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Order from Air Lease for seven cargo variants of A350 marks Airbus’s push into market long dominated by Boeing
SE booked its first order for a newly launched wide-body freighter, pushing into a market dominated by rival Boeing Co. at a time when air cargo is booming.
The deal is for seven freighter variants of Airbus’s A350. The jet maker announced the plane in July, opting to launch it without any customers. The company said at the time that airlines and specialist cargo operators had asked it for a new freighter.
Shipments of medical supplies and personal protective gear gave cargo an early-pandemic boost, bolstered by a lockdown-fed boom in e-commerce. More recently, manufacturers around the world have turned increasingly to airfreight to bypass snarled ports, packed ships and trucking shortages that have delayed cheaper cargo delivery by land and sea.
Two of the world’s largest container shipping companies, A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S and CMA CGM SA, have ordered new Boeing 777 freighter jets this year, citing the need to have air-cargo options for customers.
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The airline faced a similar fine in 2012 over the Transportation Department’s tarmac-delay rule
The Transportation Department said it fined United Airlines Holdings Inc. UAL 0.86% $1.9 million for violating the department’s rule prohibiting long tarmac delays, the largest fine it has issued for such violations.
The department on Friday said its Office of Aviation Consumer Protection found that between December 2015 and February 2021 the airline allowed 20 domestic flights and five international flights to remain on the tarmac at various U.S. airports for lengthy periods without providing passengers the opportunity to deplane. The delays affected 3,218 passengers, the agency said.
A United spokesman said the 25 flights were out of nearly 8 million flights operated by United and United Express during the time frame. Since 2015, the company has implemented a diversion-monitoring system that identifies available airports for a flight affected by weather, and it has invested in ground-service equipment, he said.
“We remain committed to fully meeting all DOT rules and will continue identifying and implementing improvements in how we manage difficult operating conditions while maintaining the safety of our customers and employees,” the spokesman said.
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Aviation regulator plans to roll out tools meant to cut down delays before departure
The top U.S. aviation regulator is betting a new suite of software will help ease a longtime frustration for airline passengers: being stuck on a plane that is waiting to get to a runway for takeoff.
The Federal Aviation Administration plans to deploy in the next several years new software at airports that is meant to make it easier to calculate when a plane can travel out to a runway and depart, agency officials said Tuesday.
At Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, the system reduced delays by more than 900 hours in all during a four-year testing period, or an average of 15 minutes of wait time each for around 3,600 departing flights, according to the FAA. Carriers also saved on fuel and lowered carbon emissions by avoiding idling, the agency said.
The FAA plans to incorporate the new tools into a system for managing plane traffic at airports the agency had developed as part of its efforts to modernize air transportation, officials said.
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New research has uncovered when chances are higher, including during meal service. Overall risks appear to remain relatively low, but newer variants may change that equation.
Fliers have yearned for reliable data on the risks of air travel since the pandemic began. Recent research on Covid-19 transmission on flights suggests that airlines could adopt new policies to better protect their passengers.
Scientists have found a sharp increase in possible spread during in-flight meal service when everyone has masks off. They’ve also learned more about the importance of precautions during boarding and deplaning.
The chances of viral spread aboard planes remain very low. But papers published in medical journals suggest they may not be as low as suggested earlier in the pandemic.
“It’s still, at this point, safe to travel if you take proper precautions,” says Mark Gendreau, chief medical officer at Beverly Hospital near Boston and an expert in aviation medicine. “I do think it could be safer.”
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Cabdrivers don’t need to worry about being replaced by flying cars. Helicopter makers might need to a little bit.
Vertical Aerospace, a British startup devoted to the development of electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicles, or eVTOL, has just received a preorder for 25 aircraft plus an option for 25 more from Bristow Group, a U.S.-owned operator of civil helicopters, the air-taxi company told The Wall Street Journal.
Vertical, which in June struck a deal with a blank-check investment vehicle to go public, already has announced preorders and options for 1,050 vehicles. Buyers include American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and plane lessor Avolon Holdings, which said Tuesday that it had already placed 250 of them with Gol and Grupo Comporte, a Brazilian airline and transport operator, respectively.
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Weekend snarl is the latest difficulty for the carrier after it struggled over the summer
Southwest Airlines Co. canceled more than 1,800 flights over the weekend, citing bad weather and air-traffic-control problems in Florida that rippled throughout its operation.
The airline canceled over 1,000 flights Sunday, or 28% of its schedule, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking website. Over 500 flights were delayed.
The problems started Friday evening, when severe weather in Florida prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to impose an air-traffic-management program, resulting in a large number of cancellations and leaving customers and crew members out of place, an airline spokesperson said Saturday.
Southwest scrambled to reset its network Saturday, canceling more than 800 flights that day, or 24% of its operation, according to FlightAware.
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Anglo-Dutch energy giant is first big oil company to disclose production, sales targets for SAF as demand from airlines ramps up
Royal Dutch Shell PLC is the first major oil company to announce targets for low-emission jet-fuel output and sales as airlines look to buy more of the fuel to meet climate-change goals and get ahead of proposed European Union regulations.
The Anglo-Dutch energy giant, a top provider of jet fuel, said it plans to produce 2 million metric tons of so-called sustainable aviation fuel a year by 2025, up from none today. It wants SAF to account for at least 10% of the jet fuel it sells by 2030, including fuel it sources from outside...
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The COVID-19 pandemic has been nothing if not a grueling test for the airline industry, but Southwest is using the lessons it’s learned as a springboard for ongoing growth.
COVID-19 may have battered the travel industry to an unprecedented degree, but for technology leaders at Southwest Airlines, the experience has also taught some valuable lessons. Today, the airline is using that insight to chart a new course for the future.
“We have learned a lot about our existing system capabilities,” says Jeff Jones, vice president of commercial and customer technology with the airline. For example, “in the early days of the pandemic, the number of schedule revisions was astronomical—no one ever anticipated volumes like that. We saw some areas we needed to reinforce, and we made a lot of improvements.”
Business plummeted as the pandemic took hold, recounts Jim Dayton, vice president of air and ground operations technology. “We went from 4,000 flights a day to fewer than 1,500; those we did run were close to empty,” Dayton says. Yet even as the airline cut external IT support by 40% and reduced its technology budget by about 50%, it still delivered on 75% to 80% of its 2020 goals. “We have learned a lot about efficiencies, resilience, team sizes, and teamwork.”
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