GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL), has signed an agreement with CFM International to establish a new CFM56 maintenance training center to support its customers in the South Asian region. GMR Group is a Bangalore-based global infrastructure conglomerate with interests in airports, energy, highways and urban infrastructure. “GHIAL will...
moreBoeing announced yesterday that it will place its second final assembly line for the 787 Dreamliner in North Charleston, S.C., ending months of speculation over how and when the company’s standoff with the International Association of Machinists would end. Along with serving as a location for final assembly of 787 Dreamliners, the facility also will have...
moreBoeing will reveal the location of its planned second final assembly line for the 787 “over the next couple of weeks,” CEO James McNerney said today. Speaking during the company’s third-quarter earnings call, McNerney effectively narrowed the competition to Everett and Charleston, S.C., while downplaying the risk and redundancy of locating two lines that...
moreJapan has become the latest partner in the Asia and Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions (Aspire), joining the FAA, Airservices Australia and Airways New Zealand as full members of the program. Established in February 2008, Aspire identifies and shares procedures that produce environmental benefits, quantifies so-called “green” enhancements in the region...
moreBoeing announced today that it would take a pre-tax charge against third-quarter financial results of approximately $1 billion “due to increased production costs and the difficult market conditions” associated with the 747-8 program. Rather than flying three prototypes of the model’s cargo version by the end of this year, as program head Mo Yahyavi had...
moreSpirit AeroSystems yesterday broke ground on a new 57,888-sq-ft facility in Saint-Nazaire, France, where it plans to receive and assemble the composite center fuselage frame sections for the Airbus A350XWB from Kinston, N.C., site of another new plant under construction since last September.The company will ship sections designed and manufactured in North...
moreAgainst a backdrop of ongoing financial insecurity in the global banking sector, Qatar Airways announced this week that it has secured two “innovative” financing deals worth a total of $700 million to buy four new Boeing 777s due for delivery over the next few months. A $350 million finance lease involving a 777-300ER and a 777-200LR followed an agreement...
more
Despite the partisan claims and counter-claims on both sides of the long-running dispute over alleged subsidies between Airbus and Boeing, it remains extremely unclear whether or not the World Trade Organization (WTO) will ever definitively resolve the issue. On September 3, the WTO sent both parties its confidential interim report into Boeing’s allegations...
moreThe International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) has filed a complaint in federal court in an attempt to block Pratt & Whitney from moving 830 union jobs out of Connecticut. All told, Pratt & Whitney’s plans to close its engine repair shop in Cheshire, Conn., by early 2011 and move some work from its East Hartford facility...
moreProduction and maintenance workers at Boeing Charleston, the former Vought factory in North Charleston, S.C., yesterday voted to remove the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) as their collective bargaining representative. The vote affects some 280 workers, leaders of whom filed a petition with the National Labor Relations...
moreMitsubishi Aircraft Corporation (MJET) announced today that it will delay first flight of the 92-seat MRJ90 by as much as six months, from late 2011 to the second quarter of 2012, to accommodate changes to the design of the cabin and the wing box. MJET now expects to make delivery of the first MRJ90 during the first quarter of 2014. Development of the...
moreBombardier has moved the certification target for its 100-seat CRJ1000 to the first quarter of the company’s next fiscal year, starting February 1, from this year’s fiscal fourth quarter, after a software glitch recently forced the company to reassess its schedules. “The problem’s been found, the software’s being rewritten, so in a sense it’s done, but as...
moreBombardier Aerospace and Gulfstream Aerospace are well known fierce rivals, but that doesn’t mean they can’t agree from time to time, especially when it comes to the outlook for business jets. In separate investor presentations yesterday, executives at both Bombardier and Gulfstream parent company General Dynamics said they are increasingly optimistic about...
more
Boeing mechanics last Friday completed the installation of the new General Electric GEnx-2B engines on the first 747-8 Freighter in final assembly at the factory in Everett, Wash., the company announced today. “We are another step closer to bringing the 747-8 Freighter to market,” said Mo Yahyavi, vice president and general manager of the 747 program. “This...
more