March 2009 Archives

Indonesia's new requirement that all scheduled airlines in the country must operate at least ten aircraft is a move designed to weed out smaller players.

The assumption is that small airlines with only a few aircraft lack the money and resources to be be safe.

But the new law - which is to take effect in January 2012 - is a boon for Indonesia's larger carriers because it limits competition.

It is also a boon for aircraft leasing companies and aircraft-makers. Based on data available on the website of Indonesia's Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the country had 13 scheduled passenger airlines and a significant proportion of these will have to increase their fleets to meet the new requirement.

The new law also makes it hard for start-ups. Today I spoke to the DGCA's director of airworthiness and aircraft operations, Yurlis Hasibuan, who told me that as of 12 January 2012 - when the new law takes effect - any new scheduled carriers will have to launch with a fleet of ten.

If an airline has fewer than ten aircraft then it will have to be a charter operator, he added.

But whether large airlines are any safer than smaller carriers is a bone of contention. The new ten aircraft rule is part of Indonesia's push to improve air safety following a series of fatal air crashes in Indonesia.

But many of those crashes involved larger Indonesian airlines such as Adam Air, Garuda Indonesia and Mandala Airlines.

If there really was any surprise, it was the fact that India took so long to cancel its request for proposals (RFP) for 22 attack helicopters to replace its Mil Mi-25s.

New Delhi issued a RFP for 2.5 tonne twin-engined helicopter with all-weather and terrain ability in May 2008. In October, Flight International broke the news that the Bell AH-1Z Cobra and Boeing AH-64D Apache (left) helicopters had been withdrawn, leaving the Eurocopter Tiger, AgustaWestland Mangusta and Mil Mi-28 in the contest.

Bell withdrew as the AH-1Z is available only through the US government's country-to-country Foreign Military Sales (FMS) mechanism, while India wanted to deal directly with the company. Boeing pulled out saying that it had not had enough time to submit a proposal, even though India gave an eight-week extension that was sufficient for the other contenders.

Almost immediately, there was speculation that the competition could fall apart. Indian army officials were unhappy that they may not get the chance to assess two well-renowned attack helicopters, and Boeing and Bell put pressure on the defence ministry to modify its stance on procurements and allow them to return to the tender.

The speculation intensified at Aero India 2009 in Bangalore in February, with Eurocopter officials privately expressing their concerns about the tender's future, and those worries came true two weeks ago when the defence ministry cancelled the RFP. A MoD spokesman says that the three remaining contenders did not meet the requirements and that a fresh tender will be called shortly.

So we go back to square one, and a situation that is unfortunately all too familiar. India needs new aircraft to modernise its army's ageing aviation wing, but the cancellation of this RFP and a light utility helicopter tender in late 2007 means that the service has to keep making do with old equipment  while the bureaucrats get their act together.

New Delhi has to make its mind up and stick to it. If this tender was really cancelled due to "qualitative deficiencies", as the defence ministry put it, fine. But the perception remains that it caved in to internal and external pressure to include the US helicopters.

Consistently cancelling RFPs and calling for fresh tenders only makes life more difficult for its long-suffering servicemen, and burnishes India's image as a place with an extremely difficult business environment for foreign military contractors.

This video emerged recently on the internet showing the immediate aftermath of the 11 January crash of a Zest Airways Xian Aircraft MA60 turboprop at Caticlan airport in the Philippines.

The aircraft skidded out of control on landing and crashed nose first into a concrete barrier next to parking bay one.

Seventeen of the 27 people on board were injured and required hospital treatment.

From this video it is apparent that there was extensive damage to the aircraft's wing, landing gear, undercarriage and to at least one of the two engines.

 

Forbes' annual ranking of the world's billionaires is out and it's bad news for India's flamboyant airline tycoons, Jet Airways' Naresh Goyal and Kingfisher Airlines' Vijay Mallya. Both have been downgraded to the rank of multi-millionaire.

A year ago Forbes estimated Goyal's (pictured right) net worth at $1.4 billion but it says this has fallen by around $1.1 billion as the value of his publicly traded airline plummeted.

Mallya's net worth was estimated at $1.2 billion a year ago but Forbes says this has fallen by around $900 million.

Click here to read what Vijay Mallya had to say when I asked him a few years ago whether he had heard the old industry joke that the easiest way to make a small fortune in the airline business is to start with a large one.

For the full Forbes list of India's billionaires-turned-millionaires, click here.

The team at Malaysian budget-carrier AirAsia have come up with a pretty good, and sometimes funny, video (see below) about their online competition to select a pilot.



They have also spelt out the criteria for potential applicants in a post on their corporate blog. It appears as though only Malaysian citizens will be able to apply. Nonetheless, this is still a unique method for attracting pilots to the airline, and there appears to be a bit of leeway in the way they will assess the applicants.

"There is a bit of leniency here where those with close to our requirements will also be seriously considered if they can prove that they want the job badly enough instead of getting cut from the get go. We're open to more cases and they get a shot at their dream which is unique where airline companies typically raise their judgements purely based on academic cut offs due to the immense response from their intakes," says Derek Tan, the airline's corporate blogger.

"We're trying to open doors to the hopefuls and get people excited that their dreams not done yet. That is the key message that everyone can fly. What we are looking for is definitely creatively in expressing how much you want to be a pilot as per our demo video, which we have uploaded. Through this, we're trying to get that message out that AirAsia's fun and friendly credo is extended also to pilots and we know why we want to be one."

Kunpeng Airlines is to be the first to fly China's new regional jet, the ARJ21, rather than Shandong Airlines.

I was able to confirm this story today by speaking to a senior source at Kunpeng's parent Shenzhen Airlines and by speaking to a source at Shandong Airlines.

The source at Shandong says the airline put in the request to the manufacturer to no longer be the launch operator and that the airline's decision to do this came after it underwent a management change.

When Shandong Airlines ordered 10 ARJ21s in 2003 it, could be argued, the airline was more independent than it is now.

Since then it has increasingly come under the control of Air China

In 2003, Shanghai Airlines also became a launch customer with an order for five ARJ21s.

But its future as an independent player may also be numbered because the owners of Shanghai Airlines and China Eastern Airlines have been speaking about merging the two loss-making carriers.

China's Government has also told China Eastern to do whatever it takes to become profitable. That means if China Eastern does merge with the much smaller Shanghai Airlines then it has an avenue to argue that delivery of ARJ21s to China Eastern/Shanghai Airlines group should be delayed.

Next week's Australian International Air Show 2009 will be the last chance for aviation enthusiasts to see the Royal Australian Air Force's General Dynamics F-111s and Caribous before they are retired.

In particular, F-111s are likely to perform the famous "dump and burn" routine. This involves the F-111 pilot dumping fuel while engaging the afterburner, resulting in a fiery tail (see video below of the performance at the 2000 Sydney Olympics). According to internet reports (which means that it has to be true!), this was probably first done due to pilot error. When the aircraft did not explode, and after reports from observers, the RAAF worked this into its air displays.



Also at the show for the last time will be the RAAF's de Havilland DHC-4 Caribou tactical light transport aircraft (see video below). These will be retired this year instead of by 2013 due to serviceability issues involving corrosion, fatigue, obsolescence and asbestos components. The Caribou has been in RAAF service since 1964. Five Beechcraft King Air 300s will be leased to replace the aircraft as they are progressively retired.



The Australian Defence Force's air power will be on full display next week, with over 50 aircraft from all three services present at the show. "The ADF's flying and ground displays at Avalon will aim to inspire the next generation of air crew and ground support teams.  Defence Force Recruiting will have a significant presence," says Australia's Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Mark Binskin.

Cathay Pacific Airways has admitted that one of its employees took the now-famous video of the female passenger who had a breakdown at Hong Kong airport last month after missing her flight. If you haven't already seen the video you can find it by reading on.

It had been widely assumed that a Cathay employee videotaped the incident as much of the shooting took place from behind a staff counter. The airline says now that it has "been able to identify a member of our staff" who took the mobile phone video of the incident on 4 February. It stresses that it determined it was not a Cathay employee who uploaded the video to YouTube, but regardless of this the staff member who shot the footage has been disciplined.

                                                                                       Flightglobal.com yesterday published a news story on Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China's (Comac) move to fast-track development of its new 150-seat aircraft, the Comac 919.

Shortly after this story went out, bloggers from the US were quick to seize on the story.

They highlighted the very last sentence of the story which was that Comac decided to bring forward the aircraft's entry into service to 2016 from 2020 so the 919 would get to market before Airbus and Boeing had a chance to trump it with new aircraft types more advanced than the current Airbus A320 and Boeing 737.

It was clear from reading the bloggers' postings that they see China as a competitive threat.

Quite frankly, I think the US and other western countries have to stop seeing China as a threat and instead see China as an opportunity.

Western countries should come to terms with the fact that China is on the fast-track to becoming a technologically advanced nation and refrain from trying to hold China back.

Better to co-operate with China and help in its development. That way western companies can benefit financially from China's success.

To see the flightglobal.com story, click on this link. 

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/03/04/323350/china-fast-tracks-150-seat-aircraft-programme.html

 

 

Always wanted to be a pilot? Then start banging away on the keyboard, and your dream job may be waiting at AirAsia.

The Malaysian low-cost carrier is having an online "pilot idol", inviting aspiring pilots to post on its AirAsia corporate blog on why they should be invited to join the airline. Further details will be available on the blog later this week.

For now, we know that the candidates must include videos, photos, essays or a combination of those on their post. AirAsia will then pick 10 winners for the first round of its pilot intake in August, and subject them to further tests to see if they are eligible to continue with the course.

The airline's chief executive Tony Fernandes, writing on his personal blog, says that he has been inundated with questions on how to become a pilot and this is an opportunity for those who are keen to join the carrier.

Now, I wonder if AirAsia might have a similar contest to find flight stewardesses? That would be immensely popular on the internet. So Tony, if you ever decide to do that, can I be one of the judges please?

Who is waiting for the Australian defence white paper? Not Canberra itself, it seems.

The defence establishment down under is moving ahead of the release in April by making some key decisions. These include wiring half of the 24 Boeing F/A-18Fs Australia has ordered so that they can be converted into E/A-18G growlers in the future, and shelving further collaboration on the US Navy's Northrop Grumman RQ-4N Global Hawk-based (above) Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) programme.

All of this goes to show that things are still fluid in the Australian defence procurement plans. What else is left then?

We should hear more in the coming weeks about Australia's commitment to the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter - with some speculating that Canberra could go for fewer fighters than originally planned - and Boeing P-8 Poseidon. The naval air wing's helicopter fleet should also come under closer scrutiny.

Watch this space as Avalon 2009, the Australian International Airshow, begins next week.