As the fleet of PC-12s approaches 1,200 worldwide, with approximately 70 percent of them in the U.S., Pilatus Aircraft is expanding its service network to meet the demand for customer support. The company recently named Northern Air, based at Gerald Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Mich., as a satellite service center under the sales and service region managed by Londonderry, N.H.-based Pro Star Aviation. Million Air Houston was also added as a satellite service center under Tempus Aircraft Sales and Service of Englewood, Colo.
Transport
March 19, 2013 - 11:15am
Boeing technical workers have approved a new four-year contract that maintains annual 5-percent salary increase pools and guaranteed minimum wage increases each year. Of the 4,898 workers who submitted ballots, 4,244 voted to accept the same deal a narrow majority rejected on February 19.
March 19, 2013 - 9:36am
Irish low-fare carrier Ryanair on Tuesday committed to buying 175 new Boeing 737-800NGs worth nearly $15.6 billion at current list prices. The deal, still subject to confirmation, supports Ryanair’s plan to expand the size of its uniform fleet of 737-800s from 305 to some 400 airplanes and serve more than 100 million passengers per year across Europe by the end of the delivery stream in 2018.
March 18, 2013 - 2:40pm
Embraer expects to see substantial sales activity over the next few months involving 70- and 76-seat E-Jets as U.S. major airlines respond to relaxed union limits on regional jets among their regional airline partners, according to the manufacturer’s CEO, Frederico Curado.
March 18, 2013 - 2:35pm
The European Commission proposed yet another package of measures to strengthen passenger rights last week, but not without a nod to airline concerns over the resulting costs. The commission designed the new rules to make passenger life easier when things go wrong, without putting airlines out of business by demanding too much care or compensation.
“[A passenger] will have a right to information about what is going on after half an hour [in the event of a flight delay],” said EC commissioner for transport Siim Kallas.
March 18, 2013 - 2:25pm
Both in terms of actual cost structures and customer perception, the line between low-cost carriers (LCCs) and so-called legacy airlines has blurred, according to a new report from accountancy group KPMG. The company’s 2013 Airline Disclosures Handbook, published on March 12, showed that the cost gap between LCCs and legacy operators dropped by more than 30 percent between 2006 and 2011, falling from 3.6 U.S. cents to 2.5 cents per available seat kilometer (ASK).
March 18, 2013 - 2:23pm
Is the FAA’s billion-dollar-a-year NextGen program devolving into a patchwork of technology demonstrations, refined routings to discrete airports and reduced aircraft separations over mainly water? Is the agency’s promised comprehensive overhaul of the National Airspace System chasing its predecessor grand vision—Free Flight—into oblivion?
March 18, 2013 - 2:20pm
Air cargo traffic declined in the U.S. and internationally in 2012, but forecasts call for gradual improvement in the coming years.
In its latest 20-year aerospace forecast, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said U.S. air carriers flew 36.4 billion revenue ton miles (RTMs) last year, down 2.4 percent from the previous year. The European debt crisis and China’s slowing economic growth affected international cargo RTMs, which declined by 3.6 percent to 24.3 billion. Domestic cargo RTMs remained essentially flat, increasing by 0.1 percent to 12 billion.
March 18, 2013 - 12:30pm
Imagine a corporate aircraft cleaning crew discovering germs like E. coli, listeria, hepatitis and a few staph infections on the company airplane as they prepare it for the next trip? Paula Kraft, CEO of Atlanta Ga.-based Aviation Catering Consultants (ACC), conducted research on more than three dozen international airplanes (most of them U.S.-based) and found some of these germs on the control wheels, in the galley and in the lavatory.
March 18, 2013 - 12:20pm
Enhancing aviation and surface safety remains the top priority for the U.S. Department of Transportation, concluded the department’s Inspector General in a recent report of the agency’s top management challenges.
