50 SKY SHADES - World aviation news

Aviation essential

Essential and most important aviation news

Latest essential aviation news

ARGUS Releases August Business Aircraft Activity

ARGUS TRAQPak data is serial-number specific aircraft arrival and departure information on all IFR flights in the US (including Alaska and Hawaii) and Canada. The tables below reflect business aircraft activity data for August 1-31, 2015 vs. July 1-31, 2015 and August 1-31, 2015 vs. August 1-31, 201...

Jet24 Awards: meet the best charter flight brokers!

Legendary Jet24 Awards rocks Russian business aviation! On September, 11 popular gentlemen’s club “Rasputin” welcomed charter flight brokers for Jet24 Awards, hosted by Jet24 company. The shindig honored all charter brokers, who ‘ d come to visit  the 10th International...


Ryanair Targeting Quarter Of European Traffic

Ryanair expects to be operating one in every four European short-haul flights within the next eight to 10 years, driven by expansion in countries such as Germany as some of its rivals retreat. The Irish carrier, which has around 380 planes on order, has a market share of about 14 percent in Europe, serving about 100 million passengers a year and aims to increase that to 160 million passengers b...

Qantas to “FlyPink” in October to raise awareness about breast cancer research

Pilots across the Qantas group of airlines will “FlyPink” in October as part of breast cancer awareness month. The initiative features pilots donating money to wear pink epaulettes in place of their usual gold epaulettes to show their support for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Qantas pilots will wear pink epaulettes as part of FlyPink. (Qantas) Qantas said on Frida...

Falcon Pilots Held Responsible for Passenger Luggage Content

The pilots of Dassault Falcon 50 F-GXMC–which in March 2013 was caught in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, just before takeoff for Saint-Tropez, France, with 1,500 pounds of cocaine on board (street value $26 million)–are crying foul. The case has since been known as “Air Cocaine,” and in August pilots Pascal Fauret and Bruno Odos received a 20-year jail sentenc...

Transaero narrows first-half net losses to $57.6 million

Russia’s Transaero Airlines reported a 2015 first-half net loss of RUB3.2 billion ($57.6 million), narrowed from a RUB10.4 billion net loss in a year-ago period. First-half revenue grew 5.1% to RUB50.7 billion. Passengers carried in the first half remained flat year-over-year—5.8 million. RPKs decreased 11% to 19.3 billion. Transaero reported its first-half capital is negative&md...

GE Aviation to Create European Turboprop Center of Excellence

GE Aviation will create a turboprop engine development, test and production operation in Europe. This will represent an investment exceeding $400 million and ultimately support 500 – 1,000 jobs. The turboprop industry is highly global and comprised of many small aircraft operators. Among the factors driving GE Aviation to pursue the new operation in Europe is the need to support these and...

Snecma kicks off construction of new world-class engine test stand in southern France

Snecma (Safran) officially started the construction of a second open-air engine test stand at its facility located at French air force base 125 in Istres, southern France. The new installation, comprising a test stand featuring a design that is unique in Europe and a building housing all control systems, is on a par with the best engine test facilities in the world. It will be up and running in...

First Finnair A350 conducts maiden flight

Finnair’s first Airbus A350-900 has carried out its maiden flight, just a few weeks before the carrier becomes the first European customer to introduce the twinjet. Having performed its first sortie, at Airbus’s headquarters in Toulouse, the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-powered aircraft will enter a final series of ground and flight checks. Finnair will initially put the aircraft i...

Lufthansa Expects EUR500 Million Profit Boost from Board Overhaul

Lufthansa is stepping up its cost-cutting overhaul with a streamlined management structure it said will boost profit by EUR500 million (US$564 million) a year and provide a new boss for the Eurowings budget brand that has raised tensions in its long-running dispute with pilots. The German airline, long known for a focus on business customers, is expanding budget operations as it battles the lik...

Boeing to Welcome China President Xi Jinping

Boeing confirmed today that China President Xi Jinping will visit the company's Everett, Wash., factory on Sep. 23 during his visit to the U.S. Boeing Chairman Jim McNerney will be on hand to welcome President Xi, along with Boeing President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg and Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Ray Conner. "We're honored that President Xi will see our facto...

Airbus: Beluga XL programme achieves design freeze

The new Beluga programme, christened Beluga XL, has successfully passed the latest maturity gate milestone – marking the end of the ‘concept phase’ or design freeze ‘at aircraft level’ which is a key step in any development programme. The maturity gate review demonstrated that the Beluga XL programme is robust and mature enough to move to the next phase of developm...

Bell 505 Jet Ranger X makes Polish debut

Bell Helicopter has continued its sales push for the developmental 505 Jet Ranger X, displaying a mock-up of the light single-engined rotorcraft at the MSPO defence show held in Kielce, Poland between 1-4 September. Bell says it exhibited the four-seat, civil rotorcraft at a military exhibition "to promote its capabilities as a training platform" for the region's air forces....

Bombardier Mounts Engines on First Global 7000 Test Vehicle

Investors were rushing to pick up shares of Bombardier Inc. last week, as rumours swirled about a takeover offer for its transportation division and another report marked steady progress on its CSeries aircraft. Bombardier has now made several announcements regarding its long-range business jet program. Bombardier Business Aircraft has mounted the engines on its first flight test vehicle for th...

Upcoming events

NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition 2026

20/10/2026 - 22/10/2026
United States, Las Vegas

Bahrain International Airshow 2026

18/11/2026 - 20/11/2026
Bahrain, Sakhir

Top of the week

AERO 2027 strengthens its rotorcraft offering

AERO 2027 will place an even stronger spotlight on the helicopter sector, building on the momentum and success of AERO 2026, organisers Fairnamic announced today. As Europe’s leading trade fair...

Which aircraft are most commonly used for medical air services?

From Learjets and Challengers to turboprops such as the Pilatus PC-12, different aircraft bring different capabilities to a medical flight. Sebastian Demiet, COO of MTI 24/7, explains why aircraft sel...

HondaJet APMG S upgrade package earns EASA validation

HondaJet Classic and APMG operators across the European Union can now access the latest enhancements developed for the HondaJet family following the European Union Aviation Safety Agency’s valid...

Desert Jet launches ramp expansion development at Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport

Desert Jet has broken ground on its long-planned ramp expansion at Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport (KTRM), advancing a key infrastructure investment designed to accommodate rising business av...

Strategic alliance formed between AEE and Horizon Aircraft

  AEE Aircraft Electronic Engineering GmbH and Horizon Aircraft have joined forces to integrate advanced avionics capabilities into the Cavorite X7 hybrid-electric eVTOL programme. Throug...

Airbus Global Services Forecast 2026-2045: a long-term industry outlook

Airbus forecasts that demand for aviation services will more than double between 2026 and 2045, exceeding US$420 billion in value. Driven by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.8%, the sector wi...

TECNAM unveils leadership transition as Giovanni Pascale Langer becomes CEO and Paolo Pascale Langer assumes Presidency

The Board of Directors of Costruzioni Aeronautiche Tecnam S.p.A. has unanimously appointed Giovanni Pascale Langer as Chief Executive Officer, while Paolo Pascale Langer, who...

Garmin hits 1,000 King Air G1000 retrofits following landmark U.S. Army delivery

Marking a significant industry milestone, Garmin has delivered its 1,000th G1000 integrated flight deck retrofit for a King Air aircraft. The program has helped redefine cockpit modernizatio...

Chapman Freeborn becomes a member of BlackBook Motorsport’s international business network

International air charter specialist Chapman Freeborn has joined BlackBook Motorsport, the global business network connecting key stakeholders across Formula 1, NASCAR, MotoGP and the wider internatio...

Air Tahiti debuts exclusive all-business class experience with ATR 72-600 HighLine

Air Tahiti has received a new ATR 72-600 equipped with ATR’s HighLine All-Business Class cabin, becoming only the second airline worldwide to introduce this premium configuration on an ATR aircr...

Airbus secures CASA design approval, expanding its Australian capabilities

Airbus has secured 21.J Civil Design Organisation Approval from Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), marking a significant milestone for its local operations and enhancing its abi...

AeronautX elevates training capacity with new Amsterdam Centre and strategic VistaJet alliance

AeronautX, part of the AX Aero Group, has announced the launch of a new business aviation pilot training centre in Amsterdam, scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2027. Created by business a...

Following a landmark satellite network milestone, Viasat simplifies JetXP business aviation service plans

Viasat, a global leader in satellite communications, has enhanced its JetXP business aviation connectivity service with a simplified three-tier plan structure and, for the first time, publis...

Duncan Aviation deepens commitment to next-generation connectivity with 40 Gogo Galileo HDX systems

Responding to rising customer interest in always-on, high-speed connectivity, Duncan Aviation has placed a prepaid order for 40 Gogo Galileo HDX systems, marking Gogo’s biggest MRO agreement thi...

From flagship aircraft to best-in-class support: Bombardier's NBAA-BACE 2026 experience

Bombardier will return to the 2026 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition with a showcase that highlights the company's flagship aircraft, award-winning customer support network and di...

Embraer and LATAM deepen E2 partnership with component pool program agreement for E195-E2 fleet

Embraer and LATAM Airlines Group have signed a Component Pool Program agreement to support the airline's introduction of 24 Embraer E195-E2 aircraft. In addition to the firm order, LATAM retains o...

Bosch Building Technologies chosen to deliver integrated security for Deutsche Aircraft’s new production site

Deutsche Aircraft is advancing the next chapter of regional aircraft manufacturing in Europe with the construction of a new production facility at Leipzig/Halle Airport. To support the site's...

NetJets expands exclusive-use terminal network across the United States

NetJets is elevating its premium ground experience with the introduction of new exclusive-use private terminals at Dallas Love Field (DAL), Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) and Colorado&r...

MySky Pay streamlines procurement and reduces overspending for corporate flight operations

MySky, the spend and revenue management platform trusted by operators of more than 2,000 business aircraft worldwide, announced the launch of MySky Pay at NBAA-BACE 2026, introducing a purpo...

EVIA AERO and Fabspace Hangars cut delivery times from years to months, expanding capacity at Europe’s airports

EVIA AERO and Fabspace Hangars are addressing one of aviation’s most pressing infrastructure challenges: the shortage of hangar capacity across Europe. Through their partnership, EVIA AERO now o...

Phenix Jet Cayman strengthens premium fleet with first Bombardier Global 8000

Phenix Jet Cayman has added a Bombardier Global 8000 to its managed fleet, successfully completing the aircraft's CAACI registration transfer and entry into service in less than five business days...

500,000 fueling transactions. Zero paper. One connected network: aFuel sets new H1 2026 record

Information Design One AG, the Frankfurt-based aviation technology company behind the aFuel platform, has achieved a major operational milestone. During the first half of 2026, aFuel processed 50...

Bell strengthens its Presence in Morocco with new independent sales representation

At Marrakech Airshow 2026, Bell Textron Inc. announced AVIARAIL as its new authorized independent sales representative for Morocco, reinforcing its commercial footprint and enhancing engagement with c...

Air France expands its U.S. footprint with new Nashville and San Diego services for summer 2027

Air France has announced the first additions to its Summer 2027 schedule, strengthening its North American network with the launch of new nonstop services to Nashville, Tennessee, and San Diego, Calif...

Keeping Europe’s automotive production lines moving: key airfreight pressure points revealed

When a vehicle assembly line is at risk of running out of critical components, every minute of downtime carries a significant cost. In many cases, an emergency air charter is not the expensive option,...