Korean Air carried out global planting project in Mongolia for 16th consecutive year

Photo Korean Air

 Korean Air  recently carried out efforts to fight desertification in Mongolia for the 16th consecutive year. This year was especially meaningful as employees from Delta Air Lines joined the green efforts to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the joint venture between the two airlines. Korean Air and Delta Air Lines aim to work together through not only the successful joint venture but also joint community services in the future, according to Korean Air.

About 120 Korean Air employees and 30 Delta Air Lines employees worked with local residents and students to plant trees in Baganuur, Mongolia, a region undergoing rapid desertification. Korean Air has been growing the “Korean Air Forest” in the area by planting trees every year since 2004, with the aim to stop desertification and protect the environment.

​A flag for the East Midlands – airport launches design competition for schools

East Midlands Airport has launched a competition for schools to design an East Midlands flag to represent the entire region.

A judging panel comprising (but not limited to) the airport’s Managing Director and a professional designer will consider the submissions. A shortlist of 10 designs will be selected while all entries will be displayed in a gallery space at the airport.

Via social media, the public will vote on their preferred choice. The winning design – the one with the most votes – will be made into a flag and will take pride of place on a flagpole outside the airport’s check-in hall during the school summer holidays, some of the airport’s busiest weeks of the year.

Air Canada Marks 25 Years of Service to Seoul, South Korea

Air Canada is celebrating 25 years of non-stop service between Canada and Seoul, South Korea. 

Photo CNW Group/Air Canada

Air Canada launched service to Seoul in 1994 with the Boeing 747-Combi (top), a route that continues today with Boeing 777s and Boeing 787 Dreamliners.  Prior to the departure of today's flight AC63 from YVR to Seoul, a celebration was held at YVR where customers also enjoyed traditional cultural performances and activities prior to boarding.

"We are thrilled to celebrate 25 years of proud service between Canada and South Korea. Since 1994, millions of customers have travelled on our airline between our two countries to conduct business, visit friends and family, study, learn more about each country's wonderful heritage, and to visit UNESCO and cultural attractions. Both countries have introduced a diverse range of delicious, culinary traditions to each other with Korean BBQ and other specialities now enjoyed by more and more Canadians. We are very pleased to be an important link between our two countries, and to help sustain the positive relationship our nations enjoy," said John MacLeod, Vice President, Global Sales and Alliances, at Air Canada.

East Midlands bear hunt?

The East Midlands bear hunt has taken place this week, much to the surprise of many. But worry not, there were no angry grizzlies on the prowl Teddy bears have been placed throughout the terminal for anyone to pick up and give to someone who needs a hug. Those presented with a bear are being encouraged to take it on their travels and photograph it.

The ‘random act of kindness bears’, which are being left in seats, restaurants, and other public spaces, has been a hit with passengers who are taking to social media to show their appreciation.

Lisa Kidd, from EMA’s health and safety team, says: “The bears have been a big hit with passengers. Most people will know someone who is struggling with a mental health issue. This provides an opportunity for friends or relatives to say to someone ‘we’re thinking about you and we’re here for you if you need us.’

Budget carrier easyJet reports a loss of £275 million

Photo easyJet

The budget carrier easyJet has posted a loss of £275 million in the six months to the end of 2019, while passenger numbers increased by 4.9 million to a total of 41.6 million.

The airline's latest results indicate that its total revenue increased by 7.3% to £2,343 million due to capacity growth and a foreign exchange benefit negatively offset by, the impact of the move of Easter, the new IFRS 15 accounting standard. It was also helped by Monarch's bankruptcy and Ryanair cancelling a large proportion of its winter 2017/8 schedule in the UK. Total revenue per seat decreased by 6.3% to £50.71. 

The airline also faced a number of challenges that lead to the losses, including fuel price increases, the impact of foreign exchange, underlying cost inflation, investing in resilience as well as the impact of drones at Gatwick in December. 

First Japan Airlines A350 XWB makes maiden flight

First Japan Airlines A350 XWB makes maiden flight

Photo Japan Airlines

The first A350-900 for Japan Airlines (JAL) has successfully completed its maiden flight in Toulouse, France. The A350-900 is the first aircraft to be produced by Airbus for the airline and features a special A350 logo on the fuselage.

The aircraft will now enter the final phase of production, including cabin completion, as well as further ground and flight tests leading to customer acceptance and delivery.

Air BP joins the ’Perfect Flight’ club

A plane trip across Sweden was dubbed the ‘Perfect Flight’ today. Not for its in-flight entertainment or comfortable leg room, but for the way it combined the latest in aircraft efficiency and the use of sustainable fuel to cut emissions by almost a half

Air BP supplied the fuel for a plane trip across Sweden today that achieved nearly half the emissions of regular journeys on the same route.

It joined forces with fuel producer Neste, Swedish Braathens Regional Airways and aircraft manufacturer ATR  to deliver the ’perfect flight’ from Halmstad to Stockholm.

Gulfstream G550 connects Shanghai and Seattle in record time

Photo Gulfstream

The team at Gulfstream Aerospace are celebrating after the high-performing Gulfstream G550 recently established a new city-pair speed record.  The jet took just 10 hours and 29 minutes to connect Shanghai with Seattle. That super fast time brings the number of records the jet has earned to an amazing 55. 

The aircraft departed Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport at 2:09 p.m. local time on April 19 and arrived at Seattle’s King County International Airport-Boeing Field, at 9:38 a.m. local time, completing the 5,123-nautical-mile/9,487-kilometer flight at an average speed of Mach 0.85.

Airbus announces senior leadership changes

Airbus has appointed Antoine Bouvier, 59, Head of Strategy, Mergers & Acquisitions and Public Affairs, effective 1 June 2019. In this position, he will report to Guillaume Faury, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Airbus.

At MBDA, Antoine Bouvier will be succeeded as CEO by Eric Béranger, 56, who has held a number of leadership positions in Airbus Defence and Space. His appointment will also become effective on 1 June 2019. MBDA, a joint venture between Airbus (37.5%), BAE Systems PLC (37.5%) and Leonardo S.p.A. (25%), is Europe’s leading missile systems house.

United unveils the winning designs from female artists for upcoming aircraft liveries

The public has voted, the judging panel has voted and the winners have now been announced in a special first-of-its-kind contest designed to find and uplift underrepresented women artists by providing a chance to have their work painted on a canvas like no other - a United Airlines jet.

Apparently, in the US, 51% of today's artists are women, less than 13% of art on display in museums is by women artists according to The National Museum of Women in the Arts. Therefore Her Art Here competition helps to readdress the balance. The winners of the competition have their designs painted on a United Boeing 75, which f;ies on average 1.6 million miles a year and 476 cross-country trips and is roughly 3,666 times larger than the typical 18" x 24" canvas!

The winners are:-

US authority tentatively approves services to Haneda

Photo Japan Airport Terminal 

The US Department of Transport has tentatively given approval for American carriers to fly into Tokyo’s preferred airport, Haneda, it was announced this week.

The DoT will make the final decision later this year to allow airlines to start flying the new routes from the spring/summer of next year and is considered a major milestone for route development between Japan and the US.

United Airlines has 'tentatively' been granted a total of four daily nonstop flights to Haneda Airport, these will leave from United's hubs at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).  "As the largest U.S. carrier to Asia, we are excited to see we were granted additional slots to Haneda to help more Americans travel between our nation and Japan's capital city, which will offer our customers an unparalleled experience while maximizing choice," said United Airlines President Scott Kirby.

Alaska Air Cargo brings the season's first wild Copper River salmon to Seattle

About 18,000 pounds of fresh Copper River salmon arrived on a fish-filled Alaska Airlines plane touching down at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport shortly after 6:30 a.m. 

Today officially marks the start of the salmon season that is anticipated by seafood lovers throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond. By noon, Alaska Air Cargo is expected to deliver a total of 50,000 pounds of Copper River salmon to the Lower 48 with more scheduled on later flights.

US F16 crashes into warehouse

Photo KABC-TV

An investigation is underway in California into why a military F16 fighter jet crashed through the roof of a warehouse at March Air Reserve Base in Moreno Valley, California, on Thursday 16th May.

The pilot escaped disaster by ejecting from the aircraft and was sent to a local medical centre for evaluation, however, local media reported that 3 people on the ground suffered minor injuries, while 11 were evaluated.

CBS Los Angeles reported the jet fighter caught fire in the warehouse, but the fire was quickly extinguished by the building's sprinkler system. 

The US Air Force said the aircraft was from the 114th Fighter Wing based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and was conducting a training mission when the crash happened.  For a short time, the nearby  215 Freeway was closed following the crash in case of an explosion from the weapons the jet was carrying at the time.

Photo KABC-TV

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London Stansted Airport strengthens links with the armed forces

London Stansted Airport                                                                                    Photo Stansted Airport

London Stansted has launched a new partnership with the armed forces by trialling a military placement scheme to provide serving personnel with civilian work experience at the airport.

The initiative, in conjunction with Colchester Barracks and the first of its kind at any UK airport, will also enable airport operational teams to learn from the army’s considerable investment in staff training, and benefit from specific skills and expertise in key areas such as project management and working in high pressure environments.

In 2017, London Stansted became the first airport in England to pledge support for the Armed Forces community and their families by signing up to the UK Armed Forces Covenant, and last year was awarded the prestigious Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme Silver award to reflect its support for serving and ex-military personnel and reservists.

Wizz opens its 25th base - Krakow in Poland

Wizz Air, officially opened its newest Polish base in Krakow last week, the 25th base in the continuously growing Wizz network.  The budget carrier will allocate 3 Airbus A321 aircraft to Krakow in May, August and September 2019 this year.

The airline offers 18 low-fare new routes from Krakow to 15 countries,  the three allocated aircraft will support the start of operations of new services from Krakow to the following popular destinations offering the possibility of truly memorable experiences: Bari, Billund, Birmingham, Catania, Doncaster, Eindhoven, Keflavík, Kharkiv, Kiev, Kutaisi, Larnaca, London, Nice, Oslo, Rome, Tel Aviv, Turin  and Turku.

Krakow is the 5 Wizz Air base in Poland besides  Warsaw, Katowice, and Gdansk and Wroclaw. As a part of the constant development, the airline is expanding its network in Poland. The base establishment at Krakow Airport represents a major investment for the firm.

UK to scrap landing cards

The UK's Border Force is to scrap all landing cards for international passengers arriving in the UK from next Monday according to the BBC, it was announced at short notice on Thursday, May 16th.

Currently, landing cards are currently filled in by passengers arriving in the UK either by aircraft or ship and every year around 16 million are issued. These are used to record what is said to border staff on arrival as well as the reasons for travel and conditions of entry.    

Delta celebrates operational milestone in record timing

100 days cancel-free operation

Delta is once again setting the bar for operational reliability, rocketing to 100 days without a mainline cancel1 year-to-date Friday, May 10, almost a month ahead of last year's pace.

The cancel-free day count continued through the weekend with the airline now at 104 days for the mainline system1, including both domestic and international operations, compared to 87 this time last year. Delta maintained Friday's 99.84 percent completion factor ranking, or the measure of flights operated versus scheduled, through the weekend into Wednesday.

Statutory consultation on Heathrow Airport expansion to start 18th June

Photo LHR

Heathrow has announced that its statutory 12 and a half-week consultation on its expansion plans will launch on the 18th of June. This step is the latest delivery milestone for the critical national infrastructure project, and the responses received will feed into a final planning application. To mark the news, the airport has released a series of new images showing an illustrative example of a new terminal infrastructure, as well as a panoramic shot of a future Heathrow.

The airport’s June consultation will be its largest and most innovative engagement exercise yet. Heathrow has invested in new technology to show the public its current proposals, including a model of the future airport which uses augmented reality, and a sound booth to be used at certain locations which feature virtual reality to demonstrate the effect of noise insulation on properties overflown by aircraft.  Having listened to feedback from previous consultations, Heathrow will be holding events in more locations than previously and, in addition to an extensive national publicity campaign across newspapers, radio, billboards, digital and – for the first time -  Spotify, will be contacting 2.6 million households directly in the vicinity of the airport with a leaflet encouraging participation.

TUI 787-9 Dreamliner Gatwick landing drama report issued.

Photo paineairport.com

The UK's Air Accident Investigation Branch detailed an incident involving a TUI Boeing 787 Dreamliner at London Gatwick Airport on 6 July 2018 at 1711 in its May bulletin.

The aircraft, registration G-TUIM, a 787-9 was operating a flight from the holiday island of Tenefire back to the UK and was on approach to Runway 26L at London Gatwick Airport and the crew was configuring the aircraft for landing. After flaps 1 was selected, there was a progressive deterioration in the normal flight controls, landing gear lowering and nosewheel steering capabilities.  Initially, the slats primary fail and flaps primary fail on the Engine Indication and Crew Alerting System - EICAS - messages were displayed. There was difficulty in lowering the nose landing gear, indicating nose wheel steering fault.