All articles by David Kaminski-Morrow – Page 261
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NewsUK ground-handlers urge help to preserve cash-flow and staff
UK ground-handling firms have collectively urged the government to take measures to help them preserve cash and maintain their workforce, warning that they will otherwise be unlikely to maintain operations through the coronavirus crisis period. In a letter to UK chancellor Rishi Sunak and transport secretary Grant Shapps, four major ...
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NewsLanguage barrier highlighted after Hop CRJ incursion averted at Lyon
French investigators have highlighted the part played by language differences during a serious conflict incident in which a landing Hop Bombardier CRJ700 was cleared to cross a runway while an EasyJet Airbus A319 was taking off. The A319 had been cleared, in English, to take off from Lyon’s runway 35L ...
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NewsRolls-Royce cools UK civil aerospace activity for a week
Rolls-Royce is to shut down its UK civil aerospace operations for a week, from 27 March, as part of its response to the coronavirus crisis. The manufacturer says it will “significantly reduce” all but essential activity within its civil aerospace facilities. Workers will continue to be paid, it stresses. Defence ...
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NewsGround-handler Menzies halves active workforce as airline operations evaporate
Ground services firm Menzies has temporarily halved its active global workforce, as it assesses the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on its operations. The company – which has some 32,000 personnel, across 34 countries – says it has reduced its headcount by 17,500, although it stresses that these are not ...
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NewsSafran reinforces finances as outbreak exacerbates Max misery
French aerospace firm Safran has enhanced, in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, measures it had already been implementing in response to the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max. Safran’s activities include production of the CFM International Leap-1B engines for the Max as well as the Leap-1A powerplants for the ...
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NewsEl Al awaits state funding decision after halting passenger flights
Israeli flag-carrier El Al has opted to suspend all remaining passenger flights, as it awaits potential government financial support. El Al says the suspension, on 26 March, will continue until 4 April. It will continue to provide rescue and repatriation services as well as freight flights, some of which will ...
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NewsAn-225 returns to flight after modernisation
Antonov has restarted flights with the An-225 outsize transport, after a period of absence during which the aircraft underwent modernisation. The design bureau says the aircraft has commenced a series of test flights following installation of a domestically-designed power management and control system. Departing from the Gostomel airfield near Kiev ...
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NewsParis Orly to shut as European airports gradually quieten
European air traffic data shows that the coronavirus outbreak has effectively set the continent’s airspace back by more than a quarter of a century, to flight levels not experienced since the early 1990s. Statistics from pan-European air navigation organisation have already shown that daily flight totals have more than halved, ...
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NewsAirbus temporarily cuts wing production at UK and German sites
Airbus is to roll back wing production at its UK and German plants, to bring wing supply into line with demand at its final assembly lines. Production at its UK wing sites at Broughton and Filton, as well as its high-lift operation in Bremen, will be reduced for three weeks, ...
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NewsA320neo overbooking will help steer Airbus through crisis: Faury
Airbus believes its policy of overbooking orders will give the airframer a degree of flexibility to manage the impact of the coronavirus crisis on its production and delivery processes. Chief executive Guillaume Faury says the single-aisle backlog, over 6,200 A320-family jets, includes a “significant level” of overbooking which is “providing ...
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NewsUK air transport representatives try to calm concerns over government aid
UK airline and crew interest groups are trying to allay concerns over planned government support to the industry after confusion emerged over the nature and extent of financial measures for the sector. Pilot union BALPA insists that recent suggestions that the government is backpedalling on plans to assist the industry ...
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NewsSouth African shutdown heaps pressure on bedevilled Fastjet
African budget carrier Fastjet, already under substantial financial pressure, is having to cope with the additional burden of the coronavirus outbreak after the South African and Zimbabwean governments imposed travel restrictions. Fastjet Group, which has been working to sell its Zimbabwean arm, says the South African government is locking down ...
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NewsAutothrottle contributed to Belavia 737's long landing and overrun
Ukrainian investigators have determined that the autothrottle of a Belavia Boeing 737-300 was left active before the aircraft touched down long and overran at Kiev Zhulhany. The jet had been operating from Minsk on 12 July last year, and had been descending in darkness and rain to Kiev’s downtown airport. ...
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NewsAirbus sees indications of gradual Chinese traffic recovery
Airbus believes there are initial signs of air transport recovery from the coronavirus outbreak in China, from where the first contagion wave spread. Its Tianjin facility had briefly shut production when the outbreak emerged, but has since resumed manufacturing, although Chinese airline operations remain significantly affected. Speaking during a briefing ...
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NewsAirbus assessing production impact as outbreak pressure intensifies
Airbus is evaluating potential impact of the coronavirus outbreak on production, particularly for twin-aisle aircraft, and acknowledges that it might have to store aircraft as tightening restrictions obstruct deliveries. But the airframer is emphasising that it retains a strong backlog, especially in the single-aisle sector, which will help to reduce ...
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NewsIcelandair Group shifts nearly all staff to temporary working
Icelandair Group has disclosed that it is operating only 14% of its flight schedule and expects this to reduce further, and that it is taking steps to move 92% of employees to temporary part-time working. But it is also cutting 240 personnel across its divisions. The group employs just over ...
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NewsA330-800 test aircraft deployed to transport coronavirus supplies
Airbus has been deploying an A330-800 test aircraft to assist with coronavirus protection measures, using it to transport some 2 million masks from Tianjin in China to Europe, where they will be distributed to French and Spanish authorities. The airframer disclosed the measure as it prepares to restart – at ...
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NewsLargest A380 operator Emirates suspends most passenger services
Middle Eastern carrier Emirates is suspending most of its passenger operations from 25 March, but intends to continue freight services. Emirates has the world’s largest Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 fleets, and has been trying to maintain passenger flights for as long as it could, in order to ease passengers’ ...
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NewsA321 uncontained failure spurs urgent V2500 disk measures
Operators of Airbus A320-family jets are being ordered to remove disks from certain International Aero Engines V2500 powerplants after an uncontained failure resulted in an aborted A321 take-off. The incident occurred on 18 March, says the US FAA, and involved a high-pressure turbine first-stage disk failure. While the regulator has ...
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NewsAn-124 disk inspection ordered after uncontained failure
Ukrainian authorities have ordered Antonov An-124 operators to inspect engines on the type after an uncontained powerplant failure. An-124s are fitted with Ivchenko-Progress D-18T engines, as is the sole example of the An-225. The Ukrainian state aviation administration says an investigation into the “serious incident”, which occurred to an An-124, ...