SITA of Geneva and Servisair of Manchester, England, have formed a partnership to provide ground airport services on two continents. The partners will use SITA's common-user terminal equipment, departure control services product along with e-ticketing and web software to speed check-in at 30 locations in Europe and North America.
Lisa Savitt (see photos) has joined the litigation, international and aviation practice groups of law firm Akerman Senterfitt in its Washington office. Caryl Ben Basat has become a shareholder, in its Fort Lauderdale, Fla., office. Savitt was with Blank Rome. Ben Basat was of counsel in the aviation practice group of Greenberg Traurig's Miami office.
Alan Pellegrini has become Irvine, Calif.-based vice president/general manager of Thales's inflight entertainment business. He succeeds Brad Foreman, who has been promoted to president/ CEO of Thales's U.S. aerospace business.
Boeing has named Delta TechOps to provide airframe services for parts, inventory exchange and component repair as part of its KC-767 Advanced Tanker entry in the U.S. Air Force's KC-X competition. Delta operates one of the industry's biggest 767 fleets--104 aircraft. An engine support contract may be offered later.
Lufthansa looks set for a significant shift in strategy following last week's orders for Embraer and Bombardier CRJ regional jets. The airline placed an order for 30 Embraer 190 family and 15 Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft, intentionally leaving open whether it would opt for the 190 or 195 and the CRJ900 or CRJ1000 versions, respectively. But sources close to the company say Europe's second largest airline will go for the Embraer 195 seating up to 100 passengers and the recently launched CRJ1000 seating close to 100. Deliveries will start in late 2008.
EUROCONTROL REPORTS THAT 54% OF AIRCRAFT IN EUROPE were equipped with Mode-S extended squitter capability by October 2006, up from 38% in January 2006. This is the airborne equipment usually required for airline aircraft to transmit their GPS positions for ADS-B surveillance to work, as in Australia, which is implementing an ADS-B network nationwide. In China the percentage of flights able to broadcast Mode-S extended squitter ADS-B messages flying near the Hong Kong International Airport rose slightly to 34% in March 2006, from 32% in December 2005.
GB Airways is launch customer for the digital version of Rockwell Collins's dPAVES inflight entertainment system. The airline, which operates scheduled service as a British Airways franchise, will install the system on seven A320/A321s with an option for seven more.
With rates still falling, capacity plentiful and the number of uninsured failures rising, satellite operators are reducing their reliance on self-insurance, despite continued unhappiness with contract terms and conditions.
Each of the two private companies selected for the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program can expect $250 million from NASA if they meet their milestones (AW&ST Apr. 2, p. 78). In June 2006, before the contracts were awarded, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told a Senate committee that he considered the program to be a "big gamble." Before being one of the winners, Space X's Elon Musk was quoted as saying he worried that the amount offered would not be enough to produce success.
You can now register ONLINE for AVIATION WEEK Events. Go to www.aviationweek.com/conferences or call Lydia Janow at +1 (212) 904-3225/+1 (800) 240-7645 ext. 5 (U.S. and Canada Only) Oct. 17-18--MRO Asia, Shanghai. PARTNERSHIPS Apr. 30-May 2--RFID Journal Live, Orlando, Fla. Sept. 24-28--International Aeronautical Congress, Hyderabad, India. May 22-24--EBACE, Geneva. June 18-24--Paris air show. Sept. 19-22--Aviation Expo China, Beijing.
The hangover from a bad run of stormy winter weather is still affecting U.S. airlines, dampening what should have been a more emphatic return to first-quarter profitability for two of the major legacy carriers, and threatening full-year cost targets. American and Continental both eased back into the black for the first quarter, the first time either airline has managed this since 2000. In both cases the profit would undoubtedly have been larger if not for the series of storms in the first few months of the year.
South Korea will extend the deadline for bids to supply 20 fighters after the international industry failed to take seriously the supposed competition by the committed F-15 operator. With Boeing's F-15K such an obvious candidate, no proposals arrived from the other three companies that the Defense Ministry had named as potential bidders: Lockheed Martin, Dassault Aviation and EADS, representing Eurofighter. Only Boeing submitted a proposal.
All Nippon Airways is keeping an open mind on Airbus A380s and Boeing 747-8s, despite its current aim to streamline its fleet to just three smaller aircraft types. The company says it has been reviewing the policy since it announced in April 2003 that it planned eventually to operate only one small, one medium and one large type--a strategy that has since settled on Boeing 737s, 787s and 777s, including 777-300ERs that are replacing a declining fleet of 747s.
MARKET FOCUS Analysis shows defense stocks do well in presidential election years 11 NEWS BREAKS IATA determined to drive down world- wide accident rate by 25% by '08 15 Cessna displays latest Light Sport Aircraft and Next Generation Piston airplanes 16 Latest bid by AirTran going to Midwest stockholders 16 Australian expert on satellite navigation wins AW&ST's Pogue Award 17 Obituaries for ex-B&CA publisher and Virginia Tech aeronautics professor 18
Jehezkel (Hezzi) Grizim (see photo) has become corporate vice president/ general manager of Israel Aerospace Industries' Military Aircraft Group. He was general manager of the Airborne Early Warning Div. of subsidiary Elta Systems. Shaul Shahar (see photo) has been named general manager of the Tamam Div. of IAI's Systems, Missiles & Space Group. He was director of the Real Time Intelligence and Interpretation Centers Directorate at Elta Systems. Ilan Biton (see photo) has been appointed general manager of the Technologies Div.
Aerospace and defense, like many other sectors, has been buoyed by the advance of computer technology for decades. So does anyone think the party is over in terms of technical advances? Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates doesn't think so. In Beijing on Apr. 19, he spoke to Chinese officials about spreading computer technology to the masses. "I'm often asked: Is the technology revolution going to reach an end, the improvement in the chips and the software, will that start to slow down as we reach some limit?
Regulating arrivals at Chicago O'Hare Airport to avoid overscheduling flights, the FAA has a new name for slots--"arrival authorizations." Airlines still apply for an authorization at the agency's Chief Counsel Slot Administration Office, and the FAA has set a deadline of May 3 to sign up for next winter's international arrivals. That date coincides with the International Air Transport Assn.'s deadline to submit service proposals to its winter 2007 schedule coordination conference that covers Oct. 29, 2007-Mar. 29, 2008.
Rocketplane Kistler (RpK), which is working with NASA seed money to develop its K-1 launch vehicle under the U.S. agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation System (COTS) competition, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japan Manned Space Systems Corp. to support Japan-ese users of the International Space Station. The Japanese firm was established to provide the same services that RpK would provide to NASA if it is low bidder for COTS services, delivering cargo and perhaps crew to the ISS.
At least three more tests will be conducted on Agni-III, a 3,000-km.-range ballistic missile, according to a statement from India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). The Agni-III was successfully launched on Apr. 12. This followed an abortive attempt in July 2006; both took place at the test range at Wheeler Island near Balasore in the state of Orissa. The 48-ton Agni-III uses a two-stage solid-fuel system with a 1.5-ton payload.
With one of the tallest air traffic control towers in the world--and one of the most automated ATC systems with the latest in safety equipment--Bangkok's new airport is poised for the kind of rapid traffic growth expected in Asia during the next few decades.
Aircraft maker AleniaAermacchi has finally brought the M-346 to a point in its flight trials where the flight control laws start replicating the performance students will encounter.
Ryanair is calling on planning authorities to reject proposed plans for a second terminal at Dublin airport, describing the present design as a "gold plated waste." Michael O'Leary, the airline's combative CEO, says the plan is "in the wrong place, at the wrong cost with the wrong design." The carrier's opposition is being fueled by concerns about what effect the terminal's cost, estimated to be €800 million ($1.08 billion), will have on charges at the facility. O'Leary prefers that airport authorities revert to a plan unveiled in 2005 that would cost about €200 million.
CIT Aerospace of New York has ordered five 737-700s valued at $295 million, bringing its 737 backlog to 15. It also has five 787s on order and has received 31 737NGs.
Scientists who have been analyzing the terabyte-plus of data returned by the orbiting Gravity Probe-B experiment expect to deliver final results by the end of the year, stating once and for all whether Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity was right about a couple of key points. The $760-million NASA/ Stanford/Lockheed Martin spacecraft spent 50 weeks in 2004-05 using some of the most sophisticated instrumentation ever built to measure directly Einstein's predicted geodetic and frame-dragging effects (AW&ST Apr. 12, 2004, p. 50).
Qantas's credit rating probably will fall if a private bid for the airline succeeds, says Standard & Poor's. "The lowering of the rating will reflect the significant weakening in credit quality that will ensue under [the bidders'] ownership, given that the transaction will be substantially financed by debt and lead to a significant increase in the group's financial leverage," says the rating agency.
