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N313FE arrived in Shannon this afternoon following its conversion to MD10 by Aeronavali in Venice. The MD10 program which is essentially an avionics retrofit which reproduces the MD11 glass cockpit in the DC10 was offered by Boeing to operators of the 413 DC10 aircraft built by McDonnell Douglas. Fedex was the launch customer for the program agreeing to 70 aircraft with options on 50. Among the benefits of the MD10 conversion are a reduction in crew from three to two, a weight saving of 454kg and a reduction in the number of LRUs (Line Replaceable Units) or "boxes" used to build the avionics system on the aircraft. In recent years Fedex have trickled aircraft to Venice for conversion with most stopping in Shannon on both the eastbound and westbound legs. Fedex have also been involved in Project Orbis, the Flying Eye hospital. In December a DC10 donated by Fedex and United airlines will be flown to Venice for conversion to MD10 standard following which the hospital interior will be installed. As a result, Project Orbis' needs will be met for a further 20 years. Further details of the new Orbis aircraft can be found at : Orbis
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Ireland's Commission for Aviation Regulation today issued its report on Air Passenger Rights complaints for the first half of 2009. Under EU law each member state is required to investigate complaints received under the remit of EC Regulation 261/2004 which sets out common rules on compensation for passengers who suffer cancelled or long-delayed flights or who are denied boarding. During H1 of 2009 approximately 1,300 complaints were received by the CAR but just 242 were deemed to fall under the EC261 heading. The number of valid complaints was up 140% YoY on 2008.
The majority, 129 (53%) of valid complaints related to departure from an airport in another member state while 101 (42%) related to departures from an Irish airport. 12 (5%) of complaints originated from flights into Ireland from non member states on an EU licenced carrier.
Of the total 242 valid complaints, 70% resulted from cancelled flights, 19% due to long delay and 11% where a passenger was denied boarding.
The distribution of complaints by carrier for flights originating at an Irish airport shows Aer Lingus originated 32, Ryanair 43, BMI Baby 14, Centralwings 12 and others 12. When viewing this particular set of statistics it is worth bearing in mind the number of passengers each airline carried during the time frame.
Of the 113 complaints relating to Irish airport departure, 71 had been investigated and brought to a conclusion by the end of October.
- In just 2 of the 71 resolved cases the carrier paid out compensation to the passenger.
- In 24 cases the passenger was refunded their ticket or reimbursement of expenses.
- In 14 cases the carrier successfully demonstrated "extraordinary circumstances" which allowed them to avoid a payout.
- In 5 cases the CAR determined that the passengers rights had been infringed although no redress was applied due to the nature of the infringement.
- 1 complaint was withdrawn.
- In 25 cases the complaint was determined to be invalid.
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After a two week stopover in Shannon B737-752 N297MD was delivered to Istanbul Ataturk this afternoon. The aircraft is owned by GECAS and is reportedly going on lease to Andolu Jet, having arrived in Shannon from Howard Air Force base in Panama on October 15 last. Originally delivered to Aero Mexico as EI-DMX the aircraft became XA-MAY last year. In mid July of this year it was transferred to the US register and was originally due in Shannon from Howard at the end of the first week in October. However whilst en route from Bermuda to Shannon the aircraft developed a technical problem which necessitated a diversion to Halifax NS. Three days later it departed Halifax, arriving in Shanon on the Thursday afternoon. It had originally been reported that the aircraft would be transferred to the Turkish register whilst in Shannon but this never transpired to be the case. Pictured above N297MD piloted by a GECAS crew is seen during the take off roll on Shannon's R24 just before 14.00 utc this afternoon.
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Ryanair has announced that starting December 17 next it will operate four new routes to Bordeaux. The airline expects to carry an annualised 200,000 passengers on the routes to / from Charleroi, Edinburgh, Porto and Bologna. The Ryanair booking site has yet to have the routes added so frequencies are not known at this point in time.
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As the "next big deal" for Ryanair rumbles on, the airline's chief executive Michael O'Leary indicated at a press briefing in Hamburg today that his airline may canel orders with Boeing as a result of the slow progress in reaching agreement on an order for 200 aircraft. In recent months Boeing hasn't exactly been falling over itself to sign on the dotted line as the pressure of thinner margins and a reduced order book take their toll. Having sold low when volumes were high the Seattle manufacturer is finding it difficult to stick to its guns in the face of O'Leary's current negotiating stance. Today Ryanair indicated once again that it may shelve its growth plans or cancel existing orders until it gets what it wants. "We're only committed to whoever sells us the lowest price airplanes", said O'Leary. If the carrier can't buy aircraft at the right price it will temporarily shelve its growth plans in favour of conserving cash. At the end of July, the Ryanair backlog of 113 aircraft (to be delivered over a three year period) represented 5% of the 737 backorder list.
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The latest aircraft in the former Virgin Nigeria fleet to undergo re-branding for Nigerian Eagle at the Lufthansa Aircraft Paint facility at Shannon is Embraer ERJ-190LR registered 5N-VNI. The aircraft is msn 19000226 and was delivered to Virgin Nigeria as recently as mid July of this year. 5N-VNI arrived in Shannon for painting on October 15 last and was briefly rolled out of the hangar on Thursday last before finally exiting yesterday. As with sister ship 5N-VNH which was also painted at Shannon earlier this month, VNI, pictured above on Twy 7 this morning seems to be in no hurry to depart.
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Country music mega star George Strait's Bombardier Challenger 300 visited Shannon this morning on a transatlantic fuel stop. The aircraft is msn 20132 and carries a personalised registration - Strait was born on May 18. The aircraft also carries the Texas flag on the tail as well as an 'S' logo forward of the passenger door. Pictured above N518GS is seen on finals to R24 at Shannon.
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Monday's (October 26) flight DAL 64 operating Atlanta - Manchester diverted into Shannon en-route. The flight was operated by B767-332 registered N192DN and departed Shannon for Manchester at 07:58 utc.
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The Irish Aviation Authority has brought a new control tower on line at Cork Airport. At one minute past midnight on Tuesday October 20 operations commenced from the new facility which cost €7.5m to complete. In total, 27 staff were involved in the move including Controllers , technical and support staff. The IAA say that the main driver for embarking on the project was the necessary integration of Cork's ATM (Air Traffic Management) sytem with those at Shannon and Dublin Airports. Re-equipping the old tower was not a realistic option since there would have been interruptions to service at the airport. In addition the building would have required costly refurbishment. With these in mind the decision was made to build a new facility which is located on the western side of the airport. Construction began in August 2007 and took ten months to complete with fit out and validation taking until October 2009. Live testing began in early October, leading to dual operations and final transition last week. The project was completed on time, within budget and was funded entirely by the IAA without recourse to exchequer finance.
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It is five years since Ryanair signed its current base agreement with Shannon Airport. Under the terms of the agreement which runs out in April 2010, the airline has invested $400m in based aircraft and grown its passenger numbers at the airport from 300,000 in 2004 to 1.9m in 2008.
Ryanair has said that since the Irish government introduced its €10 travel tax on April 1 last passenger numbers have declined at Shannon. Last winter the airline based 6 aircraft at the airport, reducing its strength to four during summer 2009 and proposes just three frames this coming winter. Ryanair has on numerous occasions in the past four years stated that its Shannon operation has lost money in each of the five years of the current agreement.
In spite of these losses, Ryanair has written to the Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) confirming that if the government drops the travel tax by February 1 next and if the SAA extends the airline's cost base for a further five years then Ryanair will "commit to delivering more than 1.2m passengers annually, on up to four based aircraft". If both conditions are not met Ryanair has promised to reduce its base strength to one aircraft operating the London and some provincial UK routes and delivering just 300,000 passengers annually.
Shannon faces into the coming winter with a bleak future and a large drop in revenue on the horizon. Delta Airlines and US Airways terminated their transatlantic services in recent weeks. Cityjet terminated its Paris route this weekend past and Aer Lingus is as good as terminating its transatlantic services next spring. On top of that the €20m US Customs & Border Protection facility is rapidly turning into a white elephant. Aer Lingus has refused to use it for 'operational' reasons and USCBP won't increase the manning levels to give 24-7 operations since the passenger numbers aren't there to justify it. With a handling fee of just €10.50 per passenger cleared, a significant throughput is required to make the facility pay for itself.
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Kerry Airport has found that it too is not immune from the Ryanair sword. The carrier has announced that it is cutting its Kerry - Stansted service from 14 per week to 4, blaming the decision on a combination of the Irish government's €10 passenger travel tax and the high passenger costs incurred at Stansted. In contrast though, frequency on Kerry - Luton is to be increased from four flights per week to a full daily service. As of Sunday, October 25 frequency on Kerry - Luton was increased to once per day with Kerry - Stansted operating Mo, We, Fr, Su. Passengers hoping for early departures from Kerry will be disappointed though as Friday and Sunday are the only days to have pre 10.00 am departures.
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Ryanair was quick to respond to today's news that the BAA had reached an agreement to sell London's Gatwick Airport for £1.5bn. Reacting to the news the airline tempered it's enthusiasm by saying that it recognized the sale of Gatwick as the first step in the breakup of the BAA monopoly, urging the full recommendations of the UK Competition Commission be implemented whereby Stansted and a Scottish Airport would also be sold.
The carrier also called for the breakup of the DAA (Dublin Airport Authority) which owns and manages Dublin, Cork and Shannon Airports, forecasting that Dublin will lose 2m passengers this year with Cork and Shannon losing a combined 1m. Against this backdrop, Ryanair will grow by 9m passengers this year. "Even Aer Lingus is growing traffic in the current recession, while the DAA monopoly is losing millions of passengers and thousands of jobs", it added.
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Today's Aer Arann flight REA 515, operated by ATR72 registered EI-REH from Galway to Manchester damaged a propeller when the aircraft impacted a mirror guidance system at the terminal in Manchester. The aircraft carrying 32 passengers and 4 crew was taxiing onto its parking stand when the incident occurred. The airline issued a statement stating that "The incident involved flight RE 515 from Galway. At about 11.45am, the propeller on the aircraft made contact with a docking guidance mirror while parking on a stand.
Damage was caused to the propeller which was rotating slowly at the time. As a precaution, the airport fire service attended the incident. There were were 32 passengers and four crew members on board. There were no injuries and all passengers left the aircraft normally."
A replacement aircraft, ATR72 EI-REO with engineers and customer service staff was sent from Dublin. It operated flight REA 516 which arrived in Galway just after 20:00 utc.