The air traffic system in India is not immune to severe shocks—such as the one in 2010—during which traffic figures plummet and wreak havoc on the industry. The wave of airline mergers, which had occurred only a few years before and was actively encouraged by the ministry of civil aviation, did not prove conducive to making India’s airlines more resilient or competitive. Kingf...
Thai Airways looks set to the be second Airbus A350 operator to Australia with flights to Melbourne scheduled to feature the next generation widebody from July. A report from the Airline Route website said the Star Alliance member opened reservations for its Bangkok-Melbourne service with the A350 over the weekend. Currently, Thai flies twice daily between Melbourne and Bangkok with Boe...
A second ratings agency has lifted its assessment of Qantas stock back to investment grade, sending the airline’s stock up more than one per cent in afternoon trade on a flat day for the broader market. Ratings agency Moody’s on Monday upgraded its senior unsecured ratings of Qantas to “Baa3” from “Ba1”, restoring an investment-grade rating that was lost afte...
For those of you outside the European Union or the United Kingdom, you may or may not heard of the upcoming poll of the British public on if they wish to remain in the European Union (which the media has dubbed the “Brexit”). And normally, I wouldn’t write about this – mainly because the wall-to-wall media coverage of this, with politicians tearing each other into bits w...
The sun-powered plane Solar Impulse 2 has made a successful test flight in Hawaii, where it has been grounded for repairs on its round-the-world trek, the Swiss-based project said Saturday. "The first Solar Impulse 2 maintenance flight took place on Friday 26 of February (and) was uneventful. The plane took off from Kalaeloa airport at 4:32PM UTC [GMT] with our test pilot, Markus Scherdel,...
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer wants to require the Federal Aviation Administration to establish seat-size standards for commercial airlines, which he says now force passengers to sit on planes "like sardines." The New York Democrat told The Associated Press the airlines have been slowly cutting down legroom and seat width. "One of the most vexing things when you travel on an airpl...
East African Aviation, a private company, has inaugurated Ethiopia's first air ambulance transport service. The company owned by Captain Mulat Lemlemayehu, a former commercial pilot who served the Ethiopian airlines for 39 years, also inaugurated its newly established aviation school and air charter service at a ceremony late Thursday in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. The company ha...
MANPADS are by definition "man-portable." But just one -- like this Iranian Republican Guard "Strela" -- can bring down a large aircraft. Image source: sayyed shahab-o- din vajedi via Wikimedia Commons. Around the world, the use of cheap and deadly shoulder-launched infrared guided missiles is "growing in popularity among terrorist groups and in thirdworld countries.&qu...
Republic Airways Holdings Inc had outstanding orders for 24 Embraer E175 passenger jets when it filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in a U.S. court last week, Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer SA said on Sunday. Embraer has already delivered four E175 jets to the U.S. airline out of 28 total firm orders. The remaining 24 were scheduled for delivery between August 2016 and December 2017....
AN AER LINGUS flight has been evacuated after fireworks were found on board. This happened on a flight bound from Dublin to Paris earlier on 28 of February. Flight EI 523 was stalled on the stand and passengers left the plane after the discovery was made. It is understood that the fireworks were children’s paper bangers, sold popularly as ‘Fun Snaps’, and not a serious t...
Indian airlines are fiercely debating proposed policy changes which they fear could result in Arabian Gulf carriers being given an unfair advantage to expand in the country. The areas of India’s draft civil aviation policy which have raised concerns include plans to liberalise and auction bilateral flying rights and raise the cap on foreign direct investment in Indian carriers,...
The first Solar Impulse 2 maintenance flight took place on Friday 26 of February was uneventful. The plane took off from Kalaeloa airport at 4:32PM UTC with our test pilot, Markus Scherdel, in the cockpit, and landed at 6:05PM UTC. Bertrand Piccard was following this long-awaited flight from the other side of the world and confessed that it was a true relief to see Si2 back in the sky of Hawaii...
