I thought a recent flight from Perth to Mauritius provided a great basis to highlight the impact of ETOPS restrictions on airline operations in the Southern Hemisphere. There is no trans-polar or oceanic route in the Northern Hemisphere that requires more than ETOPS 240 approval (four hours from flying time from a suitable airfield), and […]
The A350XWB flight test campaign continues in earnest, and with more than 850 flight hours now logged it’s time I wrote an update. I was following the campaign and the CSeries more closely in the initial stages, but the number of great resources available online meant I took a bit of back seat.
Flexible limits
The static test frame MSN5000 has now successfully completed ultimate wing load testing reaching a five metre deflection the wing, subjecting the wing to loads to 1.5 times greater than expected in service life. Strains were measured by 10,000 measurement channels which correlate load information against structural design models.
The ultimate load is the beyond which the wing is expected to fail, and is calculated at 2.5 times the maximum expected G load. As the Airbus Fly By Wire system limits G loads to +2.5G or +3.5G in a reversion to Direct Law, the ultimate load could be higher than 7.5G. Continue reading “The weekly rollerboard 19 January: A350 special” »
Delays in the opening of Doha’s critically important new Hamad International Airport (HIA) are almost as farcical as those of Berlin’s new Brandenburg International Airport, but the transition to full operations is now in its home stretch and we have a great preview of the stunning new terminal below.
According to Qatar transport minister Jassim Seif Ahmed Al Sulaiti a soft opening trial will begin this month from the chic new terminal involving ten carriers – Air Arabia, Air India Express, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Flydubai, Iran Air, Nepal Airlines, Pakistan International Airlines, RAK Airways, Syrian Air, and Yemen Airways.
Qatar Airways is now expected to transition its operations into its new home on April 1.
Doha International Airport is cripplingly overcapacity. Designed for an annual throughput of 12 million passengers a year, in 2013 the airport handled approximately 25 million people with 75% handled by Qatar Airways. After Dubai, it is now the second largest Middle East hub, and is now in the top 25 airports in the world measured by international passenger traffic.
Lufthansa has become a launch customer for the yet to be launched next generation Boeing 777X project ordering 34 777-9Xs in addition to 25 Airbus A350-900s, with options and purchase rights for an additional 60 aircraft – 30 each of the 777-9X and A350-900.
The 777-9X will be powered by the General Electric GE9X and feature a new advanced composite wing, which at 71 metres will be the longest aircraft wing Boeing has produced. The result? An estimated 20 per cent better fuel efficiency and a 15% reduction in operating costs over the 777-300ER resulting in the lowest seat kilometre costs in the industry.
Continue reading “Boeing’s 777-9X is almost go as Lufthansa commits to order for 34.” »
Here’s a brief summary of yesterday’s annual results releases:
Air New Zealand
The day started with the flag carrier carrier at the very end of the world announcing it’s best annual result for five years with a underlying pre-tax profit of NZ$256 million, a statutory profit of NZ$183 million a 156 per cent increase on FY2011/12. This was on a slight three per cent increase in revenue to NZ$4.618 billion.
This strong result was supported by ANZ’s strongest load factor results in five years of 83.6 per cent. This was an increase of .8% over last year and came even as the airline grew Available Seat Kilometre (ASK) capacity by 1.7 per cent across its network.
Continue reading “Results day 1: Air New Zealand, Qantas and REX” »
There’s a great modernity about British Airways’ simple but stylish Australian newspaper advertisement. Taking a subtle, cheeky swipe at Qantas following the ending of the Joint-Service Agreement in favour of Emirates, British Airways is keeping calm and carrying on. BA will upgrade all its Australian services to new B777-300ER aircraft from March 30, 2012. Timed […]
Oh the delicious drama of the airline industry. It puts the Bold and the Beautiful to shame with its endless alliances and divorces, avant-garde product design, cheap gauche relatives and a whole lot of money. Today’s twist? Singapore Airlines has announced it has engaged the BMW Group subsidiary DesignworksUSA, and UK and Singapore-based James Park […]
