Aeroflot takes delivery of its 46th and 47th Sukhoi Superjet 100

The World's most recognised brand and the leading Russian airline, Aeroflot is celebrating the arrival of two new brand new Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ100) aircraft.

With the addition of these latest examples, Aeroflot now has 47 Sukhoi Superjet 100s that are deployed on its domestic short-haul passenger routes.

The airline has named the 46th SSJ100 registration RA-89114 after Valery Pavlovich Chkalov, Soviet test pilot and hero of the Soviet Union who could fly more than 30 different aircraft.

The 47th SSJ100, registration RA-89109 is adorned with the name of the famous Russian painter, war artist Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin.

The Russian-built Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft are configured with 12 seats in business class and 75 seats in economy class. These new SSJ100s will start operating on Aeroflot routes in the coming weeks. The airline will expand its fleet of SSJ 100 aircraft, with a further three new SSJ100 planes, to form a fleet of 50.

Stand up for what's right....the spirit of Australia

The leading Australian airline, Qantas has joined with some of its partners, including sports teams, Olympians and Paralympians, and leaders in the arts to produce a new video celebrating the importance of diversity to national life, reflecting the Australian spirit

The 60-second video opens with actor and Qantas Ambassador Hugh Jackman on Maroubra Beach, talking about the Australian spirit and “standing up for a fair go” and moves forward with the impressive rendition of Caravan of Love from Singer Bernard Fanning.

The video features a range of talented Australians including, the Qantas Wallabies, and Matildas and Socceroos. Paralympian Curtis McGrath, Olympic swimmer Bronte Campbell swimming with Paralympian Ellie Cole, Qantas staff celebrating Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, which the airline has supported for over 25 years and many others. 

Tulip arrives at her new home base........13th Dreamliner for KLM

The 13th Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner arrived at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines today, and she's got the name of Tulip!

Tulip, registration PH-BHP arrived from planemaker Boeing's Seattle plant this morning and was welcomed to its new home base by staff and spotters.  KLM’s Dreamliners are all named after flowers or flowering plants, which are a very popular a typical Dutch export which fits perfectly with the airline. Some of the 787s in KLM's fleet carry names such as Orchid, Sunflower, Carnation, Lavender and Marguerite. The 13th Dreamliner is called tulip, which is perhaps the most famous flower export of The Netherlands. 

Tulip is the third Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner to arrive on Dutch soil,  so far in 2018 with two others arriving in January and April.  The latest Dreamliner is the last Boeing 787-9 to arrive for the time being. Expectations are that in June 2019, KLM will take delivery of its first Boeing 787-10. The Dutch airline has already added seven new Embraers to its fleet as part of its fleet renewal programme and to support its regional expansion plans. 

Three flights affected in a day of hoax bomb threats.

A spate of hoax bomb threats in Peru and Chile on Thursday caused at least three aircraft to either make emergency landings or return to their starting airports in Chile and Peru.

A LATAM  flight from Peru’s capital of Lima to Santiago in Chile was safely evacuated after making an unscheduled landing in the southern Peruvian city of Pisco because of a hoax bomb threat. 

Two aircraft operated by Chile-based Sky Airlines heading to Rosario, Argentina, and the northern Chilean city of Calama were forced to return to Santiago without incident following phoned-in threats.

Chile’s civil aviation agency said all three planes had been inspected and there were no explosives found on any of them  Victor Villalobos Collao, director of Chile’s civilian aviation authority, said in total, the authorities had received a total of 11 threats and had to carry out “a procedure” with respect to nine of them. No explosives had been found at any location after the area or aircraft had been searched. 

Chilean police have since arrested a 29-year-old man over these hoax bomb threats according to a police spokesperson speaking a little earlier today. Advising that, a specialist organized crime unit arrested the man in the northern Chilean city of Antofagasta. “The police managed to trace the phone calls that were made warning of explosives on different planes,” the spokesperson said

The man who has not yet been named was due to appear before a court in Santiago on Friday on the charge of making threats of explosives contrary to national security legislation. 

Air France-KLM shares down as Ben Smith named as new CEO

As expected by the recent announcement that Benjamin Smith has been appointed as the new CEO of Air France-KLM, has angered unions are accusing the group of handing control to a foreigner and not protecting Air France’s interests.  Shares in the big European airline group shares fell on Friday and are expected to fall further next week. Also, having a negative impact on the stock market is news that KLM's Dutch pilots are threatening to strike over working conditions. 

Air France-KLM shares fell some 4 percent during early trading and were among the worst-performing stocks on the Paris SBF120 index. Leading analysts say the fall is directly attributed to the unhappiness of the unions over the appointment of Ben Smith.

Five new routes for Oman's budget airline

SalamAir, the low-cost carrier based at Muscat, Oman is introducing five new routes, starting tomorrow 17th August.

The airline is launching direct flights to Khartoum, Kathmandu, Najaf and Dhaka,  which the carrier hopes will take its development one stage further.  With the addition of these new routes, SalamAir, Oman’s first budget airline is expected to carry over one million passengers before the end of 2018.

Captain Mohamed Ahmed, CEO of SalamAir said, “Our strategy is to provide affordable travel across our expanding network. The launch of our new destinations is yet another milestone in SalamAir’s young history. It allows us to continue providing our guests with exciting travel possibilities and budget-friendly rates.”

“Supported by our new aircraft order, SalamAir will continue to expand its network of destinations to meet the growing demand for budget travel in the Sultanate and region. We are offering our guests a convenient, flexible and reliable experience to a growing range of exciting destinations.” He said.

Xiamen aircraft has runway excursion in Manila

Xiamen Airlines Boeing 737-800 operating flight  8667 has skidded off the runway at Manila airport according to local media reports.

The Xiamen aircraft was operating a flight from Xiamen to Manila and missed its first approach to the airport, landing on the second attempt and skidding off the runway at 2355 local time.

The aircraft, registration B-5498 is less than ten years old and was landing during a thunderstorm according to local reports.

According to local media, the 737-800 skidded off the end of the runway, during which one of the engines detached from the wing and part of the undercarriage was ripped off.  Xiamen Airlines says all 165 passengers on flight MF8667 have evacuated safely after the emergency incident, there are reports of minor injuries sustained by some during the evacuation. 

Benjamin Smith resigns from Air Canada to become ceo of Air France-KLM

Earlier today, Air Canada announced that Benjamin Smith, President, Airlines and Chief Operating Officer, has told the carrier he will resign his position to take effect at the end of this month.

Air Canada say that Ben is to accept a role as the chief executive officer at a 'European-based global airline', although it stopped short of naming it.  "We wish Ben well in his future endeavours and congratulate him on his appointment. On behalf of our Board of Directors, our executive team and our 30,000 employees, I thank Ben for his significant contributions in many various roles at Air Canada over the past two decades," said Calin Rovinescu, President and Chief Executive Officer of Air Canada.   

LATAM starts new route to Santiago from Cuzco

Liz Chirinos, Deputy Minister of Tourism, with Manuel van Oordt, GM, LATAM Airlines

LATAM Airlines has launched a new flight from launched flights from Cuzco, Peru’s seventh most populous city to the capital of Chile, Santiago, this week.

The flight started yesterday and is being operated by one of the carriers Airbus A319's configured with 144 seats. The Santiago route becomes the carriers first international route from Cuzco, although it offers seven domestic destinations. 

LATAM will offer three non-stop flights per week between the two cities, which may be increased in future should demand require it. According to recent research, an estimated 61,100 people travelled indirectly between Cuzco and Santiago during 2017, with most people changing planes in Lima. 

Its jail time for bomb hoax librarian

Jacob Meir Abdellak, a forty-seven year-old Librarian was running late for his Norwegian Air Shuttle flight from London Gatwick on Friday 11th May this year. He knew he wouldn't make the airport on time, so he made a call, threaterning that there was a bomb onboard the Los Angeles bound jet.

The call was made at 0547, less than ten minutes before the flight was due to depart, subsequently, police and security officials had to evacuate the aircraft and rescreen all the passengers, luggage and the aircraft itself. Such a vast security operation would take some time and the flight was delayed by ninety minutes. 

Mr Abdellak then attempted to use the 90-minute delay to check-in and take the US-bound flight, however airline staff said this wasn't possible and it was then that Abdellak became abusive. He was, however, rebooked for a flight later in May.

United prangs two aircraft in Chicago

An investigation is underway as to how two United Airlines aircraft could collide on the tarmac of  Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Wednesday afternoon.

UA645 was departing from gate C30 ready to fly to Portland when the left wingtip of the Airbus struck the wing of another aircraft, a Boeing 737 registration N13720, that was being prepared to operate UA2746 bound for Cleveland, at around 1620 yesterday afternoon.  Its reported that both aircraft were damaged in the incident 

United issued the following statement yesterday, “Prior to its departure on Wednesday afternoon for Portland, Oregon, United flight 645’s wingtip came into contact with the wingtip of another aircraft parked at a nearby gate. There were no customers on board the parked aircraft at the time of the incident and no reported injuries on either aircraft.  We assisted our customers and operated the flight to Portland with a different aircraft. The flight departed at 6:32 p.m. yesterday.”

More new flights from Frontier Airlines.

The US low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines is expanding its route network yet again, the airline recently announced a number of new services from  Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina set to start in November this year and operated by one of the carriers Airbus A320 aircraft. The airline is introducing three international routes and two domestic services. 

The Mexican holiday playground of Cancun is the first of the three new services from Raleigh and will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. The current schedule for the new flights will see a departure time of 0600 to land in Cancun at 0926 local time. The return is planned to return at 1021 from the sunny report, landing in North Carolina at 1328.

Montego Bay will start on 17th November this winter and is currently scheduled to operate twice each week, flying on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Provisional timings for this new service indicate it will leave Raleigh at 0600 and arrive Montego Bay at 0905.  The return sector departs some fifty-five minutes later at 1000 with an arrival time at Raleigh of 1310. 

Strange odour forces Frontier flight to divert

A mystery odour on Frontier Airlines flight 1674 to Philadelphia yesterday caused the crew to divert to Raleigh-Durham in North Carolina because the smell was making passengers sick.

The flight from Orlando had 230 passengers and 7 crew members aboard when the mysterious odour began to take effect on some of the passengers and cabin crew, making them nauseous. The crew decided to divert the aircraft to Raleigh-Durham. 

According to a spokesperson for  Frontier Airlines, eight people complained of feeling sick from the smell, three of them were taken to a local hospital to be checked out. The spokesperson advised that "Safety and security of our crew and guests is our number one priority," which is why the crew diverted the flight. It has been reported that a member of the cabin crew was one of those receiving treatment, although this has not yet been confirmed by the airline.

The fire service at Raleigh-Durham met the Airbus A321 aircraft and did an inspection both inside and out, but no cause for the strange and mysterious odour could be found. An investigation is ongoing. 

Radioactive alert closes Budapest Airport for three hours on Wednesday

Photo REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

A radioactive alert caused a terminal at Ferenc Liszt Airport in Budapest Airport to be closed for three hours on Wednesday night. Officials advise that terminal 2B at the airport was shut down between 1930 and 2230 to facilitate a fast investigation into an overheated container carrying a radioactive isotope.

Firemen were seen entering the cargo compartment of a Turkish Airlines aircraft that was parked on the tarmac of Budapest Airport, in Hungary, during the incident that closed the airport. A spokesperson for the Hungarian Disaster Management Authority advised that "Material damaging to health did not get into the environment," adding that "Passengers are perfectly safe."

According to local media reports, the isotope was iridium which had been ordered by a Hungarian company from a firm based in the Russian city of Dimitrovgrad. The container carrying the isotope arrived in Budapest on a Turkish Airlines flight on Wednesday evening from Istanbul.

The passengers and crew of the flight on which the container was carried, nor the passengers and staff at the airport were in any danger according to information from the Disaster Management Authority.  Turkish Airlines has not yet responded to requests for comment. 

US aviation professionals call for long term reauthorisation of the FAA

The US organization representing many of the country's main airlines, Airlines for America (A4A), has joined forces with nearly 30 other key commercial and business aviation associations in sending a letter to the US Senate.

Together this conglomeration of aviation industry professionals are urging the Senate to swiftly consider a long-term reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA's current authority is all set to expire on 30th September this year.

"Every day, the U.S. airline industry delivers safe and affordable air transportation options to millions of travelers, businesses, and shippers around the world, while supporting nearly 11 million jobs and driving $1.5 trillion in economic activity," said A4A President and CEO Nicholas E. Calio. "Adopting a long-term reauthorization bill will provide stability for the FAA to uphold the highest levels of safety we have today, while providing the certainty that employers need to continue creating new jobs, investing in crucial infrastructure and new technology, and encouraging innovation that will move the industry forward."

Some of the other organisations signing the letter include Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), Regional Airline Association (RAA), Regional Air Cargo Carriers Association (RACCA) and Cargo Airline Association (CAA).