Gatwick Gives

Gatwick Airport announced this last week £256 million in local benefits if it were allowed to build a second runway.

The airport on the border between Surrey and West Sussex is hoping to open a second runway by 2025 at a cost of £7 billion. The pledge would include spending £131 million on the compulsory purchase of homes, £46.5 million to subsidise new houses and £45 million to pay the council tax of 4,100 people blighted by noise. 

Other promises include improvements to the M23 and A23 and a £3.5 million scheme for 2,500 apprenticeships. Chief executive Stewart Wingate said: “We’ve listened to local people and have created £256 million of pledges to deliver improvements in many of the areas that matter to them most, from new jobs and housing, to business support and noise mitigation.” 

More Restructuring for Thai Airways.

Thai Airways International's board approved a restructuring plan aimed at cutting costs and strategising routes to help return the loss-making airline to profit as soon as the middle of next year, at a meeting held on Thursday.

Thailand's new military rulers have singled out the country's troubled national carrier as the first state enterprise to undergo reform after seizing power in May from a government accused of corruption. Thai Airways, which employs 25,000 people and another 5,000 in subcontracted staff, has racked up four quarters of losses partly due to high operating costs.

The carrier is planning early retirement of hundreds of employees and aims to cut overtime shifts, acting President Siwakiat Jayema told reporters after a board meeting on Thursday. "It's quite challenging for Thai Air. The cost-cutting scheme should be done immediately, while the airline needs to come up with a clearer strategy to boost revenues," said Amnart Ngosawang, an analyst at Finansia Syrus Securities.

Boeing / Iran Deal

US aircraft manufacturer Boeing has confirmed a deal with Iran Air to provide the heavily sanctioned airline special spare parts.  The new deal marks the first time the US firm will be doing business with Iran since the US embargo of 1979.

According to a regulatory filing published on July 23, Boeing will supply goods and services "related to the safety of flight" to Iran Air, the country's flag carrier. According to the report filed the agreement was reached in the second quarter and includes the provision of airplane parts, manuals, navigation charts and data to the airline, in line with the US company's recommendations to customers for such things as an aircraft modification, a parts replacement or inspection.

Boeing also reported it had discussions with the flag carrier's subsidiary, Iran Air Tours, on the potential sale of similar goods and services. In April, the US government issued a license allowing Boeing, for a "limited period of time," to provide "spare parts that are for safety purposes" to Iran. Boeing, like most western manufacturers are still not allowed to sell new planes to Iran.

American Profits Up.

  US mega airline, American Airlines has reported record quarterly earnings!  According to Thursday report, th airline detailed a net profit of $1.5 billion -- a record for any quarter in companies history. 

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The American Airlines Group announced a record GAAP net profit of $864  million, compared to $220 million in the second quarter of 2013, which was prior to its merger with US Airways. 

 "We are very pleased to report the highest quarterly profit in the history of American Airlines," said Chairman and CEO Doug Parker. "Our merger is off to a great start and our 100,000 team members are doing a wonderful job working together to take care of our customers." 

TransAsia Crash Investigation Launched.

 The Taiwan authorities have already launched an investigation into the crash of a TransAsia Airways turboprop plane which killed 48 people. 

The aircraft, a 70-seat ATR 72, crashed on Wednesday evening near the runway while trying to land on the small island of Penghu, west of Taiwan island, after a typhoon had passed earlier in the day.

The aircraft had 54 passengers and four crew on board when it came down and two of the dead were French nationals according to the French foreign ministry.

'No Survivors' of the Air Algerie Crash

It was a sombre and subdued French President Franсois Hollande talking when he confirmed that there were no survivors found at the site of the Air Algerie crash in Northern Mali. During the special televised speech he adding that French troops dispatched to the scene. 

"There are, alas, no survivors," Mr. Hollande somberly told reporters on the steps of the Élysée Palace. The French leader added that it was too soon to determine what caused the crash, but added that poor weather was one of the factors being considered. France's transport secretary has ruled out a surface-to-air missile as a cause.

No Return to Tel Aviv for German Carriers

Germany's two largest airlines say they are not yet resuming flights to Israel even though the European Aviation Safety Agency has lifted a recommendation that airlines refrain from flying to Tel Aviv airport, according to reports from AP news agency. 

Air Berlin says flights to Tel Aviv remain suspended at least through midday Friday, while Lufthansa says all Friday flights to the airport have been canceled because of ongoing security concerns after a Hamas missile landed near it this week.

Lufthansa says it "acknowledges the considerable efforts made by Israel to provide the best possible protection for Ben Gurion Airport" with its missile defense system. It says flights will resume "as soon as this protection can be verifiably guaranteed."

Uzbekistan Airlines Change Routes

Uzbekistan Airlines has made a decision to perform all flights from Uzbekistan to European cities and back, bypassing Ukraine's airspace.

The routes of flights to London, Frankfurt, Paris, Rome and Milan have been changed, according to Uzbekistan Airlines. The specialists of the company have also developed a safe route for the Tashkent-Kiev-Tashkent flight.

As a result of the changes, the duration of flights on this route will increase on average by 10-15 minutes. Airlines of many countries have changed the routes of their flights over Ukraine's territory after the crash of a Malaysian airliner in Ukraine's Donetsk city.

Malaysian Airlines MH17 - 777 Shot Down

BREAKING NEWS

The aviation industry is in shock tonight after the news breaks of a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 crashing in Eastern Ukraine. The flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was carrying 296 passengers and crew and is believed to have been shot down by a ground to air missile – however this has yet to be confirmed.

Official information is extremely limited and most of the information available coming from unconfirmed sources and social media.  Flight MH17 was approximately 50 kilometres from entering Russian airspace when it came down with what appears to be the loss of all souls on-board.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, said the aircraft would have been shot down, "We do not exclude that the plane was shot down and confirm that the Ukraine armed forces did not fire at any targets in the sky," he said in a statement. Later he said this was not an accident but “An act of terrorism.”

Dozens and dozens of bodies were scattered around the smouldering wreckage of the plane, close to  the village of Grabovo, some  25 miles from the Russian border, according to reporters at the scene. Grabovo is in an area controlled by the Russian separatists who have been known to shoot down Ukrainian military aircraft. Unconfirmed reports advise that moments after the incident a tweet from a twitter account previously used to publicize Russian Separatists shooting down Ukrainian military aircraft, claimed it had shot down another military transporter.

It's believed that there were 8 Britons on the downed aircraft, however this has yet to be confirmed as the passenger manifest has not been publically released at this time. Other unconfirmed reports state as many as 20 could you US citizens with the majority of the rest mixed between Malaysian and Dutch.

Emergency workers at the scene of the incident commented that at least 100 bodies had been found so far, with wreckage scattered across a wide area,  "I was working in the field on my tractor when I heard the sound of a plane and then a bang and shots. Then I saw the plane hit the ground and break in two. There was thick black smoke," a witness, named only as Vladimir, told a Reuters reporter close the area.

On a tweet and in a statement, Malaysia Airlines confirmed that Ukraine's air traffic control lost contact with flight MH17 at 2.15pm GMT, approximately 30 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border. Flight MH17 codeshare flight with Dutch carrier KLM was operated on a Malaysian Boeing 777 and departed Amsterdam at 12.15pm [local] and was estimated to arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 6.10am the next day. The flight was carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew onboard."

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister commented on social media that the plane had crashed in Ukrainian territory after being hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher.  News agency Associated Press advised one of its journalists had seen a similar launcher near the town of Snizhne earlier on Thursday.

So far the leaders of the self-declared Donetsk people's republic denied any involvement and according to a Russian news agency Russian Separatists may also have retrieved and are holding the black boxes of the aircraft. Emergency workers have been reported as saying that armed separatists are hampering and interfering with any rescue attempts.

"This is the third tragic incident in recent days after Ukrainian military An-26 and Su-25 jets were shot down from Russian territory. We don't rule out that this plane was also shot down, and we stress that the Ukrainian military didn't take any actions to destroy targets in the air," said Ukrainian President.

Speaking in Delaware USA, President Barack Obama said his administration was seeking "to determine whether there were American citizens onboard.  That is our priority. And I've directed my national security team to stay in close contact with the Ukrainian government. The United States will offer any assistance we can to help determine what happened and why. As a country our thoughts and prayers are with all the families of the passengers, wherever they call home."

Earlier, Obama and Russian leader Putin spoke on the phone regarding new US sanctions imposed on Moscow over its alleged failure to halt the flow of weapons and fighters to separatist forces in eastern Ukraine. Diplomatic relations between the two nations are ‘tense’ at the moment and if it process that MH17 was shot down by Russian made and supplied missiles relations will be pushed to breaking point.

Several airlines, including British Airways, Virgin, Aeroflot, Turkish Airlines and Russia's Transaereo airlines have all announced they would avoid Ukrainian airspace with immediate effect. German airline Lufthansa confirmed it would steer clear of airspace over eastern Ukraine.

The Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, said via Twitter: "I am shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed. We are launching an immediate investigation."  The country's defence minister tweeted that he was "monitoring closely" claims that MH17 had crashed, saying: "No comfirmation [sic] it was shot down! Our military have been instructed 2 get on it!"

J Shaw

Twenty Injured on SAA Flight.

South African Airways says 20 people on a Hong Kong-bound flight were injured when the plane ran into severe turbulence.

The airline said in a statement that SA286 departed Johannesburg on Tuesday and landed in Hong Kong on Wednesday, and that medics were waiting to assist the passengers when the aircraft arrived.

Airline spokesman Tlali Tlali says 17 passengers and three crewmembers were injured. The Hong Kong fire department adds that two people were critically injured. The victims were taken to three hospitals.

The airline says 165 passengers were on the plane when the turbulence struck as the plane was flying over Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital.

Airline Of The Year - Cathay Pacific

The airline of the year has been announced at the Skytrax awards, held at the Farnborough airshow this week.  The winner was Cathay Pacific!

The airline from Hong Kong beat off much competition to take the top slot in Skytrax annual awards. Pictured here is Ivan Chu with the 2014 award.  

'Of all the sellers, Cathay were the best performer across all types of travel,' Skytrax's CEO Edward Plaisted said to the media at the show,  'Some airliners were very good in economy, others in luxury, but [Cathay Pacific Airways was] top or near the top in all categories,' he said. 

Farnborough Airshow Update......

Airbus and Boeing came close to  $100 billion worth of orders at the this years Farnborough Airshow so far, clearly demonstrating the demand for new passenger jets is rising despite the companies already full order books. 

Despite the good news,  shares in Airbus closed down 2.5 percent after the company told analysts it may have to cut output of its best-selling twin-aisle A330 passenger jet to get through a three-year transition towards an upgraded model launched at the show.

Govt Aid for SAS Legal

It was all smiles for Scandinavian airline SAS last week when A 400 million euro credit arrangement given to them by the governments of Sweden, Denmark and Norway back in 2012 was not illegal under European Union state aid rules.

The EU Commission opened its investigation into the revolving credit facility in 2013, after it "doubted" it had been carried out under market conditions because the exposures of the governments and the banks involved were different.

Staff Shortages Effect Services

A labour shortage in Japan is reaching crisis point for many key industries and has the potential to cripple the third largest economy in the world.  This is forcing airlines, stores and restaurant chains to reassess expansion plans and even cancel or close existing operations, simply because they cannot get the staff. 

Peach Aviation, the airline backed by Japan's largest airline, ANA confirmed last month it would have to cancel more than 2,000 flights over the rest of this year. Budget carriers Jetstar Japan and Vanilla Air have also cancelled hundreds of flights this summer, all because they cant get enough pilots. 

"There aren't enough captains and training one takes time and money," said Peach Aviation spokesman Hironori Sakagami.  "We wanted to increase the number of flights, but we had to delay that."

Emergency Landing in Tel Aviv for Delta 747

A Delta Air Lines 747 flight from Israel's Tel Aviv Ben Gurion airport heading for New York had to turn back and make a emergency early this morning. The sudden return to Ben Gurion was caused when flaps on the 747's wings failed to retract properly on take-off.

Delta have confirmed  that the  Boeing 747 (N668US), Flight 469, which had 370 passengers and 17 crew members aboard landed safely back in Israel around 2.30am local time Sunday Morning. Two hours after it had departed bound for New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. The Delta spokesperson, Jennifer Martin, claimed the flight crew made the emergency landing 'out of an abundance of caution.'

There is no evidence the issue with the Delta 747's flaps had anything to do with the continuing unrest between Israel and the Palestinians. However, Delta has issued a travel advisory regarding the 'Israel Unrest' advising the airline would continue to operate its New York-Tel Aviv service, but  would allow passengers to cancel or rebook their plans whilst the conflict goes on, which could be some time.

The 747 restarted its flight to New York at 12.30 local today.