AviTrader Weekly News 2018-03-05

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WEEKLY AVIATION HEADLINES 10 Military and Defence more maintainable aircraft with an extended life and more capability. Each of these jets will fly another 10 to 15 years, so making them next-generation aircraft is critical.” The indefinite-delivery contract is for up to US$73m. Work begins in April on an initial lot of four aircraft at Boeing’s St. Louis production center. An additional production line will be established in San Antonio, Texas in 2019. Additional follow-on contracts could be awarded over the next 10 years. The U.S. Navy fleet consists of 568 Super Hornets. OTHER NEWS Seamless Air Alliance to provide passengers with seamless In-Cabin Connectivity Photo: Airbus Air Astana, the national carrier of Kazakhstan will start non-stop flights from London Heathrow (LHR) to Astana, effective June 1. Passengers flying direct with Air Astana will benefit from seamless immediate connections to Kazakhstan’s second city, Almaty, and excellent onwards connections via the airline’s domestic and international network. From Astana, passengers can benefit from convenient international connections to Urumqi, northwest China; Delhi, India; and the Russian cities of Novosibirsk, Omsk, Tyumen and Yekaterinburg. “We are delighted to have finally secured daily flight status on what is such a prestigious and popular route – the only direct service linking the UK to Kazakhstan,” said Air Astana CEO and President Peter Foster. “London has consistently grown in significance, with both business and leisure travelers and it comes at an opportune time too for the airline strategically, as we start to plan for an IPO listing in both London and Kazakhstan.” Air Astana offers a three-class product aboard its comfortable Boeing 757 aircraft – 16 seats in business, 108 in economy and up to 12 unique Economy Sleeper Seats. Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has joined forces with Starburst, a global accelerator focused on Aerospace and Defense sectors. This innovative collaboration is expected to be the first step in realizing IAI’s objectives to become a significant technological player and strategic partner for startups in the Aerospace and Defense fields, by offering technological and business expertise, technology validation, mentoring and access to such startups’ potential markets. With presence in three continents, Starburst comprises 300 startup companies and 26 companies in the accelerator, including GE Aviation, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Thales, Airbus and more. IAI will participate in the election of startups to the accelerator that meets IAI’s criteria, and in addition, overseas startups that already Airbus, Delta, OneWeb, Sprint, and Bharti Airtel (Airtel) have combined resources to create the Seamless Air Alliance (SAA), which is intended to kick-start a new era of innovation for airlines on a global basis. Using satellite technology, mobile operators who are members of the alliance will be able to extend their services to airline cabins, providing high-speed, low-latency connectivity at normal speeds from the ground to the air, and back again. The result should be a significant reduction in cost for all involved, while at the same time creating a smooth and positive user experience. The new alliance is aiming to attract further industry operators which will further help to eliminate costs that would normally be associated with acquisition, installation, and operation of data access infrastructure. According to a press release issued by SAA, this can be achieved by streamlining system integration and certification, providing open specifications for interoperability, increasing accessibility for passengers, and enabling simple and integrated billing. “What if the best internet you ever experienced was in the air? Keeping this goal in mind, together, we will enable an affordable and frictionless experience for passengers everywhere,” said Greg Wyler, Founder and Executive Chairman of OneWeb. “With the launch of our first production satellites set for later this year, we’re one step closer to bridging the global Digital Divide on land and in the air.” participate in the accelerator will present technologies selected by IAI according to pre-determined criteria. The model will enable IAI to identify innovative technologies that can contribute to its current and future growth engines and technological roadmap and maintain its position as a technological spearhead, through technical collaboration and equity investments in the forefront of aerospace technology. Sabre Corporation has come to an agreement with Hong Kong Airlines to implement Sabre AirCentre Crew technology, a solution that offers a range of crew scheduling, management, services and analytical capabilities. This new partnership marks a significant collaboration between Sabre and a fast-growing airline in the Asia Pacific region. Increased connectivity between the aircraft, flight crew, and airline staff represents a tremendous opportunity for Hong Kong Airlines to optimize its processes both in the air and on the ground. Once fully implemented, Sabre’s Crew Solutions will help reduce controllable delays by improving productivity related to scheduling, benefitting both the flight and cabin crew. The technology encourages a proactive approach that fosters timely communication between schedulers and crew members, reduces costs by minimizing crew overage, and contributes to increased productivity by better connecting all touchpoints, promoting better crew utilization through optimized pairings, scheduling and tracking. Additionally, the solution drives improved operational efficiency by providing a more proactive means of tracking and communicating with crew in real-time. Dubai Airports has confirmed plans to close Dubai International’s (DXB) southern runway for a 45-day period in 2019 to conduct a comprehensive upgrade designed to boost safety, service and capacity levels. DXB operates 24/7, 365 days per year with over 1,100 aircraft movements per day featuring predominantly wide-body aircraft. While ongoing runway maintenance is scheduled on a weekly basis, more extensive upgrades require a complete closure of the runway. Such is the case with DXB’s southern runway (12R-30L) which is nearing the end of its design life and requires complete resurfacing and replacement
WEEKLY AVIATION HEADLINES 11 OTHER NEWS of the airfield ground lighting and supporting infrastructure. DXB’s northern runway underwent a similar program in 2014.The southern runway refurbishment project will involve the placement of approximately 60,000 tons of asphalt and 8,000 m³ of concrete to strengthen and resurface the runway and the adjacent taxiways. Dubai Airports will also use the opportunity to install 800 km of primary cables and replace over 5,500 runway lights with more-modern, economic and environmentally friendly technology. To limit the impact on service, the upgrade work is scheduled to take place from April 16 to May 30 when passenger traffic historically ebbs due to a seasonal lull. During the closure period, airlines will be required to reduce their operations to DXB due to the significant capacity reduction resulting from single-runway operations. Component Control, a CAMP Systems International Company, has released Quantum STEP (Q-STEP), a low-cost service for Aviation Traders and Logistics Companies. Quantum STEP (Stock Trading Enterprise Platform) extends the capabilities of StockMarket.aero’s aviation parts marketplace to offer a comprehensive ERP service for traders. The service includes several features of Quantum’s core aviation software that is in operation at some of the largest global Distributors and Logistics companies. As a hosted, web-based, Software-as-a-Service model, Q-STEP supports the management of Inventory, Purchasing, Receiving, Vendors, Sales Orders, Invoices, and Repair. The service is directly integrated with StockMarket.aero for real-time inventory availability, as well as the ILS parts service. Additional premium features can also be added to include Lot Costing, Document Imaging and a Finance Bridge to Intuit Quick- Books. “We developed this product to meet the needs of the small independent dealer,” said Daniel Tautges, SVP Component Control. “There was not a competitive product in the market that offered the feature rich capabilities of Q-STEP and we wanted to be able to offer products that customers could grow with (from small to large). With this product now, anyone, of any size, can use Quantum.” Airbus Helicopters, Thales and Helisim have announced they will join forces to construct a new, state-of-the-art helicopter pilot and maintenance crew training center in Texas. The Airbus Helicopters Training Center in North America will be located at the headquarters of Airbus Helicopters in Grand Prairie. Helisim, a joint venture of Thales and Airbus Helicopters and a leader in helicopter training, will develop and operate the simulation center, which will include the first H145 and H175 Level D simulators in North America. These Reality H Simulators built by Thales will enable pilot training for two of Airbus Helicopters’ newest, most high-tech civil helicopters which are now entering wide use in the Americas. The initial investment is estimated to be about US$40m and the new facility will have the capacity for several thousand pilots and maintenance personnel a year to perform both introductory and recurrent training. It will be designed for expansion to allow the future installation of an H160 simulator once the helicopter model is certified and production is under way. It will also incorporate the existing training facilities of Airbus Helicopters, including its H125/AS350 full flight simulator and H135/H145 flight training device. Lufthansa Technik AG develops end-to-end maintenance concepts tailored to the individual needs of the customer. Its new product called Maintwise is available to customers of Lufthansa Technik as a consulting service. Maintwise allows Lufthansa Technik to address the individual aircraft operator’s highly specific circumstances. In cooperation with the customer’s planning and engineering experts, the Lufthansa Technik engineers devise an individual maintenance concept, which harmonizes the flight plan optimally with the maintenance program. Depending on the customer’s objective, attention focuses here on delivering better aircraft availability or lower maintenance costs. Further objectives can include improving planning stability or increasing flexibility for aircraft deployment. The customer’s requirements are identified in a first step. The Lufthansa Technik experts then define possible optimization criteria. Various concepts are simulated and evaluated. Based on these investigations, Lufthansa Technik develops a series of optimized maintenance concepts from which the customer chooses the model best suited to their objectives. The handover of the final concept to the customer marks the conclusion of the project. Freya Schmitz, Maintenance Concept Engineer at Lufthansa Technik, explains: “All of our customers can benefit from the advantages of Maintwise. The product offers interesting competitive advantages for start-up airlines or airlines with growing fleets or new routes as well as for operators, whose goal is to reduce the ground times of their aircraft or reduce maintenance costs.” Spirit Airlines and its pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), ratified a new five-year working agreement on February 28. Of the 98% of pilots who voted, 70% cast ballots in favor of the agreement. Spirit Airlines’ agreement with ALPA includes an average 43% increase in pay rates on date of signing, doubledigit direct contributions to pilots’ retirement plans, and US$75m in ratification compensation. The ratification of this agreement represents three years of contract negotiations, including nearly two years at the bargaining table with the assistance of the NMB. Delta Air Lines and United Airlines became the latest major corporations to end marketing ties with the National Rifle Association. On its website Delta announced that it has reached out to the National Rifle Association to let it know that the airline will be ending its contract for discounted fares for travel to the association’s annual meeting through Delta’s group travel program. The company will request that the NRA remove Delta’s information from its meeting website. Delta’s decision reflects the airline’s neutral status in the current national debate over gun control amid recent school shootings. Delta said out of respect for its customers and employees on both sides, it has taken this action to refrain from entering this debate and focus on its business. This is not the first time Delta has withdrawn support over a politically and emotionally charged issue. Last year, Delta withdrew its sponsorship of a theater that staged a graphic interpretation of “Julius Caesar” depicting the assassination of President Trump.
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AviTrader Weekly News 2018-03-05

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