Global Aviation News

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Steven Slater, the Jet Blue flight attendant who made international headlines with his dramatic exit will not be returning to Jet Blue Airlines. Zee News noted as follows.

    “Spokeswoman Jenny Dervin said yesterday that Slater is no longer employed by the airline. She said the airline won’t release further details out of respect for Slater’s privacy.”

Slater sparked an extensive company investigation when he launched into a profanity laced tirade over the airline public address system and followed it off with a dramatic exit via the emergency chute at the rear of the airplane back on August 9. His stated reason was that a passenger who refused his instructions had become verbally abusive and physically assaultive. Although there was an initial outpouring of sympathy from harried flight attendants, further investigation cast doubt on Slater’s story.

Neither passengers nor fellow flight attendants recalled any altercations during the ill fated flight. Additionally, an injury he complained was inflicted by the allegedly unruly passenger was shown on video camera footage when Slater boarded the plane. Passengers reported that Slater was cranky, irritable and rude during his last Jet Blue flight.

In addition to being out of a job, Slater faces legal difficulties as well. He is charged with criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and trespassing for his internationally famous temper tantrum.

Read More Aviation News http://www.indyposted.com/

In an attempt to claw back some of their home market from easyJet, Air France is planning a budget airline to operate interior flights from Nice, Marseille and Toulouse from next year.

 

An unidentified source from the company has revealed another attempt by Air France to create a low-cost airline for internal flights.  In March this year a similar project for a low-cost alternative using Air France KLM subsidiary airline – Transavia – flying out of Nice, had to be ditched after strong opposition by the syndicates.

 

Keen to retrieve customers now using easyJet for inter-French flights, Air France are planning to use the same business model as easyJet by basing pilots and cabin crew in and around Nice, Marseille and Toulouse.  This means that aircraft will start and end the day in the cities where the crew live, thus eliminating costs of crew staying away overnight and resulting in less dependence on Roissy-Charles de Gaulle as a connecting airport, faster turn arounds and more productive days’ flying.

 

This low cost subsidiary is to be called Air France Express.

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PARIS, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) — French and British defense ministers met Friday here to seek possibilities of sharing military equipment, except aircraft carriers.

French Defense Minister Herve Morin said, "We are exploring things like the A400M (military transporter), refueling planes, possibly cooperation on naval capacity, but not on aircraft carriers."

His British counterpart, Liam Fox, said, "In terms of actually being able to share an aircraft carrier, I would have thought that was entirely unrealistic."

The two budget-tight militaries intended to boost their cooperation to save costs.

The British defense ministry faces a 37 billion pound (57 billion U.S. dollars) shortfall over the next 10 years.

The developing of the A400M, Airbus' military transport plane, is running four years behind schedule and 3.5 billion euros (5.4 billion dollars) over budget.

Currently, France has one aircraft carrier and Britain has two.

Early this week, The Times newspaper of Britain reported French and British navies may share their aircraft carriers.

Read more Aviation News http://news.xinhuanet.com/

Unite, the union which represents the airline's cabin crew, said: "A worrying number of passengers, in the key premium sector particularly, continue to book away from BA. Passengers pay for service and stability and while [BA chief executive] Willie Walsh continues to wage war on his workforce he can offer customers neither."

BA said traffic was down because it had cut the number of services it offers to popular destinations, such as Hong Kong. The airline added that passenger numbers last year were flattered by special offers.

BA enjoyed a strike-free August, following a series of cabin crew walkouts that blighted holidaymakers' getaway plans earlier in the summer.

BA said: "We have delivered about the same volume as last year without promotional activity."

On Monday, Unite will hold a mass meeting to discuss plans for a possible wave of strikes over Christmas.

Read more Aviation News http://www.telegraph.co.uk

* Airbus delivered 335 planes in Jan-Aug

* Airbus sold 250 planes after adjusting for cancellations

PARIS, Sept 3 (Reuters) – European planemaker Airbus  sold 301 aircraft and delivered 335 in the first eight months of the year, it said on Friday.

Net orders, which are adjusted for cancellations, came to 250 aircraft between January and August, the world's largest jetliner manufacturer said in a statement.

Airlines cancelled orders for 14 single-aisle passenger jets in August, according to a monthly summary of Airbus data.

Rival Boeing so far leads the annual order race between the world's dominant jetmakers.

It sold 328 aircraft in the first eight months and posted net sales of 261 aircraft after cancellations for 67, according to its website. It delivered 308 aircraft over the same period.

Airbus last month predicted deliveries of its jets would reach 500 for the first time in 2010, beating last year's record 498.

It upped its forecast for gross orders in 2010 (before cancellations) by a third to more than 400 planes after a strong showing for both Airbus and Boeing at the Farnborough air show.

Airbus delivered three A380 superjumbos in August, bringing the total for the year to 13.

Read more Aviation News http://reuters.com

Hurricane Earl is waning as it moves northward up the east coast of the United States. Some of the first researchers to notice the weakening had front row seats, watching the eye of the hurricane via drone flights.

In addition to the usual cadre of satellites, NASA is using a small fleet of unmanned aircraft into, over and around the hurricane as it tracks north from the Caribbean. While flying into a hurricane is nothing new, Earl is the first hurricane that NASA has observed using their unmanned Global Hawk observation aircraft (pictured above).

The aircraft are giving researchers a 3-D view of the temperature, waver vapor and cloud liquid water in the hurricane. Using a High-Altitude Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit Sounding Radiometer, or HAMSR in official NASA acronymese, the Global Hawk is able to look down into the eye of the storm to the sea surface and compare different layers in relatively high resolution and in real time.

The unmanned aircraft left the Dryden Flight Research Center in California earlier in the week and spent all day Thursday flying over Earl at an altitude of about 63,000 feet. Along with HAMSR, the Global Hawk also carries an HD camera, giving hurricane scientists new capabilities to watch the storm strengthen or degrade in real time.

In addition to the Global Hawk which flew over the top of the hurricane, a NASA DC-8 is flying researchers through the eye of the hurricane and the high flying WB-57 is also participating in the research flights. NASA used images taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station as their orbit took them over the storm as well.

The observations and measurements are part of the Genesis and Rapid Intensification Process (GRIP) experiment NASA is conducting during the 2010 hurricane season. New instruments such as HAMSR, as well as a weather radar aboard the DC-8 capable of creating 3D images of precipitation from inside the hurricane are helping researchers gain a better understanding of the rapidly changing nature of hurricanes.

High resolution maps and images isn’t the only information available to the public. Hurricane researchers inside the DC-8 were also sending out tweets as they flew into and out of the hurricane. One of the tweets sent out Thursday mentioned the degradation of the eye wall at the center of Earl, an early sign of a weakening hurricane.

NASA plans to continue using the aircraft through the end of the month as more hurricanes line up in the Atlantic.

read more Aviation News http://www.reuters.com/

Singapore Airlines Ltd., the world’s second-largest carrier by market value, named Goh Choon Phong as chief executive officer, replacing Chew Choon Seng, who retires at the end of the year.

Goh, 47, will take charge on Jan. 1, according to a Singapore stock exchange statement today. Goh, currently executive vice president for marketing and regions as well as chairman of the SilkAir regional unit, will join the airline’s board Oct. 1.

The executive will inherit a carrier that’s facing rising competition from Emirates Airline for lucrative business traffic and from AirAsia Bhd. and Jetstar for cost-conscious leisure travelers. He also needs to bring back capacity that was cut during last year’s global recession without swamping demand.

“The challenge is balancing capacity and yields and that’s going to be critical going into 2011,” K. Ajith, an analyst at UOB-Kay Hian Research Pte in Singapore, said before the release. “Singapore Air has done a pretty good job so far, but global economies are slowing and yields will likely remain flat next year.”

Singapore Air rose 0.5 percent to S$15.60 at the close of trading in the city-state today. The announcement was made after the market closed for trading. The shares have gained 4.4 percent this year compared with the 3.6 percent advance for the benchmark Straits Times Index.

Three Degrees

Goh joined Singapore Air in 1990 after getting a masters degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as three bachelor degrees, according to the statement.

He has served in senior management positions in Singapore as well as overseas and has worked in the finance, information technology and commercial technology divisions. For four years, he was the president of the company’s cargo unit.

“It’s timely for me to hand over to the next generation and move on,” Chew said in the statement. “The business has regained ground lost during the recession of 2008-9, the company is profitable and on an even keel.”

Chew took a pay cut while maintaining the carrier’s wine budget during the recession. He sampled economy-class meals every month to make sure they met his standards.

That attention to detail helped the airline’s shares double during Chew’s seven years as CEO, even as he grappled with a global recession, record jet-fuel prices, rising competition from budget airlines and outbreaks such as swine flu and severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.

Empty Planes

Chairman Stephen Lee said in July that Singapore Air’s board had looked at “several” candidates to replace Chew, from both within and outside the company.

Chew took over from Cheong Choong Kong in June 2003 when the deadly SARS virus emptied planes. He cut capacity and labor costs to help the carrier cope with the slump. He took similar steps last year after business travel plunged amid the global recession, helping the carrier avoid its first annual loss in two decades.

The airline reported its third straight quarterly profit in the three months ended June as the global economic rebound revived travel demand. Chew led Singapore Air to a record S$2.13 billion profit in the year ended in March 2007. In October that year, he introduced the Airbus SAS A380 superjumbo, making Singapore Air the first carrier to fly the world’s biggest passenger jet.

“It’s a loss for the industry because Chew has contributed a lot to it,” Emirsyah Satar, chief executive officer of PT Garuda Indonesia, said before the announcement.

Read more Aviation News http://bloomberg.com

MANILA, Philippines—While Hong Kong tourists  are avoiding Manila fearful of falling victim to another hostage-taking similar to the Aug. 23 incident at Luneta, the 7,000-plus sailors of the USS George Washington carrier group are apparently unperturbed.

The nuclear-powered American carrier and its warship-escorts are scheduled to drop anchor at Manila Bay this morning for a four-day goodwill visit.

In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday said the Philippine government had given “clearance” to the US naval carrier fleet to visit the country.

The DFA noted that during the ship’s port call here in August 2009 “around $7 million (P313 million in today’s exchange rates) were spent [by the American sailors and pilots] in hotel bookings, sight-seeing, shopping and other activities.”

“Some of the crew’s family members also visited the country to meet up with their loved ones,” said DFA spokesperson J. Eduardo Malaya.

According to Malaya, the George Washington “will dock near the SM Mall of Asia for command level visits, routine ship replenishment, maintenance of shipboard systems and crew liberty.”

“Philippine Navy officers will welcome the fleet, which is made up of four ships—the USS George Washington, the cruiser USS Cowpens and destroyers USS John McCain and USS Campbell,” he said.

The DFA described the US fleet’s visit as a “reaffirmation of the vibrant bilateral ties between the Philippines and the United States and is expected to be a boon to local economy, particularly to the tourism sector.”

Supercarrier

The US Embassy in Manila yesterday confirmed the arrival of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS George Washington (CVN 73), and its escort warships this morning in Manila for a four-day goodwill visit.

The American carrier group’s port call aims to “further enhance the strong historic ties between the US and the Philippines,” according to an embassy media advisory.

The 100,000-ton “supercarrier” will be “anchored out in Manila Bay and the only way to gain access to it is through a ferry service,” it added.

During their visit, some of the George Washington’s 5,500-plus crew and air wing members will take part in “community relations projects and professional exchanges between the US and Philippine navies.”

The supercarrier made its first goodwill visit to the country on Aug. 11 to 15, 2009.

Violation of Constitution

Meanwhile, Kabataan party-list Rep. Raymond Palatino called the visit here of the USS George Washington as “another blatant disrespect of our Constitution.”

“It’s also an insult to the Sept. 16, 1991 Senate vote to reject US bases,” Palatino added.

For militant teachers’ party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio, the US aircraft carrier’s visit here “should be seen as a test case of President Aquino’s commitment to national sovereignty.”

“The USS George Washington is nuclear-powered and capable of delivering nuclear weapons. Unless the government takes effective measures to ensure that no such weapons are onboard, such as through direct inspection, then its presence here violates Philippine sovereignty, particularly the constitutional provision on nuclear weapons within our territory,” Tinio told the Inquirer.

No violation

However, the DFA yesterday said that the entry here of nuclear-powered foreign vessels “does not violate the Constitution.”

Malaya clarified that “the Constitution prohibits the entry of nuclear weapons but not necessarily nuclear-powered foreign naval vessels.”

$4.5-billion carrier

According to the official website of the USS George Washington, http://gw.ffc.navy.mil/index.htm this is the fourth US navy vessel named after the first American president.

Built by the Virginia-based Newport News Shipbuilding Co. at a cost of $4.5-billion, the ship was commissioned on July 4, 1992, the website said.

The 1,092-foot vessel, whose four engines are powered by two nuclear reactors, has a top speed of over 30 knots. With a flight deck area of about 4.5 hectares, the ship can accommodate about 80 aircraft. Yokosuka, Japan, is the warship’s home port.

The George Washington has been deployed to the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean for at least six times.

Korea, Vietnam

Sometime in early May, the supercarrier left Yokosuka naval base for sea trials. The ship and its escorts later made a port call to Busan, South Korea.

In response to the recent sinking of the South Korean navy vessel Cheonan, the George Washington took part in “Invincible Spirit,” a joint military exercise with the Japanese and South Korean navies in the Sea of Japan.

Early this month, the carrier group sailed to Danang, Vietnam, and joined the Southeast Asian country in the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the normalization of US-Vietnam diplomatic relations.

It was the first time an American aircraft carrier visited that country since the Vietnam War.

Read more Aviation News http://inquirer,net

A rare German WWII bomber which has been buried in a sandbank off the Kent coast for the past 70 years is to be raised, it has been announced.

The twin-engined Dornier 17 was shot down over Goodwin Sands, near Deal, during the Battle of Britain.

The Royal Air Force (RAF) Museum said it had worked with Wessex Archaeology to survey the site since the bomber emerged from the sands two years ago.

It will go on display at the museum in London once it has been recovered.

A spokeswoman for the RAF said the aircraft was part of an enemy formation which was attempting to attack airfields in Essex when it was intercepted on 26 August 1940.

'Unprecedented survivor'

The bomber's pilot, Willi Effmert, carried out a successful wheels-up landing on Goodwin Sands but the plane sank.

Mr Effmert and another crew member were captured but two other men died.

The aircraft, nicknamed the flying pencil, is said to be largely intact with its main undercarriage tyres inflated and its propellers showing crash damage.

Air Vice-Marshal Peter Dye, director general of the RAF Museum, said: "The discovery of the Dornier is of national and international importance.

"The aircraft is a unique and unprecedented survivor from the Battle of Britain.

"It is particularly significant because, as a bomber, it formed the heart of the Luftwaffe assault and the subsequent Blitz."

He added: "The Dornier will provide an evocative and moving exhibit that will allow the museum to present the wider story of the Battle of Britain and highlight the sacrifices made by the young men of both air forces and from many nations."

Work to prepare the Dornier for display at the Battle of Britain Beacon project will be carried out at the RAF Museum's conservation centre in Cosford, Shropshire.

The museum, with the support of English Heritage and the Ministry of Defence, is drawing up a plan to recover the aircraft.

Read more Aviation News http://bbc.com