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Airbus A330-200F Takes to the Skies
November 05, 2009
Airbus’s new A330-200F freighter flew for the first time today, officially marking the start of a 180-hour flight-test and certification campaign with a four-hour test mission over Toulouse, France. This milestone flight conforms to a schedule that calls for first delivery of the first production example to launch operator, Etihad Crystal Cargo, next...
moreAir New Zealand orders Airbus A320s to replace Boeing 737-300s
November 03, 2009
Air New Zealand has ordered 14 Airbus A320s to replace its existing domestic fleet of 15 Boeing 737-300s. Valued at slightly more than $1 billion at list prices, the contract calls for deliveries to start in January 2011 and continue until 2016 to coincide with the expiration of 737-300 leases. ANZ has chosen IAE V2500 engines to power the A320s. Somewhat...
moreMitsubishi signs first U.S. customer
November 01, 2009
Mitsubishi Aircraft scored an enormous marketing coup last month when it signed its first customer outside Japan for the 78- to 92-seat MRJ. The letter of intent, signed by St. Louis-based Trans States Holdings, owner of Trans States Airlines and GoJet, calls for a firm order for 50 airplanes, along with options for another 50. The parties haven’t come to...
moreATR formally unveils -600 series
November 01, 2009
Franco-Italian regional aircraft maker ATR last month presented to the public the ATR 72-600 during a ceremony in Toulouse, France, where it also confirmed progress on its work with engine makers on a 90- to 100-seat turboprop. Despite the cancellation of orders for 22 aircraft this year, ATR maintains a three-year delivery backlog. The -600 series has...
moreRepublic to ground its last 717
November 01, 2009
Republic Airways plans to ground the last of nine remaining Boeing 717s it acquired with its purchase of Milwaukee-based Midwest Airlines by November 3 and replace them with Embraer E190s flown by “non-legacy” pilots. At press time Midwest’s ALPA-represented pilots and the Teamsters-represented pilots at Republic failed to reach a deal to merge their...
moreNew T-Props for Libyan, Air Niugini
November 01, 2009
Bombardier and ATR each announced orders for a pair of turboprops last month, the Canadian manufacturer from Papua New Guinea’s Air Niugini for NextGen Q400s and the Franco-Italian airframe maker from Libyan Airlines for ATR 42-500s. The Q400 order included an option on a single airplane of the same type. Air Niugini’s fleet now consists of three 26-seat...
moreColgan to move HQ to Memphis
November 01, 2009
Pinnacle Airlines has decided to move the headquarters of its Colgan Air subsidiary to Memphis, placing the two operating units in the same location “mainly for operations, planning and communications purposes.” Some 50 Colgan employees plan to make the move to Memphis from Manassas, Va., “in the November-December time frame,” while another 45 chose not to...
moreE190 gains ISA+39 deg approval
November 01, 2009
Embraer has received ISA+39-deg C certification for the E190 from Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) and the FAA, the company announced last month. With the certification, the 100-seat jet can fly without operational restriction at airports where temperatures reach as high as 129 degrees F at sea level.
The improvement opens the possibility...
moreBoeing’s Optimism Belied 747-8 Problems
October 30, 2009
Boeing Commercial Airplanes faced some familiar scrutiny over the fidelity of its program timelines again this month, when, no more than six weeks after 747-8 program head Mo Yahyavi portrayed the project as a virtual model of efficiency during an interview with AIN, the company announced that it would take a pre-tax charge against third-quarter results of...
moreAirbus Spools Up A380 Production
October 30, 2009
It might seem only months since Airbus launched the mighty A380-800, but the double-deck, quad-aisle superjumbo marked the second anniversary of its first commercial flight on October 25 and will soon have entered service with five airlines on many of the world’s most important routes. Indeed, many industry delegates attending November’s Dubai Air Show will...
moreMJet’s Wing Decision Raises More Questions about Composites
October 30, 2009
Resorting to worn-out business-speak to describe the merits of any new aircraft program has become customary, but Trans States Holdings president Rick Leach’s description of the Mitsubishi MRJ as a “game-changing regional jet” might actually apply this time. After all, Mitsubishi has changed its own game plan rather late in the development process by...
moreBoeing Uses Delays to Fine-tune 787 Maintenance Plan
October 30, 2009
While no one at Boeing would dare admit to any level of satisfaction with six separate delays to first flight of the 787, silver linings do exist behind the cloud that has hung over the program for the better part of two and a half years. Take, for example, the airplane’s maintenance schedules. Afforded extra time to perform a more thorough analysis of the...
moreTalk of Narrowbody Re-engine Prospects Intensifies
October 30, 2009
Now that Boeing and Airbus have made clear their lack of interest in introducing all-new narrowbody models before 2020, talk of any response by the industry’s two biggest players to demand addressed by platforms such as Comac’s new C919 has begun to center on interim measures. Most notably, the prospect of a re-engining program for both the 737 and A320 has...
moreBoeing To Place Second 787 Assembly Line in North Charleston, S.C.
October 29, 2009
Boeing 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...
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