz...
Just in time for Earth Day, the Solar Impulse 2 is taking to the skies, resuming its around-the-world journey on April 21 at 11:00 AM Eastern. ICYMI, the first Solar Impulse flew across the United States in 2013, a preview of its global ambitions. The completely solar-powered Solar Impulse 2 has been on a globetrotting trip since last April, when it took off in Abu Dhabi on a mission to raise a...
More and more, it looks like the sky's the limit for Boeing 737 sales. 2016 is not looking like a good year for Airbus . In the perpetual, and perpetually renewing, race to sell the most airplanes in a calendar year, Airbus has beaten Boeing with a stick for three years running. But 2016 looks to be the year that Boeing turns the tide. And how. Keeping score Last week, we ran...
Bell Helicopter has now taken its developmental 525 super-medium twin to a speed of above 200kt (370km/h) as it prepares for the arrival of the programme’s third flight-test vehicle. The Dallas-based manufacturer says the Relentless has accumulated over 300h of flight and ground testing across its two certification prototypes. Envelope expansion work is “nearly complete”, i...
South African carrier Comair has carried out the first large passenger jet landing at the new St Helena airport. The carrier operated a Boeing 737-800 (ZS-ZWG) which touched down just after 12:00 on 19 April. British Airways franchise partner Comair recently took delivery of the aircraft – painted in BA livery – which has been configured specifically to s...
Zurich Airport has inked an agreement to sell its 5 per cent minority shareholding in Bengaluru International Airport Ltd (BIAL) to the Prem Watsa-backed Fairfax Holdings for $48.9 million. Subject to customary regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to be completed within the third quarter of 2016. While there has been no word on the agreement from Fairfax, Zurich Airport has announced it o...
Volga-Dnepr Group and Sheremetyevo International Airport have joined with the aim of growing the air cargo industry in Russia. They have signed an agreement on long-term and mutually-beneficial co-operation to develop cargo at the Moscow gateway, which they say aims to achieve correspondence with the high global industry standards. This is a strategic step and a mile...
Jet Aviation Basel has appointed David Peterson as director of completions sales. Peterson reports directly to Matthew Woollaston, vice president of completions sales and marketing. In his role, Peterson is responsible for liaising with aircraft owners, operators and industry executives to ensure they are informed about the benefits of entrusting VVIP completions projects with the Jet...
Australia’s two largest airports posted strong passenger growth in March as more international travellers pour into the country. At Melbourne Tullamarine, international passengers were up 7.3 per cent in March at 763,848, compared with the prior corresponding period. The March figures represented seven straight years of international passenger growth at Melbourne. Melbourne Airport...
Traveling in and out of Belgium’s capital city of Brussels has been tense since the March 22nd terror attacks, which left 32 dead and the city on edge. However, officials have been working hard to restore normalcy to the European travel hub’s usually bustling flight schedule. While the Brussels Airport symbolically reopened on April 3rd with three departing flights, today it will se...
Specialist aviation company SaxonAir continues its growth reporting on a buoyant performance over the past year in most areas of the group. Since the company was founded in 2007 it has grown year on year with new charter and managed aircraft being added to the fleet, flight support contracts won through its Business Aviation Centre headquarters and increasing numbers of aircraft sales and acquisit...
Waypoint Leasing (Ireland) Limited (“Waypoint”), the largest independent global helicopter leasing company, today announced that it has closed on a $100 million term loan facility led by Lombard North Central Plc (“Lombard”). The facility has a maturity of approximately six years and provides for USD, EUR and GBP funding capacity on a delayed draw basis. The company will us...
European planemaker Airbus is close to a deal to sell 37 current-generation A321 passenger jets to Delta Air Lines, three people familiar with the matter said. Such a deal would be worth $4.3 billion at list prices. Airbus declined to comment. A Delta spokesman said "no decision has been made on any aircraft transaction." If confirmed by the airline's board, which has the fi...
It’s sort of scary how often we hear stories about Air India flights being diverted due to rats onboard. For example, this past Saturday an Air India Boeing 787 bound from Melbourne to Delhi was diverted to Singapore after a rat was spotted onboard. It might sound like a joke, or like something out of Samuel L Jackson’s “Snakes On A Plane” movie, but this actually h...
A four-month-old girl has died while travelling on a Cathay Pacific Airways flight from London to Hong Kong. The infant is believed to have been suffering from a gastrointestinal disease when the family boarded the plane at Heathrow on Sunday. She fell unconscious during the flight and her parents - who were planning on visiting relatives in China – alerted cabin crew immediately. A...
