Schiphol Reopens

A major power cut has hit Amsterdam and surrounding towns, causing all flights to and from the city's Schiphol airport to be temporarily cancelled.

 

Dutch electricity network administrator TenneT said a significant part of North Holland province, home to some 2.7 million people, had been affected.  The operator later said power had been restored to some parts of the region.

But incoming flights were still being diverted from Schiphol airport - one of Europe's busiest terminals.
The hub was forced to run on emergency power, as the cut caused widespread disruption.

It was triggered by a "technical fault" at a substation in the Amsterdam suburb of Diemen, TenneT said on Twitter.

St Helena names South African airline preferred bidder

St Helena names South African airline preferred bidder for when airport opens next year

A South African airline operator has been named the favorite to provide an air service for St Helena when its first airport opens early in 2016. But Comair, which also operates budget flights as kulula.com, will only offer flights to Johannesburg in South Africa, despite strong calls for a direct service to Europe.

Potential tourism operators, including SHELCO, the company behind a planned eco resort on the island, had warned that flights from the UK were vital to their plans.

Alderney Route Battles

According to a special report, released to the BBC in the Channel Island a new airline could be about to take on the Alderney to Guernsey route.

The leaked proposal given to the Alderney policy and finance committee, will guarantee exclusive rights to fly the route to Isle of Man based airline, Citywing for five years.

The airline proposes to operate two LET 410 aircraft on scheduled daily flights to Guernsey and Southampton.

Aurigny Airlines CEO, Mark Darby, complains he wasn't invited to discuss the CityWing proposal with the States.  "Letting the BBC have sight of a bid document to run an Alderney based passenger service is an unusual way to go public on this." he said.

Alderney's policy and finance committee commissioned the report in 2014 after a series of delays on flights into the island by Aurigny. Neil Harvey, chairman of the committee, said no decision had been made as it had not been discussed by the States as a whole. He also mentioned the island was also in talks with Aurigny, which is owned by the States of Guernsey, over securing a service agreement.

If the CityWings proposal was approved in Alderney there would still be other issues, according to Mr Harvey. "The role of the States of Alderney is fairly significant in the report as the States would suffer the costs of any flights delayed or cancelled due to weather conditions."

Iraqi - UK Services

Last week saw the start of a new Iraqi Airways services to Manchester, United Kingdom, from Sulaymaniyah. This new link to the UK is the carriers second flight to England as they already fly to London Gatwick.

The Sunday service to Manchester is operated by the Middle Eastern airline’s 737-800s, the 4,170-kilometre sector will face no direct competition. The airline has also launched a Wednesday service from Erbil to Manchester airport.

Japan's New LA Flight

Japan Airlines has resumed non-stop flights between Osaka Kansai Airport and Los Angeles last week. The new daily direct flight is flown on one of the carriers new 787-8 aircraft.

This is Japan Airline's second American service from Osaka, it currently operates flights to Honolulu in Hawaii. They also fly to LA from Tokyo Narita.

Yasuhiro Nakamura, Japan Airlines Senior Vice President for The Americas said, “Japan Airlines is pleased to further expand its trans-Pacific network. The increase in service also strengthens JAL’s presence in Los Angeles and offers our customers more choice and convenience when travelling to Japan and destinations throughout Asia.”

Germanwings Crew Refuse to Fly

Germanwings have confirmed today that some pilots and cabin crew have refused to fly on the airlines flights following the devastating crash yesterday. 

Germanwings confirmed there were "occasional flight disruptions" on its network due to "crew members who decided not to operate aircraft" following the crash of Flight 4U9525 with 150 people aboard en route to Dusseldorf, Germany.

Germanwings 9525 Crash

The aviation industry is in mourning today after the shock crash of the Germanwings Airbus A320 yesterday morning. As the investigation in to the cause of the disaster is in its infancy more information emerged today of the flights final moments. 

The French environment and transport minister, Ségolène Royal,  said today that the flight crew of the Airbus A320 had stopped responding on radio at 10.30am yesterday when the aircraft was over the Mediterranean.

The aircraft crashing into the side of a mountain in the French Alps just after 10.48am, it lost altitude rapidly, descending from 28,000 feet to less than 2,000 feet without transmitting any form of distress signal, either by radio or electronically.

Ms Royal said that events in the cockpit of the plane “between 10.30am and 10.31am” were “crucial” and may hold the “key” to unearthing the mystery of what caused the crash which killed 150 people.

The cockpit voice recorder was recovered yesterday and was taken to the laboratories of the French air investigation bureau, the BEA, at Le Bourget near Paris this morning. Although the recorder was damaged in the crash, preliminary examinations have been positive in the possibility of retrieving information. The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said whilst it had been damaged in the crash but was “usable”. 

According to radar logs, the aircraft was at a cruising altitude of 28,524 feet at 1029am, then at 1030 it had fallen to 26,453 and one minute later it had dropped to 24,380 feet. For the next 17 minutes, the A320 lost about 1,000 feet each a minute. This appears to be more a controlled rapid descent rather than an uncontrolled dive. The aircraft disappeared from radar soon after 10.48am and it is believed to have hit the mountain a few minutes later.

Ms Royal confirmed to media this morning that, soon after 10.30am, when the pilots had stopped responding by radio, the French military scrambled a Mirage jet fighter to intercept and investigate. According to local media, this French Forces jet was seen by eye-witnesses following the doomed airliner as it skimmed the Alpine ridges before crashing into a sheer mountain-side.  It's believed the Mirage pilot could have vital information on final moments of the stricken aircraft. 

More to follow

Not the first aicrash in the alps

The Germanwings A320 that crashed on Tuesday went down in the same part of the French Alps where a plane slammed into a mountain 62 years ago.

On Sept. 1, 1953, an Air France plane was coming in for a landing at Nice when it crashed into 10,000-foot-tall Mont Cimet, near the village of Barcelonette. All 33 passengers and all nine members of the crew were killed. According to news reports of the time the aircraft burned for over three hours. The aircraft was a Lockheed L-749A Constellation of Air France service from Paris to Saigon, with enroute stops in Nice, Lebanon, Iraq, Pakistan and India.

Thomas Cook Airlines Not For Sale?

Thomas Cook's airline business is not for sale according to bosses at the travel group, yet a full financial examination of the airline has been started by an 'outside' investment and consultancy firm according to a high ranking company employee.

 

Apparently this examination is almost 'forensic' in its approach and has full access to all company files and data. However the company insider couldn't say if the consultancy firm were working on behalf Thomas Cook or another firm.

Ups and downs for Virgin Australia

          Virgin Australia have reported a A$98.1 million ($87.6 million) full-year net loss.

 

The Australian airline blamed difficult economic conditions, strong competition and one-off costs related to its recently acquired Skywest business, in the announcement on Friday.

 

The highly thought of air carrier said major shareholders Air New Zealand, Etihad Airways and Singapore Airlines had agreed to provide a loan worth A$90 million.

      

Virgin Australia is a highly respected airline and for the fourth consecutive month had been Australia's most punctual airline, according to the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics.

First biofuel flight for Hainan

Hainan Airlines of China has completed the country's first flight powered by fuel made from waste cooking oil.

               

The Boeing 737 aircraft had been configured and modified slightly for the purpose of the flight, which took off from Shanghai on Saturday with 100 passengers aboard going to Beijing.

 

The cooking oil collected from restaurants was used by top Chinese oil company Sinopec to refine the oil and form the special the biofuel. Hainan Airlines vice president Pu Ming personally piloted the flight which used 50-50 mix of biofuel and conventional jet fuel.

Hong Kong-based airlines Dragonair announced a few days ago it had been planning to make China's first ever commercial flight using recycled oil, however, the airline was eventually forced to postpone the flight due permit problems. 

According to reports the biofuel used in the Hainan Airlines should emit 50 to 80 per cent less carbon dioxide than traditional aviation fuels, significantly reducing air traffic pollution. 

Brazil’s Gol Airline Beckons Foreign Buyers After Vote

(Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s biggest airline is opening the door to a potential suitor with a stock restructuring that will allow greater foreign ownership.

Shareholders of Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA voted Monday to approve a measure that will reduce its dependence on the controlling Constantino family. Non-voting shareholders also gained the ability to hold board seats. That may increase Gol’s appeal to investors from abroad or even lead to an eventual takeover of the $830 million carrier, among the cheapest in the Americas.

Brazil’s airlines resemble U.S. carriers a decade ago, before a recession and high fuel prices forced consolidation and cost cuts, said Rob Pickels, an analyst and portfolio manager at Manning & Napier. Gol and the rest of the Brazilian industry will go through a similar process that will leave it more financially sound, he said.

LH Cabin Crew want mediation over piltos Strike

The Deutsche Lufthansa AG bosses have apologised to passengers and cabin crew over a series of more than a dozen pilot strikes while cautioning that walkouts may continue. 

 

In a letter issued March 20th that had been sent to the airline’s customers, senior managers said sorry for disruption caused by the strikes, yet “cannot and will not make any compromises that endanger our future viability.”

 

Pilots are asking to keep conditions under an early-retirement program, and have just emerged from the longest strike in the carrier’s history. 

 

Germanwings A320 Crashes

Breaking News

A Germanwings flight has crashed in the French alps this morning and its believed that all 148 passengers and crew have died.

The Airbus A320, operated by Lufthansa's Germanwings budget airline, has came down in the southern French Alps not far from Digne les Bains during its flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.

Franch President Francois Hollande said there was likely to be "no survivors". The French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the causes of the crash were not yet known.  "We of course don't know the reasons for the crash," he told reporters. "We obviously fear that the 142 to 150 passengers and crew died today, given the conditions of this crash."

The aircraft is believed to be 24 years old and took off at 0855 Zulu, climbed to its cruising altitude but at 0927 the aircraft started descend rapidly at 0945 the pilot sent a distress call before it crashed.   A total of 142 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew, were on board the plane.

This breaking news story is ongoing.

New Routes for S7

New routes for Russia’s S7 Airlines,  the Novosibirsk-based airline is about to launch services from Surgut to Novosibirsk, Ufa and Samara with Airbus A320 aircraft.  The carrier has said it will operate a three times a week schedule Novosibirsk-Surgut,  twice a week Samara-Surgut service and Surgut-Ufa would be a weekly service. All are expected to start at the end of April.