Australian Aviation Express keeps you up-to-date with all the latest developments in the domestic and international civil, military and commercial aviation industries.

ISSUE 231

Week beginning Monday July 21 2008

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

FARNBOROUGH WRAP-UP

JOB CUTS FOR QANTAS

VIRGIN BLUE TO CHARGE FOR LUGGAGE, CUT FLEET

FARNBOROUGH NEWS - COMMERCIAL

Airbus senior executives John Leahy, Tom Enders and Tom Williams at the company's Farnborough Airshow press conference. (Airbus)

* STRONG SHOWING FOR AIRBUS AT FARNBOROUGH: Airbus had a successful Farnborough Airshow in announcing orders for 247 aircraft, but warned that it was facing slower sales in the second half of the year.

“Air transport will continue to grow, there also will be a need for the replacement of older aircraft,” said John Leahy, Airbus's chief operating officer – customers, at the company's wrap-up press conference on July 17. “Airbus aircraft will continue to help the world's airlines do more with less, especially in the current economic environment.”

However, Leahy noted that there would be some softness in new aircraft sales the second half of the year, but in the next five years the need to replace aircraft over 20 years old would stave off a slump in aircraft sales.

Leahy also said that the manufacturer would raise its production of A330s from eight to 11 a month, driven by strong demand for the type, and added that Airbus was investigating a freighter version of the A330-300. “We haven't launched it yet but we're talking to the market about it,” but later added that it was not an immediate priority for the company.

The manufacturer also noted that it would not be ready to offer a narrow body successor to the A320 within the next decade, as new technologies to deliver the expected 20 per cent efficiency improvement airlines required are still immature. “We think this industry deserves a quantum change for the all-new airplane that would succeed the very successful A320 Family – and that will take us out to somewhere around 2020,” said Leahy.

Airbus CEO Tom Enders also said that the manufacturer was hoping to close a deal to sell a stake in Airbus UK to GKN, and noted that negotiations with the British company were advanced. Enders also said that he was “confident” that the sale of a plant in Laupheim, Germany to French defence company Thales would go ahead.

* 787 ON TRACK, BUT BRAKES EATING MARGINS: Boeing Commercial Airplanes 787 program manager Pat Shanahan used the Farnborough Airshow to announce that the 787 remains on track, but problems with the aircraft's braking system were eating away the contingency time ahead of the aircraft's first flight.

"My schedule has us in November" for first flight, Shanahan said in an interview with ‘Bloomberg News', adding that he's certain the plane will be airborne by year-end. "I put padding into my schedule, and I've been eating some of that up."

The problem has been in the software for the aircraft brake control and monitoring system, which was developed by Crane Co as a subcontractor to GE subsidiary Smiths Aerospace. Shanahan said that the problems were not so much that the software was not functioning but that Crane had to trace back some issues and make small rewrites to the software as part of the certification process and added that he was confident that Smiths and Crane would resolve the issues soon.

Shanahan also gave an update on the current state of tests which the aircraft has been going through since passing the ‘power-on' milestone in June. "We are currently in the build-verification testing process, which validates electronics and hardware on the airplane to make sure they are functioning properly," he said. "Things will really get exciting when we fuel the airplane and start the engines and APU for the first time. After that, we'll move forward into gauntlet testing, which is a series of ground-based tests where we trick the airplane's systems into thinking that it is airborne. Then we'll conduct taxi tests and the airplane will take to the skies."

The first 787, ZA001, is due to fly in early November, with first deliveries for launch customer All Nippon Airways due in the second quarter of 2009. As of July 15, Boeing was holding 896 firm orders for the 787.

* MIDDLE EAST DOMINATES ORDERS: With US and European airlines cutting back aircraft, it was little surprise that airlines and lessors in the Middle East again dominated the order book at Farnborough.

The crown for biggest order went to Etihad Airways, which announced major orders with both Boeing and Airbus worth US$43bn (A$44bn) covering Boeing 787s, 777s and Airbus A320s, A350s and A380s, to be delivered from 2011 to 2020.

As well as the order from Etihad, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise also featured prominently, firming up an order for 70 Airbus A320s and 30 A350s that it announced at last October's Dubai Airshow. DAE also announced that it would buy the 10 Boeing 747-8Fs and eight 777Fs Emirates has on order through a purchase/leaseback agreement.

Qatar Airways, which in recent years has placed major orders from both manufacturers, had a more low key airshow, with only an order for five A321s.

The large orders placed by Middle East carriers and lessors has led to some speculation that the current capacity boom in the region is something of a bubble, particularly given that the fast expanding Qatar, Emirates and Etihad are all in close proximity to each other, and are coming at a time when world economic growth is slowing. However, the outlook from a number of airlines in the Gulf remains positive, thanks to the strong growth in the petroleum industry in the region.

* PRATT LOOKS TO BIGGER, PURE POWER FROM GTF: Pratt & Whitney has renamed its Geared Turbofan (GTF) as the PurePower PW1000G, and also confirmed that it has been approached about building a larger version of the engine for the widebody market.

Pratt test flew the PW1000G on its Boeing 747SP testbed for the first time on July 11. The engine will accumulate 40 hours of flying testing on the 747SP before it is shipped to Airbus for further trials on an A340-600 for a further 75 hours of testing during the fourth quarter of the year. According to various sources, the PW1000G has performed well so far in testing.

Pratt has also added the smaller PW800 business jet engine to its PurePower range, and has signed an agreement with Volvo Aero which will see the Swedish company take responsibility for the for the intermediate case and the turbine exhaust case and production of the turbine exhaust case for the PW1000G.

* ATR EXPECTS STRONG MARKET DESPITE RECENT SOFTENING: ATR CEO Stephane Mayer said in a press conference on July 14 that while the company was experiencing some softness in the turboprop market, it expected to reach some major milestones in the second half of the year.

ATR sold only eight aircraft during the first half of the year, comprising two ATR 42s and six ATR 72s, mostly to existing customers including Air Tahiti and Lao Airlines.

“While the first semester has been characterised by a slowing economy, high pressure on airlines' costs and rocketing fuel prices, there is strong growth potential in the regional market,” said Mayer. “There is an expected demand for 2900 turboprops in the next 20 years, and an estimated annual passenger traffic growth around eight per cent. We strongly believe that the fundamental reasons of ATR's success are long term, and that our capacity to provide aircraft that feature the most updated technology, the lowest operating costs and the highest environmental-friendliness of the regional aviation will sustain our success.”

ATR is hopeful of winning an order from Air New Zealand to replace the ATR 72-500s currently operated by Mount Cook Airlines, for which it is competing against the Bombardier Q400 and Embraer's E-Jet line. ATR has offered the newer -600 series of turboprops, which will enter service in 2010 and feature an updates Thales cockpit and newer Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127 engines.

Farnborough briefs - Commercial

* Mitsubishi Aircraft says that it will freeze the design of the new 70 and 96 seater Mitsubishi Regional Jet family in the third quarter of 2009.

* Nigeria's Arik Air announced its intention to become the second customer for the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental, but was still settling the terms of purchase at the Farnborough Airshow.

* Bombardier has firmed up arrangements with the UK and Canadian governments to assist with finance for the recently launched CSeries.

* ATR announced that it will open a new training centre in Kuala Lumpur to offer simulator training for a number of customers in southeast Asia. Firefly, which is soon to take delivery of its first ATR 72s, will cooperate with ATR on the centre.

* GE and Safran, which currently partner to produce the CFM56 engine for Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s, will set up a joint venture to develop and produce nacelles for the next generation of narrowbody aircraft.

* Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker says that the airline is still interested in ordering the Bombardier CSeries to provide high frequency on thin routes in the Middle East. Qatar was expected to be the launch customer for the CSeries after strong backing of the type, but that has now fallen to Lufthansa, which signed a letter of intent for 30 aircraft before the Airshow.

* EASA has granted approval for the Airbus/Sita OnAir mobile telephony system to be fitted to Airbus A320 family of aircraft.

FARNBOROUGH NEWS - MILITARY

* BOEING CHIEF TO VISIT AUSTRALIA? Boeing Company chairman, president and CEO Jim McNerney has indicated his plans to visit Australia later this year.

 “As you know we have some program execution issues I'm not 100 per cent happy with,” McNerney told a small group of journalists at the Farnborough Airshow on July 16, in a reference to the company's Australian operations struggling with a number of defence projects, including Wedgetail, JP129 (Army tactical UAVs) and the RAAF's Vigilaire command and control network.

“But I'm very pleased with the quality of the people and the leadership down there and I hope to visit sometime this year and spend some time assessing myself personally. But over the years it has been a source of strength for the company, and I want to find a way to keep it that way.”

Boeing's Australian subsidiaries Boeing Australia and Hawker de Havilland represent the company's largest international presence outside of the USA.

Alenia Aermacchi will likely offer the M-311 against Air 5428. (Alenia)

* ALENIA CONFIRMS RAAF TRAINER INTEREST:  Alenia Aermacchi CEO Carmelo Cosentino has confirmed his company's interest in bidding for the RAAF's forthcoming PC-9 trainer replacement program.

“In Australia, as for today, we (are) work(ing) on their requirement of the mid phase, (with) the M-311, for the basic training, because we know that today they have a requirement to replace (PC-9s),” Consentino told a Farnborough Airshow press conference on July 16.

“I also know potentially later on they will be interested to have a trainer for the upper segment, and of course we believe that the M-346, especially in potential combination with the M-311, may give the customer a lot of synergies,” he said of longer term prospects to replace the RAAF's Hawk lead-in fighter trainers.

“Yes, we are very much interested.”

The RAAF aims to replace its current pilot training system, centred on contractor operated CT-4s and the PC-9s of 2FTS, under project Air 5428 (Pilot Training System), with replacement aircraft due to enter service from 2013.

* MORE JSF ENGINE WORK FOR OZ COMPANIES: Pratt & Whitney has announced it has awarded further JSF F135 engine work to Australian companies, Levett Engineering and Production Parts.

Adelaide based Levett Engineering has been tasked to manufacture second and third stage turbine vane transfer tubes and covers which provide cooling air to the turbine discs and blades on all variants of the F135 engine, with a contract valued at up to US$23m (A$23.6m) over the life of the F-35 program.

Meanwhile, Production Parts has been awarded an up to US$90m (A$92m) contract to provide bearing covers for the No 5 bearing compartment of the F135 engine after the company's first inspection article was approved by P&W.

Meanwhile, Melbourne based Metaltec Precision International has been awarded a US$2m (A$2.03m) contract to manufacture assembly tooling for the rival F136 engine which is being developed by GE and Rolls-Royce.

* EX-RAN SEASPRITES UP FOR SALE: Kaman is now actively marketing the 11 former Australian SH-2G(A) Super Seasprites built for the RAN after Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon cancelled the project earlier this year.

Now dubbed SH-2G(I), Kaman is offering a rapid response delivery package including the aircraft and a complete logistics and training package “as soon as contracting will allow.”

“This is a great opportunity for a nation, or nations, to obtain a readily available, cost-effective, and incredibly capable multi-mission aircraft,” Kaman Helicopters President Sal Bordonaro said in a statement.

“Numerous maritime countries expressed individual interest in a portion of these SH-2G(I)s,” added Mark Tattershall, Kaman's director for marketing and business development after a “very positive” survey of various embassies in Washington DC. “Kaman would prefer a single integrated fleet or regional procurement. These aircraft are backed up with a moving base simulator and a complete integrated logistics support package to sustain 11 aircraft.”

Farnborough briefs - Military

* The F-35 JSF's P&W F135 engine exceeded 10,000 hours of System Development and Demonstration (SDD) ground testing in early July, a major milestone in the engine's test program.

* The GE/Rolls-Royce F136 engine for the F-35 JSF program successfully completed a series of short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) tests at GE's test facility in Ohio in early July. The engine, an alternative to P&W's F135, was put through a variety of tests designed to test all possible flight configurations for the F-36B STOVL variant, as well as the engine's advanced controls architecture.

* Raytheon says it has completed a series of captive carriage tests of the powered variant of the AGM-154 JSOW, dubbed JSOW-ER. The new variant sees the addition of a small Hamilton Sundstrand turbojet to the JSOW glide bomb airframe, giving the weapon a range of more than 500km. Free flight trials are expected to be conducted next year.

* Rolls-Royce Turbomeca announced that New Zealand and Belgium have chosen the RTM322 engine to power their NH90 helicopters they have on order, making the RTM322 the engine of choice for 12 of the 14 NH90 operators.

* Boeing and Finmeccanica have signed a joint manufacturing agreement for the CH-47F Chinook for the Italian army. Finmeccanica subsidiary AgustaWestland will be responsible for the design and systems integration, and delivery of the aircraft, while Boeing will manufacture the airframes at its Philadelphia facility. The agreement also allows AgustaWestland to market the CH-47F to the UK and other European countries.

* General Atomics has successfully completed a series of performance flight tests of its new Lynx II radar for the US Army's ER/MP Sky Warrior UAV program. The Lynx II is a synthetic aperture radar with ground moving target indicator (SAR/ GMTI) modes.

* Singapore has further shortlisted the Aermacchi M-346 and the KAI/Lockheed Martin T-50 for its advanced jet trainer competition, eliminating the BAE Hawk 128 in the process. A decision on the successful bidder is due in mid 2009.

* The US Navy has reportedly approved a US$150m (A$154m) development program for a spiral upgrade package for its forthcoming Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime reconnaissance aircraft. The spiral 1 package should be available from 2015, while the basic P-8A is due to enter service from 2013.

FARNBOROUGH SALES

* FlyDubai, the new Dubai based low cost carrier, has ordered 50 Boeing 737-800s.

* Lessor Aviation Capital Group has ordered an additional 15 Boeing 737-700s

* Malaysia Airlines has confirmed an order for 35 Boeing 737-800s and options on a further 20 737s.

* Arik Air has ordered seven Boeing 737s. The specific model was not announced.

* Air China has ordered 15 Boeing 777-300ERs and 30 737-800s.

* Etihad Airways has ordered 35 Boeing 787-9s and 10 777-300ERs. The airline has also taken options for 25 787s and 10 777s with further purchase rights of 10 and five respectively.

* Etihad has also ordered 20 Airbus A320s, 25 A350s and 10 A380s. The new A380 order effectively cancels the previous order for four aircraft which were to have been refurbished test aircraft.

* Saudi Arabian Airlines has ordered eight Airbus A330-300s.

* Asiana Airlines has ordered 30 Airbus A350s.

* Synergy Aerospace has ordered 10 Airbus A350-800s. Synergy is the major shareholder in three South American airlines including Avianca and Oceanair.

* Aeroflot ordered five Airbus A321s.

* Tunisair has ordered three Airbus A350-800s, three A330-200s and ten A320s

* An unidentified European regional airline has helped boost the Sukhoi SuperJet 100 with an order for 20 of the type. Sukhoi has also sold five aircraft to Swiss lessor Asset Management Advisor.

* Porter Airlines of Canada has firmed two options on Bombardier Q400s.

* Independent Yemeni carrier Felix Airways ordered eight Bombardier CRJ700s.

* Aeromexico has ordered 12 Embraer 190s and has taken 15 options.

* Niki from Austria has ordered five Embraer E-190s

* Saudi Arabia's NAS has ordered five Embraer E-190s.

COMMERCIAL

The 777F makes its first flight. (Boeing)

* 777 FREIGHTER FLIES: The first Boeing 777 Freighter took to the skies on July 14, completing a number of tests during its three and a half hour flight from Paine Field, Everett.

“The 777 Freighter completed the scheduled three hour inaugural flight with no airplane performance-related issues," said Dennis O'Donoghue, Boeing's vice president of flight operations, test & validation. "The only issue was a data-communication problem between the airplane and the telemetry room at Boeing Field."

The communication issue prevented the 777 from completing its full set of tests and it was forced to return to Paine Field instead of landing at Boeing Field in Seattle.

For its first flight, the aircraft was piloted by Boeing's chief pilot Suzanna Darcy-Hennemann and 777 deputy chief pilot Van Chaney, and the aircraft reached an altitude of 18,000ft and a speed of 270kt.

Boeing is due to deliver the first 777 Freighter to launch custom Air France Cargo later this year. Since launch, 78 777Fs have been sold.

MILITARY

* LITENING POD DATALINKS DELIVERED: Northrop Grumman has delivered the first batch of Plug and Play II datalinks to the US Marine Corps for use in Litening AT and G4 targeting pods on its F/A-18 Hornets and AV-8B Harrier IIs.

The company says Plug and Play II provides “increased range, state-of-the-art digital data recording and an option to incorporate secure, two-way communications over ultra-high frequency (UHF) radios without the need for aircraft modifications.”

“With the Plug and Play II, warfighters have many options to customise their datalink, including incorporation of advanced data recording for intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance, increased on-board computing to host user-defined networking applications, and the ability to enable secure communication of data and imagery through the addition of user-selected UHF radios,” Northrop Grumman's vice president of Targeting and Surveillance programs, Mike Lennon, said in a statement. “All of these capabilities and options enable our users to tailor the configuration of their datalink to their mission.”

The new datalink has also been ordered by the USAF, the Italian and Spanish navies, the Royal Netherlands Air Force, and by the RAAF for use on Litening AT pods recently introduced onto the F/A-18A/B Hornet fleet. “The RAAF will acquire a Plug and Play II datalink capability under Hornet Upgrade Phase 2.4,” an ADF spokesman told ‘Australian Aviation'. “The RAAF version will be a one-way datalink (air to ground).”

The datalink capability was believed to be a major factor in the RAAF choosing the Litening AT over the rival ATFLIR and Sniper XT to replace the Hornet's older AAS-38 NITE Hawk pods, and no issues with integrating the datalinks are expected. “Integration of the capability onto RAAF aircraft is relatively simple,” the spokesman added. “The RAAF Litening AT pods were purchased with the appropriate antennas for this datalink, and no changes to the aircraft are required to enable the capability. Although some test and evaluation is required to demonstrate operation with RAAF aircraft and equipment, the capability is essentially proven Military Off-The-Shelf.”

The datalinks should be operational on the RAAF's Hornet fleet by the first quarter of 2009.

Military briefs

* Northrop Grumman has begun production of the fuselage section of the RAAF's first F/A-18F Super Hornet. The first bulkhead components were loaded into place on July 10 on Northrop Grumman's F/A-18 assembly line in El Segundo in Los Angeles. The company builds the centre and rear fuselage sections of the Super Hornet as a sub contractor to Boeing.

* Richmond based 37SQN has celebrated its 65th anniversary since it was formed on July 15 1943. The unit currently operates 12 C-130J and 12 C-130H Hercules and, along with former C-130H unit 36SQN, has had at least two aircraft continuously deployed to the Middle East since February 2003.

* The plight of former F-111 maintenance workers known as the ‘goop troop' will finally be heard after the commencement of a parliamentary inquiry on July 21 into the F-111 deseal/reseal program which left hundreds of workers ill and increased cancer rates amongst workers and their families. The inquiry has received 84 submissions and is due to move to Brisbane next week, while its findings are due to handed down in a report by October 23.

* The first group of students have commenced training on the Republic of Singapore Air Force's (RSAF) new Basic Wings Course (BWC) at RAAF Pearce in WA. Lockheed Martin in conjunction with Hawker Pacific has a 20 year contract to conduct the course using courseware, synthetic training devices and a fleet of Pilatus PC-21 turboprop trainers for the RSAF's 130SQN based at Pearce.

* The RNZAF's first C-130 Hercules to be upgraded by L-3 Comm Spar has completed a series of test flights at L-3's facility in Canada. L-3 says the upgrade, which includes new wing spars, a major rewire, new navigation and communications systems and a cockpit upgrade is “the most comprehensive modernisation project ever undertaken on a C-130 worldwide.”

* The first Boeing 737-700 based Peace Eagle AEW&C aircraft for Turkey made its first flight in Seattle on July 16. The Peace Eagle is similar to the Wedgetail AEW&C aircraft currently under development for the RAAF.

AIRLINES

* QANTAS TO CUT STAFF: Qantas will cut up to 1500 jobs and retire 22 aircraft in order to combat the high price of fuel, CEO Geoff Dixon announced on July 18.

The restructuring will include the loss of up to 1500 jobs, with the majority coming from administrative and non-operational areas, including over 20 per cent of its managerial positions. Approximately 100 jobs will be lost from overseas as the airline closes its London and Tucson call centres.  Further, plans to hire an additional 1200 staff to allow for growth have been cancelled,

“Acting now, on top of the measures already taken, will protect our competitive position, protect the great majority of over 36,000 jobs and enable us to grow profitably when conditions improve,” said Dixon, who said planned capacity growth of eight per cent for 2008/09 will be cut to zero.

The airline is also putting on a recruitment and executive salary freeze, which will also include the 75 pilots which Jetstar was planning to hire on skilled worker visas. Jetstar would also close its base in Adelaide by the end of August but continue to serve the city from its bases in Darwin and Sydney. This has required the airline to adjust the timing of some of its services through Adelaide.

Qantas will also retire 22 older aircraft as it prepares to take delivery of its first Airbus A380s later this year and Boeing 787s later on.

* QANTAS SETTLES PILOT & ENGINEERING CONTRACTS: At the same time it announced the major workforce cuts, Qantas also announced that its long haul pilots' and engineers' enterprise bargaining agreements had been settled with their respective unions.

While it did not release any details of the in-principle agreement with the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association, Qantas says that the union has agreed to end its industrial action. However, the airline has warned that it will take some weeks for it to return to a normal schedule.

Qantas was more forthcoming about its negotiations with the Australian International Pilots Association. “Under this new agreement, the difference between the three per cent per annum wage increase and CPI, along with a proportion of overtime payments, will be paid out in a similar way to executive bonuses,” airline CEO Geoff Dixon said. “The new agreement offers greater flexibility for both Qantas and its pilots. It finalises the pay arrangements for the launch of the A380 aircraft later this year, with multiple pay rates rationalised and new rules on career progression that will reduce the cost of training associated with pilots moving between aircraft types.”

Both EBAs will still need to be voted on by the respective unions' members.

* VIRGIN BLUE INTRODUCES BAGGAGE CHARGES, CUTS AIRCRAFT: Virgin Blue will start charging for checked baggage on its lowest fares, raise its fully flexible fares, and will withdraw and delay more aircraft as it seeks to mitigate effects of the high fuel price and softening demand.

But the good news for passengers is that the airline will cut its lead in fares by up to $20 on some routes with the addition of new ‘Go Fares!' to its inventory. The new fares will be available from August 18. Virgin will also raise its fully flexible fares by up to five per cent.

“We have endeavoured to seek a reasoned and balanced approach to recover costs associated with current punitive fuel prices and the direct effects on our business,” said chief executive Brett Godfrey. “The necessary introduction of baggage fees and the reduction of our lowest fares for our price sensitive guests is anticipated to yield both improved demand levels and revenue.”

Virgin Blue will now charge a flat $8 fee for checked baggage up to 23kg for passengers travelling on its new ‘Go Fare!' and ‘Blue Saver' fares when the option is purchased online, or a $20 fee at the airport. Silver and gold Velocity members will be exempt from the charges.

Godfrey also announced that the airline would take a further two Boeing 737-800s out of revenue service by October, resulting in reductions on some routes and representing a three per cent cut in domestic capacity, and has deferred deliveries on five Embraer aircraft due during 2009 which will remove the equivalent of a further three per cent capacity.

However, Virgin says that the capacity cuts will not result in any redundancies at Virgin Blue or Pacific Blue.

* OVER 250 SUBMISSIONS RECEIVED FOR NATIONAL AVIATION POLICY: The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government has received over 250 submissions from a number of different individuals and organisations related to the proposed national aviation policy green paper.

“I am greatly encouraged by the constructive contribution all sections of the industry and the broader community have made to this important policy development process and the quality of the submissions received,” said Transport Minister Anthony Albanese in a statement.

“Amongst all the submissions there is a widespread acknowledgement that if Australia is to continue benefiting from the economic and social advantages of air travel then we need to start planning now - the previous short term, ad-hoc, problem by problem approach is longer tenable.”

Airline briefs

* Compared to the previous year, there was an 8.3 per cent rise in domestic passenger movements to 4.06 million during May, according to the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport & Regional Economics. RPKs increased by 10.4 per cent to 4.6 billion, although a 13 per cent rise in ASKs led to a decline in load factors of 1.8 points to 73.3 per cent.

* British Airways has become the first airline to launch an application for the Apple iPhone which will allow iPhone users to view schedules, access real time arrival and departure information and book flights. The application is available free to iPhone users through the applications store.

* Jetstar CEO Alan Joyce has won the Airline Business Low Cost Leadership Award at the Aviation Strategy Awards in London on July 14. Lufthansa CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber took out the award for Executive Leadership while IATA chief Giovanni Bisignani was given the Airlines Business Lifetime Achievement award.

* American Airlines will retire its A300-600 fleet by the end of the year instead of its previously announced date of 2012. AA flies 34 A300-600s, mostly on domestic and Caribbean routes.

ENVIRONMENT

* QANTAS NOT HAPPY WITH ETS: Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon says that domestic and regional air services will be affected by the federal government's decision to include these services in its proposed emissions trading scheme.

"Domestic aviation, including regional aviation, will be quite severely affected,” said Dixon when asked about the ETS during a press conference on July 18. "We can't absorb a $100 million cost, which is the price analysts are saying would be for Qantas. We would have to put that cost back onto our domestic operations.”

"We will be making that very claim to the government and I think that could have a bigger effect than what we're doing here now."

The federal government released its green paper on the proposed ETS only two weeks after the Garnaut Report, identified aviation as a “trade affected, high intensity” industry. As such, airlines would be eligible for a rebate on their carbon permits, but would still be forced to purchase additional permits from other businesses for emissions above their cap.

Environment briefs

* A specially equipped BAe 146 is being used on a month-long assignment in Sabah, Malaysia for research into determining how emissions from vegetation in the pristine protected rain forest impacts upon the concentration of ozone and methane in the atmosphere. The research involves flying the aircraft at various altitudes and measuring the concentrations of the gasses.

AIRPORTS

* SYDNEY TRANSPORT LINKS SLAMMED: Sydney Airports Corporation Limited (SACL) has blasted the New South Wales state government for not providing sufficient public transport to Sydney Airport.

The criticism came in SACL's submission to the National Aviation Policy. “It is clear that the public transport infrastructure and services provided to access Sydney Airport are well below international standards for major world airports,” the company said in its submission, citing the high cost of the Airport Link train service and the fact that only one public bus route serves the airport, as well as the need to upgrade roads into the airport.

The airport called for the NSW government to encourage growth and development in the wider airport precinct, which would provide for more infrastructure links to the airport, as well as increased spending in conjunction with the federal government to develop a stronger ground transport strategy.

But NSW Transport Minister John Watkins rejected the criticism, saying that there were eight high-frequency bus services and a number of train services, however the pricing of these train services was outside of the state's control as Airport Link was privately operated.

He also called for SACL to involve itself in promoting more public transport, saying to the ABC, "You'd hope that public transport just isn't the burden of the state government and the taxpayers, that perhaps the owner of the airport could also play a greater role."

Airport briefs

* Sydney Airport reported earnings before interest, tax, debt and amortisation of $318.6 million for the second half of the 2007/08 financial year. The profit figure represents a rise of 9.2 per cent on the previous year, but the airport has warned that softening demand could reduce profits during the current financial year.

* Perth Airport has started construction of the apron of the new Terminal WA which is due to open in 2010. A sod turning ceremony attended by WA Premier Alan Carpenter was held at the site on July 13. You can read more about Perth Airport's expansion plans in the August issue of ‘Australian Aviation'.

GENERAL AVIATION

Health Minister Nicola Roxon with RFDS officials at the naming ceremony for ‘Mike Victor Whiskey'. (Andrew McLaughlin

* RFDS TAKES NEW KING AIR WITH MODULAR INTERIOR: The Royal Flying Doctor Service has formally taken delivery of a new Beechcraft King Air B200B fitted with a new modular interior and powered cargo door designed to improve the loading and unloading of patients from the aircraft.

‘Mike Victor Whiskey' was officially named ‘RFDS Friends' by federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon, and was unveiled to sponsors, donors and media at a ceremony at Hawker Pacific's Sydney Airport FBO facility on July 16. The aircraft's interior was designed by Narellan, NSW based Total Aerospace Solutions and features a modular, pre-manufactured interior that requires far fewer structural modifications to be made to the aircraft, and a hydraulically operated cargo door and patient lift which allows stretcher litters to be lifted out of the aircraft and straight into a waiting ambulance.

“Modifying an aircraft to make it suitable for use as a flying intensive care unit has always been a long and complex process,” explained RFDS business manager Alan Tippett. “This new design is far less invasive… and dramatically cuts down installation time and has the added advantage that it is easily removed when it comes time to sell the aircraft.”

The new interior will be fitted to all new aircraft on current and future order for the RFDS, as well as to some of the service's newer in-service aircraft as they come up for maintenance.

* HAWKER MAKES BIG BELL BUY: Hawker Pacific, the local agent for Bell Helicopters Textron, has placed a large order with the US manufacturer for 12 407s and two 206B3s.

"Strong growth in the Oceania market ranges from aviation logistics support in Papua New Guinea, aerial support of mining operations in New Caledonia and corporate/private operators in Australia/New Zealand," said Hawker Pacific CEO Alan Smith. "Feedback from customers indicates that the Bell 407 is a strong performer at altitude, with excellent reliability and ease of maintenance. Hawker Pacific estimates that helicopter growth in this region will continue due to increasing demands for energy resources, emergency medical services and logistics support services."

Hawker Pacific has represented Bell Helicopters in Australia and Papua New Guinea since January 2004. The company also represents the helicopter manufacturer in a number of key Middle Eastern countries and is an approved Customer Service Facility for Bell in New Zealand.

CARGO

* The New Zealand Commerce Commission has filed criminal charges against Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and AeroLíneas Argentinas for not providing information it sought from the carriers during an investigation into a global air cargo cartel. Each of the airlines faces a NZ$30,000 (A$23,400) fine.

* AerCap has become the launch customer for the Airbus A320/A321 ‘passenger to freighter' (P2F), with an order for 30 aircraft. The aircraft will come from AerCap's existing fleet of A320s, and first conversion will be completed by 2011.

MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT & TRAINING

* Boeing's training subsidiary Alteon has announced that it will place a Boeing 787 simulator at its Miami, Florida training centre to cater for the Latin American market. The simulator will become operational in March 2010.

AIR SAFETY

* FAA ISSUES MANDATE FOR FUEL TANK FIRE RETARDANT: The US FAA has issued an airworthiness directive which will make it mandatory for US airlines to retrofit fire inerting equipment to the fuel tanks of airliners built after 1990 fitted with a centre fuel tank.

The rule was issued on the 12th anniversary of the TWA 800 disaster, which was blamed on an explosion of fumes in the aircraft's centre tank. A similar explosion occurred on a Thai Airways Boeing 737-400 while on the ground in Bangkok in March 2001.

“We want to do everything possible to make sure safety examiners won't have to investigate another plane shattered by an exploding tank,” said US Transport Secretary Mary Peters. “We can't change the past, but we can make the future safer for thousands of air travellers, and this rule does just that.”

Installing the fire inerting equipment is expected to cost between US$92,000-$311,000 per aircraft (A$94,670-$320,025), with approximately 2730 aircraft, including aircraft across Boeing's model range as well as Airbus A320s and A330s requiring the retrofit.

“I recognise that this is a challenging time for commercial aviation,” Secretary Peters said. “But there is no doubt that another crash like TWA 800 would pose a far greater challenge.”

PEOPLE

* Former Thales Australia VP for sales & marketing, David Harvey, has been appointed as the new general manager of John Holland's Services business, taking over from Andrew Henderson, who moves to the position of general manager, John Holland Aviation Services.

* Former tobacco executive Paul Rayner has been appointed to fill a casual vacancy on the Qantas board, chairman Leigh Clifford announced on July 16.