Transport ministry suspends air controller for 3 months

The transport ministry announced Friday it has suspended a 56-year-old male chief controller at Tokyo's Haneda airport for three months for posting a flight plan for the U.S. presidential aircraft, Air Force One, and other internal information on his private blog.

The controller started his blog in 2001 and posted 192 pictures taken at his workplace, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

Five of the pictures showed flight plans screened on a monitor, including the flight plan for U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Japan last November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum held in Yokohama.

Another showed the flight plan of a U.S. Global Hawk unmanned surveillance aircraft that flew around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex shortly after the plant was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

After finding sensitive information had been leaked that way, the ministry decided to designate flight plans for foreign government aircraft as top classified data and take other security measures.

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Air security grading for passengers

AIR passengers would be separated into three boarding queues based on the security risk they pose as part of a controversial shake-up proposed by airlines to speed up the time it takes to get on a plane.

The International Air Transport Association, which represents the world’s biggest airlines, called for lengthy boarding procedures to be overhauled, claiming existing biometric scanning equipment could be used within two years to ensure passengers could pass through security checks without removing clothes or baggage.

Frequent flyers – or “known travellers” – who have undergone background checks with government authorities would be fast-tracked and the majority of passengers would pass through “normal screening”, IATA said, with a minority of passengers deemed to present an elevated risk subjected to lengthier scans.

Its proposals are likely to be tested initially in the United States, but will be closely followed in the UK where Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has promised an overhaul of boarding procedures.

Speaking at its annual conference in Singapore, IATA’s director-general Giovanni Bisignani said airport checkpoints should do away with strip searches, unpacking and pat-downs.

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India, China to see strongest boom in air transport volumes

Worldwide air transport volumes are set to double within 15 years, given the average annual growth of 4.5%, and by the year 2050 they will have increased six-fold, to around 3 billion tonne-kilometres transported. The strongest boom in the sector is expected to be in Asia – particularly India and Ch
ina – as well as in the Middle East.

The Middle East is set to witness a rapid expansion in air travel including a very fast increase in the size of the fleet serving the region, driven by its major hub carriers (Emirates Airlines, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways), Fadi Majdalani, Partner with Booz & Company said.

The report added that currently, air transport accounts for just 2% of global CO2 emissions. However, given the expected advances in technology and the forecast rates of growth, this share is set to increase disproportionately over the decades ahead.

Despite significant technological innovations with new types of aircraft, it is particularly the long working life of aircraft (between 30 to 40 years), which means that improvements in efficiency only gradually take effect over the entire international fleet.

As a result, the presumption is for a 3% year-to-year increase in worldwide CO2 emissions from aviation. This would increase CO2 emissions from this transport sector more than three-fold by 2050, despite the assumed efficiency improvements.

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French Transport Ministry: Optimistic Outlook On Ash Cloud

France's transport ministry on Tuesday said volcanic ash from Iceland is unlikely to cause major disruptions to flights over the country and it plans to keep the country's airspace open.

As information stands right now, there is no plan to close any part of French airspace, the ministry said.

"Untill now," it said, the ash has been carried by winds that have avoided France.

"The outlook for the coming days is optimistic," it said, adding that French airspace "should be concerned in a very marginal way by the volcanic ash."

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Volcanic ash cloud fears send airline shares plunging

Airline shares fell on Monday, amid fears of potential disruption to flights caused by the dense ash cloud from an erupting Icelandic volcano.
Britain's Met Office is predicting the plume of ash from the Grimsvotn volcano would cover the Irish Republic, Northern Ireland, Scotland and parts of northern Britain by 6am on Tuesday.

Airline shares across Europe fell between 3pc and 5pc, with IAG, owner of British Airways and Iberia, down 5.09pc to 235p and Easyjet falling 4.85pc to 345.1p in London, while, in Dublin, Ryanair tumbled 5.30pc to €3.36.

Last year, ash from an Icelandic volcano caused 100,000 flights to be cancelled, disrupting 10 million passengers and costing the industry an estimated $1.7bn in lost revenues.

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Govt to draft master plan to improve air transport

The government will complete drafting a master plan for the development of airports within a fortnight.

With the growth of the air transport industry, the Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation (MADC) will formulate a policy to upgrade the infrastructure at airports.

The draft would include a perspective development plan for the next 20 years, said Nandkumar Jantre, vice- chairman and managing director of MADC. The official added that one of the objectives of the policy would be to provide airports with the infrastructure to handle increased traffic volume.

MADC has identified 29 potential sites for the development of new or upgraded airports. Some of the sites where new airports have been planned are Navi Mumbai, Amravati, Jalgaon, Solapur, Shirdi, Rajgurunagar near Pune and Chippi-Parule in Sindhudurg district. Jantre told TOI that they would decide on which project to take up first. The plan will not only talk about the various financial models that can be used, but it will also examine the techno-economic feasibility of setting up new airports near some of the established ones.

Another important focus area of the master plan will be to suggest guidelines for the improvement of customer facilities at airports, besides measures for flyers' security.

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Air Transport Services Group expects first-quarter earnings below market forecast

Air Transport Services Group Inc. said it has arranged for a new, $325 million line of credit to provide capital for business growth, but expects to report a non-cash charge of $6.8 million, or 7 cents per share, against first-quarter earnings to terminate its current credit facility early.

Maintenance that kept some aircraft out of service reduced revenues and increased operating costs above budgeted levels, ATSG said. That will reduce earnings by 3 cents per share for the three months ended March 31, management said.

ATSG said it expects to report net earnings of 3 or 4 cents per share on May 10, prior to the market’s opening and its annual meeting of shareholders later that day. That would fall well short of the 16 cents per share earnings forecast by industry analysts surveyed by Yahoo! Finance.

The Wilmington-based company owns the freight airline ABX Air and provides aircraft leasing, air cargo transport and aircraft maintenance services. ATSG said it expects to place an additional nine Boeing 767 freighter airplanes into service this year, expanding its fleet of those aircraft to 39.

SunTrust, Regions Bank and JPMorgan Chase are the lead banks in the consortium providing ATSG’s new line of credit, management said. It will replace ATSG’s current line of credit that is to be terminated early

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Azerbaijan to continue improving transport

Azerbaijan is to continue investment in upgrading its transport system, President Ilham Aliyev said at the opening of a new road junction yesterday.
"The investment program for 2011 will be ratified in the coming days. This program envisages sufficient funds to develop the transport sector, which will help us modernize, improve and raise to the highest standards Azerbaijan's entire transportation system, both now and in the coming years," the president said.
He was speaking at the opening of a new road junction on the highway from Heydar Aliyev Airport to the settlement of Zagulba on the Absheron Peninsula.
"This bridge is no worse than bridges built in cities in the most developed countries of the world and may even be better, since the latest technology was used here," the president said.

world's biggest transport plane

The Antonov An-225 was designed for the Soviet space program as a replacement for the Myasishchev VM-T. Able to airlift the Energia rocket's boosters and the Buran space shuttle, its mission and objectives are almost identical to that of the United States' Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.
The An-225 first flew on 21 December 1988. The aircraft was on static display at the Paris Air Show in 1989 and it flew during the public days at the Farnborough air show in 1990. Two aircraft were ordered, but only one An-225 (tail number UR-82060) was finished. It can carry ultra-heavy and oversize freight, up to 250,000 kg (550,000 lb) internally, or 200,000 kg (440,000 lb) on the upper fuselage. Cargo on the upper fuselage can be 70 metres (230 ft) long.
A second An-225 was partially built during the late 1980s for the Soviet space program. The second An-225 included a rear cargo door and a redesigned tail with a single vertical stabilizer. It was planned to be more effective for cargo transportation. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the cancellation of the Buran space program, the lone operational An-225 was placed in storage in 1994.The six Ivchenko Progress engines were removed for use on An-124s, and the second uncompleted An-225 airframe was also stored. The first An-225 was later re-engined and put into service.
By 2000, the need for additional An-225 capacity had become apparent, so the decision was made in September 2006 to complete the second An-225. The second airframe was scheduled for completion around 2008, then delayed. By August 2009, the aircraft had not been completed and work had been abandoned.
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U.S. airline costs outpace revenues

U.S. airline costs outpaced rising revenue, labor productivity and efficiencies in the third quarter despite an improving financial system, the Air Transport Association said Thursday.

ATA, the trade group representing the major U.S. airlines, said carriers' expenses - measured by the "composite cost index" - rose 5 percent, to 209.8, in the third quarter compared with 2009's third quarter, exceeding the 1.2 percent increase in the U.S. shopper Price Index.

The composite airline cost index remains about 110 percent higher than its level of 100 in 2000, ATA economists told.

"The third-quarter results highlight the continued importance of offsetting the rising costs of doing business through operational efficiencies, productivity gains and diversification of revenue streams," told ATA Chief Economist John Heimlich. "Thanks to a strengthening economy and the continuing efforts of airlines to adapt to a volatile environment, the raise in costs did not stand in the way of profitability this (third) quarter.

Coffee spill diverts United Airlines flight, Transport Canada says

A United Airlines flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany, was diverted to Toronto this week after the pilot dumped a cup of coffee on the plane's communication's gear. The unwanted liquid triggered a series of emergency codes, including one for a hijacking, according to Transport Canada, the agency that regulates transportation in Canada.

"With the help of their company dispatch staff, the flight crew was confirmed the trouble to be a NAV(navigation)/communication issue and not a valid code 7500 (for a hijacking or unlawful interference)," Transport Canada said on its website.

Flight 940 at first was going to return to Chicago, but then diverted to Pearson International Airport in Toronto where it landed without incident around 10 p.m. Monday.

United had little to tell about the coffee spill that led to the diversion, and did not acknowledge that the caffeinated beverage had anything to do with it.

AirTran Airways Introduces Sale For Travel To All Of Airline's Destinations

Concerns have been raised that warning signs like high cholesterol are being seen in the young, laying the foundation for future health troubles.

But the research of more than 500 people found those with high cholesterol at 15 could normalise it by their mid-30s.

The Australian study is published in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Participants in the Australian research had levels of cholesterol and other blood fats measured in 1985 when they were aged 9, 12 or 15.

NTSB slaps American

Federal officials have banned American Airlines from an investigation into Wednesday’s runway overrun at Jackson Hole Airport after airline workers inappropriately accessed flight recorder information from the 757.

While en route to the National Transportation Safety Board’s recorder laboratory in Washington, D.C., American Airlines personnel diverted the digital flight information recorder and the cockpit voice recorder to Tulsa, Oklahoma, the NTSB announced Friday.

“During this incident investigation, the security Board learned that the recorders were flown to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where American Airlines technicians downloaded information from the [digital flight data recorder]; the [cockpit voice recorder] was not accessed by American,” NTSB officials told in a statement Friday.

Russia PM Putin scolds transport officials amid freeze

Mr Putin castigated government officials at a televised meeting, pointing to transport chaos and power cuts triggered by icy weather conditions.

More than 8,000 people got stuck at Moscow's Domodedovo airport because they had not been warned, he said.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled at Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo airports.

"There will be no holidays until a particular order is given. Everyone must be at work," he told cabinet ministers and regional governors.

"The situation is hard, but thankfully not catastrophic, and our task is to make sure it does not escalate to catastrophic levels," he said.

Air New Zealand, Virgin Blue Get Alliance Approval

New Zealand Transport Minister Steven Joyce gave the deal a green light, a week past Australia's competition regulator approved the alliance.

"More sustainable competition, cost savings and the commitment both airlines have made to maintain trans-Tasman traveler numbers will be major benefits of the alliance," Joyce said in a statement.

Joyce's approval applies for three years, the same time period agreed to by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The carriers will be allowed to coordinate costs, scheduling, capacity and routes for flights between Australia and New Zealand.

China drives growth in int'l air transport

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) in Geneva said on Dec. 14 that the focus of international air transport industry is moving east, and China has become the key driver for development in the industry.

Giovanni Bisignani, Director General of the International Air Transport Association said that the profit forecast of the international air transport industry in 2010 is 1.5 billion U.S. dollars with a net profit margin of 2.7 percent.

"More than half of the expected profit is from the Asia-Pacific region, which totaled 7.7 billion U.S. dollars, and China has made great contributions by continuing to increase earnings expectations this year," said Bisignani

Qantas repairs drip shields after mid-air failure

An aeroplane carrying more than 350 people made an emergency landing at Bangkok airport.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) released its last report today and found the aircraft lost electrical power because drip shields failed to stop overflowing water entering electrical equipment.

The water affected cabin lighting and the aeroplane's communication navigation, including autopilot.

Qantas was also advised to develop its maintenance process which failed to pick up on the equipment deteriorating.

Delta Air Lines CEO to Chair Air Transport Association Board

The Air Transport Association of America (ATA), the industry trade association representing the leading U.S. airlines, announced today that Delta Air Lines CEO Richard H. Anderson has been elected chairman of the ATA Board of Directors. Southwest Airlines Chairman of the Board, President and CEO Gary C. Kelly was named vice chairman.

"Richard Anderson is a best leader and a proven chief executive, with the necessary credentials to further propel the mission of ATA as it faces the challenges and priorities in this next Congress," said ATA President and CEO James C. May. "Richard Anderson, Gary Kelly and incoming ATA President and CEO Nick Calio will complement each other as the association's board representatives with the administration and the latest Congress."

"I look forward to working cooperatively with the administration, Congress and regulatory agencies to advance initiatives that support continued improvements in the financial health of the U.S. aviation industry and maintain our focus on safety," said Anderson. "Airlines are a vital industry in the U.S. and give 11 million jobs annually. Our association's focus is to move tax and regulatory oversight in a direction that fosters growth and makes us an even stronger economic engine for America."

Air transport group critical of Brazil's airports

Brazil's overburdened airports cannot meet demand and are a "growing disaster" that could embarrass the country during the upcoming Olympic games and World Cup if they aren't improved, the head of the world's top airline association said.

The language used by Giovanni Bisignani, CEO of the International Air Transport Association, to describe Brazil's overwhelmed airports at an industry conference Thursday was some of the harshest criticism yet leveled at the nation on the topic.

"Brazil is Latin America's largest and fastest growing economy but air transport infrastructure is a growing disaster," he told industry leaders at a meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association in Panama. The organization represents 230 airlines around the world.

"To avoid a national embarrassment, Brazil needs bigger and better facilities for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics," Bisignani said. "But I don't see progress and the clock is ticking. The time for debate is over."

Brazil's robust economic growth has resulted in increased demands on air travel. Thirteen of the country's 20 largest domestic airports cannot accommodate existing demand, and the situation is critical in Sao Paulo, South America's biggest international hub, Bisignani said.