AvNews 25/11/17

Updates

Qantas to use biofuel between Los Angeles and Australia.

During the pass days, it’s been reported that Qantas will be using oil derived from mustard seeds for it’s bio-fuel flights between Australia and Los Angeles so if you're a plane spotter in LAX you might smell some mustard while taking pictures of the Qantas plane landing. It’ll first be tried on the brand new Boeing 787-9. Qantas estimates it’ll reduce emissions by 20%.

This news comes after a new partnership between a Canadian agricultural technology company , Agrisoma Biosicnes. The partnership involves the Quebec based company to develop a commercial biofuel from mustard seed,a crop knows as “Ethiopian Mustard”.

Qantas plans to produce 200 million liters of bio-fuel from these seed by 2020. Qantas currently uses 4,8 billion liters of fuel each year. The mustard seed will help save Qantas on 4.17% of fuel used.

AFR66

We finally have some news about the infamous Air France A380 still stuck at Goose Bay. An Antonov AN-124 flew to CYYR carrying an A380 engine. The aircraft register UR-82008 has left Goose Bay heading to East Midlands airport. It’s currently flying the broken engine back to Cardiff Airport where it will be examined by General Electric.

The ferry engine will be placed on the F-HPJE in the fourth position but will not operate while the aircraft is flown back to Europe. A specialized crew will fly the plane back to Europe. The crew has spend the past month , simulating this flight. Due to the aircraft not being able to operate the fourth engine, the crew must adjust the trust of each engine to not cause too much street on the wings.

We will keep updating you throughout the investigation.

Monarch

The bankrupt airline won their appeal against a High Court decision which stripped them of their rights of its most valuable assets. It won the ability to keep their take-off and landing slots.

The ruling will boost Monarch’s administrators who are seeking to raise money by selling airport slots.

This latest news comes just a few weeks after two judges in London’s High Court canceled KPMG (Monarch’s administrators) claim about the airline’s slot. This was supporting of an earlier decision taken by the independent body Airport Coordination Limited. In response, Monarch’s administrator decided to appealed against the ruling.

Following the Wednesdays ruling, the company will now sell it’s airports slot in London Gatwick and Luton. EasyJet, IAG, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Wizz Air have all singed interest in their slots.

Kuwait Airlines

The German Justice Ministry has asked German Chancellor Angela Merkel to strip Kuwait Airways its German landing right because of its policy of not allowing Israelis to fly on its planes.

This request follows after a German court last week ruled in favor of the airlines to not allow citizens who uses a Israel passport to bored their flight as the country Kuwait does not recognize Israel as a country.

German Justice Secretary Christian Lange this week asked Merkel to personally withdraw the airline’s landing rights, saying:

“We must never be silent when jews are discriminated against or harassed.”

He added:

“The German Government must make it clear that it rejects this form of discrimination and hatred – and that we are on our side of our Israeli friends. Our friendship with Israel is non-negotiable. Such discrimination is not tolerable.”

“It is incomprehensible that in today’s Germany a passenger cannot board a plane simply because of his nationality.” German Foreign Minister Michael Roth said

Singapore Airlines suites

The national carrier has picked the giant aeromanufacturer to retrofit 14 of their A380 with the new cabins previously announce by Singapore Airlines. The retrofit program calls for the new cabin to products to debut on five news A380s delivered this year and next year.

Under the agreement signed by both party, Airbus will take responsibility for Service Bulletin and aircraft cabin parts-kit delivery. Airbus expects to start this retrofit by late 2018 and complete all 14 aircraft by 2020.

Major News

Flying Privilege

The negotiates between the UK and EU are taking a dramatically turn towards potentially restricting UK’s airlines operating right unless Britain follows the bloc’s laws and courts.

The Europe Union remaining 27 members begun talks on relation with the United Kingdom. Due to Britain leaving the single market, all UK owned airlines would lose automatically flying right in Europe aviation market. It would also not be able to gain EU recognition of approvals for parts or certificates for airworthiness.

Not only flying rights are at risk but as well ownership restrictions. Groups like Ryanair and International Airlines Groups will be force to buy out British shareholders to ensure they are 50 percent owned and controlled by a EU national in order to pursue operating routes in the EU.

If strictly applied this would be a big issue as it would lead to many flights being grounding something British minister has dismissed as “scaremongering”. It will also lead to a big loss for airlines as many airlines including easyJet and British Airways rely on these flying rights

Nevertheless their might be hope. The International Civil Aviation Organisation argues that in this case, UK operators would be allowed to operate flights to or from EU destinations but only if they start or end in Britain, the so-called third and fourth freedoms of the air.

In response to this fear of not being able to fly to Europe, some airlines such as easyJet are beginning to establish European offshoots in an attempt to minimize disruption following Brexit.

Nevertheless, some airlines are looking forward to UK’s airline not having the ability to fly in the European Union. Carriers such as Lufthansa and Air France see a lot of potential to be exploited following Brexit. This could get budget airlines such as easyJet and Ryanair out of the game and allow Lufthansa and Air France to flourish.

A multimillion-dollar maintenance facility

Canadian North has announce it’s plans to open a multimillion-dollar facility early next year at Edmonton International Airport.

The company plans to hire 30 initially people to handle maintenance, operations, repair and parts manufacturing for its fleet composed of Boeing 737-300, Boeing 737-200 and Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft.

Instead of hiring other firms to do this work, Canadian North hopes it can expend the operation by winning maintenance and repair contracts with other airliners. The company has invested $3.3 million annually in the operation to start but its expected to grow as it’ll being more business.

The facility should open by next spring and the hangar will be north of the passenger terminal. The hangar will be 8,400 square meters.

An end to a 13 year old lawsuit

Are you able to guess which lawsuit has been taking over 13 years to settle? Most likely not. It’s been recently announce that American Airlines and United Airlines have agreed to a $95.1 million settlement with the developers of the Twin Towers.

The commercial carriers agreed to pay the World Trade Center Properties wonder by developer Larry Silverstein after a 13 year old litigation.

The airlines insures are believe to be covering the cost of the payout.The latest settlement is still pending approval by the district judge ,Alvin Hellerstein, overseeing the majority of civil litigation stemming from the tragic 9/11 attacks.

The initial payment was estimated at $97 million but was reduced after two of American and United’s insurers announced for insolvent.

French Strikes

We have some bad news if you're flight will be on Air France's budget airline on Christmas

The biggest union among Air France pilots ,SNPL, has voted in favor of striking if negotiations weren’t met. The regional subsidiary company Hop!’s pilot working condition are not improved , it will not move forward.

The debate is about the pilots dispute on over working hours, specially concerning whether pilots should be asked to work with less than ten hours of breaks between last flights of the day and the first flight of the morning, known as the short nights system.

Air France management and Hop!’s pilot must come to a consensus before the end of November. If there are no agreement met a strike could be taken during Christmas time. Air France does have the right to dictate working conditions something the SNPL is against and is eager to avoid.

If the strike does take place, the union could use its influence to persuade other pilots to join the strike.

"A strike is extremely likely. There is a risk that the DGAC (France's Civil Aviation Authority) will try to avoid negotiating which is illegal in our opinion," Christophe Tharrot, president of the SNPL said.

"If we do not sign by December 1st, we have the authority to pass the rules on working conditions for pilots without compromise. Of course, I hope we can come to an agreement," Terner said in a statement.

A new artistic airline

A Chinese-American artist and choreographer started a new airline called Angelhaha Airlines. Qinmin Liu’s airline will start carrying passengers to art events around the world guaranteeing the “most positive energy” to its customers in the process. Their slogan is “Fly with Angelhaha. Fly with Happiness”

Its maiden flight will take place on December 6 flying to Miami.. They’ll fly onboard a small private jet seating just nine passengers. The flight from New York , has only 4 seats left and tickets for one way are being sold at $2,700-$3,500.

Following its first flight, it’ll be flying one way only to events in New York, Honk Kong, Venice, Berlin and Paris. The current plan is for the airline to acquire a large aircraft so in the future flights will be more affordable. They are hoping for a range from $300 to $3,000 depending on the final destination.

As CEO and Chef Flight attendant, Liu explains that every passenger boarding the plane will be getting “a piece of herself as part of the experience”.

In two statement she said;

“Service is performance. Environment is choreographed. I am going to use airplane, time, and this contained space to offer all my passengers a choreographed experience”

“Everything you will receive is happiness and it’s a piece of me. Happiness is ahead of you.”

Swiped Miles

A wiman was earlier accused this week by New Hampshire police for stealing over $300,000 worth of airlines miles from a former employer's account.

The thirty six year old from Manchester,New Hampshire was charged on Saturday with theft by unauthorized taking and other offenses. She turned herself in to police . She was released on a $5,000 bond.

Police said executives at the Merrimack-based retailer Brookstone discovered that Tiffany Tomaselli used two million company airline miles after leaving her position as an executive assistant in 2013.

The company where she worked previously ,said that she used a Delta Air Lines account specifically for business trips. She travelled notably to France, Italy and Greece.

Qatar + Pittsburgh

An airport in Pittsburgh will end up paying possibly up to $1.5million US dollars in exchange of service. Qatar and Allegheny County Airport signed a one year term. In the terms Qatar will fly twice weekly cargo flights to and from Pittsburgh International airport.

The authority of the airport under the one year agreement will be obligated to pay guarantee “support fee” for the first six months of service. The cost per fly will be $15,500 which will total for $744,000.

This fee will be paid even if Qatar does not meet its goal of 60 tons of cargo ,imports and exports, for each flight. The Persian Gulf airlines has said it plans to transport 200 tonnes of cargo to and from Pittsburgh each week. Once they reach the half of the year, if the airline meets the goal , the “support fee” will be decreased “based on calculation agreed to by the parties” according to Alyson Walls. If Qatar is unable to meet the goals set by the second half of the agreement , the authority will be required to pay $15,000 per flight for each month they are not met.

If Qatar fails to meet its goal for the entire duration of the agreement, the airport could end up paying an estimate of $1,5 millions.

This is not the first time that Pittsburgh’s authority are paying big money to land at Allegheny County Airport. It recently signed a two year agreement with Alaska Airlines to start a non stop service to Seattle next September for daily flights.

New Russian airport

On November the 8th, the first aircraft had flown into the new International Airport Platov located somewhere in Russia. The first aircraft was a Rossiya Airlines Airbus A319 and a Sukhoi Superjet 100 belonging to Azimuth.

On November the 8th , the first aircraft had flown into the new International Airport Platov located somewhere in Russia. The first aircraft was a Rossiya Airlines Airbus A319 and a Sukhoi Superset 100 belonging to Azimuth.

These two flights were “test mode flights”, the first flight to the new airport will start on the first of December and the old airport will close on March first 2018.

All flights flying to Rostov will have to change their airport of departure and arrival to the brand new airport.

The airport features a terminal 50 thousand squared meters. There are 7 air bridges and 10 gates for boarding by apron buses. It also includes a cargo and VIP terminal with an area of 2880 squared meters. The parking will have a capacity of 2500 cars.

British Airways (pay least-board last)

A new policy was past this week concerning British Airways holiday makers. It introduced a “pay least, board last” policy.

This policy means that passengers with the cheapest tickets will be the last to board the aircraft. Nevertheless this only applies to Europe flights and not longhaul flights for now.

As of December 12 all travelers flying within Europe will be assigned a group number between one and five at check in. These number are based on how much they paid for the ticket and their frequent flyer status.

The groups will be divided in this way;

Group one passengers include first class flyers and Gold members of British Airways Executive Club.

Group two travelers will comprise of Silver members.

Group three passengers are holidays makers with a Bronze status.

Group four will include economy passengers.

Group five passengers are for those who opted for BA’s cheapest hand-luggage only fares.

Even with the outcry on this new policy, this is not really new for flyers. First and Business and Premium Economy flyer are always invited to board the plane first and many airlines also give priority to members of their loyalty program. This type of boarding is found in Iberia, American Airlines and Qatar.

Nevertheless, people who require special assistance or travelling with yourg children will still be given priority and board before.

Departure Tax

Japan is considering implementing a new tax for airlines. Its considering a departure tax on airlines including low cost and high cost airlines.

The tax could possibly could be top as has 1,000 yen or 8.89$ that the Japanese Government is reporting to implement for travelers departing the country.

A funny USAF pilot

I personally think this was the best news this week. A United States Air Force Pilot on Sunday draw a penis in north Washington’s sky.

The US Navy confirmed one of its aircraft was involved with the skywriting of a figure of a male genitalia in northern Washington.

“The Navy holds its aircrew to the highest standards and we find this absolutely unacceptable, of zero training value and we are holding the crew accountable.” Naval Air Station Whidbey Island said.

Aircraft News

737 Family:

• The first 737 MAX 7 began final assembly today at Renton. Southwest, the launch customer will receive its first 737 MAX 7 by January 2019

• First Aerolineas Argentinas 737 MAX 8 (LG-GVD) deliveried

787:

• Chinese airlines Okay Buys five Boeing 787-9 for $1,4 billion US allowing the airline to expend its flights to the US.

A350:

In less than a year the long awaiting A350-1000 has finally received certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency )EASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The EASA certificate document was signed by the commission director , Trevor Woods. The FAA A350-1000 certification document was signed by FAA’s International Section Manager , Bob Breneman. These two extremely important certification were handed over to Airbus Executive Vice President Engineering, Charles Champion.

After over 1,600 hours of flight time, the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines were finally certified. The flight test have taken the aircraft airframe and systems beyond their commercial limits to ensure the aircraft meets all airworthiness criteria. 150 flights test hours were completed stimulating an airline used.

“Receiving the A350-1000 Type Certification from EASA and FAA less than one year after its first flight is an incredible achievement for Airbus and for all our partners who have been instrumental in building and testing this superb widebody aircraft,” said Fabrice Brégier, Airbus COO and President Commercial Aircraft.

“The A350-1000 benefits from the maturity of its successful brother, the A350-900, which has translated into excellent right-on-time performance. We now look forward to deliver the first aircraft to Qatar Airways by the end of the year.”

• Hong Kong Airlines receives their first A350-900.

A380:

• HiFly will be purchasing two Airbus A380 and leasing them to two primarily users. Royal Air Maroc and Garuda Indonesia . They’ll be acquiring the A380 by the end of Spring of 2018.

Airlines News

Turkish Airlines A380

In the past few months, Turkish Airlines was looking into possibility into buying some 747-8 or some A380s. During this past week, Turkish CEO and Vice Chairman said there is “no need for the Airbus A380 yet”

Nevertheless, they did say that they will look into reevaluate the situation once the opening of Istanbul’s third airport which is currently under construction and it’s plan to launch in late October 2018. The airport will be able to handle 150 million passengers per year.

Instead the national carrier is looking into the possibility of purchasing at least 40 additional aircraft, either a 787-9 or Airbus A350s.

“We have sent RFPs (requests for proposals) to the two manufacturing companies, and they are preparing those proposals for us,” he said. “We’ll finalise the RFPs by the end of this year.”

Suspension of flights to North Korea.

Initially started back in 2008, flights from Beijing to Pyongyang from Air China have been indefinitely suspended. Air China has suspended flights citing poor demand in travel. Flights usually departed on Monday , Wednesday and Friday but were frequently cancelled due to unspecified problems.

Emergencies

Amsterdam ATC failure

More than 50 flights had to be cancelled on November 21st after a major Air Traffic Control airport failure.

During early afternoon, it was first reported of a possible ATC failure due to a fast growing of delays. Later it was made clear there was as problem. Pilots were advised to divert or to expect delays.

For a full 30 minutes, there was a shutdown of the Air Traffic Control system at Europe’s busiest airport. Controllers had to manually operate. It’s not yet known what was the caused of the error but a similar event occurred back in February when the software en charged to compare and asses information from the primary and secondary radar failed.

KLM cancelled their flights to Heathrow, Paris, Nantes and Hanover. British Airways as well cancelled their London City to Amsterdam flights. Lufthansa as well cancelled its flight form Frankfurt and Munich.

After 5h of attempting to restart the system, the ATC system was up again and running once agains.

Japan ATC failure

Another ATC failure this week. Sapporo/New Chitose airport suffered an Air Traffic failure. All inbounds are returning to their departure airports. All departures were cancelled. There hasn’t been any news of the cause of the ATC failure so far.

Belly landing

Another aircraft had to perform a belly landing after gear malfunction.Similar to the LOT incident a few years ago. A Royal Malaysian Air Force C-30 had to make a belly landing at Labuan Airport.