Op-Ed Columnists – Page 12
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Opinion
OPINION: Business jet builders must catch up on new designs
A clean sheet of paper can get surprisingly expensive and even risky – especially in the business jet sector. Seven clean-sheet designs of aircraft or families have been unveiled since 2007, when Bombardier launched the composite-skinned Learjet 85. That aircraft is now two years behind schedule and faces an ...
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Opinion
OPINION: Airbus and Boeing are right to have great expectations for China
Austerity-gripped European countries would love China’s problems. As Beijing turns down the inflationary heat, Asia’s biggest economy will grow about 7% this year – much less than the double-digit rates of recent years, but eye-watering by Western standards.
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OpinionOPINION: The crucial task of tackling Europe’s labour issues
It’s been a tough few months for Alexandre de Juniac. Just two days into his strategy to restructure short-haul, the Air France-KLM boss had to make a mid-air turnback – perhaps after instructions from the French government.
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OpinionOPINION: Why aviation should stub out e-cigarette threat
Until now, the debate around electronic cigarettes has centred on their health credentials. While their makers – and many medical experts – claim they are a safe and effective method of quitting tobacco, others fret that so-called vaping is as antisocial as smoking and can be a gateway into that ...
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OpinionOPINION: Gulfstream ups stakes in large cabin battle
Twelve months ago, the biggest mysteries in business aviation were the strategies and designs beneath the cloak of secrecy covering Dassault’s “SMS” project and Gulfstream’s “P42” programme. With the twin unveilings of the Gulfstream G500 and G600, the market finally has answers – along with a few more questions.
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OpinionOPINION: Why flight tracking philosophies must align
Another rift in the competitive landscape between Airbus and Boeing has appeared. Airbus is ready to move forward with a deployable flight data and voice recorder system for commercial aircraft. Boeing has installed deployable recorders on at least three military aircraft fleets, but disagrees that the technology is appropriate or ...
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Opinion
OPINION: Middle-sized jets mean business
Looking at the amount of product innovation on the business aviation market, one might be tempted to think: “Crisis, what crisis?” To give the surviving airframers their due, they responded to the collapse in fortunes in 2008-09 not by hoping normal service would soon be resumed, but by aggressively pursuing ...
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OpinionOPINION: Offshore helicopter companies must maintain collective will
The North Sea is an unforgiving environment. Helicopters flying there are operating in some of the most challenging conditions possible.
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OpinionOPINION: Why Airbus still has a widebody race to run
It has been a good summer for Airbus. Farnborough in July saw the launch of the A330neo, and the last days of a balmy September the first flight of the A320neo and certification of the A350-900. Although the A350 will enter service over two years later than the mid-2012 target ...
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Opinion
OPINION: Why IATA wants to end 'Tom and Jerry' regulation
National aviation authorities (NAA) face a dilemma. Aviation is getting much safer, implying big NAAs are not so necessary, but the industry is also getting larger and more technically and operationally complex, which seems to imply a need for more oversight.
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Opinion
OPINION: Why the time is not right to retire the Tornado
For prize boxers and elite footballers, the decision to retire while at the peak of their capability is often driven by a desire to avoid tarnishing their legacy.
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OpinionOPINION: Will US have to look for an all-American alternative to Russian rockets?
War, as the saying goes, is the domain of chance. Business is usually more friendly to calculated manoeuvres, but when actual fighting intervenes all bets are off.
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OpinionOPINION: Al Baker springs to Boeing's defence
Qatar Airways’ Akbar Al Baker rarely holds back when pointing out suppliers’ shortcomings. Airbus and Boeing have both been publicly chastised when they have fallen short of the uncompromising standards set by the boss of the fast-growing Gulf airline.
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Opinion
OPINION: Qantas bounce-back requires proactivity
Qantas’s major A$2.8 billion ($2.6 billion) net loss for the 2014 fiscal year is the price it has paid for holding to a strategy that, arguably, has been set by its competitors and has failed to achieve its objectives.
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Opinion
OPINION: Industry must learn from MAS tragedies
Hugh Dunleavy is commercial director at Malaysia Airlines
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Opinion
OPINION: Why O'Leary's transatlantic dream might have to wait
It is an absurdly great time to be selling widebody airliners. One look at the order backlogs of Airbus and Boeing confirms this point, but also consider this: there is a premier customer with ample access to financing – Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary – who claims he is unable to place ...
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OpinionOPINION: Utmost integrity crucial to investigation into MH17
The fuselage of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 operating flight MH17 was extensively punctured by “high energy objects” that entered from outside, says the initial report. The weakened hull then broke up, and wreckage was widely scattered over agricultural land in rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine.
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OpinionOPINION: Why aerospace firms must tackle titanium cheats
When Pratt & Whitney accused a supplier in late August of furnishing defective titanium for the F135 engine on the Lockheed Martin F-35, it was easy – but not entirely correct – to connect the problem to a string of component reliability failures and supplier management miscues already connected to ...
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OpinionOPINION: Is there a commercial future for airships?
The five decades from 1914 saw heavier-than-air aviation evolve from basic biplanes to the jet age. The subsequent 50 years welcomed stealth, supersonic airliners, huge advances in aerostructures and mass air travel. However, lighter-than-air technology has moved somewhat more hesitantly in the century since German Zeppelins first terrorised Londoners.
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Opinion
OPINION: Airline siblings must harmonise to avoid cannibalisation
Shakeel Adam is managing partner of Aviado Partners, a global consultancy specialising in airline commercial issues and assisting carriers to maximise their partnership potential; his Twitter handle is @shakeeladam