Finmeccania Helicopters has successfully performed the first flight of the AgustaWestland AW109 Trekker – a skid-equipped variant of its popular light twin. Flown from the manufacturer’s Cascina Costa facility in northern Italy on 2 March, the maiden sortie included an assessment of the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW207-powered Trekker’s handling and systems. Two prototypes...
A global aviation safety initiative is holding a two-day workshop in Sydney later in March to discuss the best ways to collect and analyse aviation safety data. The Global Safety Information Project (GSIP), which is being led by Flight Safety Foundation, is holding 12 workshops around the world to develop toolkits for collecting and analysing safety data. The first workshop is being held in...
Qatar Executive is exhibiting at the Abu Dhabi Air Expo this week. Qatar Executive will be participating with an exclusive, dedicated chalet and will be showcasing its brand new Gulfstream G650ER on static display, giving visitors the opportunity to see the luxurious interior of the world’s fastest ultra-long range business jet, which is highly sought-after among the global travelling eli...
Lucky passengers on Alaska Airlines Flight 870 will get a special sight when they look out the window: a total solar eclipse. The flight from Anchorage to Honolulu purposefully adjusted its departure time so that the plane's passengers could see the eclipse's totality — the period when the entire solar disc is covered and only the outer edges are visible. The plot to change the fl...
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 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...
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 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...
"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...
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...
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 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...
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...
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...
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...
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 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
