In at least a symbolic gesture to Delta Air Lines and the Air Line Pilots Association, a bill passed on May 9 by the U.S. House of Representatives to extend the charter of the country’s Ex-Im Bank calls for the U.S. Treasury Department to negotiate with other governments toward eliminating state-backed loan guarantees for exports, including widebody aircraft sales.
AIN Air Transport Perspective
May 14, 2012 - 3:10pm
While the May 9 crash of a Superjet 100 during a demonstration flight in Indonesia most importantly took a human toll, it also might have dealt a serious blow to the aspirations of the Russian civil aircraft industry to compete with Western manufacturers in the global market.
May 14, 2012 - 3:08pm
Substantial order cancellations struck both Boeing and Airbus during the month of April, leaving the Boeing 787 in negative territory for the year and the A350 backlog significantly dented, according to data released last week by both manufacturers.
May 14, 2012 - 3:06pm
Aeromexico will begin daily service later this month between Mexico City and Washington, D.C., as part of a careful expansion in the U.S. by the publicly traded Mexican flag carrier. The new route begins May 21 with once-daily flights connecting Mexico City’s Benito Juarez International Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia, Aeromexico’s 16th U.S. destination.
May 14, 2012 - 3:04pm
Anyone doubting the staying power of turboprop aircraft in the regional airline sector probably should have visited Toulouse on May 3 to see ATR delivering the 1,000th example of its twin turboprop series. Spanish carrier Air Nostrum received its latest ATR 72-600 in a ceremony presided over by the heads of ATR’s shareholders: EADS outgoing chief executive Louis Gallois and Giuseppe Orsi, chairman and CEO of Italy’s Finmeccanica.
May 7, 2012 - 10:55am
Delta Air Lines plans to manage the volatile cost of jet fuel by getting into the oil refining business, an airline industry first. On April 30 the carrier said its wholly owned Monroe Energy subsidiary will acquire a refinery complex southwest of Philadelphia from Houston-based Phillips 66 for $180 million.
May 7, 2012 - 10:50am
If Pratt & Whitney executives felt discouraged by Mitsubishi Aircraft’s recent announcement that it would delay first flight and, likely, certification of the MRJ regional jet by a year-and-a-half, they didn’t show it last week after the airplane’s PW1217G geared turbofan flew for the first time on April 30
May 7, 2012 - 10:45am
The design window “is closing” on the final configuration of the re-engined Boeing 737 Max narrowbody airliner.
May 7, 2012 - 10:40am
German flag carrier Lufthansa took delivery of the first 747-8 Intercontinental airliner from Boeing in ceremonial fashion on May 1, then flew the so-called “Queen of the Skies” from Everett, Wash., to its base in Frankfurt after a touch-and-go landing in Hamburg.
May 7, 2012 - 10:35am
Once again monthly International Air Transport Association (IATA) airline traffic statistics reflected “positive distortion” caused by geopolitical and other factors, resulting in somewhat inflated data for March.
