General Aviation/Helicopter News

Small planes lands on Texas highway...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUZM13V3XIo&feature=youtu.be

President Barack Obama has named lawyer and longtime transport civil servant Christopher Hart to be chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

New uniforms for Virgin Atlantic

The restoration of a stranded Airbus A320

General Electric has selected Safran, IHI and MTU Aero Engines to work on the GE9X engine that will power the Boeing 777X. GE said it will invest USD$300 million in the GE9X this year. GE has orders for more than 600 GE9X engines, the sole engine choice on the 777X, due to enter service in 2020. On Wednesday, Emirates finalised plans to buy 150 of the aircraft, worth USD$56 billion at list prices, part of USD$100 billion in commitments announced at the programme launch last November. Safran said it will have a stake in the engine programme of just over 11 percent. Its Snecma and Techspace Aero units will make the composite forward fan case, the low-pressure compressor and other parts, Safran said.

Snecma will make composite fan blades through its 50-50 CFAN joint venture with GE. Safran and GE already collaborate in the CFM International joint venture that is developing engines for the Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A320neo jets. IHI will have at least a 10 percent share in the GE9X, and will design and manufacture components for the low-pressure turbine and the fan mid-shaft, GE said. MTU will have a 4 percent stake, and will make the centre frame of the turbine. GE said it has been testing key technologies for the GE9X over the last few years. It completed tests on a high-pressure compressor in Italy earlier this year, and plans to test ceramic matrix composite components later this year.

(Reuters)

IAG has placed a firm order for 20 Airbus A320neo aircraft, a deal worth over USD$1 billion at list prices. IAG, which owns British Airways, Iberia and Vueling, said the 20 A320neos it was ordering were part of the 100 options it secured over the aircraft a year ago. The new jets would be delivered in 2018 and 2019, it added. "These aircraft are currently intended to replace 21 British Airways' aircraft but will be reallocated if the airline cannot make a profitable return from its short-haul business," the company said in a statement.

(Reuters)

Airbus not only flew its E-Fan demonstrator at the Farnborough International Airshow but also announced plans to enter production with two- and four-seat models through a new subsidiary in France called VoltAir. Airbus initially will target the training market with the E-Fan 2.0 and 4.0 models. The two-seater is due to enter production by the end of 2017 with the four-seat version to follow two years later.

A look at the cabin crew for Windrose Airlines, very nice I must say!

LIAT, The Caribbean Airline, is about to have their latest ATR aircraft, an ATR42-600. It will make the 4th AT426 for the company. Overall, they now have 8 new ATR's in the process of their fleet renewal program. So far, four of the 8 are ATR72-600s, V2-LIA, V2-LIB, V2-LIC, V2-LIH. The other four are AT426s, V2-LID, V2-LIF, V2-LIG and now the newest about to land at LIAT's headquarters in Antigua, V2-LIK.

Rockwell Collins on Tuesday reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, aided by higher deliveries of equipment for planes such as the Boeing 787. Net profit fell to USD$158 million in the fiscal third quarter ended June 30, from USD$164 million a year earlier. Total sales rose 12 percent to USD$1.26 billion, aided by the acquisition of the ARINC information management business.

Revenue at the commercial systems unit of Rockwell Collins, which sells to Boeing and Airbus, rose 5.8 percent to USD$583 million. Government system sales fell 6 percent to USD$535 million. Rockwell Collins is beefing up its exposure to commercial markets as US defence spending wanes. Commercial revenues stand to grow because of production of newer aircraft such as the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350. The company last year bought ARINC, a provider of systems that help airline pilots communicate, and has said that purchase will enable it to bolster aviation information management services. It formed a new segment for such services that had USD$146 million in sales in the just-completed quarter.

In recent years, Rockwell Collins has exited some sectors of defence. On Tuesday, it said it was selling a satellite communications business formerly known as Datapath that mainly caters to military customers.

(Reuters)

Etihad: The Residence...

Go around...go around!

The new US representative to the UN's ICAO said he is hopeful its members will be able to agree a global system to curb carbon emissions from airlines.

The question of how to reduce emissions from planes brought the European Union, the United States, China and others to the brink of a trade war last year. All eventually agreed to let the United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organisation come up with a global "market-based measure" by 2016. "I am extremely hopeful that we will be able to come to an agreement. I don't think I would have taken this position if I wasn't hopeful of that," said Michael Lawson, the new US ambassador to ICAO, in an interview. Lawson was confirmed by the Senate on Monday and arrived in Montreal, where ICAO is based, on Thursday. He has landed in the middle of several high-profile discussions at ICAO.

Along with environmental policy, the organisation is looking at how best to track flights after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in March, and how to protect passengers flying over conflict zones after the downing of MH17 in Ukraine last week. Lawson said safety is one of the most important issues before ICAO, referring to the two Malaysia Airlines incidents. But he declined to discuss US positions in detail, since he had not yet been fully briefed.

On Thursday, a senior State Department official said the United States is not seeking changes to the ICAO guidelines on global aviation after the two incidents, but would participate in any ICAO-led reviews to determine whether changes are needed. Asked whether the push to regulate aviation emissions is part of the Obama administration's "climate action plan," Lawson said it is. As part of the plan, announced last year, the administration has pledged to work to persuade other countries to fight climate change.

(Reuters)

Alitalia is working on a final proposal to present to Etihad on Thursday in a push to lock in an investment by the Abu Dhabi airline, a person close to Alitalia shareholders said on Wednesday. Underscoring the government's need to seal a deal, the transport minister, the prime minister's chief of staff, Alitalia's senior management and major shareholders including UniCredit met to discuss the issue on Wednesday at the prime minister's office in Rome. "Progress has been made, now we are working to prepare a response that Alitalia will give to Etihad tomorrow," the person close to the airline's shareholders said after the meeting.

Etihad's plans to take a 49 percent stake in Alitalia, which has made a profit only a few times in its 68-year history, has been held up by disagreements over Alitalia's EUR€800 million (USD$1.07 billion) debt, and plans for job cuts that have angered Italian unions. After seven months of talks about a tie-up, Etihad's chief executive said earlier in July he expected to conclude the deal this month, but that the deadline could be extended if needed.

Also attending Wednesday's meeting were the chief executive of Italy's post office operator Poste Italiane and the chief financial officer of Italian motorway operator Atlantia, which owns a 7.4 percent stake in the airline. Poste Italiane has agreed to inject a further EUR€65 million into Alitalia to help smooth the way towards a deal with Etihad, after investing EUR€75 million last year as part of a government-engineered rescue package, sources said on Tuesday. Atlantia's chief executive said on Tuesday that Alitalia was "playing with fire" and said it was indispensable that the process be sped up this week.

(Reuters)

American/US Airways to end first class meals for flights under 3 hours

American Airlines Group... American/US Airways are ending meal service for its first class passengers for flights under three hours according to Bloomberg Businessweek. There will be Snacks only “service” will start on September 1.

If this is going to happen, I can see alot of people will not be too pleased.

Iran plane crash near Tehran kills 38 near Mehrabad

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28730582

China's USD$653 billion sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation (CIC), is in talks to buy Dublin-based aircraft leasing firm Avolon. CIC and Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), a state-owned aerospace and defence company, will jointly bid for Avolon, which provides aircraft leasing and lease management services to airlines and aircraft investors, according to people familiar with the matter. The buyer group has been working on a potential acquisition of Avolon for the past few months but any deal is still months away, the people said on Monday, asking not to be named because the discussions are confidential.

Private equity-owned Avolon is estimated to have an equity value of around USD$2.5 billion, the people said. Including debt, the proposed deal could have an enterprise value of USD$4 billion to USD$5 billion, they added. The discussions with CIC come as Avolon is simultaneously pursuing an initial public offering in a bet that growing demand for air travel would sustain a recent boom in aircraft finance. CIC's interest underscores strong demand for aircraft assets from Asian buyers, at a time when the region has become the world's fastest growing market. China, one of the world's biggest buyers of aircraft, is playing a bigger part in the global aviation industry as its airlines seek to cater to the nation's growing number of business and leisure travellers.

Another Chinese consortium made an unsuccessful bid in 2012 to buy aircraft lessor ILFC from US insurer AIG. That proposed deal fell apart, and AIG ended up selling ILFC to AerCap in December. Avolon, which is backed by private equity firms Cinven, CVC Capital Partners and Oak Hill Capital Partners, as well as Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, has been working with Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase on a potential sale or IPO.

Avolon has raised USD$7.2 billion in capital since its launch in May 2010. It has a fleet of more than 190 aircraft placed with 46 customers in 27 countries. Avolon's focus is on young and fuel-efficient single-aisle aircraft made by Boeing and Airbus. In 2013, it delivered a total of 34 aircraft to its customers valued at more than USD$2 billion.

(Reuters)

Thai Airways expects to return to profit earlier than expected in the fourth quarter, aiming to cut 1,500 jobs this year under its recently approved restructuring plan. The airline also said it would shed more than a quarter of its full-time employees by 2018, the first major job cuts announcement since the plan was given the go-ahead last month. Thai had previously said it aimed to cut costs and prioritise certain routes to return to profit as soon as the middle of next year.

The airline, which employs 25,000 people and another 5,000 sub-contracted staff, was singled out as the first state enterprise to undergo reform by Thailand's military rulers who took over in May from a government accused of corruption. "We expect to see profit in the fourth quarter," Air Chief Marshall Prajin Juntong, currently chairman of Thai Airways and the military government's head of economic affairs, told reporters.

The airline said Prajin is to step down as chairman on August 20, making way for vice chairman Areepong Bhoocha-oom to take over. It gave no further details. Areepong, a former senior official at the Finance Ministry, is also permanent secretary of the Energy ministry. The airline has racked up five successive quarters of losses due to high operating costs and a continued decline in passengers as the country's tourism industry suffered from prolonged political unrest.

It aims to cut operating costs by THB4 billion baht (USD$126 million) and increase revenue by THB3 billion, Prajin said, helped by more visitors flying to Thailand as the political unrest has subsided. "Japanese and Indian customers are returning and European routes are doing better," Montri Chamrieng, vice president of engineering, told reporters. "The route that is (still) of concern is the Australian route."

"The recovery plan will take root over the next two to three months and we will see in the next five years that Thai Airways will return to become a world-class carrier once more," he added. Thailand's tourism industry took a hit from the months of street protests that helped lead to the ousting of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Even though the airline expects to benefit from an anticipated increase in tourists during the year-end holidays, it still expects to report a slightly bigger loss for 2014 than last year's THB12 billion baht, Prajin added. "Profit is less than targeted due to the lower number of passengers," he said.

(Reuters)