Airbus seeks sustainable fuel in Malaysia

Airbus and key Malaysian partners have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to assess local solutions for sustainable bio-mass production in Malaysia.  The aim is to determine the most suitable feedstocks to ensure that any future jet fuel production in the region is based only on sustainable solutions. The first assessment is expected to be completed by December 2014.

AMIC (Aerospace Malaysia Innovation Centre), MiGHT (Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High technology), UPM (Universiti Putra Malaysia), CIRAD (a French research centre working with developing countries to tackle international agricultural and development issues) and BioTech Corp (Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation).

Airbus supports the certification and development of commercial quantities of sustainable alternative fuels for aviation through promoting innovative regional projects world-wide. To date, Airbus has formed partnerships in Europe, America, Australia, Middle-East and China.

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Lion Air signs $1.2bn deal with CFM

Indonesia’s Lion Group has selected CFM International's CFM 56-5B engine to power the 60 A320 CEOs it has on firm order with Airbus. The deal is worth $1.2bn and follows the airframe deal, which was announced in March 2013. "Our selection of the CFM56-5B engine for the A320 CEOs was an obvious choice for us," said Rusdi Kirana, Lion Group's founder and director. "Although we are introducing a whole new engine type, it is coming from the same company that has been with us from the very beginning. Our relationship with CFM has grown as our airline has grown.

Lion Air wants to gain on Indonesia’s rising consumer category who are increasingly hopping between a innumerable islands of a world’s fourth-most populous country, while it competes internationally with a likes of AirAsia. Faced with clever direct on a domestic routes, a airline pronounced was deliberation widebody aircraft from both Boeing and Airbus for an for an sequence it skeleton to make in a initial entertain of 2015. 

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Ethiopian Airlines has taken delivery of a new 777-300ER from the leasing company, GECAS.

Ethiopian will use the 777-300 to expand it fleet. It currently leases two 777F freighters, two 737-700s and a 757-200 from GECAS.
"We have a longstanding and mutually beneficial partnership with GE," said Ethiopian Airlines CEO, Tewolde GebreMariam.

Most of our fleet are powered by GE engines, and GECAS is our major partner in our fleet growth and modernization project. With the boom of travel between Africa and the rest of the world, and our vision 2025 strategic roadmap of fast, profitable and sustainable growth, we aim to more than double our current fleet size by 2025.

GECAS currently leases 36 aircraft to 12 airlines in eight different countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and maintains offices in South Africa, Ghana, and Kenya.

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Thai Air Sees Lower Passenger Growth In 2014

Thai Airways said on Friday it aimed for passenger growth of 4 percent in 2014, lower than the 4.6 percent growth to 20 million in 2013.

Airline aimed for cabin factor at 76 percent in 2014, but first-quarter numbers will be down around 70 percent because political woes have affected the tourism sector, he said.

The slower growth forecast was attributed to weak economic outlook and the impact from domestic political unrest, the carrier's acting president Chokchai Panyayong told reporters.

Thai Airways, whose president resigned for health reasons this month, posted a heavy net loss for the second consecutive quarter, hit by a lower passenger yield, fierce competition and foreign exchange losses.

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Jordan Military Plane Crashes, Pilot Survives

A Jordanian air force plane on a training flight crashed on Sunday due to a technical fault, but the pilot survived the accident.

On Sunday, "around noon (0900 GMT), a Royal Jordanian Air Force plane crashed after encountering a technical problem, an army statement.

The pilot, "Capitan Ahmad Hazem Alawneh survived  in the crash.

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Investigation after NZ-registered plane crash

An investigation is underway following the crash of a New Zealand-registered Boeing 737 in the Solomon Islands yesterday.

Auckland-based company Airwork says three crew members were on board the freight plane when it crashed on landing at Honiara airport.

The right-hand main landing gear collapsed vausing the aircraft to slide to a halt on the runway.

Airwork says none of its crew were injured in the crash.

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FAA To Order Boeing 767 Safety Checks

FAA plans to order safety checks of more than 400 Boeing 767s because of elevator flight control surfaces that may jam and possibly cause some pilots to lose control of the aircraft.

Elevators that do not work correctly have not been identified as causing a 767 accident.

Federal Aviation Administration, set for publication in Monday's Federal register, calls for enhanced inspections of the elevator flight control mechanism, which helps planes climb and descend.

FAA first became aware of the problem in 2000, when it ordered enhanced checks to find problems. The inspections at that time were viewed as a temporary response. Boeing eventually designed a permanent fix, which the FAA order will direct airlines to make, according the Journal.

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Air Europa awarded Almeria PSO contracts

AIR EUROPA has won a tender to operate Public Service Obligation (PSO) routes from Almeria to Seville and Madrid Barajas. Seville flights recently launched while Madrid services are expected to launch on February 17, 2014.  The twice daily services will operate onboard a wet-leased Swiftair (WT, Mafrid Barajas) ATR72-500s replacing those of Iberia Regional operated by Air Nostrum (YW,Valencia Manises ).

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Airport Privatizations To Bring $8 Billion In Investments

BRAZIL Two international consortia won the latest round of Brazilian airport privatizations, in deals totaling $9 billion . One consortium, which includes Brazilian construction company Odebrecht and Singaporean airport operator Changi, paid $8.24 billion for a 25-year concession to operate Rio de Janeiro's Galeao International Airport , the country's secondbusiest airport. Another consortium, including CCR, Brazil's largest highway operator; Germany's Flughafen MÜnchen, which operates Munich Airport ; and Switzerland's Flughafen ZÜrich, which operates Zurich Airport ), paid $780 million to operate Belo Horizonte's Confins International Airport under a 30-year concession. Infraero, the Brazilian federal airport management agency, will retain a 49% stake in both airports, with concession winners holding 51%. The government expects the concessions to attract $5.6 billion in investments at Rio de Janeiro's airport and $2.4 billion at Belo Horizonte's airport.The auction is Brazil's third airport privatization program since 2011.
Britain's Jaguar Land Rover became the latest luxury carmaker to expand in Brazil . The company will invest $437 million to build a new auto plant in the state of Rio de Janeiro , with construction expected to begin in 2015. Earlier this year Germany's Mercedes Benz and Audi announced plans to restart production in Brazil . The two German automakers, along with BMW , plan to invest a total of $220 million in local production facilities. According to a 2012 McKinsey report, sales of luxury cars are growing by 45% annually in Brazil . Daimler, Mercedes Benz's parent company, predicts Brazil's demand for luxury cars will triple by 2017. Brazil's Vale, the world's largest iron ore producer, reached a $9.6 billion settlement agreement with the Brazilian federal government over a pending tax case. The figure is half of what the government had claimed it was owed by Vale for taxes, interest payments and penalties accrued between 2003 and 2012.Vale officials say payments will be made in installments and will not requiretaking on any new debt, as the company will use its cash flow. Shareholders are expected to receive dividend payments, despite the payout.The case had prompted tensions and litigation between federal authorities and one of Brazil's largest companies. - Antonio Guerrero

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Boeing bullish on Brazil despite lost fighter jet deal

Boeing company says its failure to win a $4 billion-plus fighter jet deal in Brazil was a lost opportunity that will lead it to scale back planned investments in the country, although it still sees excellent opportunities in cargo, defense and biofuels.

The Chicago-based aerospace company was until last June the clear front runner to win a deal to supply at least 36 jets to the Brazilian Air Force -- one of the world's significant defense contracts

Hrinak said Rousseff's decision will affect Boeing's plans to build local maintenance centers and supply chains that would have taken root had it sold its F/A-18 Super Hornet here.

"It's not that we're not going to do these things ever, but the velocity and intensity of our activities was necessarily affected by this decision," Hrinak said this week in her first interview since Rousseff chose Saab's Gripen AG fighter.

Hrinak emphasized that Boeing is still pushing ahead with several other projects in Brazil, citing biofuels development and a strategic partnership with Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer SA to help develop and market its KC-390 military transport plane.

"We've said all along that we're here for the long haul regardless of what happened" with the jets deal, Hrinak said. "This is a good place to invest, a good place to do business, and we're going to continue to do both."

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XAEC Gets China’s First Airworthiness Certificate

Test and Research center of AVIC Xi’an Aero-engine (Group) LTD. got the approval of CAAC’s review authority for C919 large passenger aircraft, becoming China’s first lab getting certificate about airworthiness of aircraft material from CAAC. Meanwhile, the center and COMAC signed a test contract-the Performance Test of Titanium Alloy Forge Piece of C919.

The material test center of Xi’an Aero-engine has got recognition from CNAL and China’s national defense, meanwhile, it’s one of Asia’s largest lab that ever gets NADCAP recognition; every year, it completes 26,000 tests of metallurgical performance of materials, 6,763 rechecks of routine materials and 17,497tests of manufacturing process of parts and components.  Mr. Haining LI, Chief Engineer of AVIC Xi’an Aero-engine (Group) LTD. will deliver a presentation about “the pilot manufacturing of civil aero engine combustion chamber and the requested manufacturing equipment”

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Army helicopter crashes in Egypt

military helicopter crashed in Egypt's North Sinai near Sheikh Zwayed due to technical problems, a security source.

The source said there was a technical problem with engine, detailing that the helicopter fell in the area of Shalaq in Sheikh Zwayed.

Eyewitness accounts confirmed seeing a helicopter crash in a desert area near Shalaq.   
Egypt's Sinai has witnessed an escalation in attacks by militants against the army and police since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on 3 July 2013.

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Bombardier Q400 aircraft will be launched in Russia in 2015

Bombardier  is planning to build the DHC-8-402 (marketed as the Q400) in Ulyanovsk, Russia starting in 2015 according to Russian Aviation. The planned output in Russia is two aircraft per month and will be supervised by Bombardier representatives.

Bombardier has not yet confirmed this report.

According to him, representatives of the Canadian manufacturer will be responsible for quality control and certification of the aircraft in accordance with Canadian specifications. The planned output of the plant is 24 aircraft per year. The number of Bombardier aircraft operated in the country will reach 250-270 ones by 2030.
 
Bombardier Director of Business Development and Sales, Russia, CIS and Eastern Europe, Mark Gilbert, said that the low temperature testing of the aircraft has been completed lately. "The liner may be operated at a temperature of –54 C°. Yakutia is the first region of Russia to operate Q400. The aircraft demonstrated good results under conditions of low temperatures", - he said.

The head of Rosaviatsiya said that "it is also necessary to plan the construction of a training center for Q400 pilots".
 


The list price of the aircraft is 900 million rubles. The import duty increases its price by 30%. However, according to Neradko, thanks to provision of subsidies for acquisition of aircraft, the fleet of national carriers is expanding. "About 3 billion rubles per year are allocated for provision of the subsidies", - he added.

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Lightspeed Aviation Foundation nominations due

Lightspeed Aviation Foundation recognizes Each year, through its Pilot’s Choice Awards  select a group of aviation nonprofit organizations that are actively promoting growth in aviation or using aviation to aid in humanitarian causes.

Anyone can nominate an organization, but those organizations that are nominated will need to submit an application, if they have not yet done so, foundation officials explain. Nomination and grant application forms are available at LightspeedAviationFoundation.org.

For this year’s awards, nominations must be submitted by midnight (PST) Jan. 31, while applications will be accepted until Feb. 3 midnight PST.

A group of finalists will be selected from the applicant pool for the opportunity to compete for one of the 10Pilot’s Choice Awards grants.

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Nine flights diverted to Ahmedabad

09 flights heading to Delhi, Jaipur and Udaipur were diverted to Ahmedabad on Friday due to dense fog in northern India. The dense foggy conditions coupled with lack of parking space at smaller airports forced the flights to be diverted to Sardar Vallabhbhai International airport.
Nine flights - six domestic, two international and one cargo aircraft - made stop at city airport. Uzbek Airlines 421 from Tashkent to Delhi was diverted to Ahmedabad at 4 am and flew back to its original destination at 9 am while Air Arabia 433 Sharjah to Jaipur was forced to land at city airport at 12.30 pm and flew back at 1.30 pm.
Jet 2023 (Mumbai to Udaipur), Jet 2627 (Delhi to Udaipur), Jet Konnect 4234 (Bangalore-Delhi), Indigo 207 (Mumbai to Jaipur) and Jet Konnect 4055 (Mumbai to Jaipur) arrived at city airport during the day and departed within an hour. Indigo 238 from Ahmedabad to Jaipur flew from Ahmedabad and due to bad weather had to return back at city airport and finally departed at 12.30 pm.
25/01/14

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Sierra Nevada Corporation Announces Plans For KSC

NASA Kennedy Space Center's transformation into a multi-user spaceport, Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) of Louisville, CO announced Thursday steps it will take to prepare for a November 2016 orbital flight of its Dream Chaser spacecraft from Florida's Space Coast.

The announcement included the purchase of an Atlas V rocket from United Launch Alliance (ULA) for the launch, sharing the Operations and Checkout (O&C) development and testing facility with Lockheed Martin Space Systems, establishing an operation center at Kennedy Space Center and using the former Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) runway at Kennedy. The steps are considered substantial for SNC and important to plans by NASA and Space Florida for Kennedy's new availability to both commercial and government customers.

SNC said it plans to work with ULA to launch the company's winged Dream Chaser spacecraft into orbit from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. "SNC is thrilled to confirm a launch date for our country’s return to orbital human spaceflight and the restart of human spaceflight operations from Florida’s Space Coast," said Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of SNC’s Space Systems. "We could not have done this without the spirit and engagement from our national and state governments, the best aerospace companies in the industry, and several major universities, which all hail from over 30 states. Together these passionate people will return our astronauts to space on American spacecraft and rockets launched from America’s space coast right here in Florida."

Cabana said SNC's involvement with the Florida spaceport shows the conversion to a 21st Century spaceport is succeeding, although work remains to keep the transformation on pace. "We are honored that Sierra Nevada Corporation has reserved a proven Atlas V to launch its first flight test in 2016,” said Michael Gass, United Launch Alliance president and CEO. “With 42 successful missions spanning a decade of operational service, the commercially-developed Atlas V is uniquely qualified to provide launch services for the Crew Transportation System. Because Atlas is already certified by NASA to fly the nation’s most complex exploration missions, ULA is able to provide a wealth of flight data, design implementation, detailed system and sub-system analysis, qualification and certification documentation to support the Atlas V for human spaceflight."

The Dream Chaser spacecraft is deep into development of flight hardware and specific plans ranging from ground support equipment to what to include in a mission operations center. "I had the privilege of piloting and commanding five space shuttle flights as a NASA astronaut," said Steve Lindsey, former NASA astronaut and SNC’s senior director and Dream Chaser program manager. "This included the last flight of Discovery which was processed, launched, and on March 9, 2011, made its final landing at the SLF after 39 flights and 148 million space miles.  Mark, the entire SNC Dream Chaser team, and I look forward to seeing Dream Chaser continue this legacy from Discovery when it flies in 2016."

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Boeing Rolls Out First 787 Dreamliner at Increased Production Rate

Boeing has rolled out the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner built at the rate of 10 airplanes per month. The airplane, a 787-8 and the 155th Dreamliner built, will be delivered to International Lease Finance Corp. for operation by Aeromexico.

The new 10 per month rate is the highest ever for a twin-aisle airplane. The 787 program has now increased its production rate three times in just over a year, including to five airplanes per month in November 2012 and seven per month in May 2013. 

"This rate increase reflects the continued strong demand for the 787," said Larry Loftis, vice president and general manager, 787 program, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "A disciplined approach that combined employee teamwork with technology was key to achieving the higher rate."

Boeing assembles and delivers 787s in two locations: Everett, Wash., and North Charleston, S.C.

"The entire 787 team is now focused on capturing efficiencies at this historic level of production, as well as meeting our commitment to increase the production rate to 12 per month in 2016 and to 14 per month by the end of the decade," Loftis said. 

To date, 115 787s have been delivered to 16 customers. The program has 1,030 total orders from 60 customers worldwide.

This airplane will be the fourth 787 operated by Aeromexico and will be used on the airline's

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Southwest Airlines reports full year net income of $805m

Southwest Airlines posted fourth quarter net income, excluding special items, of $236m compared to fourth quarter 2012 net income, excluding special items, of $65m. This exceeded the First Call consensus estimate of $.29 per diluted share. Fourth quarter net income was $212m which included $24m (net) of unfavorable special items, compared to net income of $78m in fourth quarter 2012, which included $13m (net) of favorable special items. For the full year net income, excluding special items, was $805 million compared to full year 2012 net income, excluding special items, of $417m. Full year net income of $754m, which included $51m (net) of unfavorable special items, compared to net income of $421m in full year 2012, which included $4m (net) of favorable special it

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FlightSafety appoints new Manager, Specialty and Enrichment Training Program

FlightSafety International announces that Marin Todorov has been promoted to Manager, Specialty and Enrichment Training Programs.

Marin will oversee the design, development and distribution of all specialty and enrichment training programs. This includes courses available at FlightSafety Learning Centers as well as those distributed through the company’s LiveLearning and eLearning programs.

He joined FlightSafety in 2006. Marin worked on the development of the company’s web-based training programs and provided technical assistance and guidance to FlightSafety’s eLearning team. He also developed utilities that facilitated the design and deployment of courses, and oversaw the Learning Management System.

FlightSafety International is the world’s premier professional aviation training company and supplier of flight simulators, visual systems and displays to commercial, government and military organizations. The company provides more than a million hours of training each year to pilots, technicians and other aviation professionals from 167 countries and independent territories. FlightSafety operates the world’s largest fleet of advanced full flight simulators at Learning Centers and training locations in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Japan, South Africa, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

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Fliers grab discount offers; ticket sales soar by 500%

Discount in airfares offered by different airlines for a three-day period, it seems, is being grabbed by passengers, with travel agents and industry insiders claiming that ticket sales have increased by more than 400-500% in the past two days.

The discount war started after low-cost carriers, including SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir, announced their flash sales for those booking in advance. The battle became more intense when full-service carriers Jet Airways and Air India joined the competition.

Sources said about 70-80% bookings are still being done through travel agents and portals.
President of travel portal Yatra.com Sharat Dhall said, “The discounted airfares have definitely brought cheer to Indian travellers.”

Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Jaipur and Lucknow have been the top five destinations for Mumbaikars in the past two days.

SpiceJet and Air India, however, said sales figures would be available only after completion of the sales deadline on Thursday midnight.

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