| In This Issue |
| • |
Senate Continues FAA Budget Tussle for Fifth Day |
| • |
FSF Calls for Multinational Safety Probes |
| • |
Dassault Reports Record Deliveries, Plummeting Sales |
| • |
Norwood Airport Closed Due To Flooding |
| • |
House Hearing Probes On-demand Charter Oversight |
Also Noted...
The FAA again rejected Venice (Fla.) Municipal Airport’s request to downgrade the airport from Category C to B in a bid to restrict jet traffic at the field. In a letter sent to Venice Mayor Ed Martin, the FAA said the “city cannot downgrade the airport,” upholding the agency’s previous decisions on the matter, and yet again stated it is “willing to work with the city and would consider other alternatives.”
Hawker Beechcraft recently delivered the first Hawker 4000 to an Indian client. This Hawker 4000 is based at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai and will be used for both business and leisure travel by the undisclosed customer. In other news, the company’s Premier II flew for the first time on Saturday. The Premier II was launched at EBACE 2008 and features winglets and more powerful engines than the Premier IA.
The second annual Business Aviation in Latin America (Bala) summit will be held in São Paulo, Brazil, on August 13–the second day of Labace 2010. Bala, which will be part of Labace’s official program, is expected to attract business aircraft operators, manufacturers, entrepreneurs, banks, airports, law firms, financial analysts, leasing companies, air finance specialists and other aviation professionals.
Stevens Aviation recently received FAA STC approval for installation of a runway awareness and advisory system (Raas) on Learjet 60s. According to Stevens, this upgrade improves the flight crew’s situational awareness, helps to minimize the risk of runway incursions and can warn of potential surface hazards.
The Transportation Security Administration last week consulted general aviation organizations about security initiatives in the first meeting of a working group created to increase industry involvement in GA security. At the meeting, GA organizations met with TSA staff to discuss the group’s major areas of concern about TSA initiatives, including inter-agency issues; credentials and access to airports; temporary flight restrictions (TFRs); grants to improve airport security; and incident management.
AINalerts welcomes your feedback
News tips may be sent anonymously but feedback must include your name, e-mail address and telephone number. We will withhold names on request, but we must have your contact information for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit correspondence for length, clarity and grammar. Send feedback or news tips to Chad Trautvetter.
|
|
Senate Continues FAA Budget Tussle for Fifth Day
Slowed by a plethora of amendments, including many that have little or nothing to do with aviation, the Senate is continuing to plod through a fifth day of debate on an FAA reauthorization package that would accelerate modernization of the ATC system; address critical safety concerns raised by the crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 more than a year ago near Buffalo, N.Y.; improve rural community access to air service; and help secure more than 100,000 jobs. Among the provisions for more stringent pilot training is one that would raise the minimum requirement for a commercial pilot certificate from 250 hours to 800 hours. The House of Representatives, which passed its version of FAA authorization last May, approved a separate Airline Safety and Pilot Training Act of 2009 (H.R.3371) in October that would raise the minimum number of hours even higher–to 1,500. When FAA reauthorization finally passes the Senate, that version will have to be reconciled with the House-passed FAA reauthorization–as well as H.R.3371–before it can be sent to President Obama for signing into law. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives passed another 90-day extension of the FAA this morning. The current 11th extension expires March 31.
FSF Calls for Multinational Safety Probes
Citing ongoing criminal prosecution of Continental Airlines for the 2000 Concorde crash in Paris, the U.S.-based Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) is asking governments worldwide to form multinational, independent air accident investigation boards. The foundation has called upon an upcoming International Civil Aviation Organization “high level safety conference”–March 29 to April 1 in Montreal–to convene a group of legal experts “to urgently provide better protection of sources of safety information, including protection of witness statements and admissions of error against criminal prosecution, except in the most egregious of cases involving willful misconduct, drug or alcohol abuse or falsification.” Last week, the European Commission’s Council of Ministers urged creation of a “network of national state investigation authorities,” but the FSF said that would be “woefully inadequate” to meet the urgent problems of disparate investigating capacity and expertise; tensions between safety investigators and judicial authorities; the unclear role of civil aviation authorities in safety investigations; unacceptable weaknesses in implementation of safety recommendations; and lack of common standards on passenger manifest and family assistance.
Dassault Reports Record Deliveries, Plummeting Sales
Dassault Aviation yesterday reported contrasting results for last year, with a negative net order tally of -163 Falcon business jets, but a record 77 Falcon deliveries. During a press conference held at the company’s headquarters near Paris yesterday morning, Dassault chairman and CEO Charles Edelstenne said the negative order number includes 65 cancellations from fractional provider NetJets. These orders were scheduled for delivery after 2014, so this will have no immediate effect on Falcon delivery rates. Net orders last year fell by an estimated €3.9 billion ($5.3 billion). Thanks to the healthy deliveries, Falcon revenues, at €2.44 billion ($3.3 billion), grew by 5 percent. The total operating income of €393 million ($540 million) translated into an 11.5-percent operating margin. Despite the huge number of cancellations, the Falcon backlog stood at 249 as of December 31. Dassault is predicting “steady” Falcon deliveries for this year. Asked about the possibility of customers being able to get bargain prices on Falcons during the downturn, Edelstenne made it clear that this will not happen. Meanwhile, he said certification of the large-cabin Falcon 900LX has been postponed to the second half of this year.
Norwood Airport Closed Due To Flooding
Norwood (Mass.) Memorial Airport is closed to all fixed-wing traffic until further notice due to runway and taxiway flooding. Heavy rain this past weekend caused the Neponset River to send floodwater onto the adjacent airport property, flooding both runways–10/28 and 17/35–and several taxiways. Norwood, a GA airfield that typically sees about 275 operations a day, has been closed since Monday night, and airport officials are unsure when it will reopen. Several Notams have been issued for the airport, advising not only of the closed airport and standing water on the field but also that runway and taxiway lights are out of service. The river was two feet above flood stage earlier this week, but is now some five inches above flood stage. However, a flood warning is still in effect for the Neponset River. Many of the approximately 190 aircraft based at the airport have been left stranded by the flood, and one pilot told AIN that his company’s Cessna Citation “is currently stuck there…thankfully on dry land.” The FAA and airport engineers plan to assess the airport damage before this weekend. A similar situation occurred in 1998, when Norwood was closed for about 10 days due to flooding of the adjacent river.
House Hearing Probes On-demand Charter Oversight
During a House aviation subcommittee hearing yesterday on oversight of on-demand (Part 135) aircraft operators, DOT Inspector General Calvin Scovel III testified that this operating environment carries a “number of safety risks, such as short, frequent flights with more takeoffs and landings–the most dangerous part of flight.” NTSB statistics show that these higher risks have translated into more accidents for on-demand operators–155 fatal accidents in the past 10 years versus 18 involving commercial carriers. “However,” Scovel said, “the FAA’s oversight of this industry is based primarily on compliance with outdated regulations…[for areas such as] flight crew training requirements and aircraft maintenance inspections.” The IG’s office found that a targeted risk-based oversight approach could help mitigate safety issues associated with on-demand operations. Air Charter Safety Foundation president James Coyne and NBAA president Ed Bolen also testified at the hearing. Coyne said a DOT IG report issued last July “fails to present an accurate picture of the Part 135 regulatory environment,” and noted that on-demand safety has “steadily improved in recent years.” Bolen pushed for the adoption of all 140 recommendations issued in 2005 by the Part 125/135 Aviation Rulemaking Committee, of which he was a member.
Count on AIN for full coverage of the 2010 EBACE Show
You can count on AIN for full coverage in our award-winning EBACE Convention News daily editions and online at www.ainonline.com. The editorial team at AIN is already gathering information for these editions. Exhibitors wanting to share news should contact international show editions editor Charles Alcock at CAlcockAIN@aol.com or tel +44 1252 727758. |
 |
Third 747-8 Freighter Enters Flight Testing
The third Boeing 747-8 Freighter, RC 521, joined the program’s flight-test program yesterday with a successful two-and-a-half-hour maiden mission... More...
|
|
|
|
AINalerts is a publication of The Convention News Co., Inc., 214 Franklin Avenue, Midland Park, NJ 07432. Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission from The Convention News Co., Inc., is strictly prohibited. The Convention News Co., Inc., also publishes Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, NBAA Convention News, HAI Convention News, EBACE Convention News, MEBA Convention News,, Farnborough Airshow News (2010), Paris Airshow News (2011), Dubai Airshow News (2011), Singapore Airshow News (2012), AIN Defense Perspective, AIN Air Transport Perspective and AINmxReports.
|
|
